Windows 7: The good, the bad, and the ugly (episode 3)

In this third installment of my four-part series, I take a hard look at those new features of Windows 7 that have directly affected my own beta experience. Some are really good. Others are of questionable value. And a few are downright ugly. So, with a respectful nod to Sergio Leone, let us continue.

Windows 7: The good

I love Aero Peek. Or more precisely, certain aspects of Aero Peek. I’m particularly fond of the individual “hover” peek operations, where you place your mouse over a thumbnail and it isolates the display to that running window while everything else in the UI turns transparent. When you have lots of windows open and want to take a quick look at the status of a particular running task, nothing beats Aero Peek for sheer convenience.

[ Can your PC run Windows 7? Find out with InfoWorld’s free Windows Sentinel performance monitoring tool. | See how well Windows 7 beta performs in our benchmark tests. ]

Not as helpful, but still generally useful, is the desktop-wide peek you can access at the bottom-right corner of the Taskbar. For me, at least, the move toward this far corner is less than natural. Long-term Windows use has resulted in a muscle memory reflex toward the lower-left corner whenever I want to view the desktop — this due to my familiarity with the default location of the Quick Launch toolbar (lower left, next to the Start Button) and its Show Desktop shortcut.

Of course, Aero Peek is much more powerful than the old Show Desktop function, especially when you hover over the control and it turns all displayed windows transparent. However, the option to move this control to a different location would have been a nice addition. Likewise, being able to resize the control to make it easier to hit seems like it would be a logical configuration option, but I’m unaware of any way to do this. Still, the Aero Peek system is a nice step forward versus the CoolSwitch functionality of old.

Windows 7: The bad

As much as I like Aero Peek, I still find the Taskbar thumbnails to be annoyingly inconsistent. For example, in its default Always Group mode, the grouped icons can quickly begin to stack up, especially if you’re working with multiple documents within a single application. The net result is that you end up with an Alt+Tab-like experience as you sift through the myriad thumbnails looking for the desired open document. Basically, it makes quickly switching between two documents — or folders or e-mail messages — a real nightmare.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure how Microsoft could improve on the system without fundamentally changing the underlying paradigm. I certainly don’t want to go back to XP’s or Vista’s stacked Taskbar buttons with their pop-up menus. However, I also don’t like having to sift through so many similar thumbnails in search of the proverbial needle in the document haystack. Here’s hoping someone thinks of a better way to integrate a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) type of solution with Windows 8 or 9.

Windows 7: The ugly

What happened to those slick Vista icons? With build 7048, Microsoft has replaced a number of default icons with new, uglier versions. The Control Panel, in particular, is a disaster. It went from a cool, reclining panel of knobs and buttons to what looks like a Visa card embedded in a boiled egg. It took me several seconds to realize what had happened after I upgraded from build 7000. I thought for sure that Setup had somehow deleted my Control Panel shortcut from the Taskbar. Instead, I discovered that Microsoft had merely destroyed its visual characteristics beyond all recognition. Truly a turn for the worse.

* Next week: Windows Backup, the notification tray, and blinking icons.

* Previously: Libraries, search, and the horrible Start Orb animation.