Microsoft gave the first public demonstration today at Microsoft’s PDC conference in Los Angeles. The said presentation is only  in prebeta stage and won’t arrive until early 2009. And there are clear changes made to Microsofts newest OS. These UI changes represent a brave move by the company. The new UI takes the concepts that Windows users have been using for the last 13 years and extends them in new and exciting ways. Windows 7 may not change much under the hood, but the extent of these interface changes makes it clear that this is very much a major release.

Below is a list of the new features awaiting us in Microsoft’s Windows 7:

1. New Taskbar

Probably the most visible change in Windows 7 is the new taskbar. Text descriptions on the buttons are gone, in favor of big icons. You can further customize the Taskbar by dropping in icons that launch your most-used apps. You can also see thumbnails of what’s inside the window of each open application right there in the Taskbar. If you have multiple tabs open in your browser, you’ll see each browser tab in its own thumbnail, and you can jump straight to the tab you want. If you’re listening to a song or watching a movie, hovering over the thumbnail will bring up cover art and controls to pause or resume playback.

2. Jump List

Right clicking the icons on the taskbar shows a new UI device that Microsoft calls “Jump Lists.”

Here is a Windows Media layer Jumplist:

These context-sensitive menus are available for each program in your Taskbar and your Start Menu. Click on the programs’ name or icon to get a list of the most recent or frequently-requested tasks. For example, you can click on the Internet Explorer icon in the Taskbar and see your recent browsing history or choose from a list of your most-visited websites. Or, click on your Windows Media Player and see a Jump List of your most recently played music or videos.

3. Aero Peek and Snap

One of the new enhancements, Aero Peek, seems to borrow from Mac OS X’s own animated window manager, Expose. Hover your mouse over the far right side of your Windows Taskbar and your active windows become transparent, exposing the desktop.

The new Snap feature lets you expand and maximize windows simply by dragging them to different edges of the desktop. Drag a window’s top edge to the top of the screen to maximize it, and drag it away to restore it to its original size. Line up any window’s edge to either side of the desktop and that window will snap to fill up that half of the screen. Do the same with another window on the other side and you’ve got two equal-sized windows on either side of the screen.

4. Unified Search

A search box in the Start Menu offers lightning-quick suggested search results as you type. Search extends into contacts, e-mail subjects, names of documents, playlists, song titles and even the names of individual settings in your Windows Control Panel. It also learns from you, bringing the things you use the most to the top of the results.

5. Home Groups

Multiple Windows 7 PCs on a single network find and connect to one another, forming a HomeGroup. Users can then browse all of the media stored across the multiple PCs as though they were all on the same hard drive. Sharing within any folder can be disabled for security reasons. You also get location-aware printing — click print and the system will pick the printer closest to you.

6. Libraries

Windows 7 also introduces a new concept named Libraries. Libraries provide a view onto arbitrary parts of the filesystem with organization optimized for different kinds of files. In use, Libraries feel like a kind of WinFS-lite; they don’t have the complex database system underneath, but they do retain the idea of a custom view of your files that’s independent of where the files are.

7. Device Stage

Windows 7’s device manager gives you a single window for interacting with your various gadgets. Plug in your cameras, MP3 players and printers, and you’ll be able to see all of them listed in the Device Stage window. Click on a device to get details on its status — battery charge, available storage space, the time and date of your last sync and so on. From within the same interface, you can sync it, manage your photos, music or ringtones you have stored on it, or any other device-specific task.

These cool new features makes you want to grab Macrosofts New Windows 7 and give it a try, too bad that it won’t be available until early next year. These teasers sure looks good and I just hope that it won’t be filled with annoying problems and bugs like Windows Vista.