THE VISTA FIX

It looks and works a lot like Vista. In fact,what Microsoft seems to be going for in Windows 7 is Vista,fixed. If you ask the masses what they disliked about Vista,youre likely to get a certain common set of responses. That list of grudges makes as good a framework as any for assessing the prospects of Windows 7,which is expected to arrive within a year.

Vista is naggy and intrusive. Windows Vista is always popping up warnings and messages,making you wish you could just be left alone. Many of them stem from the much-despised,Orwellian-named User Account Control U.A.C. feature,which is supposed to warn you about virus and spyware installations that would otherwise take place behind your back.

Trouble is,U.A.C. was way too suspicious,demanding your name and password even when it was just little old you making innocent changes like setting your computers clock. In Windows 7,you can tone U.A.C. down eliminating the warnings,for example,when you,the human,are the one making changes.

Furthermore,Windows 7 bites its tongue far more often. Ten categories of low-urgency alerts no longer appear as taskbar balloons; now they get consolidated in a new Control Panel called the Action Center. A tiny flag icon appears on your system tray to let you know that new nags are waiting there.

Vista is slow. Microsoft definitely got the message here. Even in the test version,you can feel that a lot of things are faster: starting up 40 seconds on my three test machines,shutting down,reconnecting to wireless networks,copying files and inserting flash drives,for example. Its no Windows XP,but even with months of fine-tuning still to go,7 feels snappy.
Vista is a resource hog. Microsoft intends to keep the same system requirements for Windows 7 that it had for Vista at least a one-gigahertz processor,one gigabyte of memory and so on. This time around,though,fewer people will have to buy brand-new PCs to run it,because three years will have elapsed. Fewer people will be installing the new Windows on 2003-era computers.
Windows 7 is also supposed to be less bloated. Memory usage was reduced in hundreds of places, says the reviewers guide.

Vista is incompatible. A big part of the Vista misery involved incompatible software and drivers. Theres no greater headache than updating your PC and finding out that you cant use your printer,scanner or favourite program.
Even by Microsofts reckoning,only 2,800 programs have been certified to work with Vista so far,out of the tens of thousands available. As Microsoft puts it: If it works in Windows Vista,it will work with Windows 7. Thats not great,but what else can Microsoft do?
Vista is confusing. In Vista,a lot of things got moved around or renamed,often with no discernible purpose. Theres even more of that going on in Windows 7.

Among other changes,the pictures,documents and movies folders have been replaced by something very cool but very confusingcalled Libraries. Theyre virtual folders. Click the pictures library,for example,to see all the pictures on your entire PC or even your network,no matter what folders theyre really in.
Oh,and talk about baffling: The core accessory programs for an operating system these dayse-mail,address book,calendar,photo management,movie editing and instant messagingwont come with Windows 7. Unless you buy your PC from a company that preinstalls these programs,youll have to download them yourself from a Microsoft website. Microsoft explains that this added inconvenience permits it to provide more frequent updates for consumers. Beg pardon? Who complains about the frequency of updates to their address book program?

Vista editions are bewildering. Windows Vista is sold in at least six versions: Home Basic,Business,Ultimate and so on,each with a confusing and sometimes illogical subset of features. Officially,Microsoft says it hasnt selected Windows 7s version scheme,although a product manager at a conference mentioned to me that it will probably be similar to Vistas. Ah,wellcant win em all.

Not all of Windows 7s features are intended to address Vistas deficiencies. Some are all-new. For example,the Windows 7 taskbar looks and works like Mac OS Xs Dock: a row of big,square program icons representing your favourite programs,whether theyre running or not. It has taken over the launching functions of the old Quick Launch Toolbar. You can turn this feature off,but dont; its very nice.

Other Apple borrowings: desktop wallpaper that changes at regular intervals. A yellow sticky-notes program. A simple menu of available wireless networks. Private browsing, in which your adults-only web exploits leave no tracks in the history list or anywhere else. Jump lists useful shortcut menus that pop out of the taskbar icons. And,on what Microsoft hopes will be a new generation of specially equipped laptops,multi-touch gestures modelled on the iPhones. That is,youll be able to rotate an image by twisting two fingers on the screen,pinch to zoom,and so on.

There are new versions of Internet Explorer,Paint,WordPad,Calculator and System Restore and a much better backup program. The Windows Firewall now protects you from both inbound and outbound evil Internet communications.

Microsoft has added some really juicy window-management tricks. For example,you can maximise and minimise a window just by dragging it up to,or away from,the top edge of the screen. There are keystrokes for this,too.

Battery life is supposed to be better on laptops,thanks to screamingly obvious changes like cutting power to jacks when nothing is plugged in.

HomeGroups are fantastic. Type the same one-time password into every Windows 7 computer,and presto: instant,automatic home network,without having to fool around with accounts,permissions and so on. Every PC can see the other computers pictures,music,movies and documents,and folders that you specify,as well as share one anothers printers. Even in the test version,it works like a charm.

Heres another great idea in this age of high-resolution screens and low-resolution middle-aged eyes: with one click,you can now enlarge the type,everywhere,in all programs,without affecting the rest of the screen picture.
Now,plenty of people online are reacting to Windows 7 by muttering: Oh,great. So Im supposed to pay another 150 to get a version of Windows that actually works? How about you pay me for spending three years as your Vista beta-tester?

Thats fine,but being bitter wont get you a better PC. Windows 7,on the other hand,probably will.

For decades,Microsofts primary strategy has been to put out something mediocre,and then refine,refine,refine,no matter how long and no matter what it costs,until it succeeds. Thats whats exciting about the prospect of Windows 7. Its Windows Vista with a whole heck of a lot of refinement.

_DAVID POGUE,NYT