Windows 7 Beta
Yesterday, I didn't need my laptop a whole lot, so I decided it would be a good time to try out Windows 7. So after backing up all of my work on an external drive we keep in the lab (which I needed to do anyway), I downloaded the Windows 7 Beta ISO from Microsoft, burned it to a DVD, and let the upgrader do its magic for 3 hours.
I don't know how well I'm going to stick to this, but I'd like to use this journal as a kind of running impression of Microsoft's new OS. Not just as a review for all of you (besides, it is still in beta), but so that I can also keep track of what's right and what's wrong with it, especially with regard to program incompatibility.
First, I should note my laptop's specs. I purchased this on literally the LAST day of 2006, following a daring theft of its predecessor from redrocketwestie's car. It's an HP Pavillion dv6000 that has a sticker saying "Designed for Windows XP. Windows Vista Compatible". It has a single-core 1.67GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, an integrated chipset for graphics, and a 100GB Hard Drive.
Alright, so here are my impressions so far:
Peformance
The first thing I noticed is that its fast. A lot faster than Vista. I have yet to do a first real boot-up / restart to see how fast that is (the first time was very slow, but it was also doing a lot of initial set-up at the same time). However, opening windows and programs takes significantly less time. And this is with all the graphical bells & whistles turned on. The one thing hang-up which is a holdover from Vista is that right-clicking on files to do things like renaming causes a second or two delay, which is more noticeable now that everything is faster.
Features
I haven't had time to see what new things Windows 7 brings to the table, so I can't comment much on this yet. What I can say is that the Aero theme now uses only icons on the bottom bar for open programs and windows instead of names. This would be annoying if not for the fact that mousing over the icon brings up a small graphical preview of the window. And in the case of multiple instances of the same program, mousing over the icon brings up a preview of each instance in the stack, so you can go straight to the one you want. The utility and convenience of this feature hinges on how fast the previews pop up. So far, they're near-instantaneous. That means so far I actually like this new feature, because it keeps the clutter down on the system bar.
Compatibility
I have only run into two compatibility issues so far. The first is a group of Stanford University clients that were already pretty craptastic to begin with, so I'm not all that concerned with them. I don't need them and the only reason they're there is because Stanford puts them on a disk of 'University Software' I installed at the beginning of the computer's use.
The other incompatibility is McAfee's Security Center client. However, the virus program itself seems to be running just fine. I may download Sophos' anti-virus program (which comes free from Stanford). If that fares well, I might just dump McAfee. It's been pissing me off lately with how nagging it is how and much system resources it can take up.
Overall Impression So Far
I like it. Windows 7 seems to be a definite and obvious improvement over Vista. At first glance there are a few kinks I'd like to see straightened out, but even in its current state I'm glad I'm running the Windows 7 Beta just for the sake of performance.
I don't know how well I'm going to stick to this, but I'd like to use this journal as a kind of running impression of Microsoft's new OS. Not just as a review for all of you (besides, it is still in beta), but so that I can also keep track of what's right and what's wrong with it, especially with regard to program incompatibility.
First, I should note my laptop's specs. I purchased this on literally the LAST day of 2006, following a daring theft of its predecessor from redrocketwestie's car. It's an HP Pavillion dv6000 that has a sticker saying "Designed for Windows XP. Windows Vista Compatible". It has a single-core 1.67GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, an integrated chipset for graphics, and a 100GB Hard Drive.
Alright, so here are my impressions so far:
Peformance
The first thing I noticed is that its fast. A lot faster than Vista. I have yet to do a first real boot-up / restart to see how fast that is (the first time was very slow, but it was also doing a lot of initial set-up at the same time). However, opening windows and programs takes significantly less time. And this is with all the graphical bells & whistles turned on. The one thing hang-up which is a holdover from Vista is that right-clicking on files to do things like renaming causes a second or two delay, which is more noticeable now that everything is faster.
Features
I haven't had time to see what new things Windows 7 brings to the table, so I can't comment much on this yet. What I can say is that the Aero theme now uses only icons on the bottom bar for open programs and windows instead of names. This would be annoying if not for the fact that mousing over the icon brings up a small graphical preview of the window. And in the case of multiple instances of the same program, mousing over the icon brings up a preview of each instance in the stack, so you can go straight to the one you want. The utility and convenience of this feature hinges on how fast the previews pop up. So far, they're near-instantaneous. That means so far I actually like this new feature, because it keeps the clutter down on the system bar.
Compatibility
I have only run into two compatibility issues so far. The first is a group of Stanford University clients that were already pretty craptastic to begin with, so I'm not all that concerned with them. I don't need them and the only reason they're there is because Stanford puts them on a disk of 'University Software' I installed at the beginning of the computer's use.
The other incompatibility is McAfee's Security Center client. However, the virus program itself seems to be running just fine. I may download Sophos' anti-virus program (which comes free from Stanford). If that fares well, I might just dump McAfee. It's been pissing me off lately with how nagging it is how and much system resources it can take up.
Overall Impression So Far
I like it. Windows 7 seems to be a definite and obvious improvement over Vista. At first glance there are a few kinks I'd like to see straightened out, but even in its current state I'm glad I'm running the Windows 7 Beta just for the sake of performance.