Monday, November 30, 2009

Moving to Windows 7

So I decided it was time to update my old computer, which I'd had for about five years. Sure, that's not long in the real world, but as computers go, it was getting up there. A couple external hard drives were the only reason it was still keeping up with my needs.

My new computer came with Windows 7. Despite what the Mac guy says in those ads, I've been using PCs since the DOS days, and I've never had major problems with them. Still, I'd heard mixed reviews about Windows 7, so I was unsure what to expect.

There was the normal headaches involved whenever you move from one computer to another (reinstalling software, setting up the desktop like you want it, desperately searching about for your Microsoft Office product key so you don't have to buy a new one, etc.), but all told, it was a relatively easy move. The interface works much like Windows Vista, in that if you're over 40 you probably have no clue what to do, and if you're 15, you mastered it in twenty seconds.

One new feature I've found that I like is the ability to pin programs to the taskbar as well as the start menu. So I can toss Google Chrome, Microsoft Excell, and Adobe Reader in there, for easy access, while before you could only pin things to the start menu.

All in all, Windows 7 feels like a cleaned up version of Vista. There's a bit of a learning curve, of course, since a few things are slightly different between the two systems, but all in all, it is fairly straightforward to use, with the bonus that I haven't run into as many of the annoying popup windows asking me if I really want to run the program I just clicked on to run.

My review? Nice features, but don't bother upgrading from Vista unless you're getting a new system to go with it.

2 comments:

  1. How's the comparison from XP to 7? My computer is about the same age. It's holding out, but barely. I've heard a lot of people preferring XP to Vista so I'm curious if 7 is enough of an improvement that it's now better than XP.

    Mac commercials are so holier than thou it makes me want to punch macs. And I worked with a school that had a mac for every student - they are not nearly as stable as the commercials claim.

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  2. Yeah, I've used macs and PCs since back when the Apples had 5.25 floppy drives, and DOS was king of the hill. Only reason why Macs have less viruses than PCs is because nobody cares enough about them to make viruses for them.

    Moving from XP to 7 is not bad at all. Like I said, there's a learning curve, as you figure out where everything goes, but it is far less than if you were going from XP to Mac. If you're computer literate at all, you should be able to work everything out in a day or two, and be back up to speed like you were on XP.

    Basically, if you're going to upgrade the computer anyway, go to Windows 7.

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