Windows 7!

The name alone indicates a huge shift for Microsoft, not only in giving up on fancy names or years- going back to the old-school versioning system- but that this may just be lucky number seven for them as well.

And being one of Microsoft’s harshest critics over the years… I have to agree.

I’ve used every popular OS out there, from Windows 3.0 up to Windows 7, Mac from about 6 all the way up to the latest “____”-tiger/leopard/scary cat (whatever they want to call it these days) and even popular open source interface offerings such as KDE, Gnome, xfce and the like.  There are elements I like in each, for sure- but I have to say as far as day to day use for me, Windows 7 is a HUGE win.

Those of you already using Vista will be familiar with the Aero interface- it was a big leap forward for Microsoft to finally get in line with the likes of high-end KDE and Mac OS’s that were rendering windows on the graphics card (go figure).

Microsoft added some features that I absolutely love, such as one click search for everything (try it- Windows key and start typing the name of a program- it’ll usually be there within the first three letters.  Very nice feature).  That and, well- it looked pretty.

The problem was that Vista was essentially grafting the Aero interface onto a very tired NT core, most of the components held over from the last major overhaul in 1999- Windows 2000.

At home, I have a above-average PC- Intel Core 7 (overclocked to over 3Ghz) with a nice ATI Graphics card, 6 GB of DDR3 RAM, three hard drives (the main drive being a 15K SAS monster).  The PC should have been screaming fast…  But it wasn’t.  Vista sucked the life out of this PC, to the point where I was ready to go back to XP.  5-8 minute boot times, crashes and overall slow performance (especially playing games!).

That was bad- but nowhere near as bad as the PC at work.  That PC was an aging but not out of date AMD Athlon X2 system which I knew better than to shut off like… ever.  Boot times were DISMAL- Andrew and I once observed a 30 minute boot time!

But you’re waiting for me to get to the good news, so here goes.

Install

Windows 7’s install is the easiest yet.  I know, we say that every time- but this was an experience that shocked us all.  As my PC was first in the office to get the upgrade, we watched with bated breath… as Windows 7 INSTALLED FASTER THAN VISTA WAS BOOTING!  No joke, no lie.  With a few quick clicks of the mouse, Windows 7 was installed from fresh in under 15 minutes.  Amazing!

We’ll get to overall performance soon enough; let’s talk about the upgrade experience.

Upgrade

Upgrading an Operating System is never as simple as it’s made out to be for the novice.  However, I decided at home that rather than a fresh install, I would ‘risk’ an upgrade.  The upgrade advisor was kind enough to show me that though most drivers I had loaded would already work in Windows 7, I should probably upgrade a few before my big Upgrade!  Nice!  So, new drivers installed I went for it.  Unfortunately I have to report that the upgrade took a good amount of time- probably because I don’t have a small amount of data on my PC at home, and it’s all parsed during the upgrade.

So, about two hours later it was finally done. (If you are thinking of upgrading, I HIGHLY advise you have us do it for you at our shop- we make a complete ‘go-back’ copy of your hard drive in shop, and can much better recover from upgrade errors than you normally could at home!  Plus, we keep the copy of your hard drive secured for up to 1 month in the event something was missed or you want to go back- at no additional charge)

How is the computer running now?

Windows 7 Performance

I’ll get the suspense out of the way right now- Windows 7 unlocks the potential of your PC’s hardware in a big way.  Booting in less than 2 minutes, my PCs at work and home are running faster than ever.  I’m fairly certain, though I haven’t done any practical testing, that the performance is actually better than XP in certain areas.

This is likely because Windows 7 is at it’s core designed for use with multiple processor cores, unlike XP that was deployed in the middle of the “Ghz race”.  Nowadays, CPUs have multiple ‘cores’ instead of running faster and producing more heat.  These multiple cores allow more tasks to be run simultaneously, making the computer ‘feel’ more responsive.

In the month I’ve been running Windows 7 I have yet to have a single failure or blue screen.  Issues I had at home have vanished and the response is crisp.  Video rendering (something that has been important for me since getting an HDD-based camcorder) is slick and MUCH faster than Vista, even though I’m using a program designed for XP.  I look forward to the next version with better ‘multi-core’ programming!

The reason is the way Windows 7 (and Server 2008 R2) was built (which we’ll save that for another article), in summary:  Basically they began with a concept Kernel called MinWin and made a compromise based on application compatibility.  Windows 7 is fast, but I look forward to the day we’ll see MinWin really show it’s colors.  But I believe what makes Windows 7 worth the upgrade is the user experience…

Windows 7 Productivity

Here’s where the rubber meets the road.  Windows 7 allows me to multi-task like never before.  And I’m a huge multi-tasker.  I’ll often have remote sessions with several PCs/Servers, two email clients, multiple web browsers, our billing system, music and who knows what else going all at once.

Windows 7 has a lot of new features that are actually making a difference in my productivity.

For the past several years, I’ve operated with more than one monitor.  For the first time with Windows 7- I now have 4 monitors at my desk at work, and 2 at home.  I’ve just gone from multi-tasking to mega-tasking.  But even with all these monitors, there’s still a need for keeping track of windows in the background and foreground.  Windows 7 has three methods I like, and several more available.

Like Vista, you can hold down the Alt Key and press Tab to display the windows currently running.  This has actually been a feature for years, but Windows 7 puts a whole new spin on it.

Alt + Tab

While holding the Alt key, pressing tab (or using the mouse scroll) will scroll one by one thru the programs running, with a small thumbnail (as seen above).  Windows 7 adds the new feature of actually dimming temporarily everything but the application highlighted, so you can not only switch applications on the fly, but in my case, you’ll know which monitor to look at as well.  For those of you Vista users who dig the shuffle look, Windows+Tab will still show you the running applications in that way.

Another very awesome feature is the re-designed Aero Taskbar.  Gone are the endless arrays of stacked rectangles at the bottom of the screen.  The new taskbar merges a few concepts that have been around since Stardock

introduced Object Dock (which some claim Apple copied with their interface as well) and the Windows 2000/XP QuickLaunch bar.

Very customizable, the new Taskbar has several cool options.  Launch a program, and the icon will appear on the bar with an icon only (by default).  Right click on that icon and you can ‘pin’ it to the taskbar, meaning that you can launch the program from the taskbar directly.

But it doesn’t end there- when a program icon is pinned to the taskbar, whenever it is launched a ‘glass box’ will appear around the icon indicating the program is active.  Mouse over the icon, and directly above it a preview of the active window(s) will appear (Aero Peek).  Move your mouse up to the preview and the screen will dim everything except for that window, letting you know where the window is.  Then click the preview to bring that window into focus!

As far as multi-tasking, this has been a HUGE improvement for me, because I switch in between programs and windows a great deal.  This allows me to always be able to focus my eyes in the same spot to get the information I need- no more taking 5 seconds to read text in the taskbar to find the window I’m looking for- now I’m to where I need in about 1 second.  That may not seem like a big deal, but I know I’m not the only one out there with 8 windows open at once, am I?

Another area that I’m enjoying a good deal in Windows 7 is that the very annoying Red shield icon when windows wants to tell you something is amiss is gone, replaced with a gentle black and white flag.  Click the flag to be reminded of the various things you need to look at (or ignore).

New Taskbar notification options

Speaking of the right hand of the taskbar, a new feature in Windows 7 makes it easier to do something that required a ‘power tool’ in XP- choose which notification icons are hidden.  This is huge for me, because my eyes naturally monitor that area of the screen to notice any issues, etc.  Being able to choose which notifications are ’sticky’ and which ones are not is a big deal for me.

There are several more improvements to productivity I’ve only recently discovered- for example, drag a window to the side, top or bottom of your monitor and you’ll have a queue to be able to maximize or stack the window automatically.  Very cool (but hard to describe- you’ll have to see it to truly appreciate it).

Several other nice features exist, for example, it is very easy to turn off what I call the ‘are you sure you want to be sure about being sure?’ notifications that annoyed people so much in Vista (UAC is what Microsoft calls it).  The system will gently remind you with a shield icon any time you are doing anything that could be used by an attacker to compromise your system.

Hundreds of other improvements including color depth beyond imagination (48 bit), support for ultra-fast solid state drives, and an exciting feature called Compatibility Mode, which we are already making use of at the office.

It’s Windows XP… inside Windows 7!

XP mode is a virtual PC running Windows XP, right inside your Windows 7 desktop.  So any application that can’t run properly on Windows 7, you’ll have the option to install in this virtual PC.  This capability has been around in some respects for about 6 years, however, this is the first time Microsoft has integrated a fully-licensed copy of XP into the product.  That’s right- it’s two PCs in one, but you only pay for the one license.  Further improvements in virtualization technology (developed right here in Fort Collins by AMD, thank you very much) allow for near-seamless performance, which is nice for me because I run the 64 bit Windows 7 which cannot run several old programs.  With XP mode, I just install it and launch from the taskbar- everything just works!  It’s great!  This also makes Windows 7 a good value and a buy in for companies running software that hasn’t yet been certified for running on Windows 7.

But it doesn’t end there- several programs and games that wouldn’t run under Vista will now run under Windows 7!

The bottom line is that you talked, Microsoft Listened.

Is Windows 7 good for me?

This is where it gets awesome- the hardware requirements for Windows 7 are about what they were for Vista, only the difference now is that you can actually USE your computer if you only have the minimum requirements

Odds are very good that if your PC was made in the past 3-4 years, you’ll have no trouble with Windows 7, though I have to say that my first load of the Windows 7 release candidate was actually on a 6 year old Athlon 64 3200 with 1.5GB RAM, and it ran great!

The big question is whether to upgrade or install fresh, and my advice here is to call us at TechSmart for direct advice on your situation- 970-498-0808

We have all had a month or more with Windows 7 so we definitely know it well enough to be honest with you.

An example (DJ's home PC) of the updated Windows 7 Experience Index

The Windows Experience Index has been expanded in Windows 7 to give an even better indicator of how your computer will do with various tasks.  Your lowest score is the index, in my case, to my surprise- is the hard drive.  This tells me that I have some work to do discovering why this is, but it also tells me that my system is well suited for my favorite games, one of which has a required index of 3.3 and a recommended index of 4.1  (I can actually boost my processor and graphics scores up to 7.9 by a process called overclocking, but I haven’t gotten to that part of testing quite yet).

Microsoft has once again put together an assessment tool which will tell you if your computer will handle Windows 7 -learn more here.

So- there you have it, a shining endorsement from a harsh OS critic.  Stay tuned for more articles about Windows 7 and it’s partner Server system, 2008 R2!

Windows 7 is officially available on October 22nd, but can be added for free to select Dell laptops now!  Call us for details.

Remember, call us at TechSmart if you have any questions or want to talk about your upgrade!