Windows 7: My Thoughts

Notes: I had given my thoughts on the Windows 7 Beta a good while back, but after about a week or two of using it, I wanted to try Ubuntu 8. Unfortunately, I had to send in my computer for repairs and thus get it formatted back to the all tormenting Vista. After getting my notebook back (getting it repaired THREE TIMES. Damn you misleading HP "customer care".) I used Vista for about a week. Needless to say that I got very sick of it very quickly. So I partitioned a nice 50GB chunk and put Windows 7 Beta-Build 7000 on it for my daily use. I still run programs from the C: drive and use my documents from there mostly except pictures and music. I think that's a little plus that makes it slightly more practical than Ubuntu: It's Windows. You can easily browse and use files from a different drive without any hassle at all.

Though, I'm sure the review would be more interesting (perhaps) than my ramblings. So here's an actual overview of my experiences so far with it.


First off, the installation process is SO much quicker and easier than it was for Vista or XP. It took MAYBE 15 to 20 minutes to install for me. It was almost entirely automated with the annoying "next" clicking kept to a minimum. It saw my partitions easily, and had even pre-selected the already empty one, my new "S:" drive. Considering the problems I had re-installing Vista, this was a blessing. Installing XP was never really a hassle, it just took a long time for some reason, and compared to 7 there was a good bit of clicking and it was a little more intimidating for someone that has little experience with installing OS's. The only thing that took a good bit of time was the first boot up where it sets up your desktop and chooses a theme for you; but of course that's to be expected.


In my opinion, Windows 7 is much more aesthetically pleasing than Windows Vista or XP. People argue that Windows 7 is just Vista with a new taskbar, blah blah blah. Although, it really isn't. It just has the same start orb and a the aero theme still remains. This can all be changed through various tweaks, or mods, or custom themes so it's actually quite an insignificant argument. It all comes down to opinion and the users ability to customize it; but out of the box, I think Windows 7 looks the best. Just a little bit better than the "Wow!" effects people get from Mac's.


Security seems to be pretty tight, to me. You can turn the UAC off (thank God) or you can turn it all the way up to where it's constantly annoying you. Whichever you like. I haven't had any success installing my Trend Micro Pro security software. Honestly, it gave me the blue screen of death and crashed my system to where I had to go into safe-mode and delete it. Granted, I didn't expect for it to work considering it was made before this was even announced and it was probably designed for only Vista and XP. I don't know about the "Windows Firewall" yet because quite frankly, I don't do anything stupid like go and click "DOWNLOAD FREE PHOTOSHOPZ LO000oOooL" or "UPDATE SECURITY PLZ" ads on Myspace. I am relatively sure it's decent to say the least considering I used that, and only that, on my XP machine for 3 years without any problems.


Windows 7 is signifigantly smaller, and less memory hungry than Vista. Vista took up a LOT of space on my HDD. Between 15-25GBs after a full install and update. Windows 7, on the other hand uses between 5 and 8GBs after a full install and update. The 50GB partition I made is probably far more than I'll ever use, but I'm glad I have it just incase. Also, Windows 7 requires only 1GB of RAM to function properly, but Vista takes 2. I've had horrible, painful experiences with Vista on anything less than a 2GB machine. I'm itching to try out 7 on a 1GB.


This is for the people who run on laptops and/or are worried about power consumption. Windows 7, because it's less demanding is alot more lenient on the energy it uses. Various studies on the internet have shown that Windows 7 uses %11 less battery power and electricity. Which is nice considering my particular laptop is very, VERY annoying with battery life.


When it comes to compatibility(Programs, Drivers, etc), Windows 7 is pretty well rounded. Like I said, with my security software, it had some MAJOR issues, but those were expected and didn't surprise me at all. All of my drivers from Vista work just fine, and all of the programs I've tested so far run absolutely perfectly. Some things though are bound to be picky and not work, but it seems much more efficient than Vista.


Features are in abundance with Windows 7. You get the array of new windows-key based keyboard shortcuts, and little things like Aero-Snap, Aero-Peek, and Aero-Shake, all little bits of software that make the GUI a little more comfortable and entertaining. Granted, some of them will probably never be used or appreciated because I don't see myself happily dragging my internet windows around just to watch them change form when they reach all the way to the left or the right; but they're cool and somewhat useful nonetheless. Alternatively, the new keyboard shortcuts allow for a whole new feeling when it comes to ease of use with Windows. For Instance you can use Windows-key left-right-up-down to maximize, minimize, and move the window around the screen; and if you're using two or more monitors then adding shift to that combination allows you to easily move them around the monitors quickly. There are many, many more out there, and google is littered with them, so if you're beta-testing it like I am, be sure to check those out. I think the most people will find amazing aesthetically is the fact that now you can make the desktop change at almost any time between 5 seconds to every day with any number of pictures you choose by simply clicking the folder that they're located in and selecting which ones to use. This is all without third party software, of course.


When it comes to the network settings and everything like media sharing, it's just as simple, but also sometimes confusing as it was in Windows Vista. You can share just as much media, more actually and more easily, but you can also, it seems, block a little less media from being shared. For instance, I'm having trouble making it to where I can share my videos with my Xbox 360, but not my music at the same time. A small, very minor annoyance, but still confusing nonetheless considering it was made to where you could select it in Vista. I'm PROBABLY just missing something though. I do find, however, the fact that when you put your computer to sleep and wake it back up to after connecting to a network that it automatically reconnects to said network very handy and much less annoying than Vista. Reconnecting in school while TRYING to be inconspicuous and keep it hidden from the teachers was getting annoying.


Obviously, alot of people wonder what the new taskbar is like. Let me say, it's very, very nice. At first to me, it felt a little slippery and uncoordinated, but now it's a very natural feeling. It's kind of like the mac icon docks, or RocketDock (or Cairo if you're using Linux); except it's not a dock. It's an entire taskbar. You can pin and unpin things from it, and view in real time what's going on with each thing with the particular program that's down there. I don't pin that much to it because it gets confusing and I like having at least a few things on my desktop so I can find and access the programs easily, but pinning IE, Windows Live Messenger and AIM to it, assuming you use things like that, is really cool. You can hold Windows-key and any number to open up the program depending on how many you have. For instance, IE would be Windows-key 1, Messenger would be Windows-key 2, so on so forth.


I could go on and on and on and on about this OS all day because of all the updates from Vista, but I think this wall of text is large enough for now. So, finally, Windows 7 in my opinion is much more complete and comfortable than windows Vista. I actually like it more than I did XP, for now at least. I haven't had enough experience with Mac's to say any technical comparisons except that I can't stand using Macs because it was very uncomfortable to me. Obviously because of my lack of regular use, but I still just didn't like the layout or the feel at all. Better than Ubuntu? I'm not sure. It's certainly more...professional LOOKING than Ubuntu, and it runs just as well so far. For people with little knowledge of Linux or Ubuntu, it's better, for people that know what they're doing, it's a tough decision.


It is, however, completely irrelevant to say that ANY OS is better than another. Comparing personal use, yes, it is logical to compare. Comparing technical specs and features, not so much. Every OS runs different for different people who have different opinions on different things. It's completely illogical to compare those opinions because when it comes down to it, EVERY OS sucks for somebody for some reason.


Anyway, yes, I recommend using it over Windows Vista (especially SP2), but I do NOT recommend REPLACING it with this. Simply because it is a BETA and will be taken away eventually.