My Windows 7….So Far:16/01/09
Windows 7, I try to think of it as Vista Service Pack 3 except we will be expected to pay for it. I have now been running Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 as my primary OS for almost a week and felt it is time to write a few notes about what I have found I do and don’t like about our new glorified Vista.
People often say Vista was a flop and we should stick to XP due to driver/program incompatability, however I know many ‘internet users’ (as I call them) who say that Vista is allot easier to use, but then they do receive their laptop/PC already configured and up to date with drivers etc.
I understand this is of no fault of Microsoft; this is caused by other companies not jumping into the new OS quickly enough.
Anyway back onto track, as the title says, ‘My Windows 7′
First Startup
When starting up Windows 7 for the first time I noticed that is was allot brighter and had received another gloss coating to add to that already dazzling shine. The second feature I noticed was the dedicated ‘shut down’ button on the start menu, although most people seem to speak highly of this I like having a button that asks what I want to do, this way I couldn’t accidently shut down my machine through one badly aimed mouse click.
Speaking of shutting down and startup, Windows will boot/shutdown allot quicker and saves that tiring startup tune for when you can see the desktop.
When first running Windows 7 you notice the taskbar now condenses all your similar applications into a single icon, I personally could not stand this and so after a right click and 3 left clicks I was ‘back to normal’.
Notifications Area
User can now customise the notifications area so that only certain programs/process’s will show in the bottom right corner, perfect for those times that you need to hide the MSN icon from your boss.
Wallpapers
Slideshow anyone? Now we can sit and view our wallpaper while waiting for a download bar and not feel quite so bored because you can add you own images to the windows desktop background in a slideshow where you select how long to show each image. By default windows includes 5 slideshows (uk) for you to peer at through the glossy aero taskbar.
Drivers, they drive me nuts
I have had no problems with drivers for windows 7 because you can use Vista drivers with windows 7, unlike using XP drivers with Vista (hooray), in fact many applications show that they think they are running on windows vista.
Memory hog?
I have found windows 7 to run using less hardware than before, I currently have a virtual machine with 512MB RAM which at idle is using 254MB. OK so i am in a virtual machine and i’m not running aero but that is still an improvement over hungry hungry Vista. It is also running as a main OS at home and this will idle at around 700MB out of 2GB after installing anti-virus and office 2007 etc. Some clever memory management going on here?
Compatibility Modes
Didn’t you just hate it when your favourite program would not run in Vista, well this time microsoft listened to its user and has included a Compatibility Troubleshooter where you can run a specific program designed for any Microsoft OS in a compatability mode, all the way back too windows 95.
Conclusion
,p>Windows 7 is appearing to be a very stable, stunning and user friendly OS, even in Beta stages. Although there is no single huge change with Windows 7 over Vista all of the small changes make one big change as to how you will use your computer in the future. OK, so it has it’s downsides but it’s expected when running Beta. Microsoft seems to have started on a good foot now they need to bring it up into a run for public release.
Related Posts:
