Let me preface these comments with the statement that I am NOT one to want the latest and greatest in technology. I have learned over the years that sometimes it pays to let someone else be the first one on the block to try something out.

But as the release date for Windows 7 nears, I have many people asking me for advice and opinions about the latest release of Microsoft's operating system. And while I have had a laptop with Windows 7 loaded on it for over a month, and my technical staff has shown me the features they like, I hadn't really focused on using any of these features myself.

So this past weekend, I set aside a couple of hours to go through the list of features and watch a few webcasts from Microsoft about the features in the release.

Probably most of what you have seen and heard thus far has been focused on changes to the user interface.  Without a doubt, there are a number of new features that are very slick. With the consolidation of the quick launch and task bars, there is little reason to put shortcuts on the desktop.  Simply pin the applications you use most often to your taskbar and remove them from the desktop. Programs used infrequently can always be accessed through the start menu, leaving your desktop clean and uncluttered. 

Programs that are actually running have a different appearance on the taskbar, and mousing over them displays a thumbnail of the window.  If you have multiple tabs open in Internet Explorer, you will see a thumbnail of each tab, allowing you to go directly to the tab you want. Some people have made a habit of opening applications in a particular order so that they will be in that specific order in the task bar.  Since the task bar is no longer just running applications, the order does not change.  You can drag the icons into the order you want them to be in and they will stay in that order.

If you pin Microsoft applications, like Word,  to the taskbar, you can right click on the icon to display the jump list which shows the files you have edited most recently.  If the one you want to access is displayed, you can open it with one click.

If you have used Vista, then you are probably aware of the Gadgets that were added in Vista.  In that operating system, all Gadgets were displayed in a bar.  In Windows 7, the Gadgets can be displayed anywhere on the desktop. You can even set a particular Gadget to always be on top of other windows. 

Setting up a home network is also supposed to be easier.  Unfortunately, to actually see that in action, you will have to have at least two computers in your network running Windows 7.  Since I only have one, I haven't been able to verify that. If you have a Windows 7 laptop that you carry back and forth between home and office, Windows 7 will automatically change your default printer based on where the laptop is. If you regularly print both places, that feature is sure to stop you from printing to the wrong printer. 

There are also a number of features related to positioning windows on your desktop. You can move the window to the top of your screen and it automatically maximizes. (I have done this accidentally more than once.) Moving it to the far right or left will automatically set the window to occupy that half of the screen - top to bottom. This is very useful if you want to compare two documents, or you are doing a lot of copy and paste operations.

There are also 20 troubleshooting packs that are included with Windows 7. In theory, you can run one of the packs and it will resolve common problems or at least pinpoint the problem so you can tell your administrator or technology provider what the problem is more specifically.  Maybe, but the sound isn't working on my laptop and the troubleshooting pack for audio issues turns up nothing.

You can also create libraries that include locations on your computer, elsewhere in your network and on the Internet.  The libraries are common libraries, so they are available in Explorer, Media Player and Media Center.  And if you have never seen Media Center even though it has been around for awhile, I find it to be a very nice way to listen to music and view vacation photos.  It has been around for awhile, but many are not yet familiar with it.

A single search, called Search Federation or Federated Search, can examine all of those locations and return results from any of them.  You can also filter the search by file type, say to search only for Word documents or Excel files. Searching Internet resources requires a search connector. A list of connectors that are already available can be found here.

New functionality has been added to the included applications - things like the Calculator, which easily does unit conversions, and WordPad. There is also a Presentation mode that turns off the screen saver, adjusts the volume and changes the wallpaper just by pressing Alt-X.  This was a feature of Vista as well.

While many of those features are nice, none of them would be a reason for me to upgrade a system I already own to Windows 7. And I wouldn't be convinced to buy a new machine with Windows 7 just to get those features.  The fact that a new machine would be faster than my old machine is typically what gets me to a new machine, and whatever new features are part of the operating system are just a bonus.

There are other capabilities that are in Windows 7 that seem to be better business reasons to upgrade.  Some features require only a machine running Windows 7, while others are only available if you also have a server running Windows Server 2008 R2.

If you regularly use external devices, such as flash drives, to store sensitive information, then you will want to check out BitLocker To Go which lets you encrypt the information on those drives. AppLocker lets you control what applications can be used by particular users and making a list of allowed applications would certainly reduce the number of inadvertent virus and spyware incidents.  While it isn't necessary to have Server 2008 R2 to use this feature, it can be centrally administered that way.

If you have users that work remotely, the combination of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 allows you to create an environment that makes it seamless to access resources in the office without compromising security. If you have a branch location, files used by more than one person in the branch location can be cached locally so that they are not downloaded once for each user. If the file is changed, the change will be detected and the file would need to be downloaded to the branch office again.

While these are features that seem a lot more useful from a business perspective, they are also not inexpensive to implement. You will need to not only upgrade client machines, you will also need to update your server(s) to be able to take advantage of them.

For those who still have applications that will not run in Windows 7 (and if they wouldn't run in Vista, they will not run under Windows 7 either), those that purchase Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate will be able to download XPM or Windows XP Mode without any additional charge.  XPM will allow you to install an application within a virtual XP environment that will run on the same desktop as your Windows 7 applications.  This should all but eliminate compatibility issues with older applications and remove barriers to large scale adoption.

While I expect that acceptance of Windows 7 will be much more wide spread than for Vista, I don't expect that retailers will be selling lots of upgrades either. I also don't particularly expect that there will be large numbers of people buying new systems so that they can have one with Windows 7 on it. What I do expect is that those who decide to get new systems for other reasons will be perfectly happy to have Windows 7 on them.