Well, where should I start?
The similarities between Vista and Seven are pretty much the Aero interface and the start menu only.

I'll make my list as to why I like 7:

Lighter under the hood: Many people say that Windows 7 compares in speed to Windows XP, but looks nice like Vista. It definitely runs on less system resources compared to Vista and feels very finely tuned.
Less Microsoft proprietary software: Windows Vista would install a bundle of "productivity" software like Windows Calendar, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, and I don't know what else. Most found it useless, and I'm glad it's out.
User Account Control Settings (UAC): This is the thing in Vista that asks you "Allow" or "Cancel" EVERYTIME you want to make a change to the System. In 7, you can set the levels at which you want it to warn you or turn it off all together. This is a huge reason to switch.
Libraries: This is new and could be confusing at first, but it's definitely a brilliant way to organize. In explorer, the navigation pane on the left has your system tree, and within that, is "Libraries." Within libraries you can create a folder (library) in which you link folders to. For example, I have the Music library, and linked to it I have the default My Music Folder from my C: drive and in another partition, say D:, I have another folder with Music. I just right click on the "Music" library and bring up the properties menu, and add the folder from the D: drive so that when I click on the "Music" library, so it basically links to folders with similar content and when you click on that library, it'll show the content from each folder. You can also create your own libraries and link away, It's so efficient.
Superbar: of course we all know about the most obvious feature. The Superbar is the product of Microsoft dropping the Quicklaunch menu to the main taskbar, making it kind of like a dock, but with the Aero peek and jumplists, I think it's better than a dock.
Aero Snap and Aero Peek: This coupled with the Super bar is by far the best feature for productivity in any operating system I've ever used. Aero snap feels so natural that going back changing window sizes and positions in other OSs is actually cumbersome. Aero peek is definitely a better way to switch tasks and the best part is that you can actually use the thumbnail previews to interact with that instance of a program. Like for Windows media player 12, there are buttons on the thumbnail where you can play/pause, or go to previous or next song, as well as close the app. It's very convenient and you can do what you want more quickly with fewer movements and clicks.
Windows Media Palyer 12: I've always like Windows media player, and WMP 12 is a great player and has a super simple and intuitive interface, Not too different from WMP 11, but they've cleaned it up a bit and made it functional with the new features in Windows 7. There are also two modes for resource efficiency, the Library mode (the whole player is as we know it), and then the Now Playing Mode (Simplified mode in which you have just the CD cover of the song with a popup control bar and maybe the playlist).
DirectX 11: I don't know if they allowed the upgrade to DX11 in Vista, but Seven definitely has the latest and greates DX11.
Personalization: If you're like me, you'll definitely enjoy the easier appearance customization of Windows 7. Like in Vista you can change the window color, but in windows 7 you can also choose from different system sounds, And with wallpapers, you can set it up like a slide show and have your choice of wallpapers change to the next after a set amount of time.
Monitor Calibration: Among the newest tools that I love is the monitor calibration tool. Now you don't have to spend on expensive software to make you colors accurate. Now I don't have Photoshop nagging me about my bad ICC Profiles.
Legacy Mode (virtual machine): this is a good tool to use when you have old software incompatible with Windows 7. With this tool, you can run programs under ranges of compatibility from windows 2000 to Vista SP2, pretty useful feature

There's plenty more and I could go on for a while, but those are the features that most stood out to me and I find myself using more often than not.

Tags: 7, Windows, features, review

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Comment by Connor Bryant on January 30, 2010 at 4:42pm: good list.

Comment by Jorge on January 27, 2010 at 3:08pm: @Gordon Keenan
It could be, but when you're trying to attract millions of Windows users who are hesitant to upgrade because of software incompatibility, this is the best solution and it gives users time to upgrade their software. I think that this feature will definitely fade out as more and more users buy Windows 7 and eventually in a Service Pack, it might be eliminated. Yet again, it is only available in Business and Ultimate editions of Windows 7.

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