Review: Living with Windows 7
| Microsoft has been facing an uphill battle for the past two years trying to sell the merits of Windows Vista. Many consumers have snubbed it, most businesses won’t deploy it, inturn leaving Windows XP as the dominant desktop platform. Faced with this, Windows 7 may have a tough job convincing Windows users to make the jump. Is it up to the job? After a week of living with Windows 7, I think so. |
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When you first start Windows 7 up, the first thing you’ll notice is the changed taskbar. Those who are familiar with MacOS X will immediately think they are staring at OS X’s dock bar with a start menu and system tray bolted on. The new bar is an evolution, especially the Group Similar Taskbars option, of which we first saw in Windows XP. Instead of simply being a place holder for buttons, it has become context sensitive depending on the program being used. Right click on Windows Explorer and you are presented with a list of recent places, right click on Internet Explorer and your internet history comes up, left click and you can see a list of open tabs and windows. The new taskbar also includes a button down next to the clock which when hovered over ghosts all windows and displays the desktop, click on this button and all your windows are minimised. Those who wanted to throw their PC out the window from annoying User Account Control prompts will be glad to hear that UAC has been toned down in Windows 7. Instead of locking your desktop and asking for administrative rights when you looked at your PC cross eyed, UAC seems to be far more intelligent – only popping up when something major is happening. |
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The sidebar, which was introduced in Vista has been removed in favour of desktop gadgets. You can now place your gadgets anywhere on the desktop, no longer are you locked to having them in the sidebar. The Office 2007 ribbon makes an appearance in Windows 7, with Wordpad and Paint sporting the new look. Home networking is a breeze with Homegroup setting up sharing of documents, photos, videos and printers with ease. Just use the Homegroup wizard, enter the same key on all computers and you are good to go. One of the big complaints users had about Vista was it being slow and bloated. I am pleased to report that Windows 7 doesn’t suffer this same fate. It is faster than Vista on the same hardware and is completely usable on smaller machines. One can best describe the performance as snappy, and reliable. In the week I have played with Windows 7, I haven’t had one major issue with it. For a milestone release, it feels almost complete. Microsoft have really set the bar high for this one. The big disappointment with Windows 7 – the deletion of core features like e-mail, news, calendar, photo gallery and movie maker. Users will be able to add them using the Windows Live Essentials suite, but what modern operating system doesn’t include them out of the box? Is Windows 7 the platform to convert XP die hards? I think so. If this early build is anything to go by, Microsoft is on to a winner this time! |
I totally agree that Windows 7 will be the platform that converts XP die hards. I’ve been using it for the past few days and quite like it (but then again, I’m already a Vista convert).
> The big disappointment with Windows 7 –
> the deletion of core features like e-mail,
> news, calendar, photo gallery and movie
> maker
These features you’ve mentioned aren’t core features of Windows. How many of them do you really use? I’ve found them to be mainly sub-par products that Microsoft just slotted into each release of Windows, without giving them the attention required to turn them into really useful products. The good thing about separating them from the operating system is that now the release cycle of these products is independent of the Windows OS release cycle. Microsoft can release minor/major upgrades to calendar or photo gallery whenever it wants — which will hopefully mean quicker release cycles and better products (based on user feedback from this year, not 5 years ago when they released the latest version of the OS).
It may even get me past XP!
In most of the organisations I work for, business especially, they’re still using Windows XP.
Will this be the leap of faith?
We’ll just have to find out, now won’t we
@Rowan
I would disagree that they aren’t core features. Maybe to power users but Joe Average will want those features built in. Name a modern OS that doesn’t include an e-mail or calendar application?
Updates can be released via WU where they are seamless to the end user
@Ben
I think by the time Seven is released most businesses will make the leap. Windows XP will be getting mighty long in the tooth!
I have to say, I’ve been using windows 7 for a week now, making the ‘jump’ after seeing a number of good reviews and I’m very impressed overall.
Windows 7 is the Ferarri to Vista’s Limo.
Both look great, but only one performs well and doesn’t get stuck on the bumps in the road
it’ll be good to have a change from XP.. even better for a change that works WELL! Well done on this one Microsoft, thats not an easy praise for me to make after Vista 