I can hardly believe that the three weeks is almost up.  I was expecting to fill the blog with reports of bugs and glitches with Windows 7.  Imagine a Microsoft release that actually works over 99% of the time while it’s still in release candidate form, typically their OS does not even work that well after they release it.  I have got to say that I will actually be recommending Windows 7 when it is finally released.  It has not crashed, frozen, or blue screened the entire time that I have been using it.  The 64-bit version does need some help in supporting the 32-bit programs that I use, but other than that I have had no problems at all.  Below is a simple list of my likes and dislikes of the operating system.

Like

  • kept most of the Vista layout
  • added support for many of the XP programs which were not supported by Vista
  • adjusted the taskbar and made it more useful
  • InPrivate mode added to Internet Explorer
  • ability to view recent documents by program

Dislike

  • not a lot of features which make it worth the money to upgrade unless you’re already buying a new PC
  • just like Vista, I would recommend at least a dual core 2 GHz CPU and 3 GB of RAM (this is overkill for someone who just wants to surf, check email, and type papers but becomes a minimum requirement if they are running Vista or Windows 7)
  • Microsoft misrepresents the minimum requirements here (1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor; 1 GB RAM (32-bit) / 2 GB RAM (64-bit)) This is if you only want to load Windows 7 and want it to be painfully slow.  This is also part of the reason that Vista is perceived as such a bad OS, they say it can run on (1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor; 1 GB of system memory).  In my experience this leads to an insanely slow and unstable system.  Stick with a 2 GHz processor and 3 GB RAM, or more, for good performance.

My over all opinion of Windows 7 is that it will run very well on any system that can handle the overhead of Vista and it add a few useful features.  I will not rush out and spend the money to upgrade as soon as it is available, but I wont hesitate to purchase a new computer with Windows 7 pre-installed either.

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