Well it’s been quite a few months since I last looked at Windows 7 and it’s moved on from its Beta into Release Candidate 1. I’ve been keeping up with the builds using my Macbook Pro and Boot Camp and it’s been really exciting to watch it grow and develop.

So I thought I’d take a look back over my previous complaints and see how they’re doing.

1. It's a Beta

Well technically it’s not a Beta anymore, it’s a Release Candidate and you’d struggle to find any sign it’s not a proper OS release except for the bottom right text telling you so. It is nice, I was watching a program called Click on BBC the other day and they actually recommend you use it, which they say they never do when OS’s are Beta. And it’s true, I haven’t found anything wrong with RC1 yet, it seems bullet proof.

2. They Still Think You're Stupid

They always will make that presumption, but you can turn off UAC, you can tell it not to tell you about what your update settings are, the Action Center does have some useful stuff that I’d have otherwise missed, such as Back Up which is finally somewhere obvious. Hopefully it’s not just in Ultimate.

3. Padding

It’s still there, but I’ve found how you reduce it like I did in Vista, slightly hidden away but I like my Windows lean and not surrounded by a 4 pixel border, or a 35 pixel drop shadow, yes I’m looking at Leopard there. The task bar is still the same but the task bar is too good for me to be annoyed by that.

4. Google Chrome

It works! Without a hack. That is all.

5. Adobe Software

Well, surprisingly this is much better, I have a feeling it was something to do with how Windows 7 handled OpenGL content because I doubt Adobe has bothered to do anything for a Beta OS.

6. PSD Shell Integration

Still dreaming about this one, but found a good conversation between Adobe and Microsoft engineers and it seems like it’s Adobe who couldn’t be bothered, which was a surprise, Window 7’s thumbnail handling is much better now so hopefully Adobe will get round to it, perhaps in CS5…

7. Preview Pane

Still don’t see the point in this, just double click it and it’s opened in a image viewer in a few seconds. Wish Microsoft would just copy Quick View from Leopard and have that amazing bit of convenience.

8. Send Feedback Link

It’s gone. Has been since they moved on from the Public Beta build.

9. Video Thumbnails

Sadly it seems thumbnails are still rendered at the exact same spot right near the beginning, which is useless for videos that all start the same, sort of ruins the point of thumbnails. Maybe it’s just the codecs I use.

10. Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!

Well things are going much more smoothly, haven’t encountered any bugs so far so it’s looking good for Windows 7. They’re actually listening to feedback and making an awesome looking OS in the process.