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Windows 7

The Next Generation of Microsoft Windows Operating System

With Windows 7 almost upon us it is now time to start considering upgrading from that tired old Windows XP machine or replacing your current memory hungry Vista Installation with a Windows 7 Upgrade.

In the past when Microsoft has launched a new Operating System most resellers and manufacturers have edged on the side of caution, largely due to the unknown compatibility issues and bug fixes. This time Microsoft has approached this differently. Microsoft has made the “Beta” release available to everyone including home users. If you have been fortunate to get your hands on a “Beta” release you will have noticed many similarities with Windows Vista, only this time Microsoft has overcome the memory hungry problems that Vista suffered from and made it much simpler to use. I have been running Windows 7 on a variety of machines including an old P4 3.0 GHz and a Samsung NC10 Notebook, I can report that all machines have performed very well and the driver support has not been an issue. It would appear that early “Beta” releases to both the public and manufacturers have overcome the most fundamental requirement, compatibility!

I myself have no hesitation in upgrading once the final product gets launched; there are limitations that need to be observed if you are considering upgrading from your trusted XP installation. As with Vista it is recommended that you have a Dual Core processor and at least 2 GB of memory, most machines sold in the last 2 years meet this requirement with ease and will have no issues running Windows 7. As previously mentioned I have run Windows 7 on a P4 3.0GHz, admittedly it was a Hyper threading processor and I did put in 2 GB of memory, but this was sufficient to run Windows 7 without fault and performed significantly better than Windows Vista. If you are upgrading from Windows XP you will need to install the Windows Easy Transfer software that is provided on the Windows 7 disk or can be downloaded from Microsoft to take a backup of all your data. Unfortunately there’s no direct upgrade path, so a complete fresh installation will be required. You can however upgrade direct with Windows Vista SP2, I would still highly recommend backing up your data in a similar way you would with XP, mainly for peace of mind.

If you do choose to use the Windows Easy Transfer wizard you will notice that you have greater control over what you can backup and where you can backup to. The one I particularly like is the option to backup over the network, I have used this on a number of occasions now and have found this the most convenient, it does however require that you have a PC to backup from and a PC to restore to on the same network.
Installing a fresh copy of Windows 7 could not be easier, I’m not sure what they have done at Microsoft, but they have managed to make the installation painless and very quick, in some instances you can have a fully operable system within 15 minutes. As with previous Windows variants, I have then continued to install all the Drivers for my devices. I have learned that the best action is to get connectivity first, whether Wireless or on a Wired network and then let Windows 7 go online and get the latest updates and drivers automatically, this has proved to be the most effective way of installing Microsoft Certified Windows 7 Drivers.

Windows 7 has many new additional features which make working much easier i will come onto these later, what you need to remember is that fundamentally it is more reliable and stable, and coupled to the way it handles memory, makes it appear much faster. The additional features add a little Macintosh feel to the whole experience, whether they are actually useful remains to be seen, I do like the Aero Peek feature but I am uncertain why you would need to make all open windows transparent so that you can see your desktop. Aero Shake allows you to wiggle the window you are working in and the automatically minimise all other open windows, to reopen the windows is just a reversal. This too looks like a good feature but again I’m not sure how useful it will be. Aero Snap is probably the only additional Aero feature that will make sense to regular windows users, this allows you to drag an open window to any side of your available desktop and resize to fit half the working space, this makes life much simpler if you wish to compare let’s say two open documents side by side, it also works for top and bottom edges of your desktop.

Microsoft has included some very useful additional applications, such as Windows DVD Maker. Microsoft has also improved and added additional features to all the normal applications such as Windows Media Player, Windows Media Centre, the Fax & Scan utility.  For those of you that use Windows on a regular basis, you will find that Networking has been greatly improved with a better Network and Sharing Centre taken from Windows Vista. There is also a facility for making a CD/DVD directly from an ISO file, this has proved very useful from a technical perspective.

Because security has become such a major part of any operating system, Microsoft has addressed the potential vulnerabilities and claims to have produced the most secure operating system to date. The only real noticeable change to the security features are that the Windows Firewall has become intelligent; it now has many features that previously only 3rd Party providers, such as McAfee or Symantec offered as optional additional packages. Windows Defender has also been improved with less operating overheads. With these features being built in Windows does not use as much memory and therefore runs more efficiently.

To summarise, if you want a faster more stable and reliable operating system that is the most secure available, there is only one option, Microsoft Windows 7. Unlike Windows Vista, Microsoft has worked hard with manufacturers and the public to produce a worthy replacement to Windows XP, its only taken 9 years but they have managed to produce an operating system that will be around for at least another 9 years. Windows Vista will be destined for the same resting place that Windows Millennium Edition disappeared to.

Jason Wyatt
Technical Director
 

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