The latest Microsoft OS, Windows 7, has been out for a few days now. I have spent good amount of time with 7 for me to be able to give you my thoughts on the OS.

It was important Microsoft got their next OS right this time round. Windows Vista was a good OS, but due to issues with hardware support and instability, it never took off. A result of this meant that Windows XP still had a high market share of 80%, users decided to switch to Mac OS X or Linux. Thankfully, this time round, Microsoft has cracked it. Windows 7 is an excellent Operating System, hopefully it will encourage business and home users to make the move from XP to 7.

For me, there are two key areas where Microsoft has improved over Windows Vista. Firstly, the User Interface. Its a refreshing change to see a different task bar. The task bar has not changed much since Windows 95, finally Microsoft has done

something about it. There is no point me telling what they have done, since most of you will have seen it and tried it, so I will just tell you what I think. I really like the new way of managing your open windows. It can be confusing first time round, seeing how your quick launch icons become active windows, and how active windows become quick launch icons. However, it does add some consistence to the task bar, since all the icons look the same and work in the same way. We have seen grouping applications together before, but the way it is presented in Windows 7 is finally properly utilised. Given quick previews of your open windows, and perform fancy effects when moving your mouse of each window. There are two small issues about the new task bar. If you right click on a window/quick launch icon, it gives you a small context menu. For example in IE, it has a list of most viewed websites. The issue is that it only works for Microsoft only apps at the moment. Second issue, the system tray, if there are two many icons in the tray it creates a small box for them, bad UI design, very clunky. Window management is excellent in Windows 7, I do like the ability to move windows to the top to maximise and to the side to have the ability to view two windows at once. However, not so keen on the shake to minimise windows, whats the point when you have the show desktop icon. Personally, I see Windows 7 just being a UI improvement over Vista. There are no key new features over Vista, it is essential the same OS. If your moving up from XP to Vista, like most people, there are tons of new features to look forward to. Such as instant search, a much improved Windows Explorer and DX10/11. One disappointment of Windows 7 is the removal of Windows Mail and Calender from the OS. It was an excellent feature of Windows Vista, both programs were well polished and incredible useful.

The second key area of improvement in Windows 7 is speed. The OS is quick and less memory hungry. Everything about the OS is quick over Windows Vista. Boot time and Suspend is better, sadly in my tests shut down is just as slow. Memory usage, Windows 7 will use less memory when booting to the desktop, but as soon as you start loading up the applications it soon fills. A few days ago, you may have seen my post about installing Windows 7 on a 1.4Ghz processor with 512mb RAM, it ran very well. Just shows you how scalable Windows 7 can be. If your upgrading to 7 from XP, you may have a few complaints about the speed. Its not as quick as XP and it will use more of your memory, but you have to expect it since XP is nearly 10 years old and is designed for old slow hardware.

I'm not going to talk about how much better driver support Windows 7 has over Windows Vista, and how it won't crash all the time. It is very stable, and most of your hardware should work fine. Windows Vista is very stable now and has good hardware support. The difference this time is, that on launch day Windows 7 is stable, unlike Vista which took about a year. However, the same problems will arise if your upgrading from Windows XP to 7, like it was if you upgraded from Windows XP to Vista. Your old XP hardware may not work in Windows 7, it uses the same driver support as Vista. Your old XP computer may not be powerful enough to run Windows 7. Again, like I said in a previous post Windows 7 has the same problems Windows Vista had.

To quickly summarise, Windows 7 is an excellent Operating System. The UI is excellent and enjoyable to use, plus Windows 7 is quick and stable! If you have Vista, upgrade to 7! You will be able to run Windows 7 and all your hardware should work fine. If your on Windows XP, upgrade because you are getting a new OS, which takes advantage of all the new advancements in the computing world. Its not 2001 any more, upgrade to an OS for 2009! Just be careful of System requirements and that your hardware has Windows Vista/7 drivers.