The overall look of Windows 7 may seem to be a polished Vista theme, but make no mistake: this is a full replacement operating system, and more than just “Vista done right.” Features like driver support and battery management, Windows 7 is a far cry from a Vista Knock-off.
In my mind, Microsoft dug itself a hole with Vista. Microsoft was bombarded by complaints even after the first service pack was released, so they had to set the bar high for the Vista successor: Windows 7.
Microsoft is offering six versions of Windows 7: Starter, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, OEM, and Enterprise. The three versions promoted most heavily are Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate, although Starter will also be available to consumers.
Windows 7 will support both 32-bit and 64-bit systems. The bare minimum requirements for the 32-bit include a 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB available hard-disk space, and a DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver. 64-bit systems will require at least a 1 GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 20GB of free space on your hard drive, and a DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver.
Microsoft is offering several paths to install Windows 7. People can buy a new computer with the operating system already installed, upgrade from Windows XP or Vista, or do a clean install on a computer the user already owns. The clean installation took us about 30 minutes, but that will vary depending on your computer.
Some of the features that stand out include are the taskbar, media player, and security.
The taskbar is one of the best improvements Microsoft has made. Jump lists are another new taskbar improvement that make recently opened documents easier to get to. Right-click or left-click and drag on any program icon pinned to the taskbar to see a list of files that you’ve recently used in that program.
One of the biggest new features makes Windows Media Player useful again: you can now stream media files from one Windows 7 computer to another, across the Internet and out of network. Even better, the setup procedure is dead simple.
User Account Control, or UAC, is back in Windows 7. Microsoft has tweaked the feature so that it’s less intrusive, but it’s not clear whether that means you’re actually more or less secure than you were in Vista. UAC was one of the biggest changes in Vista. It tightened program access, but did it in such a way as to frustrate many owners of single-user computers. Windows 7 provides more options for user customization of UAC.
Windows 7 looks like the operating system that both Microsoft and its consumers have been waiting for. By fixing most of the perceived and real problems in Vista, Microsoft has laid the groundwork for the future of where Windows will go. Windows 7 presents a stable platform that can compete comfortably with OS X, while reassuring the world that Microsoft can still turn out a strong, useful operating system.
