What does Mr. Noobie think of Windows 7?
I've followed all of the hype surrounding Microsoft's release of Windows 7. I've seen the commercials. I've read the technology trade articles. I've talked to friends who installed the beta and pre-release versions.
But do you want to know something ironic?
Until yesterday, I had never actually played with a computer with Windows 7 installed. Mainly because I have spent so much time helping others with their computers that I haven't taken care of my own. So I still chug away day after day with Windows XP (yes, I do have a laptop with Vista but only because I have to).
So what made yesterday so special? Well, I got to unbox a brand new laptop for one of my clients. And there it was in all it's glory... Windows 7.
Ya know what? Big deal.
Yes, you heard me right. Big deal. The thing looked exactly like Windows Vista to me. In fact, I could barely tell the difference. Now before all of my techie friends jump down my throat, I am well aware of the new features in Windows 7. And no, I didn't get to sit at my clients house on their dime and explore all of these new features.
I guess what I'm saying is I felt a bit of a letdown. Maybe this is because Microsoft didn't dare make too many graphical changes in Windows 7 for fear of what the Internet community and the media would do to them if they did. But give me something flashy. Give me something to ooh and ahh over. Give me a reason to pay the extra money to upgrade or buy a new computer with Windows 7 pre-installed. And no the new snap feature doesn't count.
Am I alone on this? Is everyone else wow'd by Windows 7? Have I not taken enough time to explore all of the new features? Leave a comment below and let me know.
12 comments for this blog post so far...
November 22, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Kevin Hood
I think it’s kinda obvious you didn’t spend enough time with Win7 to get a good overall experience. I switched from Vista to Win7 almost a year ago on my X61 tablet and the difference in speed and reliability was night and day. I would never go back to XP or Vista.
November 22, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Patric Welch
@Kevin - Good to know. I guess I never really considered the speed/reliability. I was just going by the initial look/feel and when it looked and felt just like Vista I was disappointed. Thanks for commenting!
November 22, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Kevin Hood
Hope I didn’t come across as “Mr. Know It All” in my first comment on your site, but I am kind of a Windows 7 fan. It’s like Vista with better stability than XP...at least that’s what I think. I usually have 30 Firefox tabs open, Filezilla, TweetDeck, Itunes, Outlook, Word, Adobe stuff, misc apps and it’s never a problem...and I reboot once every couple of weeks. Maybe I’m lucky?
November 23, 2009 at 12:01 am
Patric Welch
@Kevin - Not at all. I am a power user myself and would welcome any OS that can handle the amount of programs I have open and running at any given time!
November 23, 2009 at 10:04 am
Andy - The Digitante
My favorite things about Windows 7:
1) Home Group - This is what home networking should be. You type in a password it automatically hooks all Windows 7 computers on your network together. Super easy.
2) Windows Media Center - They took a great looking home theater and made it look even better. Easily the best media center application on the market.
3) Libraries - Folders are a thing of the past. I can have music, videos, or documents strewn about my computer and libraries will pull it all together for me. The best part is being able to have a separate hard drive for your library. Next time I upgrade, I don’t have to worry about backing up and transferring all my files. Just install a new version of Windows and link to the library. Linux has had the home directory forever. Its nice Windows joined the party.
Also, I totally agree with Kevin that my Windows 7 PC has been running continuously since I installed it in late October. It is really nice, I would say it is certainly worth the upgrade from XP. Is it worth the upgrade from Vista? Meh. I loved Vista (post Service Pack 1) and the upgrade isn’t huge. I did it to move from 32-bit to 64-bit, mostly.
November 23, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Andy - The Digitante
Also, for some reason, your feedburner on this post seems to be messed up. It gives me an ‘invalid GET’ error. I don’t know what that means or how to fix it.
November 23, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Patric Welch
@Andy - Great comments. You guys have convinced me to give Windows 7 a deeper look. I’m getting ready to order a new computer so it’s inevitable anyway that I’ll be giving Windows 7 a thorough run-through.
Not sure what the Feedburner problem is. Maybe because I haven’t switched it to the new Google feed address yet?
November 24, 2009 at 7:00 am
Frank Carpenter
Where Windows 7 really shines is a computer just barely running Vista. My sons 1 year old Gateway with 2 gigs of memory (came with 1gig), used to take 4-5 minutes just to shut down. Was constantly losing wireless connection and could only get reconnected by rebooting. It was a real pain to work on. After 1 month with 7, I’m ready to consider consider upgrading my main XP computer. Just need to figure out the best version to go with.
November 24, 2009 at 10:41 am
Andy - The Digitante
@Frank As far as upgrades go, you really can’t beat the Upgrade Family Pack. $150 for three licenses. That is $50 a license. A single license upgrade is $100, so it is even worth it if you are only upgrading two computers ($75 each).
Just be sure to back up your data and do a clean install. You might have some troubles entering your Activation Key. Just follow these instructions and you will be fine though:
http://thedig.in/5h
@Patric I hope posting a link is ok.
November 24, 2009 at 10:43 am
Patric Welch
@Andy - No problem on the link. I didn’t realize there was such thing as a Upgrade Family Pack. Is that available in stores or online only?
November 24, 2009 at 10:55 am
Andy - The Digitante
I got mine through Amazon, however, it looks like it is $250 at Amazon now. The lowest I could find it is $154 at B&H;.
http://thedig.in/6a
Maybe they aren’t selling it any longer? Hardly anyone has it anymore.
November 24, 2009 at 11:50 am
Ollie
I enjoy having my hundred and some dollars and continuing to use Vista and the one before that on our three machines..
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