Well, firstly  a moment of silence for our lost old friend hyperterminal.  But you just want to get serial data flying around again right?  I spent about 30 minutes downloading and finding no free serial port solutions for Windows 7 until I remembered PuTTY!

You can download PuTTY here, and either install it or run the exe.  PuTTY will launch, select

Connection type: Serial

Set your configuration and hit open and you should be in good shape.  You can set up local echo and all of your other preferences through the myriad of menus at the left.  Most importantly you’ll again have a lightweight serial console for Windows 7.