Review on Windows 7 Release Candidte

One of the latest to come out from the line of Microsoft’s Operating Systems is Windows 7 or formerly codenamed as Blackcomb or Vienna. Windows 7 follows from its predecessor Windows Vista with aims to further increase compatibility with already compatible hardware in Windows Vista. Rumors also circulated that it was lighter on the hardware resources when compared to Windows Vista.

I got a firsthand copy from Microsoft’s own website that lets users download Windows 7 with its own serial number for evaluation purposes and here is what I experienced with the Operating System. It was an x64 copy of the Operating System since I had already installed a previous Windows Vista 64 on my desktop computer. After the download, I burned it into a DVD disk since the file was an image of the operating system that was 3.04 gigabytes in size.

1. The installer
The installer was the same as the previous version, Windows Vista. It had an option to upgrade or to install a fresh copy of the said operating system. You can either boot up using the disk or you can install it directly as an upgrade straight from the Windows Vista’s desktop. The upgrade was slow and tedious that took and estimated 3 hours of actual installation time. This is because I had already set-up numerous programs on my Windows Vista Operating System and I also have a lot of files in the My Documents folder. After installation was done, the usual activation takes place that needs an internet access to complete. When it was done, the desktop is already set-up. Since it was an upgrade, I no longer needed to add user accounts and I no longer needed to set-up the other programs. It was and easy upgrade.

2. Boot-up
Windows 7 boots up faster than Windows Vista. In fact it was an impressive boot. No more fancy moving boot-up screens. It was just a few seconds of black screen and you are done. But as I have noticed, Windows Vista loads the taskbar completely while Windows 7 doesn’t. It is observed that when you click the start button, or for Windows Vista and 7 is the Windows logo on the taskbar, you get a slight lag when the desktop is loaded and then you click it just after boot up.

3. User Interface
The look and feel is nothing different from Windows Vista with a slight change in the taskbar and the sidebar. The taskbar, by default, is now in the forms of buttons that when you hover over them, reveals previews of the windows that are on them. You can also pin and unpin programs onto the taskbar which is great from mostly used programs such as the Media Player and Internet Explorer. The sidebar is no longer called the sidebar and is no longer located on the side, as supposedly called the sidebar, but are now gadgets that sit anywhere on your desktop. The option for it can be found when you right click the desktop. The desktop also was redesigned to enable window snapping that lets you snap windows into place either in maximized window, or onto the side that lets you easily compare two windows at a time.

4. Taskbar
Another new innovation is the taskbar. It was redesigned to fit more applications at once. It was easy to navigate because windows can now be previewed as you hover over them in the taskbar. The windows are no longer placed as bars but as buttons that can be hovered onto to preview its content.

5. Personalization
The personalization option for the desktop and the over-all look for windows is also new. More colors and theme combinations are now possible with more sounds and more wallpapers to choose from. Dream Scenes were, however, discontinued with Windows 7 which is a big disappointment. But there is an option that lets you choose any picture to be as your wallpaper and have that change in time as you choose it to change. It fades into new wallpaper for every 10 minutes on my computer.

6. Hardware
This I didn’t like on this release of Windows. Drivers were still unsupported which is contradictory to their claim of having a Windows Operating system that was more compatible with hardware than Windows Vista. The sound driver that came with the operating system had to be set at 16bit to be able to get a clear sound. Playing games also proved to be of a disappointment since games lagged even more compared to Windows Vista. My scanner and cell phone was also not supported.

Over-all, Windows 7 release candidate was a big disappointment. Hardware is not yet fully supported by the release candidate. Games ran slower than Windows Vista and that after all of these, I could not downgrade to a previous version of Windows.