Yesterday Windows 7 build 7057 was leaked to torrent sites and subsequently has been downloaded at an incredible pace.  Then today the Windows Engineering Team has announced some additional changes from the beta builds to the Release Candidate (RC) that we will be seeing shortly. Quickly using the 7057 build you can see that most of these features appear to be in it.

I have simplified the list of changes so you don’t have to waste time browsing through the expanded list at Windows Engineering.

  • Improved taskbar thumbnail overflow.  This happens when there are a very large amount of applications open and the icons change from a thumbnail vew to a list view. It is also viewable when you have multiple windows open of the same application.
  • Control Panel Jump List. Now shows most recent items.
  • PowerShell Jump List. Simplified and includes ability to launch modules.
  • Remote Desktop Jump List. Connection settings are now included and let you quickly connect to specific machines without entering the credentials every time.
  • Applying taskbar settings. If explorer.exe is not shutdown correctly it still remembers settings that were saved in that session.
  • Multi-touch zoom is now supported in Windows Explorer
  • Invert Selection in Windows Explorer has been reinstated
  • Moving upwards in Windows Explorer hierarchy has been changed to always show the parent in the breadcrumb bar
  • Finding music by Artist in Music Library has been added
  • New Folder option is now always available (THANK YOU!)
  • Right Clicking in Windows Explorer now is easier for tasks like copy and paste. Previously it was very difficult to find open space that would not select a folder or item at the same time.
  • Content View for search results
  • Intelligent re-indexing after application installation
  • Trimmed sound schemes to help performance.  Reduced the file size of the sound .wav’s and decreased the boot/shutdown time by 400 ms
  • Device Stage support increased but requires more manufacture support
  • Devices and Printers are getting more integration with manufactures and Device Stage
  • When items are removed from Devices and Printers they are actually uninstalled
  • More integration of hardware properties in Devices and Printers when right-clicking on a device.  This is similar to Device Manager.
  • Safely Remove Device is now “Eject”.  When a USB drive is ejected it it ejects the hardware device not just the volume. Ejecting a CD-Rom ejects the disk in the drive instead of the device itself.
  • USB device reliability on Resume has been improved.  Previously devices stopped functioning after sleep or hibernation.
  • Firewire camera support has been fixed
  • Add Legacy Hardware functionality restored.  They didn’t realize people still used this.  Apparently they have not talked to anyone in the Geek Squad about how much this is used.
  • Increased responsiveness of Add Printer Wizard.  Also added was a visual cue so that you know when it is actively searching the online database of drivers.
  • System Partition size reduced from 200 MB to 100 MB.  This is where your boot files go as well as the Bitlocker and System Recovery files are stored.
  • The initial System Partition is now labeled as “System Reserved” so that people understand what this is.  Previously there was a lot of confusion as to why this was being created as it is the first time Microsoft has created this type of partition by default.  It is to help keep your boot files separated from the main OS files.
  • When Dual Booting a system Windows 7 will now by default assign a drive letter to the alternative OS. This was originally not done to create separation but they quickly realized people want to view the other OSes data.
  • Page File has been reduced.  Previously it was the amount of physical RAM +300 MB.  Now it is only the size of the physical RAM.
  • Improved network driver support.

This is a really great list of improvements and even though I have been using Windows 7 as my primary OS for the last 6 months it really makes me happy to see the awesome things they are doing.  It is good to see that Microsoft is actually listening to their customers and making the changes they request.

Check It Out> Windows Engineering