An Initial Look at Windows 7
January, 2010
By Wayne Maruna
Microsoft released its latest iteration of its Windows operating system on October 22nd, 2009. Aside from Apple commercials on television, reviews have generally been quite favorable. The new version, called Windows 7, succeeds the controversial Windows Vista version. Vista was plagued early on with hardware driver issues that complicated upgrades to systems running Windows XP, though new PCs with Vista pre-installed tended to only see issues with some peripheral equipment (printers, scanners, and the like.) Most people found Vista’s User Account Control features to be unnecessarily intrusive despite the added security it brought to the table.
I’ve had a handful of people ask me if they should upgrade to Windows 7. Generally the answer is no. If your machine is working for you and does what you need it to do, leave well enough alone. The new capabilities that Win7 bring are pretty subtle and aside from changes to the user interface (your desktop and how you use it to launch your programs) they are not readily evident to the casual user. Now if you’re talking about buying a new machine, by all means make sure the machine runs under Windows 7 (unless you’re an Apple person.) Chances are you’d have a hard time finding a new machine that is not loaded with Windows 7 anyway.
I’ve had the opportunity to load Win7 fresh on a couple of bare hard drives (no existing operating system to upgrade), and I’ve also done upgrades on both XP and Vista machines. On a client’s Vista machine, the upgrade was lengthy but painless. Microsoft advises that an upgrade can take over two hours, and the machine in question took every bit of that and more despite the fact that it was a nearly-new machine with plenty of firepower. When the process was complete and the desktop loaded, we were left to wonder whether in fact the upgrade had taken place, as nearly everything looked the same. But a check of the machine’s credentials said yes, it was now running under Win7.
On a personal Vista machine, the upgrade failed and would go no further. No explanation was provided. While I had taken the precaution to back up the hard drive before attempting the upgrade, I was still relieved to see Win7 roll itself back to where it started so that my Vista installation was not negatively impacted. The machine is only a year old and has plenty of memory and CPU power, but I have yet to figure out what the roadblock was.
I also did an ‘upgrade’ to a Windows XP machine. You cannot really do a true upgrade to XP like you can to a Vista machine. The upgrade process warns you that you’ll have to back up all your data, as the upgrade process blows away the contents of your hard drive to install Win7. You have to then reinstall your applications and copy back that saved data.
The upgrade
version of Windows 7 comes with two disks, one containing a 32-bit version of
the operating system, and the other containing a 64-bit version. You must have
a 64-bit capable CPU in order to install the 64 bit upgrade. For home users,
the main advantage of the 64-bit version is that it can make use of more than
3.3 gigabytes of memory if installed. If you install, say, 4 gigabytes of
memory, a 32-bit version will only make use of the first 3.3 GB or so, which for
most users is plenty. But the downside is that a 64-bit version will not run
certain older software designed for 16-bit machines. So if you have a favorite
old piece of application software, check to see if it will run under 64-bit
Windows before purchasing a machine loaded with 64-bit Win7. Note too that
not all peripherals (printers, scanners, web cams, etc.) have drivers that work
with the 64-bit version of Windows 7. If you are planning on using a
particular peripheral device, check the manufacturer's website support page to
make sure a 64-bit Win7 version of the device driver is available.
From a hardware perspective, requirements for installing Win7 are fairly modest. You need at least a 1 Gigahertz CPU. If your machine is less than six years old, you’re probably covered there. But you also need at least 1 GB of installed RAM, and preferably two gigs or more. Unless your machine is pretty new, you may need to add memory. And since the upgrade media ships on DVD disks, you’ll need to have a DVD drive installed, not just a CD drive. The XP machine I installed Win7 on had moderate specs by today’s standards, and some of the hardware was more than four years old, but Win7 had no driver issues whatsoever so I was both pleased and surprised.
Under Vista, User Account Control, which is designed to prevent unauthorized installation of rogue software, is either on or off. Under Win7, there are two intermediate gradients available to make it somewhat less irritating. Perhaps the most obvious difference between Vista and Win7 is the disappearance of Windows Mail. Mail was the replacement for XP’s Outlook Express. Under Win7, there is no built-in email program. Microsoft encourages users to download and install Windows Live Mail, which encompasses instant messaging with the email and also includes other features. Some users find Windows Live Mail to be too much, so they revert to third party email programs like Eudora or Mozilla Thunderbird. The lesson here is before running an upgrade, make sure you export your Windows Mail contacts list and email in a format that can be read by the email program you plan to use under Win7.
I’ve just hit the very high points on Win7 here. There’s a lot more info available on the web if you’re willing to do a little research. But again, if you’re reasonably happy with your current system, from my viewpoint, there is little reason to go through the expense and possible misadventure of a system upgrade. An upgrade is unlikely to fix an existing problem. If anything, it will likely just complicate it. Most people would be best served waiting for the time when they finally decide it’s time to purchase a new machine.