Windows 7 Review from a Normal Person

Some of those who know me think I’m a “techie” type of guy, always first to jump on any new technology. I guess they think this is the case because I work with websites, but I’m actually a laggard. I generally wait for everyone else to test something out before I jump in. I’m usually the last guy to get the hot new mobile phone (I still don’t have an iPhone), the last guy to get a new computer (I’m using a 4-year old laptop), and the last guy to upgrade to the new operating system (I never even went to Vista, I just stayed with XP). So it’s a bit out of the norm for me to already have upgraded to Windows 7, and  I even threw a Windows 7 launch party! Actually no, I didn’t, but if I had, it would have been EXACTLY like the one in that link.

Why did I upgrade so fast? Because I figured things couldn’t get much worse, plus they suckered me with the pre-launch pricing. It was only $100 because I ordered it a few months in advance.

My problem was that my computer was slow. You would think that 4 GB of RAM and that a dual-core 2.2 GHz processor would be enough to allow me to navigate through email messages in Outlook without having to wait five seconds for each one to open, or that my computer could play a DVD without getting choppy, or that I could adjust the volume control while also watching a video in iTunes without iTunes nearly choking to a halt, but those were all common issues, and despite being pretty good at running a clean computer, I couldn’t get the thing to run very well.

Around the time I decided to reformat and start over they announced Windows 7 so I figured hey, why not just wait a little and then upgrade and see what happens. The waiting was painful, but last week I finally got Windows 7 in the mail, and proceeded to reformat my computer and install it.

How did it go? Almost perfect. The only problem I had was that I thought Carbonite had backed up my Outlook archive file, but it hadn’t because the file was locked or something, so I lost a few years of email. It’s probably for the best. I mean, it’s kind of like losing a diary, but who would want to read that stuff anyway? My deepest thoughts, feelings, and desires as expressed to family, friends, and business associates? Boring. I don’t know why the President can’t use email and then when Congress starts an investigation and demands his email files he can’t use the same excuse. “Yeah, I’d love to give you the emails between me and Andy Stern, the union guy, and George Soros, but…well, I thought it was backed up and it wasn’t. Sorry, my bad.”

Installation

Other than that, the install was amazing. I’m not being sarcastic, it really was impressive. Normally when you reformat your hard disk it takes a little while. Enough time to go get a snack and make a few phone calls. This time it took all of 2-3 seconds. And installation took a few minutes at most. It was almost too easy, compared to installing XP, which easily took the better part of an hour. And no, this wasn’t an upgrade where the OS just changes some things, this was a clean install (using a Windows 7 upgrade disk) because you can’t avoid doing a clean install between XP and 7.

Now, when I talk about the install taking a few minutes, I mean that’s how long it took from the point when I put the disk in until I had a new OS running. Installing all my apps again and customizing all my settings took considerably longer than a few minutes, although no longer than it would have with XP or anything else.

Applications

Speaking of apps, I was somewhat worried about them all working on Windows 7, but so far they’ve all worked perfectly with the exception of Hauppage’s WinTV app, which is a pretty niche app for connecting a DVD player to a computer, and they’ll probably get it worked out soon. But Adobe Photoshop, Quickbooks, iTunes, Training Peaks’ Peakware, my remote check scanning and deposit software, etc.–it all worked perfectly.

Speed

Now that it’s all up and running, what do I think? First of all, my computer is definitely running faster. Faster than it would be running if I had just done a format and clean install of XP? I think so. I don’t ever remember this computer running this fast. Those problems I mentioned with iTunes, Outlook, and DVDs? Gone. Everything seems quick and responsive, almost like a new computer…well, not quite, but it’s a LOT better than it was. One thing that is most definitely faster is boot up times. I’d say the time it takes for me to get from starting the reboot to being able to open all my programs and get working again has been cut by 90%. It previously took forever for my computer to turn off, go through the boot process, and then once I logged in, it took forever to get to the point where I could actually do anything. It easily took 6-7 minutes or more, whereas now it takes less than a minute.

In addition, I’m able to rip CDs faster in iTunes, and it doesn’t take so much processing power. Before, I basically couldn’t do anything else if I wanted to copy a CD into iTunes, I just had to leave it alone to do its thing. I also use a program from PCTools called Registry Mechanic, which used to take a lot of time each time I booted up scanning my computer and fixing things, but now it gets through its job in about a fifth the time, maybe less.

Interface

This is the hardest part for me. Things look different than they did in XP. I think there’s an option to use more of an XP-like interface, but I figured I’d jump in and try to get used to the newer interface with some minor tweaks to make it more like what I’m used to. I have gotten more used to it after a few days, although I still have a hard time getting used to tiny things about Windows Explorer. But it’s not too bad.

That’s about it. It’s faster, all my programs work, and the interface is good enough. If you’re considering the leap, I won’t discourage you, and might even give you some minor encouragement although man, if you missed out on the pre-launch pricing I feel for ya, that was a really good deal.