The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Windows 7
November 18, 2009
Microsoft Windows XP did its job so well that many people, including me, completely skipped out on the Windows Vista bandwagon. However, Windows XP is an 8-year-old operating system that's due for a serious upgrade. So is Windows 7 the next operating system for you? I recently bought a copy of Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium and spent a week exploring it.
The Good
There are a lot of good things to say about Windows 7. Overall, it is an improvement over the previous versions of Windows and I have no regrets about installing it.
A 64-bit Operating System
It might not seem like a big deal that Windows 7 offers a 64-bit version, but it had me excited. The only practical difference between 64-bit and 32-bit is in how much memory you can have in your system. 32-bit Windows XP put the cap on RAM at 3.25GB, while 64-bit Windows 7 effectively removes that cap. Also, 32-bit Windows XP wouldn't let me use a hard drive partition bigger than 128GB, while 64-bit Windows 7 lets me keep my 250-GB hard drive in one big chunk.
64-bit is not for everyone. Some software and hardware devices might not work properly in a 64-bit operating system, so I would still recommend computer novices to get the 32-bit version until 64-bit becomes more widely accepted. Going forward, 64-bit is the future and removing the caps on memory will increase the potential of what computers can do for us.
Aero Interface
The first thing you notice about Windows 7 is the new desktop interface. Microsoft calls the new user interface "Aero". It gives the windows a frosted glass look, allowing you to kind of see what's underneath the windows. The icons on the desktop are bigger and more polished looking, while the task bar probably has the biggest differences from Windows XP.
The Windows 7 task bar is thicker, has a more useful system tray area, and has an improved Start menu. The new task bar shows only an icon for open programs and groups together windows from the same application. The new Start menu consolidates everything better so you don't get the problem of an enormous programs menu once you install a whole lot of applications to your computer.
Sleep Mode
Windows finally has a true sleep mode. When you go into sleep mode, the computer appears to completely shut down, but the keyboard remains on. Returning from the sleep state takes only a few seconds.
This is a vast improvement over Windows XP, which had a sleep mode that used almost as much power as the fully functioning mode and a hibernate mode that took forever to wake up. Now I won't feel so guilty for installing a 750 W power supply!
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center has now been integrated into the regular distribution of Windows. You can sort your media files easily into libraries and also share them among other computers running Windows 7.
Microsoft has apparently struck deals with a few major networks including CBS, PBS, and MSNBC to offer free streaming content to computers running Windows 7 Media Center. Combined with the television-friendly full-screen mode and Netflix streaming, Windows Media Center might signal the beginning of the end for cable television as we know it.
Personalizing Windows 7
Finding new wallpapers to display on your desktop has never been more fun. Instead of themes having only one wallpaper that gets old really fast, now a theme can have a whole slideshow of wallpapers that automatically change every half hour to give your desktop a fresh look.
The Windows website also has a nice Personalization Gallery where you can download more beautiful themes and single wallpapers.
Updated Pre-installed Applications
Every pre-installed application in Windows got a major update with Windows 7. Most notably, WordPad, Paint, and Calculator got some significant enhancements.
WordPad now has enough features to be used as your main word processing application. However, Microsoft wants to protect its Microsoft Office cash cow, so WordPad will not open or save DOC files.
Paint has been enhanced to carry most of the features you might want for basic image editing. Notable new features include ability to scan documents, insert diagramming symbols into the image, and save images as JPG, GIF, PNG, or TIF. However, I still find it very unintuitive to resize and crop images.
Calculator got a whole slew of new calculation types and modes. Now you have Standard, Scientific, Programmer, and Statistics calculator modes. It also allows you to easily calculate length of time between dates and unit conversions. New calculation worksheets help you calculate mortgages, leases, and fuel economy. I just wish they included a feature where you can download additional worksheets to add functionality to it.
The Bad
I didn't run into any deal-breakers in Windows 7 that would cause me to seriously consider alternatives. However, there is one thing that I think Microsoft just didn't get right.
Missing Essential Software
A lot of people would probably disagree with me on this one, but I think an operating system should do pretty much everything you want it to do right out of the box. An operating system should not be merely an applications architecture where you install it, then spend the next 36 hours installing and customizing all the functionality you want it to do from different third-party sources. If you want that, then get a very minimal version of Linux instead of Windows or MacOS.
That said, I found Windows 7 lacking many basic applications that most people would expect a computer to have installed. Windows 7 does not come with an e-mail application, Adobe Flash player, and anti-virus software. When the average computer novice installs Windows 7, he would expect it to automatically let him e-mail people, browse YouTube, and not worry about viruses coming through his email or web browser. But these features have to be separately installed on new installations of Windows 7.
You would think Microsoft would all of the essential software so users don't go searching around the Internet and discovering the wonderful world of open and free software. Part of the blame can be given to anti-trust court rulings, and the other part can be given to Microsoft trying to protect their profit margins for their other products like Microsoft Office.
This is not a deal breaker however, because you can quickly install all of these features yourself. I recommend installing Microsoft Windows Live Essentials to get basic e-mail and movie-editing functionality. Adobe Flash Player can be easily installed by going to the Flash Player website. For anti-virus, I downloaded AVG Free Edition (careful though, they keep trying to "trick" you into getting the pay version. Make sure you get the Free version).
While you're at it, you might also want to try out Open Office. It's a free (yes, FREE) office suite that has most of the functionality of Microsoft Office without the hefty price tag. Open Office can also open Microsoft Office files like DOC and XLS.
The Ugly
Some features in Windows 7 are good ideas, but executed poorly.
Modernized Internet Explorer
Over the past few years, Microsoft has made some major strides in web browser technology. That's because of increased competition from some popular alternative web browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome. While Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is a much better web browser than Internet Explorer 6 that shipped with Windows XP, it still has a big clunky feel to it. Many users will still want to install their favorite alternative web browser immediately after installing Windows 7.
Driver Setup
While setting up your hardware devices is done automatically for most devices, some older devices are just downright tricky to get working. The only device I had a little trouble with was my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT camera. After a lot of searching online, I got it to work by changing the camera's communication setting from "PC Connection" to "Print/PTP". Your mileage may vary.
Desktop Gadgets
Desktop Gadgets is an idea Microsoft tried in Windows 98 but failed at miserably. This time around it actually works well, but the online gadget library is horrible. I'd say 99% of the gadget downloads are not useful and just plain ugly on the desktop. I'd say Apple is still better at designing these things than Microsoft.
Some Final Thoughts
Microsoft Windows 7 comes in three major editions (in the US market): Home Premium ($120), Professional ($200), and Ultimate ($220). I looked at the comparison charts and it looks to me like there's not a whole lot of difference between the editions. Home Premium will have all the features that the average user would want. I think Microsoft is just banking on people to just blindly choose one based on their demographic and buy it without first finding out the differences.
In an ideal world, Microsoft would like all home users to buy Home Premium, all work users to buy Professional, and all tech geeks to buy Ultimate. But this is not an ideal world. What's going to happen is that most people will get Windows 7 Home Premium pre-installed on the new computers they buy, while people who install it themselves will probably go for Windows 7 Professional for its XP Mode. Windows Ultimate will likely become the pirate version of choice for people who like downloading illegal stuff.
Microsoft seems to be overcomplicating things by having all these editions. Why not just give everyone the "Ultimate" treatment? Or how about including Microsoft Office in the Professional Edition to save IT departments the major task of doing a separate installation of Office?
Overall though, Microsoft learned from most of the mistakes they made in releasing Windows Vista and did a good job making Windows 7 worthwhile for people to upgrade to it. I'm happy enough with Windows 7 that I don't miss Windows XP.