Presenting Windows 7

Presenting Windows 7

by James W. Osborne II, CNA, MCP, MCSA, IT Manager

October marked the release of Windows 7, the latest version of Microsoft's Windows operating system (OS) product line. Microsoft has been developing the Windows OS for the past 25 years, and Windows 7 builds upon this long history, delivering a robust and well-featured product.

As of this writing, we've not yet had access to the final product; however, we have utilized public betas, and a public final release candidate. In our testing, Windows 7 is slightly faster than Windows XP and much faster than Vista. It also offers some very intriguing features.

Out of the box, Windows 7 will seem very familiar to those who have used Vista, as the user interface is similar. Many evaluating it have concluded that it is Vista 'done right'. Most applications and drivers designed for Vista work with Windows 7, which means there should be fewer problems with existing equipment.

Notable changes include the ability to 'pin' applications to the task bar, and the ability to rearrange open applications on the task bar. Windows Explorer has been changed slightly, as have the context menus. Paint and Word Pad have now received interface updates similar to Office 2007 applications. Some versions of Windows 7 will ship with Bitlocker, which provides full disk encryption. Finally, Windows XP Mode offers a virtual XP environment for applications that won't run in Vista or Windows 7.

Windows 7 comes in six different editions. One of theseis geared towards home users, three toward business users and one for 'emerging markets'. Windows 7 upgrades run between $120 and $220; full versions run between $200 and $320. A 'Family Pack' of three licenses is available for about $150. Windows 7 was released to manufacturers, and has been available to the public since October.

While we normally recommend waiting until the first service pack of an operating system is available to deploy, Microsoft may not let you have any choice. Those businesses that have held off on switching to Vista are having increasing difficulty obtaining hardware and licenses for Windows XP. In those situations, we suggest beginning a migration directly to Windows 7.

Windows 7 promises to be a well-rounded and polished operating system. While there will be a learning curve, we feel that it is a much better alternative going forward than Windows Vista.

Contact James at James_Osborne@mnccpa.com.