In just a few days Windows 8 will be formally unveiled by Microsoft at their BUILD conference in California, so we’re in the final few days of Windows 7 being top dog. Yesterday in part 1 of this article series I wrote about how Windows 7 had reversed Microsoft’s fortunes and only a single year after its release, had silenced all the company’s Windows critics. It was extremely quick to sell and sold many more retail copies than any other version of Windows before it. But what actual new features did Windows 7 bring to the table and how did it improve over XP and Vista?
In terms of improvements it was the performance tweaks that enabled the operating system to run effectively on Netbooks that was the biggest and most noticeable change in the code. We were in the beginnings of a global economic downturn when Windows 7 was released and this software gave the owners of older PCs as way to effectively upgrade them, and even get a speed boost if they were running Vista, for less than $100. With Windows 7, Microsoft also introduced a family pack for the first time with licences for $50 each.
The improvements to User Account Control (UAC) and the overall security of the product also helped considerably. UAC was a nightmare for most people in Vista, asking you constantly for permission to change the time or some other minor Windows settings change. Windows 7 was, first and foremost usable and secondly offered significant improvements in performance over its predecessor, being ‘almost’ as quick as XP on the same hardware. Finally there were significant improvements made to software compatibility. Where Vista wouldn’t run many XP programs, Windows 7 fixed all this and allowed software to run properly again.
But what actual features did Windows 7 bring to the table that changed things? This is where Windows 7 fell short. The most notable improvement was the new taskbar, an amalgam of the original task bar and the quick launch area, but with large icons that would more easily be clicked, and more interactivity with running programs. In fact if you ask people to name a new feature in Windows 7 then most people would probably point to the taskbar.
Libraries were the next ‘major’ new feature but were they actually effective and did people use them? The idea behind libraries was to encourage people to add meta-data to all their files, documents, pictures, music and video. For those people that did, including myself which took me several weeks on and off, the libraries were moderately useful, especially with organising and viewing photographs. For everyone else though you’d probably never notice a single difference from the way you used Windows Explorer in XP or Vista. This was because Microsoft completely failed to offer any significant tools and utilities for adding metadata to files. Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 added some useful tools, but did people actually want to use them?
It was a similar story with all the other ‘new’ features in Windows 7 too. Several stand out as being extremely useful such as Aero Snap, but how many are actually used in day to day life? Windows 7 offered significant improvements over its predecessor when it came to performance, but very little in terms of actual new features.
One area where there were significant improvements however was in touch, with Windows 7 being the first multi-touch version of the operating system. I know that Windows 7 is pretty useless on a tablet (I’ve got one) but without the tablet improvements that Microsoft made we most likely wouldn’t have a single Windows 7 tablet right now and the future for Windows 8 might have been very different. For instance Microsoft may have decided to pull out of the tablet market altogether and focus on the desktop. Windows 8 will be very tablet-oriented and so the tablet functionality added to Windows 7, while woefully inadequate in itself, has helped lead the way forward.
It would be very interesting to hear your own views on the new features in Windows 7, what you use and how you feel about the product.
For me the most important features of Windows 7 are it’s stability, the new taskbar and one of my favourites are the aero effects. I think people use them a lot of the time without realising it. Aero Snap, Aero Peek and Aero Flip are features I use everyday without thinking about it
GUI improvements are not enough to justify driver and stability problems. Yes, Vista had annoying UAC, but that was easy to turn off. I have noticed that new driver framework seems to bring failure. Windows XP could use Windows 2000 drivers, and Windows 7 can use Vista drivers. But when Vista and 2000 came out, they both needed their own new drivers, which gets things off to a slow start. I feel like both windows 7 and windows XP worked perfectly with most devices on their release dates.
Local search, of course.
If Microsoft keeps up with the Metro UI , Windows 7 will never die!
You can reset Windows 7 password with password reset disk if you have one created
in advance. If not, you can use Windows Login Recovery software to recover your
password. Free trial of Windows Login Recovery is available on its website.
Really, I’ve enjoyed MS products since DOS 3.3. I really liked the ease that Windows 95 offered, I enjoyed the lightweight powerhouse that Windows 2K was, and although slow to warm to XP, that OS I found could do everything I needed, and still does. Windows 7 runs my new machines, but I find that for everyday computing the iPad and iPhone is simply more efficient. I like MS, but Windows 8 needs to trump Apple on the various platforms to survive.
I was totally satisfied with XP and only bought 7 to get Media Center since I was warned against getting Vista. I have found 7 wonderful in many ways but the least functional since 98. Windows Explorer has crashed and numerous tries at fixing it have failed. Windows Explorer crashes regularly. Help requests have not resulted in a solution. It appears to be a Windows problem since disabling all other drivers does not remove the problem. The UAC is useless unless in Administrator mode as it blocks installation of all software. Why did they take away Power User? With Home Premium there are no workarounds because Group Policies can not be modified without paying another $100/computer. Frankly, I’m almost tempted to go back to XP.
Speaking only for myself, I much preferred XP – my previous OS. The snap and peek and flip, I found to be so annoying, I went online to get help with disabling them. I’m still trying to figure out how to disable some other features. I imported from an external hard drive, my files and folders, pictures, videos. Those libraries didn’t help. My Documents folder ended up in My Music folder. I spent days pulling out my hair until a nice person from this site helped me create partitions where I can create my own library the way I want it.
I can’t think of a single thing I prefer in Win7 but I do love my new computer.