The software Vista inspires much disgust and disdain from computer users. Even in attempts by Microsoft to improve Vista, it is certainly seen as one of the biggest debacles in the history of commercial software and its public relations.

Microsoft argued that Vista’s problems were all psychological through the massive ad campaigns they launched like the Mojave Experiment. They ignored the fact that there are real and serious problems within Vista. Although bad public relations was certainly reinforcing the bad first impressions, Microsoft’s Vista problems are rooted in serious issues with their product.

Enter Windows 7, the next version of Windows that may hit retail store shelves by the end of 2009. Despite its new name, Windows 7 is actually just a relatively minor upgrade of Vista. Microsoft released it as a public beta last month, free for anyone to download and try on their computers. So, much as I did with Vista in late 2006, I downloaded a copy of the new Windows off of the Internet and began testing.

Performance-wise, I’m fairly happy with Windows 7. It is clearly snappier than Vista — something I found after playing a 3-D game on a high setting. Additionally, system operations such as copying and deleting files, which were notoriously slow on Vista and its updates, are clearly much improved. All around, Microsoft seems to have done a fairly good job addressing many of Vista’s shortcomings.

The main new feature of 7 is the redesigned taskbar — similar to Mac OS X’s dock. Instead of Vista and XP’s quick-launch bars, the new taskbar allows you to pin applications into place across the whole screen, and new windows for that application are grouped into a menu that pops up when you left-click on its icon. Right-clicking on the icon brings up the new jump list, a feature similar to OS X’s dock menu that allows you to perform some common tasks that were previously accessible through now-depreciated system tray icons. This is a huge improvement — the kind of innovation that ought to have been in Vista before it was pushed out the door.

Windows 7, in the beta, pre-release software package, has a few rough edges that will hopefully be ironed out before its final release. I’d definitely recommend downloading Windows 7 from Microsoft and trying it for yourself. If things continue to move in this direction, Microsoft may be well on its way to redeeming itself for Vista.