16.11.2009

Some background before this begins: I'm a linux user, have been for nearly three years, but I keep windows on a secondary partition for gaming purposes (And the occasional office needs when someone sends me a 2007 formatted file that needs converting - although open office is finally getting good enough that this is now unnecersary. I skipped vista - can you blame me? but now want to share in the directX 11 goodness. Frankly the incessent warring between the linux/mac/windows fanboys in the comments is stupid. Unless you've tried both/all three - don't comment on their differences. If you have tried both, please try and remain objective. Saying that one is infinitly better than the other is patently untrue,they all have their strengths and weakness.Now that rants over, the important part! The review :)First off the install - I never installed vista, but I've been told that the windows 7 installer is just a polished version of the vista one. What I can say is it was very easy - fourtunatly I have no weird partitioning issues to work with, it just takes up the entire secondary disk, but it certainly didn't look like it would be too difficult to set up if required. The experience was, I felt, very similar to the one I had installing Ubuntu the week before, which became my benchmark for ease of install, so it's all good there.Compatibility: Reasonable. I had to manually install the wireless driver (something the upgrade advisor had told me about, so I had it on hand). Thereafter, windows update downloaded all the neccersary drivers for my hardware. The only exception to this was my printer - An Aficio BP-20. Ironically considering the troubles I've had with printer and linux in the past, it works out-of-the-box with ubuntu, but I had to manually find the driver on windows 7. Other than that, smooth. Softwarewise, I've had no problems yet, so that's good.Appearence: Nice. The upgrade advisior had told me my graphics card wouldn't support aero (New one's in the post for the direct X 11 loving!) But it appeared to actually run fine. It looks nice off the install, but I was somewhat frustrated by it's lack of customization options. I feel I've been spoilt by Compiz on Ubuntu - it makes the desktop effects insanely configurable (and runs on a very low spec hardware!). Windows is pretty damn good, but could do better.Speed: It's running on a (very) overclocked Intel e6600 with 3GB of ram. Whilst that's not exactly top of the range, it's pretty damn powerful, and so I noticed no slow down. This was helped by me using Microsoft's all-in-one security center, which has an impressivly low footprint given how well it seems to do on av tests.Price: Here's the rub. I got this software for £30 (I'm a student, Microsoft's "ultimate steal" offer has been extended to include windows 7 this year), and at that price, it's worth it to me. The software itself, not so much. Yes it's solid, but the operating system does nothing more (and in some cases, less) than ubuntu does, and (contrary to "popular" opinion) is no easier to use. However, what makes it worth the money is the software I can get for it. Whilst Linux will run half-life 2 and it's ilk fairly comfortably under wine, anything more modern than that is pushing it. And as I don't like playing games on a five year lag, windows is good! Would I pay £150 for it though... I'm not so sure!What it has changed for me now, is my advice to my friends and family. During the Vista years, if they were upgrading, I'd take a serious look at whether they needed windows software, or if the linux equivilents would be enough. I had my 83 year old grandpa running ubuntu on his first laptop for just that reason. However now 7 is out, my advice will probably differ. If I know they are comfortable using windows, and can spare the cash (which most people I know can!) I will probably tell them to go to 7, especially if it's gonna come pre-installed on a laptop/desktopso: Ten word summary:Much better, still room for improvement, fifty pounds too expensive.

6.11.2009

I have been looking forward to the release of this edition.I refused to upgrate from Windowns XP Pro to Vista on such poor remarks from everyone so I jumped in on the first day of release and went for the Pro version again.The advantage of the Pro version is, even for home users, is that you get so much more and if like me you have several computers and a newish TV that you can connect to a home network, the possibilities are much more broad.With my kids and my wife and a dedicated 2nd comp for my website stuff we have a home network of 5 computers, we then have a Sony TV in the loungh which is connected to the network, even the Sony BlueRay DVD machine has a netword connection so this also is connected to the home network.(If you even look at the back of your Sky HD-TV box you will find a network connection for future expansion - so much more is being connected to other computers and linking together). Easily now I can pass files, photo, music whatever to my kids computers, you can connect a hard-drive to the network and everyone can back up files to it, even to an other computer in your kids bedroom easily. Dont ever let your comp go down now without at least 2 other backups in the house.So apart from Win7 being just fantastic as a interface with your comp, this version after 3 weeks working with it is just so really really brill. Miles better than XP and that is still cracking!The way I did my upgrade, well not an upgrade really but a total install from scratch.Back up your documents/important files, I then did a format of the hard drive I was going to use to install Win7 onto so it would be fresh/new. Installed clean version of Win7 to the hard drive and then re-copied my documents and files back.Win7 Pro comes with 32 bit and 64 bit DVD's. I installed the 64 bit version as its the future and it can recognise more memory than 3.5gb. I have now installed 4gb extra memory and run at 8gb. Check if you are thinking of the Home version as it is 32bit version only and as such can only read a max of 3.5gb. Win7 also lets you add a USB memory devise as a booster. Stick in a USB module (I put in a 4gig stick into a spare USB port at the back of the computer) this is then used to swop/page files to by windows to boost performance as it can read USB memory cards faster than hard drives.The only problem I had with the 64 bit version was (a) Flash on websites do not work. Wait though cos Win 64 version installs a 32 bit and 64 bit version of Windows Explorer 8. So even from your 64 bit version of Win7 you can run Explorer 32bit version and full flash content is on site. Adobe website says it is working on a 64 bit version of flash that will be available soon, then you will be able to run the 64 bit version of Win Explorer and get flash content. The speed of Win7 64bit is the future and more and more programmes will be formulated in 64 bit format for super speed. There was 1 other slight problem with a Family Tree programme I was running but the site had a 64bit fix and now runs great.Install of the 64 bit version went like clockwork, I did not have to download a single system driver and I can honestly recommend Win7 Pro to anyone.I have heard some horror stories on other reviews here but I just cannot comprehend those remarks as I just think this programme is FANTASTIC.I give Win7, 7 out of 7.Thanks.Colin.

2.9.2009

Windows 7 is an excellent OS, and possibly the first OS to ever actually outperform its predecessor! Vista never outperformed XP, XP never outperformed 98, at least initially. Windows 7 is fast, intuitive and what vista should have been! Basically windows 7 is vista but with all the annoyances removed and sped up some, the kernal hasent changed much from vista but the UI (user interface) has been revamped, so its the best of both worlds with windows 7.PROS:- Faster than vista, equal to or faster than XP i would say.- Runs much better on less powerful computers (1GB of ram) that vista would choke on.- Better overall UI, makes far more sense than vistas horrible UI ever did!!The libraries folder thing they did is fantastic and the overhaul to the notification area (icons in the bottom right) has been long overdue. Also the windows taskbar introduced in 95 is nearly 15 years old, and now finally you can drag items around on it! Its also been given an overhaul, it takes getting used to but the new superbar is great. Oh and you dont have to trapse through 4 or 5 windows and a bunch of menus just to change the frickin sleep button to shut down as was the case in vista...- Everything that worked on vista will likely work on 7, i even installed a xonar U1 external soundcard on windows 7 x64 with vista x64 drivers and it worked, there were a few oddities with it but it did work. Im seeing a lot of windows 7 drivers floating about anyways so they wont be scarce like the early days of vista.- Calculator/Paint/Wordpad have recieved a long overdue makeover, paint and wordpad now have the "ribbon" UI which was what office 2007 had, they can also do a few extra things for example paint has some new oil and crayon effects plus a bunch of new shapes :) Yeah its no photoshop but its a welcome addition.- Internet checkers makes a return! Remember that fun little internet game that was in XP? Yeah they didnt feel the need to put it in vista and put inkball in instead :( well checkers is back in windows 7 you can play a quick game of checkers any time of the day or night against another human opponent just like in XP. Also players will time out if they dont make a move, so no more minimizing the game when you're losing and just leaving it there :)- UAC has different settings now, i still disable it but the settings may be useful for the more security concious out there, its also easier to get to and can be found in the "getting started" bit that windows usually has.- All my games so far have run flawlessly, thats Company of heros and starcraft but with many more to come, multiplayer works fine too.CONS:- Comes with windows media player 12 which i think isnt as good as 11 from a UI perspective, they shouldve just tweaked 11's UI and left it at that, thats just my personal take on it though, theres plenty of WMP alternatives so its no biggie.- Double edged sword here but everything that *didnt* work in vista likely wont work in 7, so that ancient printer or oddball USB attachment that vista didnt like probably wont be any good with 7 either.In conclusion this OS is definately worth upgrading to if you are an unhappy vista user or an XP user whos got the urge to modernize then go for it, its got the speed of XP with the features of vista (and none of the annoyances). Im running windows 7 x64 typing this and its been great.

13.8.2009

I've been using the betas, and then RCs of Windows 7 on my test computers for quite a while now, and have not had any problems with any of them. The oldest is a 5 year old dell computer which runs windows 7 as fast and as smoothly as the XP that was originally on it. One search on the Microsoft update finds all necessary drivers, even for quite old hardware. I've also tried it on my Lenovo/IBM Thinkpad T60 and a relatives Toshiba laptop with no problems.The most recent build I've tried the RC out on is a pretty fast E8400, ATI HD4850, 4gb ram that I built recently. So far, I can do everything on it that I normally do with Vista. It runs all my games as well; some games run slightly faster than Vista.

16.3.2016

well after buying the product i spent 20 hours installing on an acer small form factor pc the registration process was a nightmare but be patient get your updates and if you wish like i did update to windows 10 remove the spyware and your going a tiny bit faster than on windows 7 .the registration problem is : "do not" register with microsoft until your finished installation completely that means updates ok . . microsoft took an age to install this but i only bought it to refurbish an older 2008 acer machine .plus +it s a very inexpensive way .minus - but takes a considerable amount of time to do this 20 hours on a x2 core at 2.66ghz machine with 3 gb of ram so be warned your going to be doing

5.1.2010

I have run XP for around 6 years before upgrading to Windows 7(64bit). I cannot comment on Vista as I never tried it following some pretty bad reviews. And I have to say, with Windows 7 Microsoft seems to have got it right.Navigating through folders and documents is very intuitive with shortcuts and libraries reducing the number of clicks required. The libraries also make finding your documents easy, along with the indexing function which allows instant file searches from the start menu. Most importantly W7 seems stable and bug free. It is also very up to date with a range of built in tools such as, an ISO burner, DVD maker, better font indexing and easy management tools for devices such as mp3 players,

14.11.2011

Upgraded to this from XP in summer 2011.... over all it feels like XP but is a bit faster and slicker, its designed for multi core processors and works extremely well.....It works with all my hardware designed for Windows XP, but you may need to get relavent Windows 7 drivers from the hardware manufacturers websites to use these with Windows 7.This version of Windows 7 has XP mode (which you need to down load from Microsofts website) and is basically an emulator running on Windows 7.Although XP mode can run XP software, it can't see and use more than 2 cores on a multi core processor so isn't as fast as original XP which can see and use as many cores as the processor has....

22.3.2010

I have been using windows since the very first incarnation and until this was released still preferred windows xp. Vista was a hog.The trouble with xp is that it is now starting to look old, and very tired! I felt that due to its age it no longer handled things such as connecting external devices etc as nicely as an operating system should, especially given the plethora of devices available today.Windows 7 has from the start been more or less a pleasure to use. Installation is faster and more automated than xp, which was a major annoyance for me with xp. Once installed it updates smoothly and has been runing things nicely ever since. The included apps and support are very good,

28.10.2009

I finally recieved my copy yesterday after a long 3 month wait and gleefully dived into installing it. Thankfully I was smart enough to already have backed up everything i wanted to keep on a portable HDD so I didnt have to worry about that.Installation is paaaainfully easy. just litterally 3 clicks and the installation will begin; Then its just a matter of waiting. Once I did all that and windows was up and running the system imediatly tries and locates drivers for you, saving much agro in trying to find them yourself. Sadly for some reason, while it did find my GFX card drivers, it just wouldnt install them but a quick DL from the Nvidia site soon solved that.After getting everything i thought i needed up I did a reboot and thats then my only major problem occured.

4.11.2010

At last the OS we were waiting for. Vista? Beta, more like. I have held on resolutely to my old XP nearly to the bitter end but I have just been persuaded by Windows 7 - and how!I bought my current computer with Vista pre-loaded and hated it so much that I had to send it back and have XP put on instead. It was like some horrible alien that had infested my computer's insides and wouldn't let it work properly and wouldn't go. I even thought long and hard about converting to Mac. But based on other reviews on this site I dared to hope that Windows 7 would be better and it is. It is just a joy to use (and bears more than a passing similarity to Mac's OS in some of the ways that it looks and works).In

16.2.2013

Well knowing that Microsoft are going to discontinue support of its XP operating system I had prepared myself for this by reading the bumph on it. You can download a program which analyse your XP system with programmes and thereby prepare the conversion. Also the Windows Easy Transfer is helpful. But.........Yes, there always is a but and here it is. The conversion starts with using WET collecting all your private files into a readable file for Windows 7. The next step is to take a deep breath and put the Windows 7 installation disc into the drive. You have been adviced by the upgrade program to have your programme discs available along with codes etc. The advisor also tells you to choose the Custom and there by clean installation.

26.9.2009

Like the student before me, my college is subscribed to the Microsoft Developer Network and I got this for free with one license key before retail release. I have just performed a clean install and everything went very smoothly. 7 had no problems with any of my hardware, the interface looks clean and tidy and I at this stage it seems to be faster than Vista (cannot atest to how good it will be when bogged down by programs later). I got greeted with choosing a username and password(optional) and then it was finished. Much less hassle than XP reinstall was. I had to install one driver for my wireless internet adapter which finished very quickly and now I am up and running.I do not know how many people reading this will have tried the BETA or release candidate,

24.10.2009

Vista was a good operating system but had problems that could cripple ones head! This new Windows 7 version is a nice polished cleaner product that doesn't hog your system's memory and its directx 11 is a nice bonus as it enhances the graphics of your system. The install is an easy process, and a internet connection is needed to recieve any updates from microsoft. I did a upgrade install, which is an install from vista buissness to windows 7 proffessional, though a clean install option is given. Be sure to backup your system before you install(you need a external hard drive or lots of DVDs as backup takes up huge space) and the install software will check if your system can even install windows 7(which you should check before buying)

29.3.2010

I was so impressed with the Release Candidate version of the s/w that I completely forgot that it was time limited. When the first "nag-mail" arrived I didn't have to think too hard about purchasing the full product.The 64 bit option installed on a four and a half year old laptop (HP Pavilion zd8000 series) without hitch - well, not quite, I discovered that the lappy's audio chipset didn't yet have a W7 compatible driver and I had to start the install again with the 32 bit version. So far, with the 32 bit version, all has been well. All legacy applications seem to work, including some pretty ancient DOS based ones.I was using XP Pro before this - I avoided the Vista trap,

18.12.2009

I have upgraded an Evesham pentium 4 PC to win 7. However, much as I like the OS, I have had major problems getting all the drivers to work. I had to look on the Epson site to get a new driver for my printer (R265) but failed as it does not feature there. The win 7 driver works but no facilities show for inks etc.Since getting the sound drivers from Creative and installing them, I have now lost both the DVD drive and the CD drive both made by Sony. It does not matter what I do with Device manager, I still cannot get these two items to show without a yellow tag. It says they are loaded but unable to start. I have looked on the Sony site but neither of these drive units is featured there either.

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional - Reviews

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