The edition of Windows 7 beta that we tested is the "Build 7100" version labeled as the release candidate that has been making the rounds and was apparently leaked earlier this week. The official release candidate of Windows 7 is due to be released to the public on May 5.
To get these screenshots, we installed Windows 7 both within a VMware virtual machine, to document Windows 7's install process, and on a Dell Optiplex 960.
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Licensing window
Here is Microsoft's fairly standard licensing window.
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Custom install
You can upgrade an earlier version of Windows or install a new copy of Windows 7; we chose the custom path.
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Background
Obviously, stuff is happening in the background.
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Choose your user, computer name
You can choose your username and computer name.
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Product key
The install process asks you for your product key, though you can bypass this step, which we did.
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Local network setup
You have various options to set up your local network.
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Basic desktop
The basic desktop is quite similar to that of the beta of Windows 7, with a few tweaks such as a slight change in the graphic for the start button.
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Start menu
Shown here is the expanded Start menu.
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Control Panel
We find Windows 7's Control Panel to be much faster and more responsive than Vista's.
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Switching off features
New in the release candidate: you can switch off more Windows features, including Internet Explorer and some of the media functionality.
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Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer 8 is included.
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Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player is back; simple and elegant.
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Solitaire
Even solitaire looks to have received an upgrade, with a new, flashy shuffling animation.
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Media Center
Media Center functionality was included in the Ultimate copy of Windows 7 featured here.
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Devices display
There's a newer, better way of displaying devices attached to your computer, though you can still get to the old Device Manager, if you dig around.
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Desktop gadgets
Here are some desktop gadgets Microsoft has included with Windows 7. You can pull news via RSS feeds, monitor the performance of your CPU, and more.
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Disk management
Disk management is quite similar to Windows XP or Vista. This isn't an area that most computer users will get to, but this tool is useful when you're booting multiple operating systems or managing a lot of disks.
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Device Manager
Shown here: Device Manager functionality. Note that Windows 7 hasn't quite picked up all the drivers for our Dell Optiplex 960, though it is, of course, only a release candidate. We didn't install any drivers from Dell or elsewhere.
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Hidden services
We found that we got more speed out of Vista from turning a lot of hidden Windows services off, especially the SuperFetch feature. But Windows 7 is already pretty speedy, even on older Pentium 4 hardware.
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Action Center
The Action Center is now a unified center where Windows will alert you to security problems, available updates, and more. Best of all, you can turn off most of the annoying alerts, if you're a power user.
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Security controls
Windows 7 has a vast number of in-depth security controls for administrators.
