Windows 7--the "Vista with Help" should please XP and Vista users
Written: Oct 03 '09
Product Rating:
Pros: Attractive new-practical Interface, fast load, software/hardware compatibility and low resource usage, overall very nice!
Cons: UAC remotely disabled without notifying user. Still some software compatibility-issue.
The Bottom Line: Windows 7 is sure to please both XP and Vista users: Software compatibility and reasonable hardware resource requirement. Bottom line, Windows 7 is very good.
paulphoto's Full Review: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Full Version for ...
Microsoft announced that the anticipated new Microsoft Windows 7, which was scheduled to launch on Oct 22, 2009, will be available to consumers on October 13, 2009. The operating system is available earlier for computer builders and smaller shops during the first week of October 2009. For educational institutions, the operating system is available much earlier; hence, the reason why I had the opportunity to write this review. The new MS Windows 7 comes in three different editions:
Windows 7 Home Premium Windows 7 Professional Windows 7 Ultimate
Each will be available in 32-bit as well as 64-bit. The list above is quite simple compared to the confusing Vista family: Home, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate. Here, it is clear that Microsoft has learned a big mistake from the Vista. For the Windows 7, each edition can be understood as to what purpose it serves: the Home Premium will be widely available for home users, the Professional will be for power users, institutions or businesses. The Ultimate edition is basically the Windows 7 Professional with the capability of multi-language feature and data protection through the technology of BitLocker.
[It appears that the list above might get longer, too, since the news just broke that there will be Windows 7 "Steve Ballmer" edition]. What about the Enterprise?
With regards to what features are available in the Home Premium compared to the Professional edition, let me just state that you won't expect the Home Premium to run various programs that run perfectly fine on XP platform. As the word "Home" implies, the Home Premium cannot join a domain or a network group. It also lacks the full feature of System Backup and Restore as well as Disks Management compared to the Professional or Ultimate edition.
For the past two weeks, I have been using the Windows 7 Professional (32-bit and 64-bit), the full version, that is available at educational institutions for software developers through MSDNAA. I have installed and used Windows 7 Professional on a number of machines, ranging from one that is considered too slow for Vista to the current hardware technology of the quad-core processors and over 4GB of RAM.
Note: Throughout this review, I will refer to Windows 7 Professional (32-bit) as Windows 7.
HARDWARE REQUIREMENT/COMPATIBILITY, ACTIVATION
Hardware: Simply stated, Windows 7 requires hardware that Vista requires. At the minimum, one should have the following hardware:
For 32-bit system: CPU: 1.0GHz or higher RAM: 1024MB HDD: 16GB
For 64-bit system: CPU: 1.0GHz or higher RAM: 2048MB HDD: 20GB
Of course, this is merely a minimum, and given that Vista has demanded a stronger hardware capability, it is likely that many machines available today (or two years ago that were used for Vista) will perform smoothly without a problem under Windows 7. As you will read later in this review, Windows 7 is much improved over the Vista in terms of managing hardware resources.
Installation: I first installed Windows 7 on my 7-year old machine:
Motherboard: Asus P8C800 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHz FSB 800MHz (good old single core but features Hyperthreading) RAM: 1.5GB DDR400 GRAPHICS: nVidia FX-5500 256MB 8x AGP HDD: WD Raptor 74GB SATA-I
Installation process and procedure are similar to Vista, which requires several stages (in fact, three stages), beginning with loading files, expanding them, starting Windows installer, etc. As usual, the default English language and Time/Currency, and US keyboard and License Terms and Agreement were in order, etc. I am using the full version of Windows 7 Professional that features Upgrade and fresh install (Custom -- Advanced). I selected the custom (advanced) install to install Windows 7 as a single-boot system. Hard drive partitions preparation was similar to Vista.
Installation on this old and virtually outdated machine went surprisingly fast. I forgot to time it, but I felt it took under twenty minutes compared to the installation of XP on this same system that took longer. I set up partition to about 20GB out of the 74GB available on the WD Raptor 74GB SATA drive to speed up the installation.
The final stage of installation ("setting and preparing computer for the first time..."), similar to Vista installation procedure, a username must be created followed by a secure password. This will be the Administrator account. The computer name must be created at this time as well (of course, one can change the name as the need or desire arises in the future).
Product key may be inserted at this point. However, I have an option to enter the product key later. Since the system can be used for 30 days before activation is required, we should not rush to activate the system. It is a good idea to install and test all third-party application software to make certain they all run smoothly before activating the Windows 7. The reason being that if any program causes problem or I need to reinstall Windows 7, I don't need to reactivate the system. This had always been my standard practice.
Installation went very smoothly. All hardware components were detected and configured properly with the exception of the onboard sound system.
My second machine used to test Windows 7 is my workstation: Motherboard: Tyan S2915-E (n6650W) CPU: Two AMD Opteron 2218 (2.6GHz), dual-core each RAM: NetList DDR2-667 4GB ECC REG Graphics: ATI X1300 AIW (2006 Edition) 256MB PCI-E 16x HDD: Hitachi P7K500 500GB STAT-II
Under this hardware system, installation took 13 minutes. All internal components were detected and configured properly, except my Audigy 2 installed on the motherboard. Windows 7 also detected onboard SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) without a driver. However, I encountered installation problem when using a SCSI PCI-X by LSI20320 card on my SCSI hard drives, which required a driver. I only have driver for XP and it did not work. Thus, this problem would be fixable by hardware vendors to release drivers for Windows 7.
USING WINDOWS 7
Windows 7 booted much faster than XP that I used to run on this machine. It has a really nice new boot screen with three additive primary colors (RGB) and subtractive primary color (yellow) coming together as four particles colliding together to produce the Microsoft Logo. Windows 7 is much smaller than Vista Business; it uses much less system disk space, occupying roughly 8GB while Vista demanded a hopping 13GB. Virtual memory has a smaller designation and usage. Here, Windows 7 allocated roughly a swap page the size of the physical RAM; still a lot but much better managing than Vista.
Windows 7 features an attractive and streamline interface that seems to mimic both Vista and XP. Most noticeable is the taskbar and its managing features and functionality. The Aero theme feature is nice where background theme, each package consists a set of images that can be rendered for instant usage, more of a slide show of the background image, available with various range of time setting. This feature did not seem to drag down the performance, at least I basically used the system in light multitask mode.
The taskbar of Windows 7 is probably the most well-improved features that Microsoft has done. For instance, a program can be pinned on the taskbar permanently as well as its associated programs. These can be previewed in fullsize before bringing it to the front full-view screen.
The Show Desktop icon has been mounted directly into the taskbar in the small right area. With this feature, the desktop box can be revealed by hovering the mouse pointer, clicking and reclicking to hide/show. The viewing features of the desktop have been improved greatly; coming from XP, I don't have to use the Tile Windows feature to resize or place multiple windows, by dragging window to the left and the other to the right of the monitor, Windows 7 will resize the two windows automatically. If I drag one window to touch the taskbar (on top of the dekstop), it will display in full-size on the entire desktop. It is important to note that this feature works nicely only when the taskbar is placed on top of the desktop -- a feature that is most popular on Linux and Mac OS environments. The Aero glass can only work properly if the hardware system meet the requirement of Windows 7 functionality requirement, much like Vista's requirement here. My 7-year old machine did not work in Aero glass, but my new workstation did.
Also new to Widows 7 is the "Pin to Taskbar" feature. Previously, under XP or Vista platform, only "Pin to Start menu" was available. Now a user can use the "Pin to Taskbar" feature to place any program on the taskbar to be executed quickly and conveniently. I should stress that being a Linux user, I have been using this feature for sometime already on a Linux environment; a feature that was available on Mac OS as well as Linux some time ago. Now, Windows users can enjoy this flexibility.
Computer Performance and Rating It seems that everything about Windows 7 is an improvement over the Vista. The most annoying new feature of Vista was its "user's experience computer performance rating". Being a maximum rating of 5.9, Vista suffered greatly in providing accurate rating for a particular hardware. Because of Vista's limitation in rating scale, my workstation based on two dual-core CPUs (Opteron 2218) and two quad-core CPUs (Opteron 2354) were given the same rating of 5.9/5.9. In reality, the Opteron 2218 would have received rating much higher than 5.9 and the Opteron 2354 even much higher.
Now, under Windows 7, the actual score of these CPUs are revealed, as shown here. For my workstation based on Tyan S2915-E with two dual-core Opteron 2218 (2.6GHz), 4GB RAM, ATI X1300 AIW PCI-E and SATA-II HDD was rated by Windows 7 as follows, which seems to be the most accurate one:
As can be seen, this 7-year old, even though performs allright, does not provide the full user experience under Windows 7, especially for Aero glass functionality.
Control Panel The classic view feature available in either Vista or XP has been replaced by icon view with option on large or small icons. This could be viewed as "the Classic view with options on Large/Small icon display", which is quite nice. The Category view is still retained.
Many system and configuration programs have been relocated or merged to make things far more manageable than Vista. For instance, the System and Maintenance and Security were placed separately under Windows Vista Ultimate. Here, under Windows 7, they are combined in one place, easy to manage. Nonetheless, those who come from XP will still face a learning curve, but not as annoying as the Vista. I welcome most of the changes and new interfaces; but perhaps I already got used to Vista.
Security Security is perhaps one topic that Microsoft decided to work on and improved which reflected in the System and Security manager. For instance, the Windows Firewall now features two separate Firewall protections and monitoring systems: one for Home or Private Networks and one for Public Networks. In other words, Windows 7 features two layers of protection compared to Vista or XP that has only one. Thus, Windows 7 is different from Vista, not just the minor refinement on the skin but also its core operating system.
One important and major improvement, I appreciated, is the Security Advanced setting, which allows a user to configure security rules for Domain, Private or Public for inbound or outbound filtering. Here, with the right setting, the Windows 7 is robust and quite secure. In short, out of the box, Windows 7 is far more secure than XP and Vista combined.
For good security purposes, Windows 7 no longer auto runs external hard drives via USB when they are connected. I think this feature is good because it provides a safe guard against any malware or viruses. For example, Windows 7 will scan the executable files (autorun.inf) on the external device, such as the following lines
[Autorun] Open=PStart.exe Action=Run PStart etc.
but then it ignores the instruction and delays execution.
UAC has been improved greatly from the annoying Vista. It also incorporates many new features to manage system more effectively. However, the feature that allows UAC to be disabled remotely without notifying the user is still present, and one should use this feature and its configuration carefully, so that no program running in the background without your knowledge. For my application, I configured the UAC enabled at all time. On Vista, the most annoying feature of UAC is that even when you are an administrator accessing or using a feature that requires administrative previllege, the UAC pops up constantly throughout its every step. It is nice that some of these annoying features have been fixed.
Multimedia Windows 7 has so many multi-media features and many have been improved greatly. The Windows Photo Gallery that appeared on Vista has been changed to Windows Photo Viewer. The interface is far more manageable and productive. I never liked the interface on the left pane of the Vista's Windows Photo Gallery; they have no relevant features to the Photo Gallery. Here, with Windows 7, its interface with the addition of Homegroup and other links, including Computer and Library make it more productive and easy to find things.
The Windows Media Center and Player are also improved. Many operation functions have been rearranged to provide a more manageable functionality, they are minor but good changes, such as the Play, Burn and Sync of the Windows Media Player are grouped in one location.
Why should one spend money on MS Office 2007 for a word document? One important and new change in Windows 7 is the Windows WordPad word processing program. It is funny that among all the sophiticated word processing program such as MS Office 2007 (or 2003), I still prefer to use the MS WordPad for writing a simple document, such as this review.
In my experience, I have seen people paying a lot of money for the MS Office 2007 only to use it to produce a simple document that WordPad can easily produce. When asked why, their response often hinted at "I did not know" or "MS Office has a lot of features... but I don't know how to use them".
Microsoft has done an excellent job improving on WordPad! It is important to say that WordPad available on Vista and XP is (or was) one and the same. However, under Windows 7, WordPad has taken a new impressive look, and with more practical features. First, it looks almost like a stripped-down MS Word 2007. There are many new features incorporated in WordPad to offer much more productive work environment. Why spend more money on MS Office 2007 and never use beyond its basic features for word processing? My recommendation is that you should try using WordPad for word processing application before deciding to buy MS Office. Of course, a good reason to buy MS Office 2007 is to use its various application programs (such as, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, etc).
Disks Management Compared to Vista Ultimate, Windows 7 features a far more versatile Disk Management application. Under Vista Ultimate, we can convert hard drives from basic to dynamic, span or stripe them, or convert to GPT disks. Now, Under Windows 7, in addition to all these features, one can mirror their data or configure a RAID5 disk striping or mirror. For those users concerning about data backup and performance, Windows 7 will provide a satisfying need.
This is one of my favorite features on Windows 7 for my workstation system (listed below); and I have tested using this on RAID5 with mirror and striping, using four SCSI 36GB hard drives. This is something that I could not do with my XP platform, and appreciate Windows 7's features greatly.
The Internet Windows 7 comes packaged with the new Internet Explorer 8 with various improved pop-up blocker features and more, especially with regards to phishing and Active-X. The problem is for school application, where IE 8 might run into problem of compatibility with online assessment programs in school, such as online simulation programs MyItLab, Blackboard, SAM, MathLab, etc. However, these vendors are aware of the problem and are working to correct it. For instance, our college still puts out warning to avoid using IE 8.
New Features and Other Useful Programs Among the new improvements, Windows 7 includes several wonderful programs, such as the Math Panel, which I enjoy immensely. for those who don't have OneNote, the Math Panel is quite handy, especially for those who are attending college online. OneNote, Bamboo Tablet, etc, are a wonderful hardware/software for communicating online in science class that require communication involving symbols (such as Math, Chemistry or Biology symbols). Its search feature is also improved that allow searching for files or folder much quicker.
A few other small programs are sticky note, XPS, etc, which help remind us on other schedules while we work on the computer.
One of the most impressive feature built into Windows 7 is the support of touchscreen. Even for a program that does not support touchscreen will work, provided we have the touchscreen compatible hardware. I like this feature immensely, even though it supports just the basic operation features that include tab-drop, scroll, right-click, back and forward, zoom and rotate, basically all the features shown in the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still". At our college, in the IT department, I got a chance to test Windows 7 Professional with a touchscreen monitor, and it was impressive. Many mouse operation features (left click, right-click, scroll and more) could be replaced by a touchscreen.
Command Lines Nothing has changed much about the command-lines since XP, except new syntax created for those new features on Windows 7. For system administrators, the Windows 7's text commands via the Command Prompt environment will offer a much more flexible and effective system-wide configuration. However, for regular users, the Windows 7's interface already provides a far more featured-laden functionality.
For those who prefer to use the command lines, you might want to check out these books:
Windows Administration at the Command Line, John Paul Mueller, Sybex John Wiley Publishing, 2007. Windows PowerShell, Second Edition, Don Jones and Jeffery Hicks, Sapien Press, 2007.
Single, Multi-user Feature, same old thing First introduced in the Windows XP, MS Windows platform is still somewhat plagued by a pseudo multi-user symptom with its User Switch feature that tried to mimic the UNIX/Linux multi-user environment. Its fancy feature like the Remote Desktop Access (via LAN, dial-up call or Internet), only permits a single log-on. When I tried to perform a remote access via a LAN connection, I could not log on to my remote system if I was still locally logged on. I had to disable the local account to log on remotely.
Stability and Software/Hardware Compatibility It can be argued that the reason Windows 7 was introduced and obviously as a replacement of the Vista is to correct all the problems infested in the Vista family. The two major problems are hardware and software compatibility; of course, with Windows 7, we have new features and other useful programs as well.
In terms of hardware compatibility, Windows 7 is superb compared to Vista. Installation was problem-free and straight-forward, hardware configuration was also straight-forward. Application software run more smoothly and with full compatibility than Vista. Windows 7 handled things far better than Vista dealing with older devices. Launching application programs was fast compared to Vista or XP.
System Backup/Restore Windows System Backup and Restore goes back a long way, and Windows 7 reaffirms the usefulness of this feature. As a system backup/restore, system backup utility can offer data backup in incremental or differential, daily or weekly, which can be done in manual mode or in automation. Combined with Dynamic Disk utility, system backup and restore utility is perhaps the best feature offered in the new Windows 7. While I have done this using my XP environment, I have not tested Windows 7's system backup utility, except browsed throguh to note the various similar features.
XP VIRTUALIZATION
It was clear that the failing point of Vista was that not many small businesses or institutions, even my institution, were willing to migrate to Vista due to software compatibility issue, especially for custom software that was designed to run on XP platform. The new Windows 7 is designed to convince people to migrate from XP. The secret is virtualization. Virtual PC was introduced by Microsoft since 2004 (call Virtual PC 2004), and 2007 (Virtual PC 2007). With virtual PC installed, for example, Windows Server 2003/2008 can run on Windows XP platform. With the same philosophy, XP programs can run in virtual mode on Windows 7, provided we have the capable hardware.
This trick was quite a smart realization based on an old idea. Furthermore, virtualization is not confined to just Windows environment. Linux OS can run on Windows platform using Virtual PC and Windows OS can run on Linux platform using Linux VMware. I have been using virtual PC running on Windows XP environment to run and test Linux, particularly Fedora 6.
To see how XP programs run on Windows 7 in its virtual mode, I installed the XP mode Released Candidate (RC) and Virtual PC to install on my Windows 7 Professional. Here, Windows XP SP-3 will run in virtual environment inside Windows 7. But I ran into several problems. In the Virtual PC Integration Device a yellow question mark appeared and within the Device Manager in the Windows XP Mode vm and Windows 7 RTM (I downloaded from MSDNAA at my institution). I tried updating drivers but no such luck. In the end, I could not run XP mode as virtual environment inside Windows 7 Professional. Perhaps, when Microsoft finally releases the official VPC, XP Mode and RC, things might get smoother. I wasted two days on this exploration.
Conclusion
Windows 7 was a pleasure to use. Launching a program was faster than Vista or XP; it also booted much faster with a nice boot screen. Windows 7 managed hardware resources far better than Vista. Its native support of touchscreen features worked nicely on capable LCD hardware. Although, many programs running perfectly well on XP still don't run on Windows 7, for example, HDD Scan 3.1 or 3.2 program launches but cannot detect any hard drives on the system, very strange. However, the majority of my most used application programs (NERO, Adobe Premiere, CyberLink Suite, Camtasia, Snagit, Mathematica, Visual Studio 2008, etc) ran fine on Windows 7 without a problem and with stability; and when XP Mode virtualization inside Windows 7 finally works, things should take a positive outlook on the new Windows 7 platform.
Windows 7 perhaps features the most attractive and practical interface I have seen on Windows environment since XP, despite the fact that many of them were already available and used in other operating systems, such as Linux and Mac OS X. However, compared to its predecessor, particularly Vista, Windows 7 will prove highly capable. Its touchscreen feature will ensure its place in the future of technology, including Bluetooth support and other peripherals.
There are so many noted improvements on Windows 7 in the core operating system as well as various useful programs. Among them are the newly designed WordPad, the Math Panel, Sticky Notes, XPS Viewer, Security (dual-layer Firewall, manual mount requirement on external hard drive, etc) and streamline UAC that is much less annoying than the Vista. As an XP user, I appreciate these features immensely. There will be a learning curve for XP users, but all for the best. Overall, Windows 7 should prove an excellent replacement of Vista, for the reason that it performs so much better.
Author's Note: Readers might want to check out some of the new features of Windows 7 as screenshot image posted here:
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