CEDU 581 Computer Architecture Week 2a

Windows 7

The next operating system I will use will likely be Windows 7, so I decided to explore it. I was able to do some looking around on a computer that uses this operating system (actually two - I went to Best Buy and tested some of their computers). I am considering buying a new computer because there are some online games I want to play and I want a mean machine that has more than enough of the recommended features, so all of these assignments we are doing definitely have real world application for me.

The feature that really stands apart from other versions of Windows is Windows 7's taskbar. Nicknamed the Superbar, it allows for some interesting new capabilities. One capability, which the Best Buy salesperson called "Aero Peek", allows the user to minimize all windows at once to get a quick peek at the desktop. This is useful if you want to open something else on the desktop. Now you don't have to minimize the windows. Also, the "Aero Snap" feature will automatically maximize a window when dragged to the edge of the screen. The Best Buy person noted that there are usually few problems with upgrading from Vista to Windows 7, even less than from XP to Vista. This was in response to my question about the ease or lack thereof of upgrading to a different operating system.

I did check out Windows 7 on a friend's machine and it seemed to boot up and shut down a little faster than my machine, which uses Vista. My machine is not more than a few months older, so it is a good comparison. Features such as Movie Maker, Photo Gallery and Windows Calendar were available in Vista. These features are still present in some form in Windows 7 as part of the Windows Live Essentials. Other very important features that were cut from Vista are now available again in Windows 7, such as internet spades, backgammon and checkers.

My current machine certainly has the minimum requirements for an upgrade to Windows 7. they are 1 GHz 32, 1 GB of RAM, DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM driver model 1.0, 16 GB of available disk space and a DVD drive.