[TKevan]

Archer,

The power button is configured for shutdown. Doesn't. Puts it to sleep, but the "shutdown" from the menu actually powers the system off. Tried it several different ways. The system is a Dell Inspiron, had Vista out of the box, Athlon dual core, so, while it's far from top of the line, it's no 8008. Meanwhile, I run XP on my system (self-built, but nearly identical), and the same basic software suite (i.e. Corel PSP, Adobe CS2, Office, etc.) and it's like night and day.

[mattjones16]

Microsoft's website is down! Too much traffic.

[ArcherSLO]

Sorry, try this instead and breathe a sigh of relief:

www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/change-the-windows-vista-power-buttons-to-shut-down/

Again, I don't subscribe to the school of thought that just because a computer runs one outdated OS that it should run the latest one effectively. There are a whole host of possible reasons why your wife's PC may run more slowly -- besides the hardware I've already mentioned, there's the HDD for example. The other huge variable here is that you stated it's an "out-of-the-box Dell." I don't care what OS you're running... if it came pre-installed by the manufacturer, you're probably going to see some significant performance loss. Since you seem to have the skill set, I recommend that you consider a clean install on your wife's PC.

[robertstrohmeyer]

I just received an insightful comment from a reader named Jeremy, who has this to say about the Windows 7 UAC features:

"If you follow the Windows 7 recommendation (create a new account shows the recommendation) of always using a standard non-admin account, then you actually are required to put an admin password in to approve the UAC popup. On the other hand, Windows 7 does not say this during install and many users won't be aware of this. In fact, the only account you can create during install is a single admin account, which you can later downgrade to standard."

This is an excellent observation that escaped my notice because I performed a standard upgrade installation rather than a clean install, so I never saw this recommendation from Microsoft. Neither, I suppose, would most upgrade users. Doing your daily work from a standard user account, rather than an admin account, is smart way to add a layer of real security to your PC, since it blocks many of the methods that malware code uses to infect your system. Unfortunately, almost nobody works in a standard user account on their own PC, which is exactly why I would like to see Microsoft add an admin password prompt option to the Windows 7 UAC control panel.

Thanks for the note, Jeremy!

[chuckchuck]

I am utterly confounded how people critically analyze if MS Paint and WordPad are updated in the latest MS OS. Who CARES! Tell me if the OS is stable and lean; not Minesweeper or Solitaire! Give me benchmarks and performance tests on MS Office or Photoshop - but don't bother telling me about how "glassy" it looks . . . nuts - what's the sense!

[pinkirishgoatz]

looks like i just might be sticking with my xp. i'll take performance over "glassy" looks any day. sure it seems better than vista, but i don't need over the top pintless looks to slow down my computer

[dpbsmith]

Important question #1, if not to all users: what is the user experience in upgrading Windows XP to Windows 7 on a machine that meets Microsoft's stated system requirements for Windows 7 but does not greatly exceed them?

Important question #2, if not to all users:: Given that Vista, running on machines advertised as being Vista Capable, was disappointing to many users, what is the user experience in upgrading a lower-end Vista Capable machine to Windows 7? Does Windows 7 can be regarded as keeping the implicit promises made with Vista?

Important question #3, if not to all users: Disappointing experiences with upgrades are often met with a statement that nobody should really expect any OS to work properly as an upgrade. Transitions to an new OS should always be made by buying a new machine designed for the new OS with the new OS preinstalled. Is this really true? If so, then experiences with Windows 7 are irrelevant to people using Vista today on machines they plan to keep for another two or three years, however interesting they might be to (say) organizations who have budgeted a 2010 purchase of new computers are trying to decide whether or order them with Vista or Windows 7 preinstalled.

[dfschmid]

Thanks Robert for your article. I think it was helpful. Our company skipped Vista altogether. I am looking forward to Windows 7, regardless of the negative feedback I've heard from a number of people. Needless to say, any beta version will have performance issues and plenty of bugs. So I look forward to your updates.

Robert, I would like to know more about the changes to the folder windows. From what I understand, Microsoft is trying to incorporate WinFS-like features to make file searching easier. I was hoping for a long time that Microsoft would overhaul the antiquated file system and move toward a more database-like file system. At work, we frequently would like to group files by more than one category and view a file's meta data. I like the 'Search Folders' in Outlook. Is there something similar in Windows 7?

[JFSebastian]

Exactly, dpbsmith. You are so right on.

Forget the technical talk. My take: These guys (MS) dropped the ball and cost a ton of folks tons of money and time. If MS does not compensate them, one would expect MS to deliver on the orginal promise to those people. Whatever the EULA may say MS has a duty to deliver to people who relied on their promises. I'm still mad as hell. <pretty much>

[tms331]

Robert, I want to thank you for taking the time to publish
your article. Personally, I appreciated it and your efforts
to let the GENERAL PUBLIC (most likely, the majority base of your readers) get
a quick and dirty, but not filthy, synoptic overview of W7, ASAP, basically
minutes after the release. I believe you
accomplished your purpose, notwithstanding the arrows of negative comments from
one and the piles of monkey dung from another and their combined output of
outright rude and crude vituperous epithets hurled at you by these members of
the AANAEA* for not presenting a white paper.



If the toilet-tongue,
supremely advanced simian is so damn smart, why didn’t he reply with his own
analysis of the product, rather than
of you? He seems to know everything about
it. It appears that if he lacks the capability
to do that, then resorting to insults, smears and negatives in a series of irritating
and boring hostile comments, sans anything positive to offer, is his only other
capability. Well, there is one
exhibited. He easily morphed himself from
a monkey, clearly to a jackass. I know
that as a journalist you have to put up with the crap, as well as, the good
comments and compliments. It’s like
going through the monkey house at a zoo.
Every now and then, one of them picks up a handful of his crap and
slings it through the cage at the visitors.
That is just one of the reasons they are ranked below humans in intelligence
and their mothers don’t teach them good manners either.



My concern with W7 is compatibility with programs I already
have installed. I guess that would
depend on how quickly new drivers are available. If they were to be slow in coming out, I foresee
some real irritating problems occurring.



Also, would you suggest that W7 be loaded as a dual
operating system, if possible? However, I suppose W7 can only update the current OS. I have
had Vista for about a year now. Not only have I had no major complaints, nor
real problems with it, I actually like it.
And I use the computer everyday and for many hours each day. It has been very stable.



Thanks again for your efforts.



Tom Schoenhofer

[ReHuf]

First, I love Microsoft and greatly admire Bill Gates, Steve Balmer, et al. The senior people are brilliant and Microsoft has incredible depth of talent.

But...after being a loyal systems-level DOS then Windows user since 1981, I can't believe an organization the size of Microsoft cannot get the OS right. I finally switched to a Mac a few months ago after ignorning the system for years (I thought, wrongly, it was too light-weight and without enough application coverage to make me happy).

Mac OS X Version 10.5.6 is a seamless work of art; it launches from a cold boot in less than 60 seconds (versus 7-8 minutes on a comparably powered platform running VIsta), and never (NEVER) requires rebooting, sorting out the registry, finding device drivers, etc, nor does it hang mysteriously or require that I call Bangalore and wade through a group of techies who are way overloaded.

The only Mac apps that have given me any trouble are Microsoft Entourage and Word (both latest releases), but even those work far better on the Mac than the PC under XP and Vista. Mac apps install in a flash and leave no traces when you remove them. Many kernel and presentation services are also accessible through the Terminal if you ever need to tweak anything, but i doubt more than 0.01% will.

Microsoft should migrate away from its proprietary OS, join the Unix club, and port a spiffed up Aero-like interface to differentiate it's OS.



Yes, that means dumping the spagetti code that evolved from learning to program the IBM MVS way, and start over. I'm sure the applications group can port Office and big customers will be much happier with a far more secure, easier to maintain OS based on Unix. Either that, or Apple should provide a migration package for Enterprise customers and create a volume pricing schedule that's competitive for their MacBookPro equivalent powered machines. I know so many hard-core Windows gurus who've switched to the Mac, that I wonder if Windows will hold the largest share in five years.



The Mac's fit and finish, and the reliability of the MacBookPro is also vastly superior to any PC on the market. For example, I've been online doing multiple tasks all day and I can't even hear my fans, which are both spinning at 2000 RPMs at this very moment.

While MSFT is at it, and since the "browser" is the new client, please start leading the industry to some standards so we don't have to write kludges for IE, Firefox, Safari, etc.

I do love the X-box. Great interface. Never crashes, and let's me watch as many Netflix movies I want for $8.95/month.

[jrbales]

I was able to download and set up Windows 7 beta today on an extra PC I had sitting around. I'm happy to say that the Upgrade to Vista Premium went without a hitch for me, though I had a fresh install of VISTA on it so no files or programs. IE 8 acted a little flakey but I found a video driver on the Windows Update site. Once installed, IE 8's running like a champ. I've just had a few hours with the setup so I don't have a lot of feedback. The new 'taskbar' is a bit of a mixed bag, though I probably don't have enough experience to fully appreciate it. I did like how you can have multiple tabs open in IE 8 and hover over the taskbar Icon, which opens a small window above the taskbar with images of all the tabbed pages. You can hover over one and it opens in IE 8, you can shut tabs from the window also. Help pages are incomplete (with notes that graphics are to follow and info is subject to change. In rummaging around, I found a useful report that you can generate that shows the state of health of your computer. It states it takes 60 seconds to generate and the report was suprisingly useful. I was able to deterine that an "Unknown Hardware" error that showed up in Device Manager was actually ACPI and that a driver wasn't installed. There were hyperlinks that took you to online info to help resolve the problem. I think this will make life a little easier on newbies and those of us that are still learning how to troubleshoot! Overall, it's a good start, just keep in mind it's beta software and still a work in progress.

[konoaida]

Well, I say XP has run out its time. I am not an expert, just a novice in computers but when I switched to Vista, I never wanted to go back to XP. Most people I saw complaining about the Vista are those who never had the right hardware installed in their PC. Now we have Windows 7. I installed it in 3 computers and everything is running smoothly and quite faster than Vista. I say Windows 7 is a great news for us who wants to use computers not discussing it.

[orlbuckeye]

Microsoft doesn't include Windows mail in Windows 7. I downloaded Windows Live mail on my Windows 7 desktop. I didn't even try the mail import because I could never get it to work in previous versions anyway. I was able but do contacts import in previous version but I didn't even try it in my new copy of windows live email.

[Ironcola]

I have worked with computers since they offered an after school course with the TRS-80 and the only question I ever have for my new purchase is will I have to shell out a buch of money to buy extra hardware. When I consider buying a new software program, I do not want to spend more bucks on printers, scanners, sound cards. If I was going to do that I would buy a new computer with everything already put together, because I am not a gamer, and don't watch movies on my computer, that is why I bought a television. I never upgraded to Vista from Xp because a friend of mine said that the printer drivers were not available for his printer, that was enough to kill the sale for me. I am not going to buy a new car, because the tires, will not fit the one I have. I will simply find a new supplier, bide my time and purchase only when I have to. If the hardware market wants my money, then show me some value. I bought an external DVD Writer {HP DC 5000} for my laptop, because the DVD Burner came with an analog to digital converter, and I could switch my home movies to DVD (I could have bought an internal one cheaper that would not have done that My Hat is Off to you Hewlett Packard). That is what is killing this country, ie.. car manufacturers, all the cars look the same, no innovation and style, they worry about the inside of the vehicle and try to wow you with a cup holder. Believe it or not, Americans like reliability, they like innovation. They like a full size spare tire, not getting ripped off at every corner and YES THEY WILL PAY MORE. I am sure aerodynamics on cars and fancy pop up windows on newer computer systems sound great, but guess what, I don't drive my auto 9000 miles per hour and I use my computer for home banking, the kids print school reports, and we use the internet. So make us a computer that is reliable, and will not try to steal money out of our pocket, We will recommend it to our friends, and they will buy it. Your company can make a profit, pay its workers, and they will buy one. The people who play games on the net, or network 25 computers, don't look at off the shelf purchases, they look at custom built jobs, with IT backup. That is why Microsoft put out SP3 with more XP licenses. People will buy if you give them a great product, but not if you try to shove it down their throat.

[cdotrun]

I think companies should return their flagship Operating Systems back to the Internet, just like the way Dophins an Whales evolved when they returned to sea. What I meant is a Personal Server + Smart Clients solution. Gone are the days we have to pay for hardware, software licenses, electricity for each computer in our homes. I want to see running MS Office Home Server edition, editing documents some folder in my "personal cloud" while enjoying music from the public "XM Radio cloud".

[orlbuckeye]

The problem with XP is the hardware vendors are making the drivers for Vista and starting Windows 7 and leaving XP behind. XP is ok to keep on your older computers but go with the newest OS if you buy a new one. I installed Windows 7 on my backup laptop that is 3 years old and had a single core Pentium M processor with a ATI graphics card and it runs Vista and Windows 7 with all devices working.

[hoya68]

Although you suggest that your AV program worked fine in an upgrade was mixed. I had Norton Internet Security on two machines. One one the upgrade just noted that it was disabled because it was incompatible with Windows 7. Howvever, on the second it caused numerous crashes, and programs that wouldn't load (Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) The problem could only be solved by using the Norton Removal Tool. My advice is that before upgrading you either disable (or preferably) remove all security software.

[cald20]

Windows 7 installed without a hitch, download time took 25 minutes all in all from start of download file reburn and install took 1.1/2 hours. the appearance of the os is flashy the ability to change the settings for display are great paint features with the ribbon worked well , having a compatability mode back to windows 95 will impress users with the ability to install thier cherished accessorys that vista did not have. the graphics for gaming is much better I installed crysus and the colors with al was astounding with no loss in framerates. my only glich is the system will not shut down during shutdown still working on that one.. a thumbs up for the os so far.

[johntsin]

When will everyone get smart and demand that Microsoft stop having the public test another piece of garbage.