Here are a bunch of random Windows 7 thoughts I’ve been having over the past week.

Supposedly Windows 7, the next release of Windows after Windows Vista, is going to come out sometime later this year.

* Already eager nerds have been able to pick up a pre-release “beta” copy of Windows 7, and the reports in from the field are generally good; people are pleased with Windows 7 and like it much better than Windows Vista (despite what I see as overt similarities).

* I view Windows 7 as basically Windows Vista Plus. The primary difference for me is that, hopefully, the final version of Windows 7 will be faster than Vista. Yes, I do like Windows Vista. It has its charm. But overall, it continues to be clunky and irritatingly slow at times, especially at startup. I pray that Windows 7 addresses that point above all.

* Yes, you’ll have to figure out where the stuff is buried in Windows 7. They’ve change things. (Surprise!) For example, the Control Panel is now in Category View all the time, which is a pain. You can manually switch to Classic View each time you open the Control Panel. Get used to weird stuff like that.

* Supposedly you can update from Windows Vista free, but I don’t have anything solid to confirm that. I wouldn’t recommend the update for now, but may change my mind in the future, depending on how buggy the update procedure goes; normally I never recommend updating the computer’s operating system.

* Despite the Vista update thing, Microsoft is not advising beta testers to update to the final “release candidate” coming soon. For the release candidate, you’re supposed to do a clean install. If you’re gutsy enough to use the beta, then you’ll probably know full well how to do a “clean install.”

* Microsoft should call it Windows VII to be more like the Mac OS X.

* I’ve been recommending that people who want a new computer wait a few months to get a new one with Windows VII, I mean, Windows 7 pre-installed.

Question: Do you plan on updating to Windows 7?