Improvements from Windows Vista and XP

Posted 10/19/2009 at 12:00pm | by Will Smith

In addition to shiny new features, many legacy features from Vista and XP have been tweaked, touched up, or otherwise improved upon.

Searching Is Fundamental

Vista was the first Windows version to have deep search features built right in. Does anyone use them? Not enough people do, and so our best advice we can give to the new Windows 7 user is to embrace search. As in Vista, you can use search to launch apps without removing your hands from the keyboard, to find specific settings in the control panel, and to parse through your email, document folders, and even shared folders on your network. Getting started with search is easy—just mash the Windows key on your keyboard and type your query. The Windows 7 search is speedier than Vista’s was at launch, and finally allows searching of network shares, assuming they’re part of either your HomeGroup or indexed on the server side.

Better UAC

User Account Control was one of the most maligned new features to appear in Vista, and for good reason. We have all been extremely annoyed by UAC’s incessant prompts for permission to do anything that requires administrator access. Worse yet, sometimes Vista will prompt multiple times for the same action. All that said, UAC has produced Microsoft’s desired effect: In situations where malware has infected Vista PCs, UAC helps contain those infections to a limited portion of the hard drive, typically a single user profile.

In Windows 7, Microsoft exposes multiple levels of UAC notification control, and has greatly toned down the number of notifications you’ll typically see. Whether you want granular control over the actions of each and every application you install, or simply opt not be bothered, you can choose the setting that’s right for you.

UI Speed

Many of the behind-the-scenes improvements to Windows 7 were designed to do one thing: improve the responsiveness of the user interface. Whether it’s the result of core kernel improvements that boost the performance of multi-threaded apps on multi-core CPUs, or improvements in the way frequently used applications are cached in memory, the new OS feels snappier in almost every way. Apps seem to load faster, and dialog boxes appear and disappear faster. In general, we found ourselves spending less time waiting for the PC than we do in XP, Vista, or OS X. While we attempted to measure some quantitative benchmarks on app load times and other UI speed tests, we found it very difficult to measure reliably. However, when surveying dozens of users about their Windows 7 experiences, one response was almost universal: Windows 7 feels faster.

Wallpapers

It seems a little goofy to talk about, but Windows 7 includes more awesome desktop wallpapers than any version of Windows we’ve ever tested. The included window dressing ranges from the standard plain-vanilla Windows logo background to awesome, inspired, and downright creepy images created by artists from around the globe. Windows 7 also includes a utility that automatically swaps your wallpaper at fixed intervals. Still missing, however, is a way to run different backgrounds on multiple monitor rigs.

Audio

We also have to give a nod to the polish that Microsoft gave to the audio control panel. Windows 7 handles multiple audio outputs much better than previous iterations of the OS, allowing you to designate your headphone output to communications software, while using your speakers for everything else. The OS will even detect when you’re using voice chat software, and automatically mute or lower the volume on other sound sources. We had some problems with games that included voice chat functionality triggering this feature, but it was relatively easy to fix.

Like Vista, Windows 7 lacks the APIs required to support older DirectSound 3D games. With most modern titles supporting OpenAL (which does work on Windows 7), the omission of 3D hardware sound support is more forgivable this go ’round than it was with Vista.

But it’s still not something we’re happy about.

Versions, Activation and 64-bit

Like Windows Vista, there are many versions of Windows 7 available. However, unless you’re an IT guy at a big company, you really only need to be concerned with four different editions: Starter, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. Yes, Microsoft has simplified the different versions of Windows that are available, but choosing the best OS for your needs still isn’t effortless.
The easiest way to look at the Windows 7 product family is to recognize that each version is superset of the version beneath it. For example, Home Premium includes all the features of Starter, but adds the Aero interface and Media Center. Professional, meanwhile includes all the features of Home Premium (and thus Starter), but a few features oriented toward business users.
Now, with that said, there are really only a few core features that would demand you buy one version over another.
For example, the main difference between Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional is that Pro includes the virtualized XP compatibility mode, the ability to back up your computer to a network drive, a Remote Desktop Connection server, and the ability to connect to corporate networks. Ultimate, meanwhile, includes all the features of Home Premium and Professional, but adds support for Bit locker drive encryption and the freedom to switch the OS between different languages.
So which version should you buy? We recommend that most home users buy Home Premium, unless you either run a domain controller inside your home, or you want to be able to use Remote Desktop to log into your computer from another PC. Once you choose your OS, you can be secure in the knowledge that each successively more advanced version includes all the features included in simpler versions.

Software activation continues to be a hassle for people who purchase Windows 7. We didn’t complain when Microsoft launched Windows XP, but we have grown increasingly irked the unnecessary hassles it creates. For example, upgrading a hard drive or videocard frequently requires a call to Microsoft’s phone activation line. While we recognize that Microsoft must protect its OS against piracy, we’re not fans of any anti-piracy technology that inconveniences paying customers more than the pirates that it’s designed to thwart.

Our final thought on Windows 7 SKUs concerns the eternal debate between 32-bit and 64-bit support. The debate is essentially moot, as all retail versions of Windows 7 include both 32-bit and 64-bit discs. What’s more, your activation key for Windows 7 is good for either a 32-bit install or a 64-bit install, so you can try out whichever version you’d like, without worrying that you’re locking yourself into a version of Windows that you may not want. That said, we’ll be running 64-bit Windows 7 on our machines, and expect most enthusiasts to do the same.