Pre-beta code for Windows 7 released this week addresses many complaints about Windows Vista-and introduces a slew of changes intended to make the OS faster, easier to use and more customizable. Take a look at some of the more visible features, including a redesigned UAC, handy Jump Lists, and more.

From new User Account Control options to performance improvements, the next version of Windows seeks to address major complaints about the previous one–and our first look at an early beta suggests that it’s on the right track.

Microsoft has killed the Sidebar in Windows 7, but the Gadgets it contained live on. They simply sit wherever you choose to place them on your desktop.

Here is the Taskbar preview,

It’s been a while now since many have asked publicly for this feature and Google finally complied. You can head over to Settings/Labs in Gmail and enable the two new features that will dock on the left side of your inbox. Using the other Labs features, you can reorder your gadgets and move some of them (chat, labels) on the right side, for a more comprehensive inbox.

The calendar gadget displays your latest entries in an agenda style while the documents gadget will show the latest used documents together with a search function. A third feature was also launched that allows you to add any other gadget by pasting the URL of the file. However, even the Google team admits that the third feature “isn’t very user friendly right now,” but hopefully we will see some improvements soon.

If you’re concerned with security though, keep in mind that not all gadgets are fully compatible with https, so the ones connecting to Gmail via https might get mixed content warnings.