Windows 7: Upgrade or Not??
KANISHKA GOEL, MACINSIDERS
It’s finally here. Everyone had been waiting for Windows 7 and see what it’s like, and it finally did release on 22nd October. Now the next question everyone seems to have is whether or not to upgrade to Windows 7. Personally my answer would be YES! But again it depends on a couple of points.
1)Whether your Computer is compatible with Windows 7 or not
2)Whether you are willing to spend so much on something that you can live without
But now with the new Student Discounts available for all full time students in eligible universities (which includes Mac [yay!!!]), you can get windows for just $39.99 and the second point should not be a problem. I wouldn’t hesitate to pay 40 bucks for something so awesome provided I have a computer that meets the requirements to run windows 7 smoothly. Also some people who have bought new PC’s/Laptops between June 26, 2009 and now are eligible for a free windows 7 upgrade.
If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:
- 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
- 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
- DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Now that you know whether or not your system has support for Win7, you should know its pros and cons for making a complete and correct decision:
PROS- Improved taskbar, full-screen preview before switching to the window (Aero Peek)— The new taskbar gives you the opportunity to have large taskbar icons as well as small ones. This just offers a bit more flexibility. Aero Peek is something completely new introduced by Microsoft in this version of Windows wherein you can completely preview the desktop or a particular window by just pointing at it from the taskbar.
- Jump Lists – This is a feature where you can see the files you've used recently by right-clicking on the icon on your taskbar.
- New method to resize applications side by side or maximize. Previously you could resize two applications such as two firefox windows by right-clicking on the taskbar and choosing-‘show windows side by side’. But now you can drag one windows to the right and the other to the left and they will fit the screen equally (50% each). If you drag a window to the top of the screen, it maximizes.
- Internet Explorer 8-Windows Vista came with Internet Explorer 7, whereas Win7 comes with Internet Explorer 8. Although I don’t really think of this as an advantage, because personally I think Internet Explorer is a con to Windows.
- Home Networking through Home Group. Two PC’s with Win7 installed can easily share their data without any hassles.
- Overall performance boost- Applications run faster than they did on Vista. Faster Boot up, faster shut down, faster resume from standby mode.
- Theme packages-You can choose various themes that come preinstalled with the Windows. You can also create and save your own themes with selection of different wallpapers and color tones.
- Levels of UAC controls-Something very annoying in the previous version of windows was User Account Control which asked permission for each and everything and the only option to stop that was switch it off(which wasn’t really safe for your PC), but with Win7, you can choose the level of security in UAC. You can set it at any level from Low to High depending on your requirement.
- Native support for SSD's
- Touch screen support-Win7 has extended touch support, i.e., almost all applications are touch screen compatible on Windows 7. It can recognize handwriting very well too(including mathematical expression)
- Extended Compatibility Support- If any program or file doesn’t work with Win7, just right click on it then select the compatibility tab and choose the previous version of windows that ran the application without any problems.
- Windows XP mode- This is by far the best feature I have come across in Windows 7. You can download Windows XP mode installation file from Microsoft for free. And when you install it, it runs Windows XP in a Virtual Environment on your Win7 PC. So you can install any file that is compatible with only Windows Xp and not with Win7 in the Virtual PC and run it with ease.
CONS- No more Quick Launch Toolbar- Well to say there is no “QUICK LAUNCH” toolbar, but it’s very similar to pinning the items to your taskbar, so this should not be an issue.
- Compared to Windows XP, performance of Win7 is still a hit or miss to a certain extent.
- Better System Requirements necessary for Win7 than WinXP
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BOTTOMLINE
As you can see from above, the PROS of Win7 clearly outweigh its CONS. Windows 7 is far better than what Windows vista should have been and therefore a recommended upgrade for everyone who can meet the requirements for it.
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