1月12日
Windows 7 First impressions
I’ve been using the Windows 7 build 7000 public beta for a few days and I am quite happy so far. It recognized *all* the hardware in my Satellite A205-S5825, a 1-year old computer, including things like the touchpad that gave trouble to both Vista and Windows 2008.
Although the computer runs x64, I installed the 32-bit version so as to compare it better with the other 32-bit OSs I run in the same machine. I replaced the copy of Vista I had there and left Windows 2008 Enterprise Server.
After the installation the OS selection menu didn’t show up any longer so I could not boot Windows 2008. I then run VistabootPro, a utility I used to recover from a similar situation after I wanted to make Vista coexist with XP. Not only it didn’t work, it made all OSes disappear, including the fresh copy of Windows 7. I then booted from the Windows 7 DVD and selected the “recover” option. It did find both OSes and set up a boot menu with both options.
Windows 7 seems to be everything Microsoft promised with Vista but failed to deliver: it boots fast, uses much less resources than Vista, UAC is much less intrusive so I can live with it turned on. The OS seems to be more responsive, for instance I no longer see a long leg after I open Windows Explorer. Although it’s a beta, it already looks better than the first retail version of Vista. It looks like Microsoft got it right this time.