I’ve written quite a lot about Windows 7 and I’ve tried to resist falling into either of the two popular review camps at the moment.  Either [gushing] “It’s incredibly stable, much better than Vista and usable day to day already” or [humbug] “It’s only Vista release 2 and there’s no reason to go out and buy it”, for the simple reason that too many people are already writing these.

I’ve always prided myself on taking the middle-ground.  I’ve tried to review Windows 7 in as impartial way as possible.  As such I can reasonably predict Microsoft coming in for something of a kicking when Windows 7 is finally released.  What’s more I think they’ll be kicked from every side.

I’ve previously talked about how Windows 7 is a half-way-house between the old and the new, especially where the task bar is concerned.  The problem is that this isn’t localised to the bottom of your screen, it can be seen everywhere!

The control panel and device manager are excellent examples.  There are still two control panels, one for consumers and one for everyone else, though this isn’t in itself a bad thing.  The number of control panel items has ballooned in recent Windows versions however, and Windows 7 adds even more to the mix.  But why are some of these shown?

Microsoft proudly told us that Windows 7 would, by default, not install things you don’t need.  For instance you would only get the tablet PC functionality if you actually had a touch screen, excellent.  But why in the control panel does the average Windows user need to have control for such things as “Remote Applications”, “iSCSI drives”, “Biometric devices”, “Tablet PC Settings” and “Bitlocker Drive Encryption”?  By default the new control panel has 60 items in it!

I’m not saying these things aren’t useful or necessary, but the fact that they appear despite not having the appropriate hardware installed, or when they would only be needed in a corporate environment, can only make the control panel more complicated and bloated to use.  Even then most of these should only be available to system admins.

Similarly with the device manager, we now have two of them with the introduction of the new “Devices and Printers” panel, which in my mind only makes things even more complicated.

I won’t go on about the Start Menu, I’ve written about this too much already but this old meeting new way of doing things extends into too many aspects of the operating system.

UAC is a cop out, no longer powerful enough to offer full protection because Microsoft haven’t built in the full functionality it needs.  For the record Microsoft have told me that a tick box in UAC windows for “remember my settings for this program”, is under consideration for Windows 8.

Then there’s the interface.  Why are we still looking at Windows 98 grey eleven years on?  The whole interface is mash of old stuff mixed in randomly with new ideas with usability a poor third place.

When I wrote about Windows 7 usability recently I spoke about this.  I believe the reason for this lack of focus is simple.  A desire to get a product shipped early, after the financial failure that was Vista in the business market.

This means that the technical beta has been an extremely frustrating experience for a great many people, especially myself.  I’ve been in regular contact with senior managers, even a vice-president at Microsoft about usability and the half-way-house issue.  All the feedback I’ve received though tells me that there simply isn’t time to change anything at this stage.

Microsoft need to learn from this and place usability at the very top of their priorities list to avoid also getting a kicking for Windows 8.  I’m not saying Windows 7 isn’t good, anyone who can spot the deliberate joke in the title for this article will know how good it is.  I’m just saying it’s not good enough… yet!