The long awaited release of Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows 7 was last month and finally a few days ago my copy arrived, now I can finally upgrade from Vista and hope that Windows has become what Vista was supposed to be.
First I would just like to touch on the disaster that was Windows Vista - Awkward, clunky, slow, irritating and depressing to use is pretty much a full review of the operating system; it simply couldn’t have been any further from its predacessor (Windows XP) if it had tried – Right that should be enough comment on Vista!
As I was so desperate to remove Vista from my PC as soon as I could I purchased the reasonably priced Windows 7 Home Premium (obviously I didn’t want to spend too much and end up with Vista’s bigger, uglier brother). When it arrived I knew that it certainly couldn’t be anywhere near as bad as Vista had proved to be due to the Beta testing I had taken part in, however, it had been a short while since I un-installed the Beta version and who knows what Microsoft may have done to it in that time!
So I began to install Windows 7 but the nightmare seemed to carry on from where Vista had left-off, ‘Windows cannot install until the following applications are removed’ – WHAT! – I was upgrading from Vista, not Windows ME and the apps in question were drivers surely Windows can handle some drivers, at this point I was getting that sinking feeling of “Oh what have I done purchasing this sofware, it is turning out to be a massive mistake”, but after a number of software removals and what felt like a dozen restarts I was finally on my way and from then on the process improved dramatically!
I experienced a slow but simple install but once I was up and running I had no real problems, my laptop had been transformed from the Awkward, clunky mess I mentioned earlier into a machine that did as I asked, when I asked and how I asked (the shock was nearly too much to handle). I then started to install a few key apps and would you believe it, no problems! – Microsoft seem to have not only made Windows simple, they had made it work, the ease of use at this early stage feels more like using Apple’s OSX than Windows (And I don’t use that statement lightly). When you click a window it minimises straight away, browser windows launch immediately and files copy with ease, I assume this is how Vista was supposed to be!
I am in the early stages of testing Windows 7 but just maybe Microsoft have instead of trying to make there OS do everything, have just made it do the things people want quickly and easily. I plan on putting Windows 7 through more day-to-day tests over the coming months and will post with the good and the bad of Windows 7, but in the meantime I can give it a whole-hearted thumbs up; and maybe, just maybe Microsoft are back on track.