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 worth every penny! Jul 30, 2010
I have used Vista for 10 months and decided to upgrade to Windows 7, oh the ease of the new product. Much easier to use than Vista, and it didn't take me but 3 weeks to figure this out. If you are on the fence about upgrading, do the upgrade!! It will be worth every penny.
Best of Windows Jul 25, 2010
I have used various Operating Systems from Microsoft Windows, beginning with DOS through all the operating systems since.
I use this Microsoft Win 7 Home Premium every day and found it very easy to switch over from Vista. I was able to retain all of my documents & Programs I was running on Vista. This is the best OS that Microsoft has put out. I would recommend it to the beginner because it is so easy to use. I also purchased the books for Win 7. They are a great help.
 Windows 7 upgrade Jul 24, 2010
Update instructions were clear and accurate for the most part. However, it's requirement that Vista be updated to the most current version before upgrade would proceed made the process take the better part of two days ... results were as advertised and the computer is must more stable and responsive.
Surprisingly stable for a 1st release, many features added and removed Jul 23, 2010
After using it heavily for two months, I feel Windows 7 is certainly the most stable first-release of a Windows version ever. I normally would stay away from any unpatched Microsoft product, but Windows 7 at launch is surprisingly smooth, robust, and has very few (that I can see) of the kind of crippling bugs that plagued the first release of Vista. I'm an IT manager and am certainly confident to deploy this new OS in my work environment.
The most visible and much improved change from past Windows versions is the taskbar at the bottom. The quick launch icons now double as taskbar icons indicating running applications. Programs (and also documents) can be easily pinned to and unpinned from the taskbar as quick launch icons. Right-clicking on a taskbar icon brings up links to recently opened documents for that application. If there are multiple instances of an application running, the taskbar icon has a "stacked" appearance - to unstack them (and make them look like traditional taskbar icons), you need to change taskbar properties. Mouse-overing a taskbar icon shows thumbnail snapshots of all instances of that application, but this only works if Aero is running (more on that below). All these features are much improved over past taskbar incarnations. One caveat is that dragging a document to a taskbar icon does not open the application - you have to press Shift while dragging it to do that.
Windows 7 has a new desktop look (or theme) called Aero, which is improved from Vista and all new to XP users. Aero features that are carried over from Vista include the elegant glassy translucent look for window borders, the ability to flip through windows in 3D view ("Flip 3D"), and various animation effects while maximizing or minimizing windows. Aero features new to Vista include desktop wallpaper acting as a slideshow, the ability to snap windows to the edge of the screen (as shown in one of the TV ads), and the aforementioned ability to view snapshots of windows by mouse-overing taskbar icons.
Some of the bundled applications have lost features, some have been improved, and some require separate downloads.
Calculator, which has been virtually unchanged since Windows 3.1, now has multi-line display, programmer and statistics modes, unit conversion, and date calculation. These are welcomed additions as I use Calculator a lot.
The popular, made-for-tablet game Inkball that came with Vista Ultimate is not included. The workaround for me is copy the game's executable to Windows 7 and run it in compatibility mode for Vista. On the other hand, Windows 7 brings back Internet Spades, Internet Backgammon and Internet Checkers that were missing in Vista.
Windows Mail and Windows Movie Maker are not included. To get them, you have to download the Windows Live Essentials package from Microsoft's website. To XP users: Outlook Express has been discontinued and replaced by Windows Mail.
Windows Mail's (now called Windows Live Mail) biggest difference from Outlook Express is all messages are stored in separate files, as opposed to being stored in one big database file that is easily corruptible.
Windows Movie Maker (now called Windows Live Movie Maker) is worse than past versions. There is NO TIMELINE VIEW now. And a lot of transitions and effects are gone. For XP users, one good thing is it now supports h.264 video clips.
Windows Explorer also have some features removed. XP users will notice there is no "File Types" tab in Folder Options where you can view/customize file extensions. Instead, as in Vista, you go to Control Panel -> Default Programs -> Associate a file type, which only lets you associate default programs, but not add custom command lines for a file type.
Another feature gone in Windows Explorer is the option to "Remember each folder's view settings." But my experimentation shows that each folder does remember its sort setting. It just doesn't remember its icons/list/details view setting.
I'm reviewing the upgrade retail edition of Windows 7 Home Premium. Being an upgrade edition, it requires that you have a qualified past Windows version ALREADY INSTALLED ON YOUR PC before you can use the upgrade. You have the options to (a) upgrade and retain program settings, (b) install a fresh Windows copy and rename the old Windows folder to "windows.old", (c) install a fresh Windows copy after formatting the hard disk.
After installation, Windows will be fully functional for 30 days, after which you are required to activate it, or you may request another 30-day trial period with an undocumented but Microsoft-approved workaround: open a command prompt and type "slmgr -rearm" (no quotes). You may use this workaround up to three times, meaning you may use Windows 7 for a total of 120 days without activation.
You can only activate your copy of Windows on one PC at a time. For the retail edition, you are legally allowed to transfer your license to another PC, meaning uninstall Windows from the current PC and install & re-activate it on another PC. You can see the license terms here:
[...]
The license terms for Windows Home Premium Retail clearly state:
"17a. [...] You may transfer the software and install it on another computer for your use. That computer becomes the licensed computer. You may not do so to share this license between computers."
This is not true for certain editions, such as the OEM editions of Windows 7, which DO NOT allow transfer of license to another PC. So be sure to buy the right edition.
After you transfer your license to another PC and try to re-activate that second PC, you may have to telephone Microsoft to re-activate.
Downloading Windows Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft and running it before deciding whether to upgrade or not is strongly recommended.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Don't bother upgrading just buy a new PC with windows 7 Jul 22, 2010
Boy what a huge mistake I made. I upgraded my pc from Vista to 7 and consider it one of the biggest computer mistakes I have ever made. Where do I start? Do I start on the fact that my internet connection goes out after 10 minutes? On the dot, every ten minutes my internet connection goes out and I have to restart the PC to reconnect. Or should I start with the fact that the aero effect went out on my login and the windows desktop manager does not work? Or should I start with the fact that every once in a while my PC does not recognize any operating system, or the fact that windows 7 didn't perform that much faster than vista.
Yes, upgrading is a nightmare. I decided to do an upgrade rather than a clean install and it had disasterous consequences. Yes Vista was slow and clunky but at least it did not completely screw everything up. My desire for a pretty OS and hope for faster start ups and shut downs resulted in a PC stricken with what appears to be a virus. My suggestion is that you not upgrade rather do a clean install or simply buy a new PC with windows 7. Sad to say but not worth the effort to upgrade. I do give it two stars for the OS itself. When working properly its great as I have it at work but I am reviewing the upgrading experience which is not a pleasant one.
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