Windows 7 Review

Windows 7 Review:

- Introduction
- Installation
- Features
- Conclusion

Introduction

Hello, well having owned and used windows XP/Vista and nowWindows 7, I have some knowledge of Microsoft operating systems.

First off, XP was the first operating systemwhich brought out new looks, and new features, many people still prefer this operating system to any other.

Then there was Vista, heavily criticized for its incompatibility with drivers and programs and being very slow and demanding on older computers. Although it looked great and “Aero” was a new feature, it was very slow and many users reverted back to XP.

Now there is Windows 7, a new operating system promised by Windows to make people’s lives much easier on the computer. And with faster start-ups (Microsoft claims) and a fresher feel, people may think this the best operating system by Microsoft.

If people think, what on earth is this? Well, every computer needs “something” so you can run it, go on the internet etc. These are “Operating Systems” often known as “OS’s”. Microsoft is the leading company which produce these, and are used a lot in schools and businesses. However Apple’s OS X, for Macs is slowly gaining popularity. Owners claim it is far easier to use and looks nicer. Then there are the open source operating systems which are free. Linux is the main one, and Ubuntu is one of the most used, and of course free.

Introduction Continued

Well, let’s start off with my experiences. I grew up on a “Tiny” (it’s a make) Computer, which ran Windows 95. Its hard drive capacity was 4Gb, which you look at now is rather small. I have a 4GB memory card in my phone which is about 3mm by 4mm. It costs around £10! It was pretty slow, I installed games and stuff, and started to enjoy the likes of computers.

Then my father purchased a new computer with Windows XP, this is the computer which I spent most of my time on, and where I found my liking for computers. I’ve never really had many problems with XP apart from the occasional Blue Screen of Death,

and odd freeze. I was then passed down an old laptop which had XP on it, and I wiped it clean and started fresh every couple of week’s ad it was slow (1.3ghz intel Celeron, 512mb ram), however I spent alot of time trying to make XP faster, installing registry cleaners etc. I found my liking towards computers even more.

I was then treated to a new laptop as a very early Christmas present (Dell M1530, 2.5Ghz dual core, 4GB ram, nVidia 256mb 8600m gt graphics, and 250gb HD) Which came with Vista. Vista had been out for a while at this point and I downloaded and installed service pack one. I never really had any major problems with Vista, the main problems other people had were incompatible drivers and software and hardware. Seeing as my laptop came with Vista, I had no compatibility problems whatsoever. The other problem people had was how slow it went. Seeing as my laptop was worth around £999 (I got it cheaper with Dell deals etc.) it was pretty damn fast. So in my personal experiences I never had any problems. This was the laptop which I trialled programs, virtual machines (that’s another review ) and dual and triple booted, I also made sure I had 2 partitions to separate files from the operating system. This increased my love for computers (yes I’m a geek :p ). I really enjoyed Vista and was happy to keep it. Yes it got slow after installing many games and programs, but I just reformatted it a few times!

Video shows My new and Old laptop Racing (geek)

I decided one day I would dual boot my laptop, which basically means you get a choice of which operating system you want to go on when you turn it on, each operating system worked independently, you could install games on the XP partition and it wouldn’t affect the Vista side.

I repartitioned my Hard-Drive so I had 3 Partitions, 30GB for Vista 25GB for XP and 195GB for my multimedia drive which had all my info on it. I installed XP onto the XP partition I made (took a few attempts but got it to work) and was pleased with my achievement. I followed a guide on the internet which was risky but I thought it was worth it. By now I had made my own website (theTechLife.co.uk) which didn’t help my popularity at school. I was classed as a geek! However I know for sure computers will become a very large part of life in the future. So better get used to it now eh?
I now use the Vista partition for school work, and general programs. Then I use XP for all the games I install and programs I want to trial. This works great as I can use my laptop to its full potential but not slow down my Vista side. As you could expect, the Vista side was originally slower to boot and run (45-55 seconds to boot) and XP (30-40seconds to boot). But the XP side slowly got slower (hah).

Installation

And this brings it nicely to Windows 7!

Having noticed the release of Windows 7 just before Christmas. I set a task to be the first on YouTube with a triple boot of XP VISTA and 7. (which is sad, however I achieved my goal!) Not really caring about the operating system itself. But getting close to the download day, I came aware of the features. The download was 2.5GB (I paid my dad £2.50 as we get charged £1 for every Gb over our 10GB monthly download limit..) I burned it to a DVD, and installed it on my 4th partition of 25GB.

I’m an amateur reviewer, so I will just speak about my experiences so far. The download and the instalment of “7” was very simple. It had a VERY similar install look as Vista, which is a slight disappointment, already I could see a very similar shell to Vista, which essentially Windows 7 is. Once installed, I installed my anti-virus, iTunes, Firefox, Dreamweaver, Filezilla, and Word. Which I had no problems with at all. I then installed the “Windows Live Essentials” which is basically, Msn, MovieMaker, photo viewer and Blog writer. All a separate and free download to free the initial install of “7” from clutter which many users will not use. The Live essentials are pretty good I must say, MSN has a new look and so does the movie maker (however it seemed very stripped of some components it had! But it’s still in beta).

Features Part 1 (click pictures to see full screen!)

Then I started looking at the features of Windows 7. It still has the Aero look, with transparent windows and taskbar. However the taskbar has a completely new look, design and feel. Instead of the windows minimizing and having the name of the program you are running, it has been replaced with big easy to see icons of the program. This is suspiciously similar to the Apple Mac’s Toolbar!

If there is many of the same program running (for e.g 6 word documents) there is a ridge which shows there are more.

When  you highlight the icons the windows preview thumbnail appears again (like Vista), but if you highlight over the thumbnail you want to see, the other windows disappear into a see through window so you can see the window you are previewing, which is a cool neat design I guess. Also a feature called AERO SHAKE, where you shake the window you are viewing and all the other windows collapse. Pointless in my opinion but then again smooth and fresh.

Before:

After: (click images to see fullsize)

Then you can add shortcuts to the bar for easy access. But is slightly distracting as it’s quite difficult to tell if the shortcut is an open window, or just a shortcut. The only way you can tell if it’s open is that there is a slight box around the outside. I guess this is for the future, as computers will be so fast, hitting the shortcut or the window would just be the same time, so are integrated together (if you get me ).

Then there is the features of the Windows when in a small window, to maximise you just need to drag the window to the top of the screen and it fills the screen, then to make a small window again, just drag out again.

Windows XP mode (Updated build 7100)

Windows XP mode is a virtual computer built into Windows 7 read here more about this.

Personalising the desktop is similar to vista, now you can have a slideshow of images as the background, different set themes. Also changing default sounds seems easier.

The preset images are nice as usual. My favourite is the mountain background! Screensavers are the same, and is found by right clicking and pressing “Personalise”.

Transferring files is very similar to Vista. Howver in the task bar is a mini preview of the percent of the file transferred, yet another small feature!

Searching is very similar to Vista, I always loved the quick search in the start menu, now when you search the whole start bar turns into the search giving more space for the results.

Winflip the feature from Vista where you press the Windows Key + Tab to get a cool window sliding through all open windows.

Along with the features I’ve explained, there are more small features:

New improved..
Network locator
UAC (less annoying popups!)
Sidebar on windows, with favourites.
Gadgets, can be placed anywhere now
Notification Area, pops up instead of coming from taskbar
Turn On Times (up to 10% Faster!)
Touchscreen Facilities (good, but not many people have touchscreens yet…)

Conclusion

Windows 7 brings a smoother fresher look to microsoft operating systems, they have incorporated some great new features, and remember I’m only reviewing the beta version, so many more features could be added in the future.

But in a nutshell, Windows 7 is just the shell of vista with some shiny new tweaks, not a great deal has been modified. If I were to pay the huge amount of money OS’s cost, I would expect a bit more than what Windows 7 offers. Don’t get me wrong, it is great, it’s smooth but the version I’m using is free, and I won’t be prepared to pay full price in August when this runs out!

I have done a Youtube video which points out ALL of the features which I have looked at, make sure you watch it!:

Thanks alot for reading my brief review of Windows 7 Beta!

And Here is My Video of the Review… (make sure you subscribe )

If you enjoyed this review, found it useful or need advice about windows 7 please contact me at:

david@thetechlife.co.uk