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The Best and Worst of Windows 7
February 03, 2009 Tom YodaBlues Colarusso |
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Summary: Besides improved performance, Microsoft has integrated numerous changes into Windows 7. But are these new features a good thing or bad? Tom summarizes the pros and cons of the new OS in this article!
 The Best and Worst of Windows 7 | Page:: ( 1 / 5 )
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The Dock
The Windows taskbar is practically a historic institution, at least in the computing world. Since Windows 95, the small sliver of real estate at the bottom of the screen has been the go to place to access all our open programs, from Internet Explorer to Windows Media Player. While hardly broken, the taskbar certainly paled in comparison to recent innovations in competing software, such as that small upstart firm Apple. Windows 7 introduces one of the bigger changes to the Windows interface, the dock.
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The dock takes some getting used to initially, but once you do, you find yourself dependent upon it and even missing it should you switch to a different OS. Think of the dock as a combination of the taskbar and quick launch, where open programs are listed on the bar and common apps can be ‘pinned’ there, for easy and quick access. When a program is minimized, the icon gains a “shine” to it, a subtle indication that it’s still running. One of the best features of the dock is the mini-preview, where hovering your mouse over the icon will give you a small image of what’s running in the application. As our screenshots show, it can even show you individual tabs in IE8, allowing you to select which tab you want to swap to when the program maximizes. We love the dock here, it’s the perfect combination of style and function and a natural progression for the ubiquitous taskbar.
The UAC
We might get flamed for putting the User Account Control, or UAC, under the good category instead of the criminally annoying category. But, before you grab your pitchforks and set some torches a fire, hear us out. The UAC is one of the features of Vista that got a lot of bad press when it was released two years ago. It wasn’t bad because it didn’t work, but rather, because it worked too well. The UAC constantly prompted the user for almost every little system change, regardless of severity. In principal, it was a good idea as its design was meant to cut down on the unintended execution of programs, such as malware or viruses. However, the level of interaction required to accomplish the most basic of tasks had most users rushing to disable the UAC, essentially negating the whole purpose of its development.
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Microsoft has thankfully toned the UAC down a bit, removing the on or off function with a slider bar that determines how much the UAC prompts the user for approval. This small change can go a long way to make the UAC more user-friendly and prevent the alienation that some inexperienced users felt when dealing with Vista’s security system.
| HomeGroups, MCE | Page:: ( 2 / 5 )
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HomeGroups
Sharing files and folders under Windows 98 was as simple as right-clicking a folder and selecting ‘share’. Windows XP, in an attempt to shore up system security, instituted a user-based sharing policy. While far more secure than 98’s system, it was hardly user friendly. Users either had to add their files to the ‘Shared Documents’ folder or mess around with the user accounts on multiple computers to grant access rights. Vista was setup in this manner as well and it was a real annoyance to share even the simplest of files.
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The new homegroup feature aims to simplify sharing over one network, utilizing a password-based system to grant access privileges. Creating a homegroup is easy, just go into the Network and Sharing Center and click ‘Create HomeGroup.’ You select which libraries you want to grant HomeGroup user’s access to, as well as their access restrictions like read-only or full access. Once you’ve set your group password, it’s very easy to join the HomeGroup and share any folder on the network, as long as everyone is running Windows 7. This works really well to share files simply while also maintaining a basic level of security, especially given the prevalence of wireless networks.
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center was originally released as an update for Windows XP and is Microsoft’s attempt at making an all-inclusive home theatre application. Windows 7 is set to include an updated version of Media Center, mostly in the interface. Media Center features some updated internet channels as well as finally delivering built-in support for Divx/Xvid files. Vista, on the other hand, required 3rd party codec packs to enable Divx functionality, such as the popular K-Lite Codec Pack.
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Most of the other changes to Media Center revolve around streamlining the interface. The guide has been updated for instance to keep whatever show or video playing the background, as the guide information is displayed overlaid. This does away with the current incarnation, which puts the video picture into a small window in the corner. Browsing future TV listings has been simplified as well. If you hold down the left or right key on either your keyboard or remote, the hours and days flash by in a blur of motion, allowing you to skip ahead in search of potential recordings.
Game Updates
PC Games are subject to their fair share of patches, even during the intervening period of time between when they go gold and hit store shelves. Keeping games up to date can be difficult, as publishers rely on the media to relay the information that a necessary patch has been released. Windows 7, however, will check games on a set schedule and notify users of pending updates that need to be applied. When you right-click a shortcut in the games window, there is now an option to keep that application up to date. Users will be notified of patches and prompted to download should an update be detected by Windows.
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| Gadgets, Explorer | Page:: ( 3 / 5 )
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Gadgets
The Windows Sidebar from Vista was also a bit of a resource hog, so the trade-off for having a fancy clock on your desktop was never really worth the hit in gaming. Windows 7, thankfully, lets the users put gadgets where ever they want on the desktop, as the Sidebar is no longer the default layout. And with the better multi-threading capabilities, the performance hit associated with gadgets should be much more minimized.
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The same default gadgets from Vista are available in 7, with many existing gadgets retaining their compatibility from Vista. Gadgets can be easily dragged and dropped anywhere on the desktop, as well as configured or closed when the mouse hovers over them.
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Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer has gotten another facelift in 7, and, like the icon docks, once you get used to it you will wonder how you ever did without it. The left side still displays the directory tree, only now you can expand more than just installed drives, like your HomeGroup or any discovered PC’s on your network. Explorer also gives you the option to hide drives without volumes currently present, such as empty optical devices. Browsing Windows has some added sliding effects when you go forward or backward.
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| The Bad | Page:: ( 4 / 5 )
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Start Menu
While Windows XP featured a start menu that was tolerable, Vista’s manner of hiding installed programs is unnecessarily confusing and annoying. Thankfully, both XP and Vista still retained the ability to use the classic start menu, should a user wish to stick with the tried and true. Unfortunately, Microsoft has removed that option from 7 and will be forcing users to utilize Vista’s inefficient alternative. Now you will need to rely on the Windows Search platform, and, while hardly subpar, it would still just be easier to browse all installed programs as in Windows XP.
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Bootloader Support
Users who wanted to retain an XP installation for legacy programs were shocked to find that Vista’s bootloader does not recognize XP installations by default. Well, since Windows 7 uses the same bootloader, can you guess what that means? Yes, there is no inherent support for legacy operating systems, only Vista or Windows 7 will be detected. While power users are probably well versed in how to modify the bootloader, everyday users are going to be hitting forums pretty hard in search of answers. We recommend users hang on to their copies of Vista Boot Pro for at least another generation, as it’s going to come in handy for the time being.
Vista Proper
Our biggest gripe with Windows 7 is the simple fact that it is pretty much everything Windows Vista should have been. Stable, secure, and performance-oriented, Vista was supposed to usher in a new era of computing with support for the latest graphical API’s, like DirectX 10, as well as an updated interface. Unfortunately, what users got was software and hardware incompatibilities, a confusing interface that was seemingly designed to make day-to-day operation more difficult, and a UAC that constantly required user interaction for even the smallest of system changes. At launch 64-bit driver support was much better than the comparable version of Windows XP, but still nowhere near as good as 32-bit Windows XP (fortunately this has improved over the past two years). Above all else, Windows 7 seems to be a big slap in the face to the early adopters of Vista, who spent a few hundred dollars to upgrade only to do it again 2 years later.
| Well, there’s good news and bad news… | Page:: ( 5 / 5 )
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Users are finally warming to Vista somewhat, especially with the release of the first service pack which seemed to have fixed a few of the problems inherent with the operating system. Now, Microsoft is poised to release their latest operating system and to be honest, it feels more like Vista Second Edition than a whole new application. Windows 7 is not a huge departure from its predecessor, as it contains mostly interface and performance tweaks. While we are excited to see many of the common complaints finally addressed in this new version, it’s somewhat disconcerting that they are going to come with a price tag. While pricing hasn’t been announced, and neither has a release date for that matter, we foresee users having to shell out a couple hundred dollars for the upgrade to 7, leading to some controversy. Fortunately, if there is one thing Microsoft is experienced in dealing with, its controversies and their operating systems. In the meantime, check out our full gallery of screenshots and let us know what feature in Windows 7 you are most excited about!
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