Quicker to install, more polished and customizable, and easier to use than earlier builds, the Windows 7 Release Candidate (build 7100) is a nice step towards finalization of the operating system. And you thought the Windows 7 Beta was good! The Release Candidate feels just a touch faster, both in app launches and boot and shutdown times. Enthusiasts eager to get their hands on the latest build—which Microsoft will deposit on TechNet on the 30th, and make publicly available on May 5th—will be happy to hear that it installed in no time, too—as little as 20 minutes in my experience. Compared to the hour it often took to install Windows Vista, this thing flies.
Installation
The Beta of Windows 7 was all about finalizing underlying changes to the system architecture, and putting those new architectures on display for people to test and experience. The Release Candidate, which Microsoft will make available on the TechNet Web site on April 30th and provide for public consumption on May 5th, puts some finishing touches on some new features, uncorks a few extras, and adds a good deal of polish to the OS. That polish is apparent from the first moments you begin installing it: The install routine has been refined, with new icons and a few splash screens ("Checking video performance" and so on) with a starburst-type effect. Even the Starting Windows and log-on screens have gained a leafy, patterned background.
The Release Candidate installs only Windows 7 Ultimate edition, so people curious about the experience netbook users will face with Starter edition are left scratching their heads. According to some reports, leaked interim builds of the OS including an option to select which edition to install. I assume that's an option solely for system builders like HP and Dell, not for us mortals. I did, however, install the release candidate 7.The install took exactly 20 minutes and the machine seemed to be able to handle the Ultimate Edition just fine, with only the default 1 gig of RAM.
User Interface
The Beta of Windows 7 was all about finalizing underlying changes to the system architecture. In the Release Candidate, that work is done, and Microsoft has added a good deal of polish to the operating system. There are many welcome additions to personalization options, for example, including substantially more themes, more user icons, and new sound schemes. One nice change: Select an Aero Theme (they're no longer called Windows Themes) and it doesn't show up instantly under My Themes, which always seemed like strange behavior to me. Themes also gain names (they were oddly anonymous in the Beta), and three new themes are added: Architecture, Scenes, and Characters. There are also 36 user icons rather than the 12 included in the beta.
The aged Device Manager and the Control Panel have gained new icons, but more important, if you pin the Control Panel to the Taskbar, you'll note a very versatile new jump list. Likewise, IE8 gains a smart jump list. The Control Panel itself has seen a few minor tweaks. A new "View by" menu appears beneath the Control Panel search box, which defaults to the category view but also lets you see all Control Panel items (rather than clicking the "All Control Panel Items" item, as in the beta). The Windows 7 Beta had a whopping 59 Control Panel items; the Release Candidate whittles that list down to 47. Gone are Biometric Devices, ClearType Text Tuner, Default Location, Feedback (released just for the beta, this one doesn't really count, I suppose), Game Controllers, iSCSI Initiator, Offline Files, Pen and Touch, System Icons, Tablet PC Settings, Text to Speech, and Windows SideShow.
Many of those features have been swallowed by the Devices and Printers control panel, or moved elsewhere in the OS. The ClearType Text Tuner, for instance, is now folded into the Display control but is still easily findable. A few of the changes are surprising, however. What's happened to SideShow, for example? For anyone interested in this long-neglected technology, don't worry. I added a SideShow device to Windows 7 Release Candidate (a beta version of the now-canceled RicaVision remote control), installed the drivers, and the Control Panel appeared. It seems certain items are keyed to appear only if relevant—which makes an awful lot of sense, from a user perspective.
Internet & Networking
IE8 is out of beta! Huzzah! The Windows 7 Beta came with a beta version of IE8, a "pre-release" candidate. In the Release Candidate, the beta tag is gone, and IE8 is updated to version number 8.0.7100.0. 7100? Is this a newer version than the publicly available version? Nope. The build string of Internet Explorer is tied to the operating system you've got it installed on. The Windows 7 Beta carried build number 7000, and the Release Candidate is build 7100. Install IE8 on an XP system and you'll see a 6001 in that build string.
That said, Microsoft claims there are a handful of enhancements in IE8 for Windows 7, including jump list integration (InPrivate Browsing appears under a new tasks section, along with "new Tab") and the fine-tuning of some touch capability.
Microsoft claims the Release Candidate has added new networking drivers to help increase coverage across wired and wireless networks as well. If your notebook simply couldn't get on with earlier builds, this might be a godsend for you.
Multimedia
Windows Media Center has gone through dramatic changes between Windows Vista and Windows 7. Eagle-eyed users of the Release Candidate will note that PlayReady, Microsoft's new DRM scheme for protecting recorded television shows, is being updated to version 1.3 (you can see this in the Programs and Features Control Panel, once it installs)—no word yet on what changes are included there, or when the scheme will be available for download on Microsoft's Web site.
The inclusion of Internet TV in the Guide is a big leap forward, exposing even those without an integrated TV tuner to the fun of IP-based TV. This feature was in the Beta, however, and despite the recent efforts to alphabetize items listed under the Movies, News, Sports, and other categories, the hoped for integration of Hulu, TV.com, and other IP-based TV doesn't exist. Yet.
DLNA technology, a standout feature of Windows 7, allows for a neat feature among PCs connected on the same network (seemingly independent of HomeGroup status). A contextual "Play to" menu item lets you send a video, photo, or song to another PC or device. Microsoft has tweaked Windows Media Player a fair bit between Beta and Release Candidate, making it a real challenge to find the feature. In the Beta, WMP had a Share menu, which allowed you to "Receive media on your network" (whatever that means). Select it and a dialog explained that the feature lets other devices on your network push media to you.
In the Release Candidate, that menu is renamed Stream and expanded; again, Play To (here called "Allow remote control of my player") is disabled by default. Enable it on one PC and you'll be able to send files to that PC from others on the same HomeGroup, either from Window Media Player or by directly clicking a file in Windows Explorer. This brings up a separate application (WMPDMC.exe, which lives in the C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\ directory). Unfortunately, Play To is a WMP technology, not a Windows technology, meaning the Play To menu only exists when both PCs have WMP actively running, ostensibly for security purposes. Play To isn't part of Windows Media Center, even though Center relies heavily on Player's capabilities. Perhaps MS will make this feature more pervasive in the Release to Master of Windows 7.
Also in Windows Media Player, Microsoft is making strides to enhance the ease of access to content remotely. One new feature that jumps out at me is the ability to allow Internet access to home media. From the Stream pull-down menu in WMP, select the option and click "Link an online ID" in the resulting dialog box, which takes you to the download page for Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant 6.5 (how did this new feature reach version 6.5?). (At present, only Windows Live online IDs are recognized, but Microsoft promises to allow access from other online accounts when Windows 7 is commercially released.)
Link your Windows account to the online account on two computers and you can access media stored on one PC across the Internet by logging into the online account on the other. Take your laptop to the local coffee shop and you can remotely stream your music off your desktop PC at home; that media shows up as a shared library in Windows Media Player—assuming you've left your home computer on and running WMP.
Security and Compatibility
A surprise feature of the Release Candidate is Windows XP Mode, a virtual environment that lets you run older XP applications that are simply incompatible with the new operating system. This mode is based on Windows Virtual PC, which isn't included in the operating system by default, so no one's really gotten to see this environment in action. That said, some Web Sites are reporting that it's based on a next-generation version of the software that requires processor-based virtualization support. This software will reportedly be available via a free download to Windows 7 users.
Microsoft added a User Account Control (UAC) Control Panel to the beta of Windows 7, which provided finer-grained control over the notoriously troublesome security feature. With the Release Candidate, MS has made a minor adjustment to this feature: The UAC Control Panel now runs in a high-integrity process, and any change to the level of the UAC will prompt the user for confirmation of this action. This should tighten security just a hair. For more on the beta-era UAC, see Windows 7 Security: The UAC and You.
The bottom line is that Windows 7 Release Candidate is more polished than the beta; seems to be better optimized for operating speed, responsiveness; and has a few new features that are of interest, too. We've only had it in the labs for a few days, however. We're going to be testing it extensively in the coming weeks, and we'll continue to report as we discover more about the latest version of Microsoft's operating system.
The bottom line is that Windows 7 Release Candidate is more polished than the beta; seems to be better optimized for operating speed, responsiveness; and has a few new features that are of interest, too. We've only had it in the labs for a few days, however. We're going to be testing it extensively in the coming weeks, and we'll continue to report as we discover more about the latest version of Microsoft's operating system.
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