Windows 7 News, Faster Interface Flavoured
The breaking news about windows 7 is that it is very fast, efficient & reliable. The first thing that you feel when starting up Windows 7 is his speed: it not only loads much faster from the moment you press the power button, but it wakes instantly from sleep. No longer will you be left drumming your fingers while waiting for “Resuming Windows” to stop scrolling across your screen. i think it is great news of windows 7.
This is, of course, a feature that Apple owners have enjoyed for years, and there is more than a tang of Apple about the new Windows 7 desktop as well. Like the Dock in Apple’s OS X, the bottom bar on the Windows screen now displays open applications and favourite programs together, in a line running across the screen. You can pin new programmes here, re-order them in order of preference, or remove them from the bar without removing them from your system. Other Apple-like features include instant search for files and folders on your PC.
One particularly neat feature is that hovering over an open programme offers a mini-snapshot of the open screen. If, for example, you have eight windows open in Internet Explorer, all eight will be previewed and you can roll along to pick out the one you want.
After a few hours of use, users may notice that they feel slightly less harassed than before by the Windows experience. This is because the number of irritating dialogue boxes, reminding you of updates, security alerts, new software or network information has been cut drastically. Wireless internet connection, for instance, is now a one rather than three-click affair.
The new Windows also feels noticeably more snappy than its predecessor, Vista. Microsoft has trimmed a lot of the fat from its coding to produce a system that will work on all current computing devices, from the largest desktop to the smallest notebook. That is no mean feat, when you consider that the company must ensure that its products work with equipment made by about 17,000 manufacturers worldwide.
Other new features that Microsoft is keen to promote include touch-screen computing, which Windows 7 supports out of the box. However, whether touch-screen PCs will take off in the same way as touch-screen phones is still uncertain, so this feature of Windows 7 may for many users remain a dormant extra.
There is a tang of Apple about the new Windows 7 desktop
Windows 7 appears to be much faster than its predecessor
Microsoft is counting on Windows 7 to counteract quarters of declining revenue
Steve Ballmer aims to take PC users into the cloud with Windows 7
Talking of dormant extras, Windows Media Center gets a boost for the UK with the introduction of a Sky Player channel, featuring programmes from Sky’s satellite channels. Watching live TV will cost extra, as Sky, the satellite operator 39.1 per cent owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times, does not want to damage its own multi-room subscriber base. Curiously, Microsoft’s own UK video portal, with its library of BBC classics, does not get a look-in.
So, the Windows 7 experience is, so far, largely positive, certainly compared with the cluttered Vista. It looks clean, works quickly, and gets out of the way, as a good operating system should.
But there are some caveats. Windows 7 is offered in a variety of flavours, which are apt to confuse as much as enthuse, and range in price from about £50 to about £180. The base Starter pack designed for netbooks, comes without many of the web-based features you bought a netbook for in the first place. To get these, you will need Home Premium or Ultimate, at extra cost. Owners of Vista Premium should be aware that they need to buy Windows 7 Premium for all their features to transfer.
Also, the system comes supplied on two discs: one for 32-bit computers; one for 64-bit machines. If only Microsoft could have taken another leaf out of the Apple book here: its latest OS comes on only one disc and installs the optimum version automatically.
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