Windows 7 - it's out
Microsoft extends evaluation period courting early adopters – good move
By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, April 30, 2009 updated May 1, 2009 with story from ComputerWorld
OK so I have Windows 7 already, I admit it. The RC7100 was just lying around on my desk. I plopped the DVD in the drive. Hokey smokes, they asked for my beta keys and it worked. I know Microsoft want me to try it out early and tell you what it’s like.
Well some parts of Windows 7 are cool, like glass. The windows are semi-transparent. You can see that there is something underneath. When I turned glass off, the computer ran slower. I have a Quad 9500 in a Dell XPS 630i – just a simple desktop. The video card is only GeoForce 9800 XT – ok but not great.
Caveat Windows 7 RC does not uninstall
The task bar is better. It will show thumbnails of open documents. I was working on a long report today with 8 word docs open, multiple instances if FoxPro and IE, 4 Excel worksheets and Adobe Photoshop. No problemo with speed, crashing and finding things was easier than before. I was playing videos in the background at the same time.
It doesn’t automatically recognize 32 bit programs so you have to add them to the start menu again. There is probably a setting for that but who cares right?
Windows 7 does something weird with permissions. I had to grant myself all rights over Outlook. There is a bug in accessing Hotmail from Outlook 2007 – as in it fails like it used.
Problems include programs without Windows 7 drivers like my fave Mackie Onyx Firewire and Sonar 8. I’ll have to stay Vista for the recording studio probably until the end of the year.
None of the Adobe code is native 64 bit but hey that’s Adobe – big, fat bloated code.
Leave a Reply