Wise Rhetoric

If you stuck with XP this long Win 7 does not offer a compelling reason to upgrade until you buy a new computer except for a very few specific applications(laptop battery life being my personal #1). That said- Win 7 is what Vista tried to be and failed. Faster, less junk bloatware, better organized, more secure, and very few bugs for a new release OS from Microsoft.

The downside is no direct upgrade path from XP but you have all your data backed up don’t you? Not a big deal if you don’t but there might be a bit of trial and error. The directions provided by Microsoft and the utilities you will be directed to download actually seem to work for the vast majority of people helping make the upgrade less painful. Just remember that for certain things like Itunes you need to back up your downloads separately from the Microsoft utility. I had a backup from a few months ago but forgot I had purchased a few songs since which I did not have backed up.

Win 7 recognized almost all my drivers and did not have an issue with any. Far different than the Vista I ended up giving away when I went back to XP a couple years ago, though to be fair at this point Vista is a stable OS with a few more features than XP.

Bootup and shutdown times are impressive. I installed Win 7 over XP after backing up to see how it would do recognizing my partitions and dual hard drives. No problems there! In fact the only issue I have had with it so far is getting a few games to work with it. Not because it is 64 bit but due to the user account control security/organizing feature and the limitations of an older game working with my brand new video card(not a Microsoft issue on the video card).

I use duel monitors and a 3 way KVM which works ok. The monitor support in Win 7 is better than XP or Vista but most likely you will want to download some 3rd party software tailored to such setups. I have had absolutely no problems with internet connection that some people have reported in the reviews here on Amazon. I use Firefox so I am not even sure which browser version Microsoft included as the only time I use it is with Windows Update.

If you just can’t wait to get Win 7 included as a part of your next PC then rest assured that this time around Microsoft learned most of what it needed to from the problems Vista had and released a faster, more stable, and more future oriented OS. I wanted it early to be ready for the upgrade at work and had it pre-ordered a year ago to get a decent price. If not for those two reasons I would probably have stuck with XP another year or so until my next PC purchase.

Win 7 is not perfect but it is good enough to ensure Apple and Linux will only nibble at Microsoft’s market share for the next few years.

I own three computers at the moment (Dell Mini Netbook running Windows 7 Professional 32bit, MacBook (black) running Windows 7 Professional 32bit, and custom configured Desktop running Windows 7 Professional 64bit). I did a clean installation on all of them. I had no problem with drivers except on MacBook build in mouse pad but all I had to do was run driver pack for Bootcamp and it was all good.

Stability:
Actually I have been running Windows 7 Ultimate Beta from 2008 Dec. It’s so hard to explain how stable the OS was even at Beta stage. Hands down Windows 7 is way more stable than Vista and XP. Even on my netbook is running full version of Windows 7 Professional with all the features. Start up and Shutdown time is much faster than before. I always loved gadgets in Vista but it so memory hogging; I never used it, but Windows 7 gadgets perform memory efficiently and can easily be move around. The wake up from sleep and hibernation is much faster now and this is a hug time saver on my laptop and netbook.

My Favorite Features:

Task Bar
I love the new task bar. This is very efficient; I have access to all my favorite programs with one click and no matter how many instances I am running, it is still not cluttered. I can also navigate quickly to the right window with sneak peak and close down if I don’t want that window. And if your programs support jump list then you can go to your last worked document in two clicks. Also window snap is a life saver. It’s so easy to transfer files from one window to another now or to compare documents/files.

Homegroup
Wow, this is a breeze now. You would love this if you have more than one computer. It’s so simple to add a new computer or create a new homegroup. You can share your files or devices between computers so seamlessly and so much faster. What makes this even better is what’s called Libraries in Windows 7. I will give a good example on this. I have lots of movies and videos. As you know average video file of a TV program is about good 700MB. So I have all my videos on my separate hard drive on my desktop. With homegroup I can have this hard drive to share and then on my laptop I can add this drive on the desktop as a path in my video Library. This saves tons of space on my netbook and laptop. I can have access to any file I want in other computer but it doesn’t even feel like it’s in a separate computer because libraries put all your files to one place no matter where the data is. You have to try this out to see how efficient things can get and how easy and seamless it is now. Setting up all this was only couple of clicks. It’s the same if you have devices that you want to share.

Windows Media Player and Media Center
Now it supports more Codecs. This is something most people don’t know about new media player; it has some awesome streaming features. If you have Windows 7 compatible devices such as another PC or a TV you can stream music to the device. I can start watching a movie in my desktop, then if I feel like to finish watching the movie in bed I just stream it to the laptop and watch in the bed. I find this awesome and it doesn’t stop there. If you a have Windows Live ID you can assign this account to your profile on your Desktop and access and play music from your laptop anywhere with internet. So indirectly it acts as a media server :D. New Media Center has lots of partners there for you can watch almost all your favorite TV programs on your PC (CBS, The CW MSN, MSNBC, NETFLIX, showtime).

Internet Explorer 8
I am a big fan of Firefox. But I have been using explorer more often now and it’s my default browser. Most sites load fast as Firefox. But explorer itself launch faster than Firefox. Tabs are multi-threaded now so if one tab crashes it doesn’t bring down all my tabs. And I have to say it hasn’t crashed on my only few times, on times it has crashed I copied and pasted the link on Firefox and my Firefox crashed as well. So there is not much difference there. I like how I can control all add-ons in new explorer from one place. If a search add-on is not therefore your favorite site you can simply create your own in 30 seconds. accelerators also make it more efficient, i dont have to type to look up things (maps, words – dictionary). Also I find InPrivate brower pretty useful ;).

Search
Search has evolved from Vista. It’s even faster now and it doesn’t hog your computer when it indexing. If you install some filters like Foxit PDF IFilter it truly shines and makes your life much easier.

Finally, i have to say 64 bit is something you can live with now. Its not a hassel to find drivers or programs anymore. i managed to install all programs i run on my 32bit to work on 64bit with no effort.

Tip: If you are a college student you will get hug discount, also check if you school is part of MSDN acadamic, if it is you can get free copy of Windows 7. :D if any of the above doesnt apply to you, you can always get an OEM copy which is cheaper

This is the full version of Windows 7 Professional, so chances are you’re looking at it because you are building a new computer and plan on putting this on it. If you’re wanting to upgrade your old XP or Vista computer and start from scratch, it’s not like the old days where you could only format by using a full version. Save yourself some money and purchase the upgrade version: it will still offer you the ability to do a “clean” install and jettison the old Windows baggage.

I HIGHLY recommend you stop by Microsoft’s website and look the different versions over to confirm you have the right one. If you’re running a computer old enough that you’re upgrading from Windows 98 or Windows 2000, I don’t recommend it: your performance will drop and you’ll see compatibility problems, some of which may be major. If this is the case, stop by Microsoft.com, grab their “Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor”, and run it first.

That said, Windows 7 Home Premium is probably the best bet for the average home user. Unlike XP Home, which made basic things like networking a pain, or Vista Home, which really seemed to only be missing some eye candy, 7 Home Premium truly is aimed at the everyday consumer. Professional is going to be more suited to a corporate environment, or if you are an individual, you will probably want Professional for a personal machine that you regularly use to interact with a workplace.

Pro gives you:
1) complex networking made simpler (for example, connecting to AD domains and/or interacting with your workplace/corporate networks)
2) “XP Mode” – which runs a program within a virtual version of XP. You still have the ability to use “XP Compatibility Mode”, which fools your programs into thinking they’re running in XP, but the XP Mode is an honest-to-god XP shell that runs within Windows 7. Your hardware will need to support “Virtualization Technology” in order to take advantage of this.
3) Automated backup (which can be done using free tools such as Macrium Reflect if you’d rather save the money)

Ultimate also adds:
4) Hardware-level encryption (and your hardware will need to support this)
5) Native multi-language support: which means you switch from one language to another on the fly and need to make things easier on yourself than they were when you used the Language Bar in XP or Vista

(more…)

Microsoft clearly understood that it was “betting the bank” on Windows 7. This is evident from the fact that installation of Windows 7 Professional is trouble-free, and the OS is attractive, easy to figure out, and easy to configure. It has quickly become a cliche’ that Windows 7 is what Vista should have been, but it is also true. In my installation all of my hardware peripherals (3 printers, a fax, a scanner, and numerous external hard disk drives) installed instantly and easily. Only one of my printers required me to log onto Hewlett-Packard’s website, and right there was a Windows 7 64 bit driver waiting for me. This is one day after Windows 7 was released to the public — Microsoft clearly worked closely with hardware developers to ensure that everything was ready to go. Installation of all hardware went without a hiccup. In fact, most times when you plug a device into a USB port, Win 7 automatically finds the necessary drivers and simply installs the device.

One caveat — XP users must do a “clean install” from XP to Win 7. This essentially means that if you skipped Vista (as many did) you will have to install Windows 7 and then reinstall your programs. I did this, and it was about a two hour exercise getting everything set up the way I wanted again after installing Windows 7 64 bit.

LOOK AND FEEL.

The “look and feel” of Windows 7 is better than either Vista or Windows XP. Unlike Vista, users of XP will have no difficulty finding the screens and menus they are looking for. The new taskbar in Windows 7 is very sharp. The user can “pin” any program to the taskbar for easy access. When a program is running, the user can hover the mouse cursor over the program icon, and a mini snapshot of the actual program appears, to show what is going on with the program. Right click on an icon on the taskbar and it will show you what files have been recently used or are open. The new so-called “aero” styling of Windows 7 is very pleasant to work with. One nice little feature is a little box at the right bottom screen–hover the mouse over it and the desktop appears without having to minimize all the open programs.

Performance wise, it is not clear that Windows 7 is wildly faster than Vista or XP. Most users will probably think it is simply because computers are in the midst of an upgrade cycle, with more and more users using more DRAM and faster processors. And, of course, the issue of 64 bit is emerging.

64 BIT

Windows 7 will likely lead the charge to 64 Bit software. Windows 7 gives the option of either 32 bit or 64 bit installation, and most users are expected to opt for 64 bit. They should. This will not immediately impact most users, but it opens the door for much better performance in the times to come. 64 bit software running on a 64 Bit OS can access far more memory than 32 bit, which was limited to 4 GB of DRAM. Those of us who manipulate large digital photographs, or use other processes that involve handling large amounts of data, will notice extreme performance improvements once true 64 bit programs are available. Now that a 64 bit OS is in place, and the accompanying hardware support (fast CPUs, cheap DRAM) is available, 64 bit computing will become common; very likely within a very short time. As always, once the capability exists, we will find new uses for them. Digital photographers such as myself have been looking forward to 64 bit applications for a long time.

In the meantime, I have found that every single one of my 32 bit programs runs just fine in Windows 7 64 bit. Supposedly some legacy programs have difficulties, but none of mine did.

CONCLUSION

After running Windows 7/64 for a couple of weeks, I have found essentially nothing negative about it. It is snappier than XP, which was starting to get long in the tooth, and seems to have eliminated some of the irritants of Vista. Most importantly, I am certain that almost all users will find that their hardware works fine on Windows 7, which was not the case with Vista. Overall, Windows 7 is clearly a major upgrade from Vista and XP and is what Vista was supposed to be.