Windows seven may be one of Microsoft's best operating systems, if it meets the promise shown by the unofficial beta version we've been testing for the past couple of days.

Let me preface these quick impressions of Redmond's latest opus by mentioning that I came to Windows seven after having happily run the much-maligned Windows Vista on my Intel Core two Duo-based computer for the past 18 months .

I found Vista to be a worthy upgrade from Windows XP SP2. Despite its apparent flaws ( are you able to say'resource hog'? ) and the acknowlegement that some of its features need to be disabled by default, Vista at heart is a way more stable and serviceable operating system than XP, which was originally released in 2001.

I found the Windows 7 beta a painless install. Out-of-the-box driver support on our test machine was perfect, and it took only half an hour and two fast reboots to start running a stable desktop environment, though we questioned why Windows seven created a 200MB partition in addition to its main partition. Click for gallery

Basic desktop performance was powerful ; the reports that Windows seven is simply faster than Vista appear to be true. Definitely, Windows seven had no problem simultaneously installing and launching applications, downloading files, browsing the Web, and carrying out other tasks on our modest 2.8GHz Pentium four, that has only an 80GB IDE hard disk and 512MB of RAM.

Vista's most visible annoyance, User Account Control, has been pared right back on its default setting, and we encountered it only two times thru a whole morning of installing applications. However, if you feel nostalgic for UAC's old behavior, you can easily change it back through Windows seven's new Action Center, which now centralizes all of the safety updates and warning alerts that Windows throws your way.

Windows 7 suggested that we install a third-party antivirus package ( it advised Kaspersky and AVG ), but its antispyware package Defender comes preinstalled. Microsoft seems to have an antivirus package installed under the hood ; when downloading new software with Firefox, we were told that our downloads were being scanned for viruses.

I particularly like the new photo-realistic device icons, and the overhaul of the way Windows handles and ejects USB storage devices. Microsoft seems to have wiped out plenty of the Windows XP-era interface quirks of Vista ; the result is a more simplistic, unified experience for common tasks.

It's simple to get minimized windows mixed up with launcher buttons, for example.

For example, we were unable to get Adobe Systems' Creative Suite 3 to install on Windows seven beta ; the installer told us we needed to quit Internet Explorer first.

But perhaps the most significant thing to note about the software is that initially peek, it has much more of that nebulous'Windows XP feel' than Vista ever did.

In other words, just what the doctor--and the customers--ordered.

To read more or see my video reviews of Windows 7 running on my pc please visit my Windows 7 Review Blog.

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