Friday, 23 April 2010 18:39 Written by David Birchmier

 Windows 7 has been out for a few months now. You may be thinking about making the switch, or you may have already done so. I thought I'd take a minute to share my thoughts on the new operating system, and if it's worth the cost to upgrade.

Visually, Windows 7 is fantastic. By far Microsoft's best effort thus far. I'll even go as far to say that Microsoft is no longer a decade behind Apple. Windows 7 is consistently beautiful throughout both native and non-native applications. The redesigned task bar is one of the greatest improvements. No longer are quick launch icons and running programs separated. Although it takes some getting used to for old Windows users, for new users it makes things a lot simpler, and far more intuitive.

Compatibility - For the most part, Windows 7 just works. Almost all newer systems are have drivers pre-packaged or are quickly (and automatically!) available on Windows Update. Hardware wise, we have run into a few issues with older sound cards and network cards. Most were fixable via a download from the manufacturers website, but a few cases did require a new compatible sound card be installed. The other common (and to be expected) issue that we saw was with very old parallel port printers and Windows 7 64 bit. These printer manufacturers and Microsoft have all but dropped support for the majority of these aging devices. 

Performance/Stability/Compatibility - After an effort like Windows Vista, Microsoft was due to get one right.  Windows 7 is incredibly responsive, and those whom hesitated to switch from Windows XP to Windows Vista due to a laggy feeling system will be presently surprised to know that Windows 7 feels and performs very well.  We put Windows 7 to the test by installing the new operating system on an aging machine. A 800mhz AMD Athlon with only 128mb of RAM. Much to our surprise, it installed, and in fact worked decently well! Windows 7 has a built in system that automatically degrades visual effects if you are running without the latest hardware. Although it didn't run quite as well as a well tweaked Windows XP installation, it ran at an acceptable pace. Even better, all the drivers worked, right out of the box! Take that Apple!

Final Thoughts/Conclusion - We feel Windows 7 is a great operating system. It's been a very long time (in fact one might say never) that out of the box, on release day, a Microsoft operating system has worked so darn well. Is it a Mac? Well, not quite. But the hardware to run it also isn't proprietary so your cost of ownership is all around lower. Even when Windows XP was released, there was a great deal of hesitation amongst initial user, and that hesitation wasn't without just-cause as XP did have its fair share of bugs.

Thinking about upgrading? - We can help. Whether you just need to purchase the software, or want us to handle the upgrade and migration, we'll be happy to assist. If you have an older computer and wonder if it's Windows 7 compatible -- don't hesitate to ask! 

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