windows 7 release date

Only 2 years after officially releasing Windows Vista, Microsoft has just recently announced its official release date for Windows 7. The release date is October 22nd 2009.

With many people complaining about Vista's performance and computability issues it seems that Microsoft has listened and made some major improvements to Windows 7 that is sure to make a lot of people happy. Some of the issues I found with my clients Vista PC's were related to performance, compatibility and even printers.

Vista is a very pretty (what I like to call it) operating system but is very hungry for resources which means if you want to do anything other than browse a few web pages, check emails and work with a few documents you really needed to boost your RAM up to 2gb or preferably 4gb. Problem with this is that 4gb is the maximum amount of RAM Vista's 32 bit operating system would take which is a bit of a concern as it doesn't leave any room for improvement when bigger and better applications come along. (Large majority of users run the 32 bit version of Vista compared to the 64 bit version.)

Another couple of issues I have come across is printer installation and sharing. When Vista was first released one printer manufacturer, wont mention names, told my client they didn't offer drivers for the expensive multi function printer he had (only a year old) and that the solution was to buy a new one. Most manufacturers have released new drivers for their older printers but not all. The other problem I have come across several times is printer sharing, whether it be XP to Vista, Vista to XP or even Vista to Vista some printers just couldn't be shared over the network unless you manually configured ports and did a whole heaps of other technical stuff. Hopefully this is an issue that Microsoft has rectified with Windows 7 as I haven't been able to test it yet.

Compatibility in windows 7. This is something that when people hear it they remember all the $$'s it cost them or think of all the $$'s it will cost them. When upgrading an operating system you have to take into consideration all of the applications you are using and whether they will run on the new operating system. When windows Vista came out some of my clients didn't realise at the time some of their applications would not work on Vista and the only way to get around it was to upgrade to the latest version of those applications. MYOB was one of the major ones I came across as they may have been running an older version and had to upgrade it. In Windows 7 however they have a new feature called XP compatibility mode. I don't know a lot about it yet as I have only tested the Beta release of Windows 7 (Pre Release sometimes without all the new features) but I'm hoping it will save a lot of people some money by not having to upgrade their older applications.

So what's Windows 7 like? From running the Beta version I have noticed some major improvements already. Start up times seem a lot quicker than Vista, moving through your folders and files seems a lot snappier which is always a good thing and there's a couple of nice new features too. The overall appearance of Windows 7 is similar to Vista, it has the same interface, the same new start button, but the Task bar has changed.

Some of the new features include a handy new feature where you simply drag your application bar to the top of the screen and it automatically maximises it for you, drag it down an it restores it, drag it to the left and maximises it on the left of the screen allowing you to drag another application to the right. This will allow you to have a split screen with one application on the left and one on the right so you to compare spreadsheets or have your Outlook on the right while you work away on a Word document to the left, this will help utilise the potential of a any widescreen LCD

Another great feature is being able to rearrange your applications on the taskbar. I don't know about you but I love to have Outlook as the first application on the taskbar. My Outlook first and after that I'm not too fussed but I love my Outlook First. Problem with Pre Windows 7 Operating Systems is that if you opened Word first and then Outlook they would be stuck in that order, to rearrange them you would have to close them all down and reopen them. Well now all you do is drag them to where you want them and they are rearranged in the new order. Very Handy.

Well this is only a couple of the new features and improvements in Windows 7 but some of them were much needed especially when it came to performance. I hope to bring you more information on Windows 7 when I get my retail release sometime after the 22nd of October.

U'R Computer Ade
Offering onsite computer repairs and networking in Melbourne since 2004
http://www.computerade.com.au/index.php/tech-talk/10-windows-7-release-date-announced.html

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