Windows 7: A Worthy Upgrade

CBS News Technology Analyst Larry Magid Rates Microsoft's New Operating System After Extensive Testing

(CBS)  Starting Oct. 22, PC users can get their hands on the official release of Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 7.

I've been beta testing various pre-release versions of Windows 7 for several months, and I was given a copy of the final "release to manufacturer" (RTM) code, which, barring any unforeseen changes, should be identical to what customers can purchase in October.

Based on what I've experienced up to this final version, I have to say that this is a worthwhile upgrade - whether you are using Windows XP or Windows Vista.

Windows Vista has gotten - justified or not - plenty of bad press, but I don't expect that to happen with Windows 7. For one thing, when Vista came out, a lot of the hardware out there wasn't powerful enough to run it well. Another issue is compatibility. Microsoft fielded many complaints about programs and devices not working well with Vista. Based on what I've seen, Windows 7 should have a lot fewer hardware and compatibility issues.

Vista users will be able to upgrade their machines to Windows 7 without having to re-install their applications. XP users can also upgrade but will have to re-install all their programs. In both cases, Windows 7 will preserve their data files. However, it's strongly recommended to back up data, since there's a significant risk of losing data during the new OS installation. Microsoft is offering a free "Upgrade Advisor" that you can use to see if your computer can run Windows 7.

My favorite Windows 7 feature is the new taskbar at the bottom of the screen which lets you "pin" programs to it for easy access. If a program isn't running, single clicking on its taskbar icon starts it. Once running, you can hover over its icon to see thumbnails of all open windows. If you hover over a thumbnail, you see a full-screen preview of the window and if you click on it, it jumps to the foreground. You can right click on any taskbar icon to see a list of files recently used by that program and click on any you wish to open.

If you're using the Internet Explorer 8 browser, you can click on its icon to preview all open tabs. I like this feature so much that I've switched to Internet Explorer from Firefox.

Windows 7 makes it easier to install and manage devices such as printers, scanners and remote drives. I actually forgot about installing my printer but Windows did it for me automatically.

Windows 7 also has features for touch-screen PCs, including tablet PCs. The feature makes Windows 7 machines feel like an iPod. For example, you'll be able to pinch your fingers to zoom images or windows in or out.

The most confusing aspect of Windows 7 is the number of versions out there. Microsoft is releasing a Starter version, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate - as well as versions for PC makers (OEM) and large enterprises. There are both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Most machines you buy with Vista now can be upgraded to Windows 7 for free. Amazon is now taking pre-orders for various flavors of Windows 7 starting at $120 for the Home Premium upgrade edition. However, I recommend shopping around closer to the Oct. 22 release date.

[dorkazoid2]

Earlier this year I was also a beta tester for windows 7 and guess what? Many of the vista bugs/flaws/issues that microsoft might call "undocumented features" well, they have not been fixed!

The test machine was a 10 year old Dell PC, 800 Mhz Pentium 3 with 512mb of Rambus memory. With 2gb of ready boost, W7 did run faster than I expected on such an old machine.

I have been using microsoft os's since DOS and the earliest versions of windows. W7 is the least intuitive, and ugliest out of the box. I wasn't able to spend much time customizing the interface because I was too busy trying to deal with bugs that affected functionality.

Put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig. Repackage Vista and give it a new name and GUI, on the inside it's still Vista.

Do you think Microsoft would do the right thing and offer W7 as a free service pack for Vista victims? HAHA.

My advice is....don't bother with the upgrade unless you can get it free. Or better yet, switch to MAC or Linux.

[lluchik1970]

I downloaded the new version of Windows 7, it is a harder windows to understand than it was for Vista. This is going to be taking some time to understand and I hope that I can find software to download at stores that I could not do with Vista. But I guess we have to go with the times in order to have the computers run like they should

[rwsmith29456]

My beefs with Vista are too numerous for any tester to name in an article of this size. I don't want touch screen. First I want a reliable OS that will do what I ask it to when I ask it and not degrade itself in the process, accumulating small errors that in 6 months make your machine unusable. Microsoft products have almost invariably needed fixing as soon as they are installed. They are like chain saws. You can cut like crazy but end up spending as much time tinkering on them as you do cutting. My next computer will be an Apple.

[Scimajor]

Firstly, I like Microsoft products. Vista, however, proved to be troublesome in that some of my devices failed to be compatible (e.g. My Sony DVD digital Camcorder, my usb bluetooth device). Additionally, I am frustrated at how slowly Vista loads and how Microsoft has tried to make the software idiot proof while in the process making it annoying to use for people who know what they are doing.

Interestingly enough, I do have some software that runs FASTER on Vista. Go figure.

We've seen Windows quality ebb and flow before.

Windows 3.1 - Great.
Windows 95 - Not bad
Windows 98 - Very nice.
Windows Me - Disastrous
Windows 2000 - Ok but serious compatibility issues.
Windows XP - Fabulous!
Windows Vista - Better to stay with XP (See above)
Windows 7 - Who knows?

To be completely honest I would switch to Apple except for three things:

1. Computers are WAY too expensive in comparison to those running Windows. WAY TOO EXPENSIVE (good luck getting a Mac for less than $1000 while plenty of good PC's are available for 1/3rd the price).
2. I'd have to repurchase my prized Adobe software(e.g. Photoshop and After Effects which is rather expensive but a must have. )
3. A great many of the programs I like to use are simply not available for Apple computers or get released many months (or even years) after the PC release. Forget even about the emulators as they work well for a VERY narrow band of applications.

[rwsmith29456]

Didnn't they sell a Windows version 3 before 3.1 that was unusable.

[socaldude2]

Microsoft lost me as a customer after I actually paid money for Vista. Because of Vista, I'm now a Mac User.

[barbaram99]

I like Brian's posts. He is in the know, I have used XP Home. I found that MS Sam was harder to understand and that plamform lacks in the sp needs. Vista uses MS Anna. I had to go on Dell's site to get this.
Windows 7 upgrage
Min processor type 1 GHz
Min RAM 1 GB
Min hard drive space 16 GB
Mind ye I am just a home user.
It is DVD-ROM.
I am using an old Dell Notebook that was running XP Home and the RAM,hard drive and the Vista platform I had upgraded.
If running a 32 bit OS I would say 2 GB of RAM.

[veils-2009]

Why is a reporter, whose knowledge of the Windows operating system is limited to double clicking icons to launch office applications, writing a review about the New Windows operating system. Heck, this reporter is not just a non-geek, he is almost anti-geek. I bet he never typed a command line in his life.

Get a real technically knowledgeable person to review Win 7 and then try again.

This Article is FAIL!

[kenhamlett]

I have a great upgrade as an alternative. Simply do not install Service Pack 3 to Xp and you will once again have a margially acceptable operating system. SP3 actually slowed down my system (especially disk access). One has to wonder if this was a purposeful change to make people feel they had gained something by changing over to Vista? As it turned out, Microsoft went back to its slopshod ways of faking innovation and many people could not tolerate Vista long enough to find out.
Oddly with the new processors out there able to make use of multithreaded applications, it looks like it is time for IBM to think about releasing OS/2 again. (It is the master of multithreading). When it comes to multithreading, Microsoft does not have a clue.
Enjoy Win7 folks, if you can.

[brianbwb-2009]

Even better, we need to do an "eminent domain" and take XP64 into the public domain, since MS no longer sells or services it, and we will have a 64 bit environment for our 64-bit machines that can become a standard, without driver signing and other shakedowns.

We can even strip it to the bare essentials for running our machines, without all the bloat that you are forced to install with the current OS-es.

[taxedmore]

I went to the Update Advisor page to see how much RAM I would need to run Windows 7. It's a Microsoft page so of course it doesn't even give the most basic info and doesn't list minimum RAM or hard drive info. This is the support I expect from Microsoft. I cannot take more of Microsoft's stupid versions of "help" or "support". My next computer (soon) is going to be my first MAC. I have suffered through Crashing Windows 3.1, Crashing Windows ME and now have Crashing Windows XP.

[jschamberlin]

Or just download a copy of Ubuntu Linux and load it on your current PC - cheaper alternative to the MAC or Windows....

[brianbwb-2009]

This reads like a paid ad for Microsoft.

Since Mr. Magid seems like the person who only uses Windows for office work and net surfing, i will provide, free of charge, an addition to his article.

If you are a professional audio/video producer, who uses a PC as your production facility, you should know the following.

Some manufacturers of the very expensive pro audio, and pro video processing equipment and software used to input and process data on your machine will no longer work. The companies simply refused to pay Microsoft the shakedown money required for MS to "sign" the hardware drivers, and MS OS-es from vista onward will not load unsigned drivers.
This monopolistic, almost racketeering behavior by MS should be investigated, as it threatens vital infrastructure for the American economy.

As a result, your $1,000+ audio interface, including your $10,000+ Pro tools studio software/hardware combination, will become useless. It is also unwise to expect companies to spend millions writing and signing new versions of software, only to have MS move the goalposts before their investment can be recovered, as a result, many manufacturers are simply refusing to chase MS, There is a website, Rain recording, that lists audio software with a compatibility chart. One look will show you just how many populer apps and hardware will become useless should you try to use it on Windows Vista 32, 64, and by default of Vista compatibility, Windows 7.

Many software audio studios and virtual instruments, some costing $1,000 and more, have begun to use USB dongles in order to protect against software piracy. The fact that Win/Vista/7 has serious compatibility issues with the drivers for such dongles will render your investment, which can equal the price of a new car, absolutely useless.

Also MS' decision to abandon compatibility with DirectX means that many DX-based virtual instruments and effects (for example the $2,500 Wave Arts DSP suite) will no longer function under the new OS. Kiss that substantial investment goodbye.

Admittedly, the professional level "power user" of PC soft-and-hardware can be considered a niche market, but when one considers the nature of the niche, the professional audio/video industry, encompassing music, movies, and graphic art, it is a niche that MS will ignore at it's own peril. The "let them eat cake" attitude of Microsoft reflects the similar attitude prevalent throughout the current economic "trickle down" zeitgeist, and will very soon come back to bite its adherents.

In short, Windows 7, as was the disaster called Vista, is a non-starter for anyone using the PC to do anything more advanced than office work, net surfing, or a decreasing number of games.

If you are an audio producer, or video producer, or even a laboratory researcher in the fields of medicine, for a few examples, my advice is not to allow Windows Vista, or Windows 7 within 100 yards of your computer. Run, don't walk, from any PC system with Windows Vista, or Windows 7 pre-installed, as you will have to pay yet again to "downgrade" your machine to Windows XP.

Can I have Mr. Magid's job?

[rf35]

Can I have Mr. Magid's job?

Yes, but first you have to paste a dead gerbil to your upper lip.

[rf35]

Yes, but does it still ask stupid questions every time you try to do anything more basic that opening an app?

[brianbwb-2009]

To thesevenveils

You say that the driver issue is a fault of the manufacturers, I disagree.

It is 100% MS fault, and I will explain my conclusion.

Suppose you are a big peripheral hardware manufacturer, your form spent X millions of dollars writing drivers for your hardware, tested, and got it right for Win XP. No prob so far, right?

Then word comes that MS is releasing XP64, to take advantage of the current state of processors and memory. You haven't yet recovered the ROI for the previous drivers, but logic says you have to recode for XP64. Ok, no choice, commit the extra bucks, and go ahead.

But before the new drivers are finished, MS announces a new OS, called Vista, they will no longer support XP64, and there will have to be new drivers all around, because of the different kernel.

Not wanting to get burned again, you wait until the product comes out, to see what is up.

Ouch, not acceptable by the masses, too many bugs, too many complaints, requires an expensive (at the time) graphics card upgrade. OK, wait for it to become stable.

Oh yeah, there is also that new little problem about the new OS not loading "signed drivers".

Q: What is a signed driver, you ask?

A: Well it is your driver, plus a fee paid to Microsoft for a script that tells the OS it works.

Q: What is the fee for?

A: Just so MS will say your drivers work.

Q: Of course they work, why would we create drivers that don't work?

A: Because if you don't pay the fee, windows will not load your drivers.

A few bug fixes later, it still doesn't have mass acceptance, a few of the major computer sellers, Compaq, HP, and dell, start offering free downgrades to XP from vista, man that sux, but since they insist that it is the future, we gotta spend the bux.

So you again commit the big bux to develop drivers, and pay the shakedown fee to MS for Vista, 32 and 64, even though you have this sinking feeling in your gut, and your profit statement.

Your drivers are finished, you are finished beta testing them, and have paid MS for the driver signing, and after they cash your check, and so...

Bing! They announce yet another OS, which is "compatible internally with Vista, except for it requires a rewrite of the code in your drivers, and a new fee for driver signing.

Now that is for the big boys, if you are a small firm, they lost you after XP64.

Like you said, "there is a lot of nice hardware going into the recycle bin because of this".

Why is it that none of these greedy expletives consider that most average consumers cannot afford to have their substantial investment turned to garbage? From where, in this time of layoffs and shrinking economics, does anyone have the ability to trash hundreds of dollars, for components that still function under XP?

This is the "let them eat cake" attitude to which I refer in my post below.

Yes it is entirely MS' fault, they should be broken up as a dangerous monopoly, and investigated for this driver signing issue which otherwise would be called racketeering.