First, to provide full disclosure -I earn my bread & butter by working with UNIX/ Linux servers . But until heading for the job market, I grew up on a steady diet of Windows Operating System. This helped me become well versed in just about every OS from Microsoft and any other you can imagine in POSIX environment. Could not stop myself from writing on the first hands-on feel on this new release from Microsoft which i just installed on my laptop.
On desktop space I am still a very avid and loyal user of Windows and I guess I will continue to do so for quite sometime down the line. Accidentally though, yesterday I had to upgrade my system to Windows 7. I know its a while Windows 7 got released for customers on October end last year. This many days I was still using Windows XP, but yeah! I also started feeling that XP got booed, unable to match fast evolving rich set of Hardware market space. Its is more than 12 hrs. I could test almost most of the new features.
Below is what i liked most out of this new release -
Performance on this IBM laptop was surprisingly zippy and certainly superior to that of XP what i had just some hrs. back. It gave me the login prompt quite instantly and post which explorer showed up in almost no time. Aero worked like a charm, windows and dialog boxes appeared quickly, and I experienced no slowdowns. The Control Panel and its applets opened nearly immediately, without the delays which was common in XP.
The most noticeable is the new taskbar, which replaces both the old Quick Launch bar (for launching applications) and the old taskbar (for switching among running windows). The new taskbar combines the two features, doing double-duty as a task launcher and task switcher, similar to the Mac OS X Dock. In general, it succeeds admirably.
The searchable Start menu alone ensured how eligible it is to receive the accolade. This search gives much faster result that too on multiple items. For ex. search for the word "Value" - will show you a result on email, word documents, media store, or where ever it finds this match. For the Windows faithful, it’s been a tough eight years -and i felt that finally, Microsoft releases a successor worthy of Windows XP.
Another core enhancement to the OS comes in the form of Jump Lists. When you right-click an application's icon in the taskbar, a menu appears of actions associated with that application -- and the list varies according to the application. Desktop Search and Explorer Enhancements is also much appreciated. From Windows XP, Windows 7 will totally feel like a revelation from the glossy future.
Troubleshooting and Monitoring of services is quite good, and gives much better detail. Almost a revamp on the resource monitoring(resmon).
Large icons on the taskbar are used to launch applications, as well as to switch to different windows running in those applications.
Another feature i liked was ,the Aero Peek; which is a kind of X-Ray vision used to view the Desktop temporarily without minimizing all open windows or applications, this is particularly useful when we just want to have a quick look at the Desktop and are too lazy to minimize all the windows. Moreover Switching among windows using Alt-Tab has been improved by combining it with Aero Peek. When you use Alt-Tab to cycle through your open windows, you still display the window that you've tabbed to, but you also peek through to the desktop to see the underlying desktop, along with outlines of any other open windows, just as you can with Aero Peek.
I wont say its still a multimedia power house, but there are good improvements on that front too. There is good enhancement over the UI. A common annoyance with earlier WMP was -not having the right codec, which looks much better with WMP12. Also, With Windows Media Center, your PC is a powerful TV now.
While it addresses a number of nagging issues - this latest OS from Microsoft delivers a truly next-generation interface which also gives a very handy and a nice look and feel with faster computing that will definitely transform the way we use our computers. So to summarize - Windows 7 has focused on usability, user experience and overall feel.
But i know instead of appreciating there will be still some people who will complain about various other things. My say is that -Lets Love it for what it is, Not what we want them to do just for me. Its hard to sell a product that 100% people are going to like and want it to function to their like's. Love it for what it is, Not what you want them to do just for you. Who knows, it might even make its entry in the next version of "Every OS Sucks" video !
Frankly speaking -Windows 7 indeed wowed me. I guess it's Microsoft’s Best Yet ! - Ultum Melior.
Cheers!
DEBU
On desktop space I am still a very avid and loyal user of Windows and I guess I will continue to do so for quite sometime down the line. Accidentally though, yesterday I had to upgrade my system to Windows 7. I know its a while Windows 7 got released for customers on October end last year. This many days I was still using Windows XP, but yeah! I also started feeling that XP got booed, unable to match fast evolving rich set of Hardware market space. Its is more than 12 hrs. I could test almost most of the new features.
Below is what i liked most out of this new release -
Performance on this IBM laptop was surprisingly zippy and certainly superior to that of XP what i had just some hrs. back. It gave me the login prompt quite instantly and post which explorer showed up in almost no time. Aero worked like a charm, windows and dialog boxes appeared quickly, and I experienced no slowdowns. The Control Panel and its applets opened nearly immediately, without the delays which was common in XP.
The most noticeable is the new taskbar, which replaces both the old Quick Launch bar (for launching applications) and the old taskbar (for switching among running windows). The new taskbar combines the two features, doing double-duty as a task launcher and task switcher, similar to the Mac OS X Dock. In general, it succeeds admirably.
The searchable Start menu alone ensured how eligible it is to receive the accolade. This search gives much faster result that too on multiple items. For ex. search for the word "Value" - will show you a result on email, word documents, media store, or where ever it finds this match. For the Windows faithful, it’s been a tough eight years -and i felt that finally, Microsoft releases a successor worthy of Windows XP.
Another core enhancement to the OS comes in the form of Jump Lists. When you right-click an application's icon in the taskbar, a menu appears of actions associated with that application -- and the list varies according to the application. Desktop Search and Explorer Enhancements is also much appreciated. From Windows XP, Windows 7 will totally feel like a revelation from the glossy future.
Troubleshooting and Monitoring of services is quite good, and gives much better detail. Almost a revamp on the resource monitoring(resmon).
Large icons on the taskbar are used to launch applications, as well as to switch to different windows running in those applications.
Another feature i liked was ,the Aero Peek; which is a kind of X-Ray vision used to view the Desktop temporarily without minimizing all open windows or applications, this is particularly useful when we just want to have a quick look at the Desktop and are too lazy to minimize all the windows. Moreover Switching among windows using Alt-Tab has been improved by combining it with Aero Peek. When you use Alt-Tab to cycle through your open windows, you still display the window that you've tabbed to, but you also peek through to the desktop to see the underlying desktop, along with outlines of any other open windows, just as you can with Aero Peek.
I wont say its still a multimedia power house, but there are good improvements on that front too. There is good enhancement over the UI. A common annoyance with earlier WMP was -not having the right codec, which looks much better with WMP12. Also, With Windows Media Center, your PC is a powerful TV now.
While it addresses a number of nagging issues - this latest OS from Microsoft delivers a truly next-generation interface which also gives a very handy and a nice look and feel with faster computing that will definitely transform the way we use our computers. So to summarize - Windows 7 has focused on usability, user experience and overall feel.
But i know instead of appreciating there will be still some people who will complain about various other things. My say is that -Lets Love it for what it is, Not what we want them to do just for me. Its hard to sell a product that 100% people are going to like and want it to function to their like's. Love it for what it is, Not what you want them to do just for you. Who knows, it might even make its entry in the next version of "Every OS Sucks" video !
Frankly speaking -Windows 7 indeed wowed me. I guess it's Microsoft’s Best Yet ! - Ultum Melior.
Cheers!
DEBU
I came to know from some of my friends that - While Siebel CRM 8 is compatible with Windows 7, the majority of users still have older versions, like Siebel CRM 7 or even Siebel CRM 6. Some people are encountering Windows 7 compatibility issues with Siebel for several reasons. Siebel CRM 7 (or older) requires Internet Explorer 7 (or older) and cannot run with Internet Explorer 8 (or newer). For this reason, customers upgrading to Internet Explorer 8 are encountering compatibility issues. So need to watch out - how best this is being handled as of now!
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