{"id":278,"date":"2009-01-21T00:01:56","date_gmt":"2009-01-21T08:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=278"},"modified":"2009-01-20T18:53:51","modified_gmt":"2009-01-21T02:53:51","slug":"windows-7-beta-trials-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=278","title":{"rendered":"Windows 7 Beta Trials, Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes, I have have Windows 7 working on my test computer. It’s much more solid than Windows Vista was at this point in the process, and overall I’m pleased. I still don’t see the masses flocking to upgrade their PCs, though.
\n
\nThe Windows 7 installation seemed a bit smoother to me. It properly identified most of my hardware, which was friendly and fast. It also identified the home network, though it immediately pushed a new concept on me, the homegroup<\/em>. Before I could do anything fun, however, I needed to restart. New updates. Yadda-yadda.<\/p>\n

Finally, after restarting, I was able to dink around in Windows 7. Here are my immediate thoughts:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Overall opinion: It’s Windows Vista+. The theme is a bit more serious, however. I remember the transition from Windows 98 to Windows XP and how cartoony Windows XP looked. Windows 7 restores some of the sleekness to the interface. It looks more serious, more professional, calmer.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Yes, they moved things around again. New places, new names. Get used to it.<\/p>\n

\u2022 One thing that’s nice, however, is that the response time is good. The interface feels peppy, where Windows Vista was often an annoying slug.<\/p>\n

\u2022 There is no more Classic View for the Control Panel, which is a shame. Still, the Control Panel is better organized and very fast. A new “devices” panel makes a logical jump for dealing with peripherals and primary PC components.<\/p>\n

\u2022 As one of my basic tasks, I tried to set up a printer. The operation works the same as in Windows Vista (and XP for that matter), but there was no printer driver for my old Laserjet 4V. So, as is tradition, I predict there will be great upset with the masses over the New-Windows-Printer-Driver issue.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The UAC (User Account Control) warnings are still there, still annoying.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The taskbar is different, and actually better. It’s now a hybrid Quick Launch bar\/taskbar. Well, actually, it’s more like the Dock in Mac OS X.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Sidebar is gone, replaced with a new item in the Display Properties (“Personalization”) area called Desktop Gadgets. That’s a welcome move. The Gadgets will never approach the clever diversion of the OS X Dashboard.<\/p>\n

\u2022 There are nice pop-up context menus for taskbar buttons. It’s one of those “why didn’t they think of this before?” type of things. Very handy.<\/p>\n

That’s pretty much it for my first blush. As with Windows Vista, I think it will be a worthy upgrade. (Remember, I didn’t see Vista as disappointing.) Despite that worthiness, as is my tradition, I won’t recommend the upgrade unless you’re getting a new computer with Windows 7 pre-installed. Hopefully those people won’t be massively disappointed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, I have have Windows 7 working on my test computer. It’s much more solid than Windows Vista was at this point in the process, and overall I’m pleased. I still don’t see the masses flocking to upgrade their PCs, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}