Windows 7

WINDOWS   7

Let me start off by saying I am not a Vista hater. I sell computers and went into Vista wit an open mind. I liked it straight away and didn’t find the UAC prompts that bad. This (UAC) issue is probably the only gripe that people had that was valid(apart from software bloat), and to those people I suggest they harden up and that they should have a good hard look in the mirror, because there are far more serious issues in the world they could take issue with. I have had to listen to soooooo many ill-informed customers winge about Vista, and all of them, when questioned further about their grevience with Vista, didn’t really have one, and where just bandwagoning.

Sure early adopters trying to run vista on under powered machines gave themselves a few legit issues, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed by a little more grunt under the hood of their PCs, and the third party vendors, getting off their lazy butts and getting drivers out quicker.

Windows 7 suffers none of these problems, as it seems it works great with Vista drivers and is almost as lean as XP. My experience started a few days ago with the purchase of an Acer Aspire One 11.6″ netbook(AO571h). As any one who has read this blog before will know, I am an ASUS fanboy, so why an Acer ? well,  Acer hasn’t been as reliable a product as I would have liked in the past, in my experience(as ASUS), but of late, return rates have virtually stopped, and the model I have, is pretty much the best spec’d unit I can get at the moment. It features the Z520 Atom dual core processors, where the ASUS are still using N280 single cores. This will no doubt change, but I wanted a new bigger faster netbook now, and one with better battery life too, and ASUS don’t range one with my company, if they make one at all, yet.

Anyway I will review this netbook soon, and this post is about Windows 7 . The fact I am running Windows 7 on a netbook speaks volumes of how much leaner it is compared to Vista, as Vista just couldn’t run on a netbook, and forced Netbooks makers to use XP or Linux. After getting the Acer through its intial XP set up, I made restore discs and driver discs and I was ready to load up Windows 7 . Its is suggested that a clean install is best, so thats what I did. After I installed Windows 7 I noticed that the screen resolution was wrong(streched) for this netbook(although it would have been fine on more common 10″ netbooks), and I was unable to set it for correct resolution. Windows 7 had already prompeted me to enter my passphrase(during install), for my wireless network, and when it had down loaded the latest updates, the screen issue was fixed. All good so far, and I was already impressed at how easy Windows 7 got me online. Enter my wireess security passphrase and jobs done.

My next move as to google acre aspire one forums. A few minutes later I had latest driver for the touchpad, and it was working as any good netbooks should. Out of the box, the touchpad worked but didn’t have the gestures(like 2 finger scroll) that any netbook user soon finds second nature and a habit to use. That was it. The netbook was now working perfectly. I then loaded the webcam drivers and a couple of the Acer apps, and I had it in same state as it was on XP  when first set up.

I have added the same gadgets I use on my Vista laptop, and for all intents and purposes, I have my prefered Vista look and feel on a netbook. XP aways felt old, once I had got used to vista on the laptop, but was an acceptable compromise, for all the benefits a netbook brings. Windows 7 and the new Acer, means I now have a netbook that is very low on compromise from a day to day use point of view.

To be honest Windows 7 feels like a service pack to Vista, rather than a new OS, although I’m sure MS would hate me saying that, as clearly, getting it so much more efficient has been a lot of work for them. The biggest noticeable change is being able to tone down UAC without having to turn it off, which was only option in Vista. A great move in my opinion, as although I can live with it as it was, being able to move it into the background is a plesant option. Much like Norton 360 does its job, mostly in background now, other security suites used to jump up and down, shouting *look at me*, just to show you they worked, it makes for a calmer experience for these things to be in background.

Bottom line is Windows 7 gives you less UAC interference, and much better networking through home groups, but like Vista its a glossy/efficient version of the same stuff Vista bought to the table. IMO thats a good thing as Vista kicks XPs ar$e, but the tech heads would never admit that they don’t like Vista because it means change, they prefer to say, they don’t like it because its bloated etc. Now they can’t say it’s because of bloat/instability and will have to admit that Windows 7 is just nicer, because XP holds noadvantage over the new OS. Windows 7 isn’t Vista 7.0 its more like Vista 6.1, but despite that, it means the tech heads need to get out of there comfort zone and learn new skills, as the arguments they made against Vista won’t stack up with Windows 7 .

I am yet to notice any more about Windows 7 yet, compared to Vista, but will add to this when I have had more time using it.

peace