Windows 7 features that didn't make it

Windows 7 has been undergoing beta testing and Microsoft has made it available for download so that anyone can try it. It is interesting to look at Microsoft's new operating system, but none of the features that are in it are guaranteed to be in the final version and apparently it can still change.

There was an interesting feature in a beta last year called PC Safeguard. It could be enabled for any of the standard user accounts that were set up in Windows 7 and it prevented the user from making permanent changes to the computer. It didn't stop them making changes and they could do anything they liked, but when they logged off or shut down, Windows 7 undid all their actions and put everything back exactly as it was. It's a great idea when you have kids that mess around with the wallpaper, colour schemes, icons and other stuff.

A feature of PC Safeguard was the ability to lock a hard disk drive and prevent it from being written to by a user. It could be very useful for preventing youngsters from deleting important files that you had saved, whether they were work documents or simply digital camera photos.

In the next beta that followed Microsoft renamed the feature and called it Guest Mode, but surely this would confuse people because there is a Guest account that anyone can use to log into Windows 7.

In the latest beta - the release candidate - the feature has gone. You used to be able to access PC Safeguard or Guest Mode or whatever it was called by going to the Control Panel and opening User Accounts. Click Manage another account and then click the account. Click the Set up PC Safeguard or Guest Mode link and then select the option to turn it on.

Will this feature make a comeback in the final version of Windows 7 that ships? Who knows? It's easier to hide the link in the User Accounts window than to remove all the code, so maybe it's still there and it's just hidden. And maybe a registry hack will turn it back on!