Bits Microsoft Windows 7 Review

I've had windows 7 pro rtm 64 bit for a month or so now (college MSDNAA) and i've not had many issues apart from one driver problem at the start (early asus xonar driver stopped 32 bit programs opening...) but apart from that its been great.

 

Doesn't sound like a great deal there for me to move my machines from Vista for.

I would really like to hear about the new media centre though, my HTPC is currently running XP with some flaky software and I would like to move to something else that might be more robust, I have a copy of Win7 at home that I preordered for my netbook because it was supposed to be good and preorder price was cheap, but if it can play Bluray on low end GPU/CPU offloading the processing without purchasing additional software PowerDVD that might convince me to use it there.

I'd also be interested in hearing about tuner support, Windows media wasn't that great when you have more than 2 tuners, I'm looking to add to my current 3 DVBT with a couple of DVB-S2 and would like to know if it can cope.

Oh and my original reason for getting it was that it was supposedly good for netbooks, I'd be interested in knowing if it actually is, as I see it, now I have three options

use win7 on HTPC if its going to be a better experience.
use win7 on netbook if its going to be a better experience.
or sell win7 and stick with my current setup.

Can you install it without using the code like you could Vista, I'm a bit reluctant to open it as I had pretty much decided to sell it on, as early previews pretty much put it at no faster than XP, XP blows on my netbook and have since moved to Linux for that and its much better than XP, after some grief I might add.

 

I can't wait to have a play with it at work tomorrow, all our display laptops should have been updated by then .

 

I had once, few years ago an interesting discussion, an quite a heated one, with one of the computer system administrators.
He was claiming that the new XP is a miracle of OSs, I was saying that it is an evolving in the wrong direction compared to Windows 98 second edition.
Today, all this years after, I'm still of the same opinion.

An OS has only one function, to be an interim layer between the content of a HDD or SSD (hardware;managing software queue) and human; we don't think in electronic manner (binary, at this moment of technology). Dedicated programs are for doing a certain task; Word, Adobe ones, Firefox,....
Vista wanted to be a collection of programs (look at all you can do...) and that was one of the mortal sins of that program.

As far as rumors go, Microsoft is moving away from this approach and toward the ideal; future OS should just manage, allowing the programs direct access to the hardware or functioning as a virtual machine if needed. Not to mention, that an OS should not play the game of enabling hardware producers to be market dominant, and the other way around (X86, Intel).

Hardware is every day more powerful, has new, better solutions; an OS must follow. It's not possible to use the XP and say how great it is; Windows 7 is a far better product; no doubts.

However, it's still a product that does not results from technological dreams.
The sins of monopoly, politics, "rule the world" gone bad dreams, owning the user,.... are still there, even if nicely presented.

 

I don't see why everyone is going on abut W7 and XP having similar performance in games and basic apps...

at the end of the day, the overall responsiveness of W7 is so much better and I would never go back to XP, and if I need to use XP, then I'll just install XP Mode (which gives you a free copy of Windows XP SP3)

Windows 7 is the modern OS, XP is for those pensioners who constantly shout, You kids and your Aston Martins, they aren't anywhere near as good as my ford model T.

Maybe the Ford Model T / XP was more Revolutionary, but the Aston / W7 is a much more comfortable, responsive, and looks a whole lot better!.

 

The good thing about this release is that they got it right the first time! Also have been getting it right a bit lately. Congrats M$.

 

I have it on my netbook, it's much better than xp.

Speed-wise, it's not much different with the benchmarks, but real world responsiveness is much improved. Also, the new start menu and task bar are much more friendly for low resolutions. My work PC has a resolution of 1400x1050 and the start menu still takes up 3 columns when expanded so is a nightmare to use. With Windows7, things are are made a million times easier by allowing you to filter the menu as you type making opening all programs a quick and painless task and means you don't spend ages searching through rows and rows, of columns and columns, of badly organised programs. Also, the fact that the taskbar groups all programs behind the same quick launch icon means that you don't struggle to see what programs are open if you like to have a number of things open. I've not tried it, but looking at the task bar, I reckon you could get at least 20 different programs + multiple instances of each, before the full width is reached - even more if you use 'small icons' rather than the standard... not that you'd want to on a netbook!

I'm not convinced by the starter version of the os simply due to the 3 program limit. If I'm not mistaken, each tab in chrome is technically a different process, does that mean that you're limited to 3 tabs?! Or assuming you listen to music and have an email client open, 1 tab?!?! That would suck.

 

Hrm, a list of W7 goodness that I care about...

Multi-threading kernel - stuff runs faster / as fast on xp currently...
Better multi-tasking UI - no, alt tab is still alt tab, more shiny != faster
64-bit - YES, oh wait no, xp pro
Bigger memory footprint support, err same as above?
Direct compute, see multi threading
DX11, yay for dx11, cos dx10 really rocked my world man! ...
Native AVCHD support in MCE/Media Centre, like... go away quicktime, but use showcase anyways?
TRIM and SSD support, finally
More efficient Windows update method, meh - i quite like the update website myself
Better driver - kernel relationship (think "this driver stopped responding" rather than bluescreen), woot!
Better handling of hardware in general, cant say Ive noticed
Better RAID support (through additional driver/software support like Intel Matrix RAID however), meh
Generally better networking (wireless notably), yay!
Library functionality, cool for 5 mins, then I just windows + e and organise my folders logically
Quick access directories from the taskbar, see library functionality, with a bit more enthusiasm
Windows docking, whating?
Improved multi-monitor support , windows + multi gpu + folding?

Ive been dual booting it with xp pro and gOS for ages and ages, and I havent felt the need to reinstall stuff under W7. I honestly cant see what all the fuss is about, also a bit grumpy that 'stuff' isnt faster in W7 than XP - it just seems like faster hardware has allowed them to put more fluff around a couple of nice upgrades without improving outright speed.

^that list is better than the article, btw

edit: dual boot list should obviously read gos, xp, w7

 

here's a nab question, I'm running Vista 64 Ultimate at home now - if I want to upgrade to Win 7 do i need to do a reinstall of everything on my HD? Or can it install on top of Vista? I thought I read somewhere that if I get 7Ultimate that it could install without loss of data on my HD.

(BTW - been running RC for a while and am like everyone else, I love it)

 

There's a really great program I've found for that, and it supports Windows 7's UI and all, it's called DisplayFusion and it's actually quite cheap (20$).


Anyways, on topic, good review, and I agree that going from Win7 to Vista/XP creates withdrawal symptoms

 

I have 7 on my HTPC and its fantastic (with mediabrowser plugin)

 

Key word, I think, is currently. Close to real-time video transcoding sounds nice to me... dunno about you.

Who mentioned alt+tab? I don't see it mentioned anywhere in that respect. The better UI is more about the way the taskbar organises stuff. The way you preview windows, the way you find stuff much quicker via desktop search, the way everything is much more responsive.

We'll see.

 

*EDIT*


At least Tim S has sence...

 

I can do that with free software right now - doesn't mean it's going to be any good.

This is what I'm talking about. Good god, is that really all they've got to shout about? They aren't doing anything tremendously significant here.

And oh, yes. Improved multimonitor support. You mean that multimonitor support that they completely screwed in Vista? That multimonitor support that we've had for years and years in XP? Sorry, but un****ing something you previously ****ed is not progress.

P

 

He has sense, too.

 

Been using win 7 for months now. My machine was dual booting vista 64 and XP, and I basically went back to XP, it now dual boots win 7 64 and XP and I now use win 7. Would still keep my XP boot however - covers any old software that gets on badly with win 7 and any old devices (e.g. USB widgets with no 64 bit driver).

 

Isn't that what the Desktop is for? Or has that been reduced to pure picturebackground and gadget-area?

Finally a good use of widescreen monitors, bravo! Looking forward to this!

Sad, (for me) an absolute pain-in-the-butt with vista not solved (why not optional?)

I'm also not sure about the new start menu...large icons, if you have many, you resort to SCROLLING and they seem to shift dynamically. Also boo that there seems to be no way to use the XP (well win2000 really) style startmenu

But all in all: Vista's kept me at XP, this will go onto my new computer.

 

Your opinion has been noted, thank you.

 

The start menu scrolls? After bringing the start menu up, I just type the first three/four letters of the app I'm looking for and press enter. No need to scroll.

 

Actually there is.. you just click on the path at the top, the directories in the explorer address bar turn into clickable buttons, and they also have dropdowns to allow rapid-switch to another directory.

Example: