Its now a month on from the General Availability of Windows 7; and by and large it has been well accepted. We haven't sold a single computer running Windows XP or Vista as users jump to the new standard.

This week just gone however Microsoft held the Partner Development Confrence (PDC) where the Windows chief Steven Sinofsky provided some impressive information regarding the beta testing process.

Windows 7 was the most tested software program in the world ever.

To Quote:

The company received over 1.7 million "Send Feedback" clicks, recorded over 91,000 unique external devices connected to pre-release Windows 7 PCs (14,000 of which were unique printers), saw over 883,000 unique applications installed on the OS, and had 8.1 million official installs of pre-release versions of Windows 7.

So that part of the hard work that Microsoft went through to get them most polished version of windows yet.

Who knew that there were over 14,000 different types of printers world wide; or 91,000 different devices that can be connected to a PC?- Lots of Cameras, MP3 Players, USB Memory Keys etc.

When it comes down to it its amazing that it all actually works.

Its also just not new computers that are going out with Windows 7. We have had a lot of inplace upgrades from both XP and Vista on older machines move to Windows 7

Update: I have just been informed by my staff that we did have one new computer still go out with Windows XP :)

 

Windows 7 Goes Live today.

The New version of Windows has been out in a Public Beta for the past few months; and last month I was able to get my hands on my own Final RTM Copy as a Microsoft Partner, but today is the day for the rest of the world.

Windows 7 by definition has to be better, faster and easier than any previous version (that's why they release new versions); but its such a polished product that I believe that in a few weeks no one will even remember Windows Vista.

Windows 7 really is what I think Microsoft tried to create with Windows Vista; its just that they lost their way towards the end; but this time they have focused on making a good user experience, whilst listing to their customers likes and dislikes and have been able to pull off a really good upgrade.

There are only 3 Versions of Windows 7 Available in Australia. Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate and there is very little difference between the 3 of them.

Home Premium is the best for most people (including small business).

Professional has a few extra features such as the ability to backup to a network drive and also log onto a domain. This version is really only useful in a business environment where a domain is operation (ie a big server)

Ultimate is even a smaller bonus of features. I think that the only one that is interesting is the BitLocker and BitLocker to go which enables you to encrypt all your data so that no one will be able to see or recover it.

So for most people I think that Home Premium will be suitable.

Anyway lots of news will be coming out over the coming days; however if you want to see it in action please organise a time with me for a product demonstration in the shop, or visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/ for more information.

Well what an interesting product this has turned out to be.

It only seems like yesterday that we were unwrapping the new and exciting Windows Vista operating system; What a step up it was from Windows XP. Unfortunately it didn't quite take over as smoothly as Microsoft wanted as in the beginning there was a lot of driver incompatibility; and the the machines of the day were not quite up to the task of running smoothly.

In my own experiences I haven't had any issues or problems with Vista; however with computers that we have repaired instore we have certainly come across a few clients who have.

Anyway; Vistas successor Windows 7 is almost finished and looks like it will be released towards the end of the year. What is exciting however is that Microsoft are currently giving a trial version of it away for free that will operate for 12 months.

This trial is available to anyone who wants to have a test drive; its just not limited to us technical guys (although you do need a little bit of knowledge on how to install it)

Windows 7 is essentially Vista without all the annoying little bits.

They have kept and strengthened the UAC (User Account Control) that first came with Vista that lots of people dislike; but have made it so that it doesn't annoy you as much.

The Task bar has been redesigned to include the quick launch bar; and now only icons appear on it. Its a little bit un-nerving the first time you use it; but after a while it kinda makes sense; and we can hint that its a little bit like a certain dock on another fruity operating system.

There are a lot of changes in the visuals with some newer Aero features. Hovering over an icon on the taskbar will show the current screen shot of the hidden application for example. Moving a window to the top of the screen will automatically maximise it; whilst shaking a window will minimise everything in the background behind it.

There are lots of other features such as an action center that houses all the notification pop ups from the system tray; a New Libraries system for storing Documents, Music and Video through to new versions of Windows Media Center; but the best thing that Microsoft have improved on is its speed and responsiveness.

Windows 7 feels as fast to run on older hardware as Windows XP does. Its minimum requirements are a 1GHz Machine with 1GB of RAM; and I have had it running on a Small Form Factor ASUS eeePC netbook and although its not as fast as my desktop computer it running quite well and useable. This is something Vista would have destroyed if I tried to run it on it.

This is Microsoft polishing off Vista and getting it to run the way that it should have 3 years ago. There was a lot learnt from Vista and a lot of consultation with the public and I think that its a definite improvement and cant wait till the end of the year for it to be released.

If your impatient then goto http://www.microsoft.com/windows7 and grab the trial version. Don't be silly and install it on your main production PC as its still in a beta stage and has every chance of you coming in one morning to find that it doesn't boot and your unable to access any of your data. But on the flip side this is a well polished beta and I'm yet to crash it so far........ (I ignore my own advice and have it running on my main PC at work :P)

If you want to see it running; please come into the store and Ill be glad to let you have a poke around at what's coming.