Is Win7 the MS fix for Vista?
No Win 7 is running a lot of re-coded software. It still has much of the *new* look and feel of vista however the underlying structure of the operating system is very different.
More smaller programs using less resources (leaving smaller 'footprints') and running faster than the older more "traditional microsoft" way of large programs using up large chunks of resources.
This YouTube video (if you watch it all the way through) describes how it was all being re-engineered from their older way.
I hope this doesn't get too technical, the microsoft guy does a reasonable job of explaining it, also takes us for a walk down the microsoft operating system memory lane.