Windows 7: A recollection

On October 22, 2009, Microsoft finally launched Windows 7 but unlike the Windows Vista launch event in 2007 at the Times Square adorned by celebrities and the appearance of Bill Gates at the large Nokia Theatre in Times Square, the short one hour launch party at the Skylight Studios near the Holland Tunnel was not so glamorous but very much smooth. The only complain about the place was inadequate seating capacity and small tables that could not hold a notebook.

One of the major attractions of the show was the appearance of the five year old girl, named Kylie, who appeared in the Microsoft TV commercial. She introduced, Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft. PC World reports:

"I'm a PC," said Kylie to a roomful of wide smiles, "and here's Steve Ballmer!" Ballmer had barely gotten out a few kind words about the fun he had meeting Kylie earlier in the day when Kylie suddenly chimed in with an almost indignant "You were late!"

"We're trying to make the everyday usage of the PC better," Ballmer said once the laughter died down. "Number one: It works the way you want it to work.... The things that you need to do all the time need to be simpler."

Later, Ballmer even came to the audience and talked with various people. He was later shown some Windows 7 based products which included Dells, super-thin Dell Adamo XPS notebook.

Windows 7 marketing group Vice President, Brad Brooks demonstrated some major features of Windows 7 such as networking wizards, multi-touch feature support, remote streaming of media and new Windows Live Movie Maker.

On that same day, Microsoft launched its online retail store selling products renowned brands like Dell, Lenovo, HP, Acer, Sony, Gateway, Fujitsu, Alienware, Toshiba, Samsung, and Asus.

The Wall Street Journal gave a minute-by-minute description of the event. They also posted a video clip:

A similar minute-by-minute coverage of the event was also posted on CNET News.

Windows 7 launch event in Japan:

In Japan, the Windows 7 launch event saw masked warriors and huge Windows 7 bills in major electronic retail stores. Sales people wearing Windows 7 headbands and Windows 7 groupies. Microsoft and Burger King introduced “Windows 7 Whopper,” a burger with seven pieces of meat weighing 770 grams. The whopper will continue till October 28, 2009. Here is a video clip of a Japanese man consuming Windows 7 Whopper.

Windows IT Pro says:

It was everything that the Windows Vista launch wasn't: Low-key and yet confident. And in many ways, the Windows 7 launch thus matched the tenor of the product itself, a product that, in the words of one Microsoft PR person, "doesn't need a big splash because it sells itself."

Indeed it does. With consumers around the world lining up in front of retail stores last Thursday to be among the first to purchase boxed copies of the product, Windows 7 came racing out of the gates. There was a palpable, even enthusiastic reaction to the event everywhere, and while reviews are universally positive--even from the infamous Apple-loving toadies in mainstream media--the most important and positive reactions this time came from the people who tested Windows 7 over the previous several months.

On October 23, 2009, Microsoft announced its quarterly earnings. The company recorded a profit of $3.57 billion and stock prices went up in the market. The future is really bright for Microsoft.

Ok, so much for the event. Now, for the product itself. How Windows 7 is doing. It is doing great just expected, everybody is satisfied with it. It is better than Windows Vista. Most of the people are happy with its performance. Some are not so impressed.

Windows 7 buying and special offers:

Here is another good news for Windows 7 buyers. Microsoft is making a special offer to buy laptops, and notebooks pre-loaded with Windows 7. Here are the prices of various Windows 7 editions:

Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade version - $219

Windows 7 Ultimate full version: $319

Windows 7 Professional upgrade version- $199

Windows 7 Professional full version- $299

Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade version- $119

Windows 7 Home Premium full version- $199

There is also a Windows 7 family pack offer that allows you to upgrade three PCs at your home for $149.

There is also a special offer for students in the U.S. They would be able to buy the Windows Home Premium Upgrade Edition for $29.99 through a special offer valid till January 3, 2010.

If you just want to buy Windows 7, you can visit the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/offers/7-days/

For more information visit the following link:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/03/windows-7-skus-announced-yes-your-worst-nightmare-has-come-to/

Products available with Windows 7:

As you all know, major electronic brands were waiting for the launch of Windows 7 to launch a host devices loaded with Microsoft’s latest operating system. You already heard about Nokia Booklet 3G, the first netbook by Nokia which will be available for $300 in Best Buy. There are also other manufacturers lining up their products. Engadget, published a full list. Some of the products are: Sony VAIO L priced at $1300; HP TouchSmart 300 and 600 priced at $899 and $1,049, respectively; and HP MS200 priced at $599.

Reviews:

No, I am not going to write a review here but present you what others said about Windows 7. Regarding its user interface Engadget says:

Microsoft got a lot right with its new UI tweaks, but it certainly could've taken things a few logical steps further. For instance, it's odd that there's no built-in support of multifinger trackpad gestures -- why is this something that third party vendors have to figure out all by themselves? We understand that the hardware isn't universal, but we'd like to see Microsoft driving the adoption of such functionality by building clear, reliable support for it into the OS. Two finger scroll in particular: it's the best thing to happen to trackpads since tap-to-click, and we think everybody should've figured that out by now.

Here is what PC World review says about Windows 7 Tray:

Windows 7's Taskbar and window management tweaks are nice. But its changes to the System Tray--aka the Notification Area--have a huge positive effect. In the past, no feature of Windows packed more frustration per square inch than the System Tray. It quickly grew dense with applets that users did not want in the first place, and many of the uninvited guests employed word balloons and other intrusive methods to alert users to uninteresting facts at inopportune moments. At their worst, System Tray applets behaved like belligerent squatters, and Windows did little to put users back in charge.

PC Advisor gives an extensive review of Windows 7. Regarding its new file management system it says:

Compared to the Taskbar and the System Tray, Explorer hasn't changed much in Windows 7. However, its left pane does sport two new ways to get at your files: Libraries and HomeGroups.

Libraries could just as appropriately have been called File Cabinets, since they let you collect related folders in one place. By default, you get Libraries labeled Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos, each of which initially directs you to the OS's standard folders for storing the named items - such as My Pictures and Public Pictures.

Here is what Ars Technica says about Windows 7 Windows explorer:

Unfortunately, Windows 7's Explorer also retains bad things, like the monumentally stupid Search window. Searching in Windows 7, as with Vista, is fast and easy. It's just that anything other than keyword search is a nightmare, because there's no kind of search builder. The search interface is just a text box to type in. For keyword search, that's fine—just type in the keywords. But if you want to do something more structured, then you need to use magic or guesswork or something. There are ways of searching metadata, but you have to know the trick.

Gizmodo review said that the networking features of Windows 7 require more work. It says:

What's Not So Good

There are a few spots Microsoft rubbed polish on that still don't quite shine. Networking is much, much better than Vista—the wireless networking interface isn't completely stupid anymore—but the Network and Sharing Center still doesn't quite nail it in terms of making networking or sharing easy for people who don't really know what they're doing. I wouldn't turn my mom loose inside of it, anyway. The HomeGroup concept for making it easy to share files sounds good in theory, but in practice, it's no slam dunk. I imagine regular people asking, "What's up with crazy complicated password I have to write down? Can I share files with PCs not in my HomeGroup? What's all this other stuff in my Network that's not in my HomeGroup?"

In the CNET review, Windows 7 gets an editors’ rating of 4.5 which means it is outstanding and an average user rating of 4.5. Regarding Windows Media Player and Device Stage it says:

When you open Windows Media Player, there's a new Stream option on the toolbar. Click it, and you're presented with two choices. Both require you to associate your computer with your free Windows Live ID. When you've associated a second Windows 7's WMP with that same ID, you can remotely access the media on the host computer. Windows Media Player's mini mode looks much slicker, emphasizing the album art--sometimes at the expense of clearly seeing the controls, but it's a definite improvement.

It also posted two video clips. Here is the first video clip:

Here is the second video clip:

Here is what Digital Trends has to say about running Windows 7 on old machines:

Windows Vista notoriously strangled older PCs, but with the reputation for performance Windows 7 had started to garner, we couldn’t help but test it on the same aging, nearly-broken laptop we turned into a home media server. With a Pentium 4 processor and paltry 512MB of RAM, it wasn’t even technically over the minimum requirements, but we went ahead and pushed anyway. After installing new firmware for the DVD drive to get it to load, it miraculously worked. Unfortunately, it’s no substitute for Windows XP. Where XP could go from power button to desktop in 30 seconds on this machine, Windows 7 hit a much longer one minute and 23 seconds.

Still if you are not happy with all these, you can visit to Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows.

Some more information about Windows 7 upgrade:

Well, if you are a Vista user and also bought the Service Packs, you can do an in-place upgrade. Windows XP users would have to go for a clean install Now, if you are already a licensed user of Windows XP, Vista or 2000 you can get a Windows 7 upgrade version at a discounted price. If you bought a new PC then you need to have the license. The windows retail upgrade version has two bootable DVDS-one 32-bit and one 64-bit. Users will also get a single product key, to install either version. If you buy the Family Pack, you get two DVDs, and a single product key, which can be used to activate three PCs in your household.

Many companies who are still using Windows XP is waiting for Windows 7 with Service Pack which will be released in October 2010. Definitely, the Windows 7 will have lots of bugs and would create lots of problems while installing on a large number of PCS. Normally, it would take something between twelve to eighteen months for a company to fully adopt a new operating system. Gartner Vice President, Steven Kleynhans suggested that companies should not wait for the arrival of the Windows 7 SP1 and immediately start necessary procedures to adopt Windows 7 into their systems. Previously, the service packs were the only way to get patches and bug fixes from Microsoft but now, Microsoft regularly provides fixes through its automatic Windows updates.

IT Chuiko says:

The reason is simple - in April 2009 ended a period of free support for this most popular of Microsoft. Over the next five years for free updates will be available only to airborne hazardous gap. Other support will be paid for. By contrast, the majority of Vista by businesses has been omitted.

April 2014, when Microsoft finally plans to discontinue development of Vista, it seems quite distant date, but Steve Kleynhans notes that at the end of 2011 will be a noticeable lack of support for XP, the software vendors, so this time we install Windows 7 on company computers . However, such an operation must be preceded by testing a new system in the corporate environment, because Gartner encouraged to take the test today of all administrators who have not yet done. After 2012 will be a period, which Gartner defines as "XP danger zone."

There are some free downloads, business organizations can use if they are planning to move to Windows 7 from Windows XP.

• Windows 7 product guide: A brochure produced by Microsoft marketing department.
• Windows 7 upgrade advisor: Helps you to identify problems you are going to face with your hardware or software while running windows 7.
• Windows Licensing Fact Sheet: Gives all the necessary about Windows licensing policy.
• Deploying Windows 7 Essential Guidance: Gives information about necessary tools and procedures required for a company to migrate to Windows 7.
• Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7: It is an ISO file contains all the tools you need to install Windows 7.
• Windows Easy Transfer: Helps to retain your prior application settings and restore them after you install Windows 7.
• Deploying Windows XP mode: A document that provides necessary information to deploy XP mode in Windows 7.
• Hardware-assisted virtualization (HAV) detection tool: A tool required to run XP mode in Windows 7 installed machines.

According to the Computer World while upgrading to Windows 7 some users had to undergo “endless reboots.” It says:

Users began posting messages about the endless reboots Friday, saying that the Windows 7 installation would hang two-thirds of the way through the upgrade. They reported a message on their machines that claimed the upgrade had been unsuccessful and that Vista would be restored. Instead, their PCs again booted to the Windows 7 setup process, failed, then restarted the cycle.

"My upgrade failed in [the] last step," said a user identified as "Manjigani" in a thread titled "Windows 7 -- Install Message -- Upgrade Unsuccessful" on the Windows 7 support forum. "And now it is in continuous loop. I let it run overnight hoping that it will fix itself, but no luck. I am stuck in limbo."

Indystar.com says:

To upgrade to Windows 7, you'll need a computer that has a processor that's 1 gigahertz or faster; has 1 gigabyte to 2 gigabytes of RAM (or memory) available; has at least 16 gigabytes of free hard disk space; and a graphics device with DirectX 9 and a driver model of 1.0 or higher.

If you are facing some problems while upgrading to Windows 7 you should check out this PC World article which gives you some idea.