Microsoft previewed Windows 7 yesterday at its Professional Developers Conference, "promising less features and really focusing on speed and reliability" says Mashable. Windows 7, which won't be available as a public beta until next year, is designed to "fix everything we (I) hated about the experience that was Vista," notes Beneath the Red Hood. Vista stinks (or wont run at all) on low-memory notebook PCs, so Microsoft "showed off the new OS running on a 1GHz netbook with 1GB of memory," says Techspot. You know that crummy User Account Control (UAC) deal that pops up when Vista users try to access new application features? It will be "less of an annoyance," says bionewsline.net. Woo hoo! That memory- and screen-hogging Vista Sidebar? "Goes the way of clippy and MS BOB," says NixGuy. Other interface tweaks, like streamlined taskbar and file groupings, are "Apple-tinged" says AppleInsider.

Cool Gadgets like clocks, calendars and calculators remain in Win7 and can be placed anywhere on the desktop, says Channel 10. "That's possibly one of the most useful changes so far," says bit-tech.  An improved Wi-Fi networking feature "will light up a wireless icon when Wi-Fi is available," says arthemia. Windows 7 also will be touch-screen enabled, and Engadget says Microsoft wants to offer basic multi-touch screen manipulation on "most applications" on day one of the Windows 7 launch.

Microsoft also plans to launch online versions of Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that can be used within Web browsers, responding to existing services from Google and Zoho, says Gizmodo. Will Windows 7 catch on? "Unless Microsoft can make the case that Windows 7 offers useful features that are absent from Windows XP and doesn't slow down systems, cause hardware compatibility problems, or other headaches, a lot of consumers will still be wary, says Liliputing.