After all that, what do I think about Windows 7? I love it!
This is going to be like my change from Windows 98 to Windows XP. Back then, I installed Windows XP in a separate partition so that I could go back to Windows 98 for something, if I needed to.
After about six months, I deleted the Windows 98 partition. Perhaps, in that time, I had booted into it once, maybe twice.
Windows 7 appears to be headed that same way. I’m still installing my software. On my notebook stand, beside my notebook ask I type, are copies of PhotoImpact 10 (my graphics editor of choice), Microsoft Office Professional 2003 and Microsoft Office Professional 2007 Upgrade. I don’t intend to reinstall Office 2003, but I’ll need its DVD to install Office 2007.
The first time I installed Office Professional 2007 Upgrade, it allowed me (and I chose to) install it in addition to Office 2003. I never did use Office 2003 after installing Office 2007. Now, I’ll just save the disk space.
I’ve got much of my software reinstalled, including the XAMPP web server on my notebook for web development purposes (e.g., for previewing my online newsletter as I write it, before I upload it to my web host).
Windows 7 still seems very snappy, very fast. It may not rank as fast as Windows XP in the benchmark tests. However, I seldomly use my notebooks for tasks like video editing and transcoding, both of which require lots and lots of power. The important thing to me is the perceived speed. That is, do I think Windows 7 is slowing me down? So far, no, I don’t think so.
I swapped one of the two Windows 7 Professional Upgrades with my son — he got one to install this weekend, and I get his when it arrives from Amazon. Fair trade, no problem.
He is much, much happier with his home-built PC than he was previously. He built his Windows XP Professional computer recently using an Asus motherboard. Unfortunately, he had nothing but bad luck with it, and with downloading new drivers from Asus.
After making an image backup with Acronis True Image Home 2009 He installed Windows 7 and was astounded.
He had this to say:
windows 7 Vs. XP
- Recognized Sata ports without external drivers
- Found a home network and joined it without specific information(ip address, homegroup name, homegroup passw)
- dealing with external drives: Xp disconnects externals after a set period, 7 keeps an external on for instant access)Interesting things
- the Alt+tab function (with Aero) displays what is currently going on in another frame including a game, also tasks can be moused through to pick a task as long as you hold alt
- after installing itunes the music download folder can be found easily from the libraries group in explorerThese are a few things i’ve noticed, nothing spectacular on their own but taken together they add up to a much better experience than XP
There are some tasks that I would like to be able to do on the notebook. I’d also like the ultra-snappiness of today’s fast computers. Those aren’t Windows 7 problems, and Windows 7 does not appear to have made them any worse.
The only snag I’ve run into is with Apple’s iTunes and my iPhone. iTunes installed perfectly. My iPhone was instantly recognized. iTunes allowed me to back up my iPhone. But, if I want to sync to iTunes on Windows 7, iTunes warns me that it is a "different computer" and that the music, applications, etc on my iPhone will be erased and replaced with ones from my Windows 7 iTunes installation. This means that, in order to sync with iTunes on the Windows, I’ve got to copy all the files onto the destination computer and set up iTunes accordingly.
When I compare Apple’s sync’ing with the way Palm Desktop handles sync’ing after a new software installation (which I did last night), Apple has a lot to learn. Palm Desktop asked me for the user ID (on the PDA) as I installed the software on the computer. Then, when I connected the PDA and sync’ed it, everything ran perfectly, storing the PDA’s data onto the computer.
If I could make the decision over again, what would I do? I’d download the drivers I needed first. Of course, with the Windows 7 Release Candidate, I didn’t need the drivers — that was the whole problem.
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