Get Ready for Windows 7
October 21st, 2009 | by rey |
Windows XP was launched nearly 8 years ago, which is ages in the world of technology. A majority of Windows users are still on the old but trusty operating system. When Vista was launched back in 2007, market response was tepid to say the least what with all the software and hardware compatibility issues that plagued the OS. Now nearly a decade after XP and barely three years after Vista, Microsoft is on the verge of releasing it’s newest client operating system, Windows 7. October 22 is the General Availability date, when stores will start displaying and selling the new OS.
Windows 7 is more of an evolution of Vista. What Vista was meant to be as they say. It’s now faster, uses less resources, more stable and more secure. The tradition of needing to upgrade your hardware to accommodate a new Microsoft Operating System has been broken with Windows 7 which requires hardware specifications that would fit what we would currently consider a low-end computer not much different from the minimum specifications for a Vista Premium logo’d PC a couple of years ago.
Anything that runs on Vista should run on Windows 7. Application and driver compatibility issues have been mostly addressed making the switch from Vista to 7 much less painful than how it was moving from XP to Vista. Microsoft even added something called XP Mode, available as a separate download from their website, which is essentially an activated copy of Windows XP running in a virtual machine. You will need to download and install Windows Virtual PC first to use it. What this offering does is make the switch an even easier decision especially for those who really need XP to run a legacy application that only works in the old clunker OS.
Microsoft has high hopes that Windows 7 will be received with much more enthusiasm than Vista. Reviews of the new OS based on testing done with the Beta, Release candidate and Release To Manufacturing versions have been mostly positive.
