Windows 7

I have spent the past few weeks using Windows 7 on my laptop, and so far I am very impressed. Everything is sleek, trim, non-intrusive, and easy to get use to. This is sort of a step by step of my experience's with Windows 7

After I downloaded Windows 7, I burned it to a CD and restarted my computer. I had a copy of Windows XP that I wanted on my computer, so I created a new partition using Easeus Partition Manager (before I restarted). So once that was finished, I installed Windows 7 without a hitch. Windows automatically installed all the drivers for my computer automatically, which was extremely nice! And whats more my horrible integrated graphics chip was updated to use the Aero features!!

First thing I did was to download a Anti-virus program. Once installed, I hopped on IE8 and began surfing away! I eventually switched to Firefox, but IE8 has some nice features. One of these is (at the moment) exclusive to IE8 and Windows 7 in that it allows you to see what tabs you have open while IE8 is minimized. It can also potentially allow for faster tab switching. There are also some nice new keyboard short cuts, which are explained in this Video. Also, Windows Media player has a new, and simpler interface, that I love. If you are a widget person, there are a few available, with more coming. No longer is there a bar on the right side of your screen, all the widgets are free floating, and can be put anywhere on the screen. Icon views have been slightly modified, but they match with everything else. The Start menu is still very similar to Vista's but with some more logical choices of icon placement.

Now, let me talk about what I don't like.
The sounds in this version of Windows are really corny. Vista had interesting, almost pleasant sounds, but Windows 7 sounds like horns honking. Really lame.
For some reason, perhaps because this is a beta product, they did not include a Email program. For years Outlook express has been used by default in Microsoft's OS's, but with Vista, Microsoft switched to Windows mail, which was absolutely HORRIBLE. But with Windows 7, you have to downloaded your mail program of choice (you can get an updated version of Windows mail, which is much better than the Vista version), But seriously, the average Joe is probably not going to know how to do this. We will see what Microsoft decides to do for the Full Product.

Also, Windows 7 is supposed to be faster than Vista, use less resources, and what not, but they still cannot come close to the minimum specs that were used to run XP. My minimum specs suggestions would be:

Vista
2.0 GHz Dual Core processor,
2GBs of Ram,
15 GBs of hard drive space,
DX10 Graphics card.

Windows 7
2.0 GHz Dual core processor,
2GBs of Ram,
10GBs of hard drive space,
DX9 Graphics card.

As you can see, not much of a difference, Almost all hard drives sold these days are at least 160-250GBs big, some going up to over 1TB. And DX9 Graphics cards are almost obsolete unless you have a used one, or you have an junky laptop. Ideal specs for both OS's would probably be:

Vista
2.5GHz Dual Core processor,
4GBs of Ram,
20GBs of hard drive space,
DX10 Graphics card.

Windows 7
2.3 GHz Dual Core processor,
3GBs of ram,
20GBs of hard drive space
DX10 Graphics card.

And yet, Windows Xp could run Great on specs like this:
2.5GHz Single Core processor
1GB of ram,
15GBs of hard drive space,
DX9 Graphics card.

OS's will not get much lighter than they are now (IMO) but as most computer parts are so cheap, its not really necessary, and I think people make to big of a deal over Windows OS's using to many resources.

Bottom line, If you have Windows Vista, you probably don't need to upgrade to Windows 7, at least for a few months after it has arrived. Windows 7 is basically Vista done right. Eventually, Gamers will "need" to upgrade to Windows 7 for DX11 support, but there will probably not be any games that support DX11 at release.
For Windows XP users, I see no reason why you shouldn't upgrade, as Microsoft has implemented some great features for backwards compatibility (if that's what has kept you from upgrading), and its about time you upgraded anyway.