Windows7How

Windows 7 & Windows XP Interface Comparison

September 30, 2009

Let’s take a look at how much it has been changed on the graphical side of Windows 7 since Xp.  A side by side comparison of the past and future! Please take note that all Windows 7 screen shot’s you are looking at are Aero Glass themes, a more graphical intensive interface.  In Windows 7 you can switch between the Aero Glass or the basic themes.  The basic themes cuts away all the eye-candy such as the Aero glass & real time effects, thus it’ll run faster on lower specs computer if necessary.  The basic themes still looks great though, and some peoples might actually prefer the simpler interface. We might do the same comparison somewhere in the future if our readers are interested.  So why are we doing this? This is to give you a good grasp of Windows 7 interface, in our previous articles, all you see is the desktop screenshot. But here, we’ll post in working screenshots of Windows 7.

In Windows 7 the interface is exactly the same as in Vista, beside one added pin & unpin programs feature. The difference between XP & Win7 is when viewing “All Programs”. I’m sure you know how it works in XP, so I’m not going to explain. This is also a small little thing I don’t like about Win7 start menu, when you roll over “All Programs” it takes a while (noticeable longer than xp) to load the programs list. So most of the time I’d just click on it for quick access instead of waiting for it to change. And the programs list display is no longer pop out on the right hand side,  it flip to programs list on the same area (the white container).

One of my favorite quick programs access tools. There’s a little changes in Win 7, as you can see the shortcut toolbars is on the left hand side. It took me a while to get used to it, nothing major. The best thing about the shortcut toolbars in Win 7 is that you can create more than one shortcut toolbars. We’ll explain exactly how it works and why it’s so useful next time.

This is the taskbar. We’ve already explained it in our previous articles. We opened two my computer windows for the test. As you can see in XP, it shows in two different windows, but in Win 7 it grouped under the windows explorer folder. When rolled over, you’ll see the two active windows as shown in the picture, also known as the jumplists.

I’m not sure why I decided to took this. But I guess you can see the difference?

Nothing much to say here, but you can see small little things have been added in Win7. First, you are allowed to minimize the windows. Second, you can view more details about the transfer by pressing the more details button.

This is how it looks in My Computer. Windows 7 makes browsing files and folder faster by implementing a website like location structure on the top. If you are deep in folders, you can click on where exactly you want to go back instead of clicking back button multiple times. Also, it list all frequent access places on the left hand menu side such as desktop, computer drives…etc.

Sorry for some low quality screenshots.  It was in higher resolution, but we have to crop it to make it fit the page. Otherwise, you’ll not be able to view the full screenshot.

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Tags: desktop interface, file transfer, jump lists, quick access, shortcut toolbars, sound volume, start menu, tabs, taskbar, win7, windows 7, windows 7 screenshots