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Windows 7 RC is now available for anyone interested in giving it a spin! Typically, a release candidate is the last development milestone before release to manufacturing (RTM), signifying that engineering and development have made significant advancements and that the code is entering the final phases of testingAero Peek shows you even more
Aero Peek, the well-received feature in Windows 7 beta that shows the desktop when you hover over the right edge of the toolbar, has been added to the program switching hot key Alt+Tab.
More power to the taskbar
Right-click on programs pinned to the taskbar and you get a slick menu of options, including recently opened files associated with the program. New in the Windows 7 RC, hold down shift when you right-click and you'll get a standard Windows context menu--perfect for opening a file with a different app.
Hide your icons and widgets
Staying on the desktop for one more feature, users can now toggle viewing their desktop icons and their desktop widgets through a context menu. Right-click on the desktop and go to View, and the last two choices will let you hide either icons, widgets, or both.
Media Player goes small with style
The new mini-mode for the Windows Media Player looks slick, with an emphasis on album art and big buttons. When the Media Player is running, the taskbar preview pane displays basic controls, too.
Pin the program from the Start Menu
Another new feature makes it easy to pin programs to the taskbar. Recently installed programs will be temporarily added to the Start Menu's pinned list. Users can drag-and-drop from there to the taskbar without having to go hunting through the All Programs list.
Search smarter
Search snippets in the release candidate does a better job of highlighting relevant terms in your documents, exposing useful data even if it's not in the file name.
Back to the past in XP Mode
Windows 7 supports a feature that won't be useful to most users, but businesses might do a double-take. XP Mode is a free add-on for Windows 7 that creates a virtual XP environment in which you can run older programs. Configuring it isn't easy, but for enterprise software that probably won't be updated anytime soon, this could help convince them to upgrade to 7.
You can touch this
The release candidate includes vastly expanded functionality for touch-screen users, including multitouch zooming. It's not big news now, but it's a good sign that Microsoft is looking to the future.
Ghostbug
A new bug in the release candidate ghosts your taskbar when you drag it to a different docking edge. There doesn't seem to be a solution for it at the moment, except that moving the mouse directly to the edge you want can sometimes avoid the ghost.
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