The Hindu Business Line : Windows 7: WHAT THEY SAY

I have been a user of Win 7 since its early beta stage, I found the new taskbar, jumplist, and UI experience quite refreshing. Even though from a distance it looks like Vista, I felt the OS aided my productivity instead of hampering it, the way Vista did.

How is it better than the earlier versions, especially Vista?

Windows media player finally has a minimal interface which allows me to keep it running in a corner while using the rest of the screen pixels for my work. Nagging UAC (user access control), which issues warning to users while doing semi-administrative or administrative action, has now been made quiet by the Windows 7 team. They have ensured that the warning comes only in dire cases.

Introduction of IE8 will not only improve the Web as a whole (since IE is the market leader) but has a strong security model which Google Chrome team also adopted. That means better performance on Web sites and better stability. (A Web site crash won’t kill the entire IE windows.)

Basic utilities such as paint and wordpad (which now reads docx format of office) have been revamped. Boot times have decreased. And you will definitely feel better performance in multicore systems (up to 256 processors) compared with Vista due to improvements in the kernel.

Windows 7 also introduces a new driver model (WDDM 1.1), which means the device manufacturers will now have to adhere to strict coding guidelines, this will improve the stability of the system. Also, Windows 7 can now isolate and kill a driver that is making the system unresponsive. So users will soon (hopefully) forget all the bluescreen of death (BSOD) woes.

Windows 7 is bringing back themes which never made it to Vista. It also allows you to organise your stuff in libraries, so you don’t actually have to put your videos in my documents/videos to index them. You can maintain your audio video library on any folder on any disk and Windows 7 will allow you to group all of them in a single place.

The search in the start menu is superb, I never had to go into a folder to launch anything. Type fir and, voila, firefox is shown almost instantly. Launching of applications is now quite easy.

Finally the whole package looks cool (they have some groovy themes and wallpapers).

Are there any things you would want to change in Windows 7 should you have a chance to?

The price is too high (hope they bring it down a bit).

Interactive PC

Tune in to Shriram Shivakumar, a 33-year-old techie who works with an IT firm in Beijing:

What exactly can you expect from Win 7 in terms of user experience and convenience?

Touch-Screen support: One would be able to tap and do many things, such as zoom in, using fingers, launch Web links, etc, similar to the iPhone. It would make PCs more interactive. It has the ‘potential’ to change how one uses a PC (going by my iPhone experience) Quick boot up, Revamped task bar, I think it is called Super Bar.

How is it better than the earlier versions, especially Vista?

Lesser hardware compatibility issues (from Visa to W7), compared with the Windows XP to Vista upgrade; Allows disabling of default browser, Internet Explorer.

swethak@thehindu.co.in