Well, the Windows 7 Release Candidate has arrived-and a day ahead of schedule, at that.

After a quick, painless installation, it’s immediatly clear that Microsoft has been hard at work since the Beta release from several months ago.  Enhanced speed and visual refinement are immediately evident.  And full screen resolution is automatically detected upon installation, something Windows Vista couldn’t do.

Overall, the feature set is similar to the Beta, just with more refinement.  New enhanced “Jump Lists” offer more easy-to-access options for various programs.  Additionally, Internet Explorer has been updated to a new release of Version 8 with a new Welcome wizard and enhanced touch performance and security.

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We’ve been using Windows 7 Beta build 7000 for several months, and it’s been tested on various hardware from SciencePro Tech.

So far, the Beta has been faster, more stable, and far more intuitive than Vista, addressing many complaints that have plauged the OS since its launch in January 2007.  Billed as a “better Vista” by Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s newest release takes a more Apple-like approach to an OS upgrade, focusing on smaller changes and performance optimizations instead of a complete overhaul.  So far, the strategies have worked:  Microsoft has shown that it is still at the top of the OS heap, producing a Beta OS that is nearly as polished as Vista itself after over 2 years.

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