A Preview of Windows 7
Microsoft released Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) to affiliates and partners last week and made it available to the general public May 5th. The RC release of Windows 7 will be available at least until the end of July 2009.
There is no cost to download or use the pre-release versions of Windows 7, however the product will shut down every two hours after March 1, 2010 and then expires on June 1st, 2010. Microsoft recommends installing a non-expiring version (meaning buy it) prior to March 1st. The download is available here.
It has been fairly well documented that Windows 7 is easier on resources than Vista and the minimum requirements have been developed with 2007-era PCs and better. So, naturally I decided to load it on the oldest PC I could find here at Malibu-Blue, a 2004 vintage Compaq Presario with an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ processor and 1 GB RAM.
Download & Installation
There are a few things you need to know before downloading Windows 7 RC. It's a very big file to download, the 32-bit version is 2.35 GB (yes Gigabytes), and it is an ISO image file so you will need to know how to burn a DVD from an ISO image. There are free ISO burning programs out there like ISOBuster and Active ISO Burner if you don't already have DVD burning software that handles ISO images (available for download from www.Tucows.com, www.Download.com, or search Google for 'ISO burning software').
After burning an Install DVD, the installation of Windows 7 is relatively easy. Updating from Vista is reported to be very easy. I took the more difficult route of upgrading from XP Home. To upgrade from XP you need to run the File & Transfer Wizard included in the Windows 7 upgrade directory. Unfortunately, it doesn't tell you until after it copies the installation files and is ready to upgrade. All in all it was only a minor setback and the rest of the installation was relatively simple and much less extensive and time consuming than previous Window version upgrades.
Performance
Okay, I'm impressed. Even on this old machine there is a noticeable difference in the performance. The operating system loads faster and runs programs better than the previous XP Home. This may be partially due to less programs running now since not all of the previously loaded software has been reinstalled. Even so, the old computer is running as well, if not better, than it did with XP. And this is on a computer that I would not even try to run Vista on (I recommend 2GB RAM as a minimum if your using Vista, 4GB if you don't want to be frustrated). Remember, this old PC that I put Windows 7 on only has 1GB RAM and an old AMD chip.
Why is is this important? More and more consumers and businesses are keeping their PCs longer. If Microsoft released another bloated version of Windows like Vista, it would have been the beginning of the end in my opinion.
Windows 7 will run very well on older PCs, and even better on new ones. This is good news for those not wanting to spend extra money on a new PC and wanting to keep their old PC running for a while longer.
Windows XP Mode
Businesses have been, and continue to be, very reluctant to move to Vista. It's understandable, since there were many driver compatibility issues and business software that ran on XP but required costly version upgrades to work on XP. Some software wasn't readily available even if businesses wanted to upgrade to Vista.
Microsoft really had no options with driver compatibility issues. They had to deal with the problem with the release of Vista or later on down the road. They chose to deal with it with Vista. Basically, since Windows has historically been an "open" system allowing just about anyone with a programmer to create hardware and software drivers, it had become a major source of instability. Windows 7 utilizes much of the same driver requirements as Vista.
So, Microsoft's problem with businesses is two-fold. Windows 7 needs a way to support legacy software that ran on XP AND needs to support those flaky drivers too. Remarkably, they have done this with Windows 7's "Windows XP Mode".
What Windows XP Mode does is allow software written for Windows XP to run in a virtual XP environment as if it was running in Windows 7. In other words, you can run any old software built to run in Windows XP, and the associated drivers, in the actual XP operating system instead of an emulated version of XP.
Unfortunately this is not a solution for everybody, since this feature requires a PC that supports hardware virtualization which has been available for about 3 years now. Many newer PCs have the capability but its turned off by default. Computers older than 3 years or ones that don't support virtualization will need to be replaced in order to take advantage of this feature. For many businesses, this is a less costly and easier to implement solution than upgrading their software.
Unfortunately, the PC I'm testing on cannot run Windows XP Mode so I have not been able to test the feature first hand. For more info on hardware virtualization, click here.
Anti-virus Issues
Microsoft provides a list of Anti-Virus software vendors with products compatible with Windows 7 RC1. Norton 360 from Symantec is on the list of vendors and products. I was disappointed to find that Norton 360 version 3.0 is not yet 100% compatible. It did install (with some difficulty), but some of the required drivers fail to install, specifically email scanning, leaving the PC somewhat vulnerable.
Other users note that the free versions of AVG and Avast! run well on Windows 7 RC1, but I have not yet personally confirmed this.
Windows 7 is still considered pre-release, so fully supported anti-virus products like those developed by Symantec should be available before actual release. It is still disappointing that they were not ready for this well publicized pre-release. Microsoft has provided a list of anti-virus software vendors working on Windows 7 compatible products (click here).
User Account Control (Allow or Deny!)
One of the major complaints about Vista was the constant prompt to "continue or stop", seemingly whenever a user tried to do anything on the computer (the infamous "allow or deny" in those Mac ads). What this feature really does is notify the user whenever a system-level change is attempted, either directly by the user or indirectly by a software program. This feature made Vista more secure but very frustrating to use. Microsoft says that the UAC was the single most complained about feature in Vista.
The problem with Vista was there were only two settings, "on" or "off". For Windows 7 there are now four levels for the UAC. The User can shut it off, only notify the user when a program attempts a change but don't dim the desktop. only notify the user when a program attempts a change and dim the desktop (the default), or always notify the user the same way Vista did. It needs to be noted that dimming the desktop is more secure since if this is shut off programs could interfere with the prompt (meaning disable, make their own, etc.).
The new default in Windows 7 should make the system less annoying to use while maintaining most of the protection offered by Vista systems.
What's Missing In Windows 7?
Microsoft did take some things away in Windows 7. Microsoft no longer bundles Windows Movie Maker, Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows Mail (formerly called Outlook Express). These applications, which used to be included in the Windows installation, are now only available as a separate download in the Windows Live suite of desktop applications.
This is a strange move on Microsoft's part since just about every other operating system like Linux and Apple's OS X provide similar apps. However, none of those other systems have the same anti-trust issues that Microsoft faces.
On a more positive note, unlike Vista the Games folder which includes games like Solitaire and Minesweeper are installed by default in Windows 7.
Conclusion
It looks like Microsoft may have an answer in Windows 7 to the Vista critics and businesses holding on as long as they can to Windows XP. Microsoft is doing all they can to put an end to XP and migrate everyone to Windows 7.
The operating system runs well and requires less memory, much more so than Vista, even on older machines. It appears to be as advertised, less of a resource hog. It seems to me to work more efficiently than even XP. As consumers and businesses struggle with the current economy they are keeping older computers longer. Windows 7 will allow them to do so. This is great news for all Windows users.
And most businesses (and consumers) will still be able to run their favorite Windows XP software. Microsoft may have learned a lesson or two from Windows 7 predecessor.
And the pre-release versions are free until June 2010. Unfortunately as of this writing Microsoft has not announced how much Windows 7 will cost after June 1st, 2010.
If you have any questions about Windows 7 please feel free to email me at wayne@malibu-blue.com.
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