Windows 7 REVIEW
Next week will usher in a new chapter of Microsoft’s history. The Redmond based software giant will officially be releasing Windows 7 to the masses in a variety of flavors including a “Starter Edition” for netbooks all the way up to the Pro version which comes with such bells and whistles as 256-bit encryption (BitLocker) and the ability to switch between multiple languages.
Being “a PC” I’ve used every Windows OS since Windows 3.0. That said you can expect that I’ve seen the best (Windows XP) and worse (Windows ME) of the OS. Windows 7 (logically the seventh major irritation of the operating system) promises to bring new features to the table as well as dispel any bad taste that Vista might have left in users mouths.
Beta testing Windows 7 since March of this year (2009), I have kept close watch to performance issues as well as comparisons to Vista. In fact I’ve been dual booting Vista Home Premium/Windows 7 Ultimate on the same machine and have been able to do extensive testing as well as side by side comparisons.
The system I’ve been reviewing the operating system on is a Dell Studio XPS 13 system which has 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 320GB HDD, Wifi, Bluetooth, Core 2 Duo Processor, NVIDIA GeForce 9400 Graphics, and such extras as backlit keyboard, webcam etc. The system currently retails for $1,300 new. That said, lets get into the review and you can find out whether or not it is good for you to upgrade.
UI
While Vista did not bring a radical UI change to the table, Windows 7 did. Although it still speaks 100% Windows it has involved into a more transparent, glossy design compared with that of Vista.
While all the elements are in the same place, things have been spiced up a bit. For instance the taskbar (probably the biggest redesigned element) now has the option for just icons. More importantly almost anything can be dragged the taskbar. If there is a favorite program, document, picture etc. that you want instant access to, you can just drag it to the taskbar and it will be pinned there. Its easy to tell which icons on the taskbar are open, as you can see from the photo above, open icons are embossed.
Another great improvement to the taskbar is the multiple instances of the same window are grouped. This means that if you have 6 IE8 windows open or 4 Windows Live Messenger conversations opened, they are all grouped and you can see them by hovering over the icon.
For those familiar with the Mac OS operating system this might remind you of something close to the Dock on OSX Leopard or Snow Leopard. For those still stuck in the old ways you can always revert to the classical Start menu set up.
Another improvement is the widgets section. When Desktop Widgets were introduced in Windows Vista the sidebar was present. While widgets have still not caught on either Mac or Windows, Microsoft has brought them back in Windows 7. But the improvement is the troublesome SideBar is gone. Thus widgets free float on your desktop and can be arraigned anyway you like.
As I mentioned before, the UI has become more transparent. Navigation has also been improved. The clumsy “Show Desktop” button of Vista has been replaced with a much better option. To the very right of the taskbar is a tiny vertical rectangle that if hovered over shows the desktop with the maximized windows outline shown. Clicking on the same rectangle brings up the desktop and minimizes everything else. Clicking it a second time snaps back to all maximized windows. A neat trick? Yes! Useful? Yes!
Other UI improvements include updated wallpaper collection. Also wallpapers can be set to change at time intervals and themes can be created on the fly by right clicking on the desktop and choosing the “Personalize” option.
PERFORMANCE
One of the biggest questions people have about Windows 7 is does it improve performance issues created by Vista. Personally I have never had a problem with any of the irritations of Vista. More importantly I am yet to talk to someone who had the horrible cases many tech blogs and news outlets reported. But I will say it did hug memory.
That however has changed with Windows 7. With the code rewritten from ground up, Microsoft has been able to lessen boot times, installation etc. More importantly, the aero effects are no longer way heavily on the CPU and thus it is freed up for more meaningful tasks.
While performance will differ widely based on system specs, I have heard of cases of people installing Windows 7 on 6 year old machines and getting darn good results. While I wouldn’t advise this unless you know what you’re doing, it just goes to show that Windows 7 is more streamlined then Vista.
So it’s fast then Vista, but what about XP? XP was one of my favorite OS before Vista, and talking to any XP user, they can tell you that XP speaks speed. Doing boot tests on Windows 7 systems and XP Professional systems I haven’t found that much difference in speed. Boot times are about the same though in Windows 7 the it is a bit faster, encoding, decoding MP3 files are about the same also and not to mention 3D graphics rendering which is much better in Windows 7 thanks to Direct X 11.
To sum up the state of performance yes there is an increase. Is it a big improvement over Vista? Well only if your system wasn’t able to handle the Vista requirements. All in all you will find improvement upgrades but its not radically different from XP.
CONCLUSION
So the question remains, whether or not you should go with Windows 7. Well it all depends. With Vista currently in SP2 it has matured into a stable operating system. That said, if you are planning to upgrade from XP there is no doubt that Windows 7 will be the best choice here. But if you have Vista and its working fine, don’t fix what isn’t broke. However I wouldn’t discourage upgrading, from Vista as I have done the same.
Buying a new system? The choice is a no brainer, Windows 7 all the way.
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