Get excited, because Windows 7 has landed, replacing Windows Vista as Microsoft's flagship operating system. This is something to be happy about, because Microsoft has actually made their Windows operating system better this time around, not worse, as many feel they did with Windows Vista. Those of you still hiding in the safety of Windows XP, it is now safe to come out from hiding for an upgrade.
Let's start with the basics. According to Microsoft, the system requirements for Windows 7 are:
?- 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
- 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
- DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
On the whole, these requirements, while higher than XP's original requirements, are lower than Vista's. A laptop or desktop purchased in the past five years (and even older in some cases) can most likely take some version of Windows 7 without much hassle. Better yet, anyone with a college e-mail address can actually obtain a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium for just $30 from www.Win741.com. That is a good bit cheaper than the retail price of $120, and this deal is valid until Jan. 3 of next year.
So why is it worth it? There are many, many reasons, but I will outline just a few highlights and notable points, and leave some of the features out to let you discover them for yourself.
The sidebar is dead. Long live the sidebar. Now the items that used to live in the sidebar are gadgets which can be dragged around to various parts of the desktop as you please. Yes, it's reminiscent of Mac OSX. At least the gadgets are free. WordPad and Paint now have the ribbon incorporated, similar to Office 2007 software. The calculator, which seems not to have changed in recent memory, or in anyone's memory for that matter, now features real-world uses built-in, a nice touch.
Since we're college students with laptops, battery life is a very real concern. Windows 7 has improved battery power management beyond what Vista was capable of. It can even spit out a battery efficiency report that breaks down all the various programs that are burning a hole in your battery life.
Don't like those balloon pop-ups killing your full-screen gaming experience? Disable them! Don't want that one program alerting you all the time? Just disable that program's notifications. This is one example of how Windows 7 has made some small changes that really matter for the user, while making the entire operating system more secure and functional. Another example is the ability to change WiFi networks in one click from the system tray. No more clicking "View available networks" and then poking around until you manage to get yourself onto the "hopkins" network. You can now see available networks directly from one click on the taskbar.
Windows 7 also offers some nifty visual features, many of which were being accomplished using 3rd-party software until now. Dragging a window to the left edge or right edge of the screen will cause an Aero overlay to mark off half the screen.
Releasing the mouse will snap the window to fill exactly one half of the screen. Shake a window to minimize all other windows, leaving only the shaken window to look at. You know that bar at the bottom of your screen, showing what windows you have open? Yeah that taskbar? It's getting bigger. And wordless. Each open program gets a block icon which can be click to see its 'jump list,' which shows some commonly used features of the program. You can 'pin' a program to the taskbar, allowing you to launch that program directly from the taskbar, and now that same icon contains all the windows from that program.
For example, you might have your internet browser of choice pinned to the taskbar. Now open a few windows. If you click its icon in the taskbar, it will display mini-screenshots of each window in a row, which you can actually interact with, close or bring forward. Of course, if you really can't stomach the progress loss of your beloved traditional taskbar, you do have the option to switch back to what it looked like in Vista.
Like your wallpapers? Love your wallpapers? So much so that you find yourself constantly switching between them? Then Windows 7 is for you, featuring automatic desktop wallpaper shuffling. Now you can go write that paper you've been putting off, knowing that your beautiful desktop can change its wallpaper on its own. They grow up so fast. The above is just a basic overview of some of the nifty and useful features that Windows 7 brings. Of course, some will argue that Apple's operating system has had many of these features for years. This is more or less the truth. But there are definitely differences to be found, and innovation in what Microsoft has produced.
The focus here was the customer, the user, you. And it shows. So go forth and explore what Windows 7 has to offer, from Device Stage to Libraries and Homegroups, from an updated Media Center (with Hulu and Netflicks support integrated) to XP Mode (for those moments of nostalgia). Finally, there are a host of natively supported keyboard shortcuts that can expedite things, if you're willing to put in the time to learn them.
