Recently in Windows 7 Category

Windows 7 is here!

Whew finally! Today is the big day. Everyone go out and buy some Windows 7 today. Better yet buy a new computer with Windows 7 already on it. It's worth it. I've been using Windows 7 since the beta and I can honestly say I like it. So to celebrate the release date here are some top reasons why I love Windows 7.

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  1. It's fast
    I really have to start with this one. As I type this I'm on my laptop running Windows 7, I also have a Vista desktop next to me running. On the Vista machine I have cleared off literally everything. Stopped all the annoying search services even automatic updates (yeah I know). I even cleared out msconfig. The damn thing still constantly runs the hard drive occasionally. I even ran ProcessExplorer and I can't seem to track it down. Anyway, my point is Vista is slow, Windows 7 is not. Worth the price alone right there. 


  2. It's not super annoying
    Ok here's a scene you know if you have Vista. 'Are you sure you want to do XXX?', 'Do you want to allow XXX to do YYY?'. Ugh, yes, yes a thousand times YES. Yes I'm aware you can turn off User Access Control (UAC) in Vista but it's still annoying. Plus in my line of work I touch many different computers all throughout the day so the defaults is something I always fight with. Windows 7 has much MUCH less of that. I couldn't even tell you if my Windows 7 UAC is on or not because it's not annoying me. Also Windows 7 has much less of the ballon spam next to the system time. God I hate that. 


  3. Has some neat little features
    I like how I can click and drag a window to the upper left or right hand corner to have it take over that side of the screen. I love the new redesigned start menu. Having the icons both serve as short cuts and the program itself when its running is just amazing. I love how the taskbar is just slightly bigger so the date is on there. I can't tell you how many times a day I used to double click on the time just so I can see the full date. 
Ok three reasons is enough for now. Read the reviews, they're mostly good. Check it out.

Windows 7 - XP Mode - Thank God!

There's a million blogs talking about how great / bad Windows 7 is. My biggest problem has always not been with Windows 7 but rather with Vista. As an IT professional I'm aware that no business wants Vista. Why? Because [insert proprietary software name] won't run on it. So if it won't run on Vista how does Windows 7 stand a chance?

Well fortunately Microsoft did think about this. They have a special 'XP mode' that is designed to run all Windows XP capatible programs. Wow, that's awesome. This actually gives me hope for Windows 7 and with that feature - I can see it being used in a business environment. The technology seems to use a virtual PC to recreate XP's environment. This also helps Windows 7 another way - developers will now write Windows 7 software!

With more people using XP mode that means people are using Windows 7 and adopting it. With more and more use, software developers will actually update their code. I hope Microsoft makes the feature work well. The future of Windows in a business environment depends on it.