Bangalore: The design origins of Windows 7 and its look and feel was 'borrowed' from Mac OS X, according a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7.

"One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the Operating System (OS) is fantastic, that it's very graphical and easy to use. What we've tried to do with Windows 7- whether it's traditional format or in a touch format - is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics. We've significantly improved the graphical user interface, but it's built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform, for instance" said Simon Aldous, Microsoft Partner Group Manager,

The most visible interface element in Windows 7 is a revised taskbar, which lets users 'pin' applications in place, in effect recreating the Dock from Mac OS X. A new Aero Peek feature replicates Dock Expose, showing previews of the content in running apps before they resize. Windows as a whole has been cosmetically enhanced, in some cases evoking touches familiar to Leopard users.

Eventhough, 7's interface is 'built on very stable core Vista technology', much of the new OS remains functionally similar to Vista, for instance relying on a familiar file system," says Aldous.

Vista was highly criticized on its initial release, described as slow, lacking support and in some cases marred by odd interface conventions. It has since been patched to solve many of these