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Windows 7 hits the streets

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21st Oct 2009
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During the evening of 21 October Microsoft officially unveiled its new baby, the Windows 7 operating system. Jon Wilcox reports on the UK launch.

The global Windows 7 steamroller fired up on Wednesday afternoon with a press briefing in London, followed by similar events around the globe as the clock ticked towards the official 22 October launch date.

The anticipation for these events builds over such a long time that the launch itself feels like a footnote. AccountingWEB first started writing about Windows 7 in April 2008 and the company revealed yesterday that more than 15m users had taken a look at the beta test and release candidate versions of the new operating system.

The previous episode in this saga, 2007’s launch of Windows Vista, proved to be an unhappy period for Microsoft, with corporate users in particular shunning the new version. Perhaps chastened by this experience, Microsoft UK head of consumer and online Ashley Highfield struck a humble note at the London launch, pointing out that Windows 7 was about much more than just new features.

“It’s a pivotal shift in MS history. It’s about understating consumers.”

The ideas within Windows 7 came from users and the project team did everything they could to make the new version work the way consumers wanted it to. “Make it invisibile, you told us, and we listened,” Highfield said.

Likening Windows 7 to an omnipresent digital force (for some reason Star Wars springs to mind), Microsoft said it wants the new operating system to be the “glue that binds your digital life together”.

In more practical terms, Windows 7 will eliminate some of the irritants that have dogged Vista and promises a number of small productivity benefits. The operating system has a smaller system footprint, is faster and offers lower power usage than its predecessor. Windows 7 access and start-up times are lower than Vista, all of which add together to generate significant cost efficiencies.

Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate include an XP Mode option to run programs originally designed for the Windows XP. Vista’s Bitlocker, which encrypts files and documents, is extended to provide similar security for solid state hard drives and USB memory sticks. Other improvements include new network creation and printer management tools.

The Windows 7 publicity may be getting through. Vista failed to make a significant dent in the corporate market, but Microsoft quoted a study from Forrester that found 57% of corporate customers were planning to upgrade their next PCs. In the UK, BT, BA and Innocent have all adopted the new operating system from the outset.

The technology press, however, continued to badger Microsoft about the practicalities of upgrading to Windows 7 from Vista and XP. As with Vista, the architectural differences are so great between XP and Windows 7 that it is not possible to rely on a simple upgrade wizard.

Yet some small business users will have PCs running Windows Vista Home Premium and upgrading to Windows 7 Professional, requires a finicky custom install, journalists noted at the London press conference.

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By Trevor Scott
22nd Oct 2009 09:50

Windows 7 - More money for Microsoft

Since many programs don’t work in Windows 7, for many people there isn’t much point in using it. I remember being at a conference when Bill Gates said anyone who upgrades there software to get rid of bugs has .... lost their marbles.

I have to admit that the W7 interface is sleeker and user friendly but, materially, the same look can be achieved in XP. Anyone looking to upgrade to W7 needs to look at the upgrade options table on the M$ web site, depending on their present software they may have to perform a clean install that would wipe everything from their hard drive. The file authorisation options are “fun” for a technologically aware person interested in testing new software, but I am sure that users looking for a simple computing experience will have their blood pressure raised.

Still, certainly an improvement over Vista. In six months time, when they have ironed out the present problems (including how to fix the problems they didn’t fix with the recent update), I am sure it will be a cracking product. PS. I am an actual Windows 7 (7600) user of 3 months, I am not from the Microsoft Money Printing Department who are all too willing to issue a new operating sytem which isn’t needed because everyones software works fine with the existing reliable Windows XP.

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By Jon Wilcox
22nd Oct 2009 11:31

Which programs?

Hi Trevor,

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Many programs don't work in Win7".  The addition of XP Mode in Win7 Professional and Ultimate gets around any compatibility issues, so that shouldn't be the case...unless of course you're running software built for Win95 or even Win 3.11!

Best,

Jon
______________________
Jon Wilcox
Technology Correspondent
Sift Media

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By Trevor Scott
22nd Oct 2009 15:32

I remember the same claims with Windows Vista,

also Windows XP, Windows 95, Windows 3.11, DOS 3 ... yet there are always programs that have issues.

I am aware of the XP compatibility mode but it does not work with all programs, I am told that M$ are working on this bu then many of the problems will be down to others' software.

I have a nephew who does graphics work and his program has issues on Windows 7, he was told they are bringing out an update to make it work. Not all of his modern computer games work either, irrespective of whether they were designed for Vista or XP. 

It is always the same, what they claim and what happens in reality is often different. Remember that M$ is the company who were telling everyone for years that Vista was great, Vista was super etc etc when they and their customers knew it was not. 

Rhetorical question; how do you describe a company that year after year knowingly sells a product it knows to be deficient and not what they claim it to be?

Fortunately they have not cocked up W7 like they did with Vista, but it is still early stages. I certainly wouldn't like to spend hard earned money on a new machine with W7, then download the current updates and find that they don't work properly so that the new PC starts up and shuts down (is it 5 or 6 timeas at the start of each day?) while it tries to repeatedly install and then uninstall the updates.

Addition, apart from a few crashes I have had no problem with MS Office 2007 ( that is where I "live"). Sage 50 wouldn't install in July but I don't know whether it has been updated. There was a published list of processors, including dual/quad core processors from Intel and AMD, that would not run the XP compatibility mode...I think the last count was about 20 processors. Obviously there is no point upgrading to W7 if you have one of these and have to use the XP compatibility mode.   

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By Jon Wilcox
22nd Oct 2009 16:28

XP Mode

Actually Trevor, you're quite right in respect of the processors...to use XP Mode, your PC's processors have be capable of handling virtualisation.

Best,

Jon

 

 

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By User deleted
28th Oct 2009 10:08

Applications that don't work .....

Visual Studio 2008 Professional on Windows 7 64 bit

Excellent!

Microsoft products don't work on their own operating system - and bearing in mind the cost of VS Pro together with man hours messing about only to find there is a problem, Microsoft should actually be paying anyone to use their products rather than the other way around

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By abelljms
28th Oct 2009 18:13

ooh, never a truer word....

i quote from above.......

"Microsoft UK head of consumer and online Ashley Highfield struck a humble note at the London launch, pointing out that Windows 7 was about much more than just new features.

“It’s a pivotal shift in MS history. It’s about understating consumers.”

--> that is how most mega-corps regard their cashcows (customers)

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By DonL
28th Oct 2009 23:08

Windows 7

It appears that from the comments posted so far that the design improvements brought in by Vista and carried forward into Windows 7 have not been understood. The OS redesign eliminated many of the flaws in XP (and there were many!). The problems some of the correspondents have experienced are because some designers of non MS products have sought to design sloppy code which ignores fundamental IT rules concerning the separation of OS functions and application code. It is unfair to criticise Microsoft for other companies failings.

I have cursed Microsoft in the past, but recognise that they are improving the unseen OS functions radically. It should be recognised that the speed of development of hardware alone gives the company work just to accommodate new types of devices. The new OS helps companies to develop such products without affecting the principal functions of the OS which was a major problem in the past.

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By User deleted
29th Oct 2009 10:56

DonL - Microsoft own products don't work ......

Questionnable whether it is really anything to do with misunderstanding

How come Microsoft own products don't work with Windows 7- reference VS2008? In this respect is it really unfair to criticise Microsoft for their own failings

As for separation between OS & applications - sometime ago Microsoft themselves were accused of having an inside track by having their applications use undocumented calls in the OS for their own benefit & to the detriment of their competitors. 

In any event it is perfectly valid to adopt system calls in 3rd party code. Furthermore, even when moving code from VS2003 to VS2005 (both Microsoft products) one was faced with many 'redundant calls' just between the two versions 3 years apart.

This is the fundmental problem with the Microsoft approach because they set rules which they promptly flout when it suits them; unfortunately this leaves everyone else high & dry

 

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