Gates takes Windows 7 out for a spin

PC lovers, your Vista nightmares are coming to an end. The executive powerhouse that is Gates and Ballmer pulled the covers off Windows 7 today at the All Things Digital in the States. And it certainly looks far cooler than the OS currently chugging along on your laptop.

Taking its cue from the already out there Surface, the new OS, which we’re told will land in our laps in 18 months, crams in multitouch tech and a pretty nifty in–depth mapping app.

The touchy feely side of things is pretty self–explanatory. You can flick, zoom and tart around with photos directly on the screen, rather than using a trackpad like the MacBook Air and Eee PC.

The mapping feature lets you glide around the globe, pick your location and then pick out points of interest and pull up info using Live Maps and Virtual Earth.

All very sharp, but we need the PCs that’ll take care of business first. And a purge of all those pesky pop ups in Vista, asking if you’re sure you want to open stuff.

We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for Windows 7 news, so keep it here for more as we get it.