analyze – i has it

It just works…but why does that impress me so much?

I decided on a whim last week to download the Release Candidate for Windows 7 Ultimate.  Reformatting my computer turned out to be a nightmare, but was completely user error (which I may tell you about some other time).  That aside, I finally got back to a clean working computer state and was ready to install Windows 7.  Below are my first impressions.

Installation

My first impression when installing Windows 7 was that there are several screens that should have hour glasses or “please wait” signs in them so that you don’t think your computer has locked up.  I came very close to resetting my computer a couple of times (glad I didn’t) because I thought something had gone amiss, but nothing was really ever wrong, it was just working in the background without telling me.

Other than that, I was very impressed with the LACK of time it took me to install the OS.  Windows XP always seemed to take around an hour – no matter how fast your system was – before you could actually start installing drivers and applications.  Windows 7, despite the fact that it’s several times larger than XP, was done installing within 45 minutes, maybe less.

I noted that they don’t ask for your key now until AFTER the entire OS is installed.  Several cynical ideas went through my head as to why they would do this, such as “A pour sole gets all the way through installation and realizes their key is no longer any good – but since they are so close to being able to use their OS, they are more prone to buying that new key” – or they might have just thought it fit better there…who knows

Movie Desires

Laura and I wanted to watch a movie last night – we chose The Two Towers since I am reading through The Lord of the Rings again and had recently finished that book.  That is no short movie as you know and we decided we should start it no later than 6 so we could get to be on time (which is preferably before 10).

I had just finished “healing” my PC from the previously mentioned (Andrew induced) sickness which I won’t go into now either.  The time was a little after 4 PM.  I started installing Windows 7 and started thinking trough all the steps that I usually had to go through with an XP install to get to the point where I can watch a movie.  Six o-clock wasn’t looking very promising.  Windows XP could take me 3-4 hours just to get the OS ready and the drivers installed.

I could have ditched the Windows 7 install and tried to XP up to Movie Watching status as fast as I could, but I decided to press ahead with the Windows 7 install.

Fast Installation

So thirty to forty-five minutes later I was already in to Windows and it was configuring my network for me and activating the OS.  But there were still all those pesky driver disks and restarts to go through.

Side Note

I was very happy with the user interface this time around for Windows.  It feels very natural.  I was able to customize all the basics without having to use any help forums (which is what you would expect, but not necessarily from Windows).  I was most excited when I found a slider in the “Getting Started” section that allows you to turn the UAC (also known as Windows Hand Holding) all the way off.

The user interface is only as good as the OS behind it right.  Well perhaps this can be a small proof, six-o’clock came and Laura and I were actually starting our movie.  Not only that – we ran to pick up some pizza before we started it.

Devices Just Work

I was completely impressed with how many of my devices Windows 7 just knew how to use.  I turned on the printer, Windows 7 set it up.  I detected ALL of my motherboard devices and set up my network for me.  It set up my video settings intuitively (although I did go a grab the latest driver just to ensure optimal performance).  And the one device that it couldn’t get on the first try (the sound card) it sent me right to Creative’s website and told me what to download so I could get going as fast as possible.

Application compatibility was another concern I had.  I figured some of my XP programs wouldn’t work right and I would still have to load Windows XP just to be able to do everything I need in a given day.  I can honestly say that so far I have found no reason to put XP back on.  The real test will be when I start putting on some of my games and development software, but as far as watching our movie and checking the budget before I went to bed last night.  I have no reasons to go back to XP.  In fact, several of the features (burning ISO images for example) that I used to have to load programs for are now built right in to Windows.

I’ve just started to dig into the system level applications, but at first glance, it looks like there is a whole suite of programs that come with Windows designed to help you keep your computer running its best – from resource monitoring tools to a program that will give you a complete health report of your computer.  I have yet to see how helpful these programs will actually be, but it looks promising.

It’s Still Windows

The last thing I did before I went to bed last night (after our movie which ran great) was to copy my backed up documents and music from my external hard drive, back to my internal hard drive.  This reminded me that, yes this is still Windows.  As I was watching the “Estimated time left” it went from 40 minutes to 3 Hours and then ended up taking about 50 minutes.  Obviously, they did not spend any time updating their file copy algorithm.  This was more humorous than annoying.

It’s Got Potential

I was impressed with how things just seemed to work after I stalled Windows 7.  Then I thought “really, that’s how it should be”.  For some reason we’ve come to expect (and be OK with) a Windows that requires several hours of a user’s time to get it going.  Hopefully, this trend will continue.