The successor to Windows Vista, tentatively named Windows 7, isn't due until 2009, or possibly even 2010, but development is well underway and screenshots of the early milestones are already leaking onto the web.
The latest review is from the Russian site whatsnext.ru and boasts an thorough screenshot gallery of Windows 7 in action. Although the review itself is in Russian, parsing it through Google Translate yields a few notable items in these early builds of Windows 7.
The first thing you're likely to notice is that Windows 7 looks very much like Windows Vista, suggesting an incremental evolution rather than the radical design changes we saw moving from XP to Vista.
Among the notable new features is a new option in the initial Windows setup screen that allows you to create a “HomeGroup.” A HomeGroup appears to somewhat similar to the WorkGroup concept that's been in Windows for a while, but in this case you're designating other machines to enable photo sharing, music sharing and more.
Another welcome new feature is the ability to pin items to the Windows Start menu using either drag-and-drop or with a new “pin” icon that will move them from the recent items section to a permanent home at the top of the start menu.
There's also a new Windows Recovery Center which you can use to rollback the system without losing any of your data. The reviewer admits that s/he hasn't tested the feature, but if it works as advertised it would offer an easy way to recover a damaged system without having to reinstall from a disk. It also includes as option to recover from a backup disk.
Obviously with Windows 7 still years away from official release there's no telling what will other changes will be unveiled before it lands on your desktop, but these early builds suggest that Microsoft is working hard to smooth some of Vista's rough edges.
[Update: As a number of commenters have pointed out, it's possible these are fake. However, I'm inclined to believe them since the match with some other leaks from other sources. Of course you're free to disagree and definitely take them with a grain of salt, that's why this post is filed in the “rumors” category]
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[via CyberNetNews, screenshot from whatsnext.ru]
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