Monday, December 28, 2009
Windows 7
I got Tami a new computer for her birthday (yesterday.) I got it from Dell, and it was not particularly expensive. In fact it is a desktop and pretty low in cost, around $500 or so. It came with Windows 7 Home Premium on it. So, here's what I think so far of Windows 7.
Short story -- if I could upgrade my XP machine I'd do it right now. Yes, the sad thing is that you can only upgrade from Vista. I'm hoping that Microsoft gets the word enough that they put out some sort of patch to let XP upgrade to Windows 7. In short, it's fast, it looks good, it doesn't drive you crazy like Vista does, but it does let you know if something's trying to install a program on your computer. Tami's came with fifteen months of free McAfee. It took five minutes to set it up, then fifteen to install Office 2007, which I did myself since I had a legal copy already. The files and settings transfer process worked perfectly over the network, but since it's all wireless and therefore not as fast as a Cable Modem, it took four hours to move all of her stuff. But, and this is the great thing, it all moved, and the new computer looks and feels just like the old one, and all of her stuff is loaded, except for Adobe Acrobat and Dragon Naturally Speaking. At the end of the transfer I got a list of programs transferred, along with a short list of (those two) programs that I might consider installing on the new machine.
That was it. No muss, no fuss, and Tami has not had question one in operating the new machine. If you're an old techie like me, you should know that all of the old Windows tricks still work, and you can make it look just like Windows 2000 if you want to. But, the great thing is that you do not need to know a single Windows trick to operate the thing, it's fast, small and even slick. (Yes, they stole an idea or two from the Mac OS. Don't bother suing them -- it's been tried and it failed. The GUI is public domain.)
So there you go -- an excellent review for a Microsoft OS. I never though I'd live to see the day.
Steve
Labels: Reviews
