Windows 7 is now more than a month old (since it hit the
stores on 22nd Oct). According to the grapevine, users are not entirely unhappy.
Early adopters report they’re mostly happy — and that is true for Vista users
even more than XP users, and rightly so. After all Windows 7 is all that its
predecessor, Windows Vista, was expected to be.
For instance :
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Unlike Vista, Windows 7 hogs lesser resources, making it
a far better performer, capable of running on lesser powered net-books that
currently have to use leaner Linux or Windows XP operating systems;
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PC users are enjoying almost the same kind of performance
and services that owners of Macintosh and Linux computers have long taken for
granted.
Of course there are users who ask — why they had to wait so
long — and then have to pay for it. A few of Microsoft’s harsher critics even
argue that many of the improvements that wound up in Windows 7 could have been
released as a free ‘service-pack’ a year or so ago, that is if Microsoft
wanted to salvage Vista. After all it wouldn’t be the first time ! ! ! ! !
Still, there are others who don’t want to upgrade to Windows
7 because a good majority of the users are happy with Windows XP. There are some
who cite cost as a deterrent, a whole bunch of users are waiting for the Windows
7 service pack (already ! ! ! ! ! It’s barely one month old).
Windows XP was popular because it gave to all its users the
right to change all sorts of things (and accidentally leave back-doors open for
mischief-makers). Vista’s ‘user account control’ (UAC) technology clamped
down firmly on the user’s ability to change settings, download software or even
run installed programs. To gain the right to do so, users had to get
authorisation from an administrator. Even then, they were bombarded by UAC
interruptions, asking for all sorts of permissions and validations to continue
with whatever they were trying legitimately to do. It was enough to drive most
people insane and deem Vista’s iron-clad security feature an absolute no-no.
Just as bad, the locked-down nature of Vista made it run as slow as a sloth,
soaking up lot more computing power than XP, to perform similar tasks. The extra
security also led to instability and compatibility problems. In short, Vista
came short on a lot of expectations (that people took for granted with XP). As a
consequence, four out of five XP users (out of an estimated 800m PC owners
around the world) refused to upgrade to Vista. Incidentally, the vast majority
of those who use Vista today acquired it by default when they bought a new
computer.
But there are good reasons for XP users to upgrade. Greatly
improved security is one. Apart from being snappier and more modest in its
needs, Windows 7 is a good deal friendlier than and almost as secure as Vista.
The lack of technical support is another good reason. Microsoft ceased providing
mainstream support for Windows XP last April (though it will continue to offer
bug fixes and security patches for the venerable operating system until 2014).
Without getting into the nitty-gritty of the installation
process and the hardware requirements, let’s get on with what Windows 7 has to
offer :
Better User Access Control and security features :
Ideally the UAC was supposed to keep the users safe from
malware, but instead its constant prompts and validations prevented users from
accessing those controls. Microsoft has apparently learnt from this experience,
Windows 7’s UAC has improvised the security feature by giving the user the
option to choose the level of intrusiveness (see picture 1).
While Vista users had no choice in using the UAC (except, of
course, turning it off ! ! ! ! ! — see pic. 1), Windows 7 allows the user to
choose from two intermediate notification levels between ‘Always notify’ and
‘Never notify’.
The control is in the form of a slider containing four
security levels. As before, you can accept the full-blown UAC or opt to disable
it. Not only can you tell UAC to notify you only when software changes Windows
7’s settings, not when you’re tweaking them yourself and you can also instruct
UAC not to perform the abrupt screen-dimming effect that Vista’s version uses to
grab your attention. Naturally, the convenience comes with a caveat. The slider
that users use to reduce its severity, advises you not to do so if you routinely
install new software or visit unfamiliar sites, and it warns that disabling the
dimming effect is ‘Not recommended.’
Other than salvaging UAC, relatively few significant changes
have been made to Windows 7’s security system. One meaningful improvement :
BitLocker (courtesy of a feature called BitLocker to Go) lets you encrypt USB
drives and hard disks. However the drive-encryption tool comes only with Windows
7 Ultimate and the corporate-oriented Windows 7 Enterprise. It’s one of the few
good reasons to prefer Win 7 Ultimate to Home Premium or Professional.
Internet Explorer 8, Windows 7’s default browser, includes
many security-related enhancements, including a new SmartScreen Filter (which
blocks dangerous websites) and InPrivate Browsing (which permits you to use IE
without leaving traces of where you’ve been or what you’ve done). Nonetheless,
IE 8 is equally at home in XP and Vista (and it’s free) so it doesn’t constitute
a reason to upgrade to Windows 7.
Applications fewer, better :
It’s rather common for an OS to come with paraphernalia
applications bundled along with the main OS. However, Windows 7 has taken a
different approach (for that matter Google’s Chrome OS has gone even further).
Rather than bloating it up with new applications, Microsoft eliminated three
(ahem ! ! !) non-essential programs : Windows Mail (née Outlook Express),
Windows Movie Maker (which premiered in Windows Me), and Windows Photo Gallery.
Users who don’t want to give them up can find all three at live.windows.com as
free Windows Live Essentials downloads. They may even come with your new PC,
courtesy of deals Microsoft is striking with PC manufacturers. Ironic as it
may sound, first they say that they are non-essentials and then they add it to
the list of Windows Live Essentials, they even strike deals with PC
manufacturers — strange folks these software companies or is there something
else going on in the background ?
Still present — and nicely spruced up — are the operating system’s two applications for audio and video, i.e., Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center.
Windows Media Player 12 has a revised interface that divides operations into
There is a lot more functionality that’s been built in Media Player 12. Minimise the player into the Taskbar, and you get mini-player controls and a Jump List, both of which let you control background music without having to leave the app you’re in. Microsoft has also added support for several media types (currently not supported by Media Player 11) including AAC audio and H.264 video — the formats it needs to play unprotected music and movies from Apple’s iTunes Store.
Media Center, however, which comes only with the pricier versions of Windows 7, is most useful if you have a PC configured with a TV tuner card and you use your computer to record TV shows à la TiVo. Among its enhancements are a better program guide and support for more tuners.
