I have been pissed with Vista that anything else would be better….but this is not simply the case for Win7…this OS is simply awesome with features I did not regret upgrading all my vista OS to windows 7….just do it and you won’t regret a bit….it is simply better, faster and makes you achieve your task faster…go go…just grab one!

I purchased this full version so I could load it on my Macbook via bootcamp and it worked flawlessly. I really like this version of windows. We use XP at work and it was great for a while especially after win 95 but Win 7 is incredible. We skipped Vista so this upgrade was long overdue. Everything seems to work better. The Adobe CS 5 suite is amazing on Win 7. I wish there were better font management options. All in good time I assume.

I am completely satisfied with Windows 7 , however I am very disapointed that there is no E-Mail contained in this software.

I’ll admit, I’ve been running Windows 7 for six months now: the preproduction version of it and have just upgraded to the gold code. So I have quite a bit of experience with the operating system. Let’s get to the nitty gritty:

Should you upgrade from Windows Vista? YES! I mean it – upgrade today.

Windows 7 is quite simply faster, more stable, boots faster, goes to sleep faster, comes back from sleep faster, manages your files better and on top of that it’s beautiful to look at and easy to use. Even the preproduction version of Windows 7 was better than my Vista with SP2.

Should you upgrade from Windows XP? Maybe, but for different reasons.

XP is a good operating system and if you don’t need to add new hardware or software, XP is good. However, XP is old as an operating system. Also chances are that if you’re running XP, you might not meet the minimum requirements for Windows 7 – check the compatibility site at Microsoft to see if your system will support Windows 7. That said, Windows 7 is light years ahead of Windows XP in terms of functionality, ease of use, etc – to me it’s worth buying a new system.

64 bit or 32 bit?

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s ok skip this section. If you have a core2 duo or core 2 quad or a multi cpu machine, go with the 64 bit OS, it handles memory and the CPUs much better. If you have a single core CPU, one CPU or run special programs that require 32bit, then stick with 32 bit for now.

BEFORE INSTALLATION:

I recommend you have:

-a core 2 duo or core 2 quad machine

-4gig of RAM (That’s about $50 in today’s market)

-good hard drive with (200 gig – it doesn’t need that much but that’s another $50)

-back up your files to a USB drive like Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDME5000TN (Midnight Black)

-check to make sure your computer is compatible with Windows 7

INSTALLATION:

Installation was very straight forward. You put in the CD and reboot your machine. You might have to enter your bios and enable the “boot from CD” option. Once the machine reboots a nice screen comes up to guide you through the installation. You have the option to upgrade your PC or do a clean installation. I did an upgrade and it brought in all of my files and settings from my windows Vista system. It worked great.

The upgrade did take about 2 hours for me so definitely consider.

I noticed that early on in the installation the operating system went out to Microsoft’s site to look for the latest and greatest updates, so I think this should help Microsoft respond quickly to any hiccups with compatibility.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK:

The driver from my old HP Inkjet printer for 2001 doesn’t work on Windows 7 so there are some things that will not transition. I had to use a generic HP driver which doesn’t give me the quality that I got from an injet – so overall, I’m up and running with that printer but I’m degraded on the inkjet front. That said, I recently upgraded to a HP CP2025DN Color LaserJet Printer that I love so no real loss there. I’ll likely pick up a cheap inkjet for the occasional photo that I might need to print. Everything else upgraded.

BENEFITS

-faster boot time

-faster go to sleep

-faster wakeup

-faster about 20% to 30% faster at running applications than my Vista – seriously (but those are my results without any benchmarks or anything like that, just seeing how fast Adobe Illustrator loads, and how fast all the applications respond)

-joining wireless networks is much easier

-the interface is just plain beautiful

-my wallpapers are now a slideshow that can be set to change every few minutes (I’m not stuck with the same picture)

-Gadgets – these are wonderful little small applications that you can drag onto your desktop. I have a weather gadget and a calendar gadget on my desktop that tell me

-Better taskbar management – hovering over the taskbar icons shows me mini windows of what’s running

-Better file management – I can organize my files into Libraries that are sortable not only by type but by folder or other data. It’s great! I can browse through my presentations or illustrator files!

-Windows Media appears to be smoother which I love.

-You get some virus protection and firewall with Windows 7 but consider something more comprehensive like McAfee Total Protection 3User 2010. Yes, it’ll make your computer run a bit slower but

CONS:

- Some older programs might not work and some drivers might not be available like my inkjet driver.

- Other than that, there aren’t too many drawbacks to Windows 7 – it’s a great OS.

WHICH VERSION SHOULD I GET?

I got the ultimate version because I have clients who ask, “is your hard drive encrypted?” — I wanted to be able to say yes and have sensitive data encrypted one of my computer volumes – Bitlocker is only available in the Ultimate version. Ultimate also includes Multilanguage support.

If you’re a home user that doesn’t do a lot of networking, you might consider just the home premium edition. If you’re using a laptop and connect to networks at work, you might want the Professional version of the operating system to help you with domain joining. Also Windows Professional gives you the option to run applications in XP mode so if you have old applications you can use that nifty feature. I already have 1 application running in XP mode – it’s nifty to run an old application.

NOTE:

The box contains both the 32 bit and 64 bit OS.

OVERALL:

It’s very hard to write a comprehensive review on an entire operating system so I didn’t even try – I’m sure magazines will devote entire articles to the operating system and several books will come out. My goal here is just to give everyone a glimpse of what I’ve found to date with this new OS. I do hope this has helped you in making a decision.

Hats off to Microsoft on Windows 7. It’s more of a refined Windows Vista than an entirely new operating system but it was needed. Thank you.

Windows 7 is the best operating system I’ve ever used. That’s not saying much, as I’ve never used an OS that I thought was wholly satisfactory, but Windows 7 has come closer than any. It’s the first OS that feels like it’s actually on my side, rather than me having to wrestle with it half the time.

First, a little about me for context. I’ve used Windows versions 3.1, 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, and a little of Vista. At work I use a Mac, where I’ve used Leopard and Snow Leopard. I hated all versions of windows up until XP, which I thought was imperfect but acceptable and relatively stable. I have a love-hate relationship with Mac OS – some features of it blow XP away, while others feel clunky and poorly thought out. Windows 7, I’m pleased to say, beats them all. It’s sleek and pleasant to use, it looks great, and it contains a few smart little additions that make certain tasks easier and more intuitive.

Firstly, they’ve combined the task bar and the quicklaunch into a more flexible, powerful bar that is a little like what Mac OS uses. You can pin things to it and you can drag task bar items to rearrange them if you like (at last!). Opened and unopened programs now coexist in the same basic area. This might seem odd, but once you get used to it it feels like a better system: ultimately, it makes sense to have all of your commonly used programs in the one place, whether you’ve opened them yet or not. Right-clicking on items on the taskbar now also offers a variety of useful things. For example, right-clicking on Media Player lets you select from a list of recently played playlists/albums etc. The new taskbar still isn’t perfect, and it’ll ruffle some feathers since it’s different to what people are used to, but I’m sure that most people will eventually agree that it’s a step forward.

One of my favourite additions to 7 is the searchable start menu (Vista users are already familiar with this, but the implementation is better in 7). I always found previous start menus to be time-consuming to navigate and therefore rather pointless, but I love this new one. It’s like having the power of Google on your desktop (but much quicker), and it’s changed the way I use my PC. Press the windows key and start typing something, and as you type it quickly presents you with a list of matching programs, documents, control panel options and other things. It’s the fastest way to find anything on your computer.

Organising your files is easier now too. The new Library system lets you organise your documents, pictures, music and file types of your choosing in a more flexible way. You no longer have to place every important file you own in a subfolder of “My Documents”, and you no longer feel forced to syphon everything into the categories “documents”, “pictures” and “music”.

There are some great interface tweaks, too. Drag a window to the top edge of the screen and it’ll automatically maximise. Drag it to the left or right edge, and it’ll automatically resize to take up the left or right half of the screen (which is great for comparing two folders or working simultaneously on two programs). Things like that feel natural and ‘meant-to-be’ within seconds of using them. It’s great to see Windows actually surpass Mac OS in areas of fluidity and user-friendliness like this, considering that most previous versions of Windows always felt years behind Mac OS in this regard. Of course, this is a subjective opinion, since the success of an interface depends largely on the personality of the person using it. How you use your computer is influenced by whether you’re methodical or spontaneous, relaxed or aggressive, an individualist or a conformist, a hoarder or a minimalist. For me, the 7 interface works well, and is the smartest and most logical yet. My guess is that Microsoft spent some time studying how most people actually use their computers and honed the OS accordingly, but that they also left various parts of the interface open to individual preference.

I like the “gadgets” too. They feel less obtrusive than in Vista, yet more convenient and immediate than the widgets in Mac OS. Windows 7 also loads and restarts much quicker than XP did for me. Another key improvement is that 7 hassles you far less. It doesn’t throw Vista-style warnings in your face every time you do anything, and you don’t get popup baloons sprouting from the system tray like weeds, like on XP. It still has notifications and security monitoring functions, but these are presented to you in a more elegant and well-behaved way.

There are various other things that, depending how you use your computer, you’ll love or you’ll ignore. Personally, I love that you can change screen resolution and turn on/off a secondary monitor much easier than before (windows-key+P is all you need for the latter). Compatibility mode is great too. Most programs and games I’ve used have worked fine on my 64-bit version of Windows 7, but for the couple of old ones that had issues, I simply checked the “run in XP compatibility mode” box and the problem was solved.

There are no doubt also various things that will annoy some users and bypass others. For me, it was what Windows 7 did to my Wacom tablet, making it barely usable. It turns out that 7 treats tablets as if they were touch-screen monitors, and for some reason it alters their functionality in ways that are (apparently) suited to touch-screen monitors but that make Photoshopping with a tablet almost unbearable. If you experience this issue, google it and you’ll find the settings that need to be changed to make this problem go away.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend Windows 7 to just about anyone. If you’re getting a new PC, it’s a no-brainer: get Windows 7, because it’s superior to all earlier versions (how superior is up for debate, but it’d be hard to argue that it’s not at least a little better). If you’re still on XP, definitely consider upgrading to 7 unless you’re 100% happy with XP and aren’t too interested in getting stuff done a little faster (XP now feels about as clunky and unfriendly to me as Windows 95 did when I discovered XP). If you’re a Vista user, then maybe 7 is not different enough to warrant the upgrade – I guess it depends on how you use your computer and how much you like Vista. If you’re a Mac user but need to use a PC for some reason, then 7 is also for you: it’ll probably be the most user-friendly and familiar version of Windows for you, and although you’ll still miss things like exposé, you may find that in certain areas 7 is smarter and nicer to use than Mac OS.

Sure, 7 is not perfect. It still has some foibles, and as can be seen from some of the negative reviews here, not every single person has a smooth ride when they install it. This, unfortunately, seems unavoidable and, actually, I think the receptions XP and Vista received when they came out were far worse. For me personally, installing and getting to know windows 7 has been a smoother ride than previous versions of windows. I’ve only had it running for a few months though, and only time will tell if it gets as rusty and buggy after a year as XP usually did. Many of the IT techies I work with have been using 7 since its pre-release versions, and I’ve heard nothing but positive reviews from them.

Overall, Windows 7 is two steps in the right direction from Microsoft and, considering the competition, I think it warrants 5 stars. I am, finally, after an agonisingly long wait, happy to be a Windows user.

The product is equal from all retailers. What sets this purchase apart is the retailer. Competitive pricing, quick delivery, free shipping, no sales tax. What more can on ask for?

With Windows Vista being so buggy and having some problems, I was a little worried if ishould just go ahead and use Windows 7 for my new computer. I decided from what I had heard to go ahead and give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised by how stable it was and by how many wonderful little tools it had to make my computing easier. I’d recommend it to anyone.

This purchase was for my HP notebook PC, purchased in 2008 with Vista pre-installed. I hated Vista for several reasons which Win7 completely rectified. The biggest problem was the minimal help HP offers with laptops older than 2009, so getting all the drivers and programs that were part of the proginal HP package was a pain but we have recoverd 95% of what was lost in the transition. I’m very pleased with the speed and general performance of this OS.

Windows 7 anytime upgrade arrived in the mail, promply. It did exactly as was promised with no difficulties. I have been satisfied with the product.

Art

I haven’t been a PC user for all that long; perhaps 10 years, so I’ve only seen Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. I suppose that’s enough to know when an operating system has reached a pinnacle. Windows 7 is the version that finally excels. Faster, easier to use, better in general. Every good feature, broken or useless in previous versions, has been repaired or made better. The only complaint I have over Windows Vista is that they removed the calendar and e-mail program in favor of Windows Live, which I do not like. Overall, a good buy.