Windows 7 Pros & Cons.

To the geeks running / testing Windows 7.
I would appreciate your considered views on the new OS, pros & cons.
From a mere Vista mortal.

 

[truthkid]

I've been using it for about a week now, and I haven't seen any life changing features. The handy one I've noticed is default printers can be bound to a network, so say you use your computer at home and in the office, the OS is smart enough to know "I'm on the office network, default printer is the office printer." It's got plenty of useless GUI changes that you can see in screen shots, and some like shake where you click and hold the title bar, shake the window and it minimizes. Woopie! On my notebook that runs vista flawlessly, 7 doesn't show any speed improvement. On my bosses Eee PC it runs a lot better then vista, so I imagine the low end PCs will benefit the most from the 7 upgrade. I actually have to keep checking MS's list of features because I really don't notice what the excitement is about.

 

[garysgold]

I have been using the various builds since pre beta. There are many things to like about 7. Many of these changes are 'under the hood' so to speak. Better security, better use of ram. I like the new taskbar, and Libraries have made things much easier for me. I'm not much for Aero shake, but Aero snap is great. If you want to find out what's going on check out the sister site, Windows 7 Forums.

Gary

 

[truthkid]

I can see libraries being useful, but I have my own organizational system that I have no problem finding my stuff. Just curious, what security features have you found better?

 

[shawngee]

I've been using it for about a week now, and I haven't seen any life changing features. The handy one I've noticed is default printers can be bound to a network, so say you use your computer at home and in the office, the OS is smart enough to know "I'm on the office network, default printer is the office printer." It's got plenty of useless GUI changes that you can see in screen shots, and some like shake where you click and hold the title bar, shake the window and it minimizes. Woopie! On my notebook that runs vista flawlessly, 7 doesn't show any speed improvement. On my bosses Eee PC it runs a lot better then vista, so I imagine the low end PCs will benefit the most from the 7 upgrade. I actually have to keep checking MS's list of features because I really don't notice what the excitement is about.

Did you notice that it uses the resources of xp? But gives you vista type features that actually work without errors? All pc users benefit when the resources of a operating system are reduced allowing us to do more. Vista was a step in the right direction but the kernel they built on was trash. Windows 7 is the future of Microsoft and its about time. Furthermore to answer your question of what the excitement is about, the low resources and the ability to have a operating system that doesn't have issues all the time allowing us to be more productive.

 

[SIW2]

Hi Shawngee,

Can you be more specific about what you mean by it uses the resources of XP?

 

[shawngee]

Ofcourse the main failing of Vista was that it required such high system resources
IE: Processor speed, amount of ram
Vista was sometimes marketed with 1gb or 2gb of ram which was a very bad idea for such a resource hungry operating system such as it is. I have been testing Windows 7 for a while now and have found that it uses a fraction of the resources that Vista does. That is not the only upside since i have been testing it i have not had one issue with it. Now when i got Vista on my brand new Sony i had serious problems with it. I just got a new Asus laptop with Vista 64 bit and even with sp2 it still has issues when preforming simple tasks. The kernel vista was constructed on was a pos to be completely frank, also it was rushed into the market instead of going back to square one like they they should have and have done with Windows 7.


Ever asked yourself why they put xp on most netbooks? Well Windows 7 is bringing us back to that. Lets just hope they dont screw it up on the way out the door lol.

 

[SIW2]

I ask because I see no difference in speed or performance between Vista SP2 x64 and the various builds of 7 on my machine.

I cannot identify any lower resource usage - except perhaps a bit less disk space.

I am not using any exotic components - then again, I am not using a laptop , either.

Precisely which resources can you see it using less of?

 

[shawngee]

It is able to run properly on a single core processor with lower specs. Also it can run fine on 1gb of ram without slowing to a crawl like vista does. Do you monitor the use of your processor/cores and ram/virtual ram all the time? Also have you tested it using vmware to give you a better look since you can restrict resources?

 

[shawngee]

Also just to let you know i am not a Vista hater, i am actually one of those guys that stood up for Vista. I find Vista was a good step in the right direction but the step could have been better. I feel that Windows 7 is that step and about time.

 

[SIW2]

On my machine , there is no difference in speed or performance , or , as far as I can tell, any noticeably lower use of resources.

I haven't tested it on VMware - I have casually observed processor and Ram usage and do not notice much difference.

I suspect it doesn't outperform Vista on the kind of machine Vista was made for.

It may well do better on lower spec machines - that is what 7 was made for.

No surprise that many don't see what the hysterical reaction is about.

 

[truthkid]

It is able to run properly on a single core processor with lower specs. Also it can run fine on 1gb of ram without slowing to a crawl like vista does. Do you monitor the use of your processor/cores and ram/virtual ram all the time? Also have you tested it using vmware to give you a better look since you can restrict resources?

I primarily run 7 in a virtual machine, as I couldn't justify letting it keep it's own partition and dual booting. I have a vista machine running in vmware as well and they both perform similar. Considering Windows 7 is really just Vista 2.0, I'd hope it'd show some sort of optimization so lower spec machines could take advantage of the hype. I'm tuned in waiting on what it is I'm missing out on 7, because it certainly felt like a service pack with another obnoxious GUI to me.

 

[SIW2]

Hi truthkid,

I haven't got a cheap laptop to try it on.

I am pretty sure 7 will be better suited to those - otherwise , MS have wasted their time rebulding it.

It seems people with those kind of machines - and there are a lot of them - will now be able to get the Vista experience on a cheap lappy.

I believe those are the people getting excited about it.

That has to be a good thing.

 

[turbostreak]

I don't think the theme looks nearly as nice. The startup time is defiantly quicker. I thought there was too much hardware incompatibility on older machines. Especially with Wireless Network Adaptors. I will probably upgrade when it comes out but I think there is still a lot of work that needs to be done on it.

 

[tasaholic]

I run 5 systems with all the Windows versions from XP to Win7. I have trialled 7 since the first Beta release and on a machine I consider to be reasonably classed as 'low-end' XP capable. To date ,I think the development is impressive,with some minor adjustments to be made prior to official release. I do love Vista,although it was expensive building Vista-capable systems,however , I believe MS are finally getting a system that is a combination of all the best features of ALL previous versions. I think we are going to finally see a universally popular and secure OS. I still prefer the Mozilla Browser and Email client,which IMHO are way ahead of the MS versions, but overall....very impressed.

 

[JMH]

Thanks to all who took the time to 'voice' an opinion.

 

[hpx64]

For the users runnin W7 on a notebook, how is your battery life compared to vista? increase decrease or the same?

 

[bobtran]

Shell game

I noticed the following post and the more I read it the more it disturbed me as
you will see after the post I copied from elsewhere in Win7 Forums:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

swarfega
Gold Member

Posted

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My take is this:
So I guess that the rumors were correct and XP users were rewarded for refusing to upgrade to Vista and users who tested, used, and promoted Vista got the "Fickle Finger of Fate" award again. approved upgrades for Vista Home Premium are to Win7 Home Premium or Win7 Ultimate (No Discount found) and that Win7 Professional is not included in the approved upgrade paths, So...I guess that you will have to purchase/upgrade to Vista business then upgrade to Win7 Professional, OR, down grade to XP pro then upgrade to Win7 professional, or upgrade to Win7 Home Premium and then upgrade again to Professional. Really thought M$ was going to get a clue this time and make a GOOD business decision. Foolish me....I guess all those people who purchased the Professional upgrade must have Vista business or Ultimate. Good job Balmer, you've just got to wonder what advisors this guy is listening to. Give him a chance to get back in many disgruntled(Take note of this term Balmer..Look it up for gods sake) Vista customers good graces (Vista can honestly be classified as good enough after more that 3 years, but since when is merely good enough an except-able goal in software design compared to the vaulted promises from Microsoft when Vista was released or the promises to fix/enhance the product only to find the promises kept in Win7 with the Vista community who supported it getting no special support SP3 or upgrade rewards.) and all it would cost is to allow Vista Home Premium to also go to Professional instead of Home Premium ($49 to Win7 Home Premium or $99 Two Win7 Professional...you still get the full $99 for Professional version right) and do you think these corporate leaches can get it. Not on your life or maybe we should say your LOYALTY to this company who doesn't understand the concept of loyalty. Pay attention class.....IT CUTS BOTH WAYS, AND THE MICROSOFTIES STILL DON'T GET IT....Poor Mr. Balmer. We will just watch the next version of VISTA gain more ire/distain, and Disrespect that the management deserves. When Gates ran this company the buck stopped at his desk and he was willing to be wrong. Pale imitations of Gates now run things while blame shifting anything that doesn't tell them what they want to hear!
In case you don't get it Mr.Balmer...Insanity is doing the same thing again and again while expecting different results...Enjoy your fantasy world Mr. Balmer and just keet telling yourself...Don't see nothing wrong here, Just keep throwing advertising millions at it instead of fixing/rewording/supporting/enhancing/etc.

Just Can't stand to see great corporations continue to look down their noses at the little people thinking of them as objects to overcome instead of seeing what assets they are, and taking the time to say "Thanks for being loyal when we lost our way, Thanks for helping us do better, Thanks for not taking your business somewhere else while we were lost in our own sense of importance."

Have a nice day Mr. Balmer and for you sake I hope the Micorsoft world continues to be understanding but....Don't take it for granted for too long because ultimately you work for us (The consumers and we can be very unforgiving) and there will come a time that we will not want to hear it just one more time again. Don't believe that we don't know about Linux, or times past when windows was the linux of the day but we believed in you and supported you anyway.

I'm a pc and this is the end of my rant

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[DarkDavil]

I wouldnt mind getting it :D If it does indeed do all those things on a lappy i wouldnt mind testing it on a virtual drive on my high-end hp laptop. But mostly, i really like that new look, its all nice + crisp and who knows how far w7 can go in 64 bit and 8 gb of ram :D Vista on my laptop is still extremly fast but it does also have its issues, i have had to completly recover my laptop 2 times bcause of major utilitie failures. Im debating to get W7 right now too :D

 

[bobtran]

I wouldnt mind getting it :D If it does indeed do all those things on a lappy i wouldnt mind testing it on a virtual drive on my high-end hp laptop. But mostly, i really like that new look, its all nice + crisp and who knows how far w7 can go in 64 bit and 8 gb of ram :D Vista on my laptop is still extremly fast but it does also have its issues, i have had to completely recover my laptop 2 times bcause of major utilitie failures. Im debating to get W7 right now too :D

Definitely do get it. Great OS, X64 has run extremely well/stable for me. The only thing missing is 64 bit flash which forces a 32 bit browser. My Vista problems have been related to the networking pieces, utility failures, and tweeking my system (Thank god for Window Home Server and automated backups). Win7 has address all of my issues so far....However....I am running the RC and this is definitely not the RTM so I can't be sure the final product will continue to perform this well. That said I have ordered my copies of Win7 Home Premium and will definately upgrade my Vista systems at the first opportunity.