What do you like about Windows 7?

[onlyconnect]

I need a few comments for an article I'm writing. Overall most people here are positive about W7 - but why? I'm interested in whether it is:

primarily improved performance vs XP, Vista?

some new feature, if so what? taskbar? aero peek?

stability vs XP, Vista?

security? new improved UAC?

better looking UI?

something else?

can't put your finger on it, just overall feels better?

any views?

Tim

 

[Dzomlija]

I need a few comments for an article I'm writing. Overall most people here are positive about W7 - but why? I'm interested in whether it is:

primarily improved performance vs XP, Vista?

some new feature, if so what? taskbar? aero peek?

stability vs XP, Vista?

security? new improved UAC?

better looking UI?

something else?

can't put your finger on it, just overall feels better?

any views?

Tim

Far too much has been changed or optimized in Windows 7 to make it difficult to say what's favourite when compared to Vista or XP, so I'll make my comments on NEW features.

Mt absolute favourite would have to be the Libraries function. Take it from someone who currently has 1.2TB of files spreadout across 8 different hard disks, the libraries feature of Windows 7 makes be feel as though I'm working on a single 1.2TB volume. I no longer have to manage 4 different "My Videos" folders. Just one. And that is why "Libraries" for me is the absolute favourite.

The one enhancement made that has also caught my eye would be the tweaked Search. On Vista, Search worked remarkably well, and I tagged it as my favourite feature. Problem was, it didn't apdate it's index as quickly as I would have liked. Now, with Windows 7, the Search tool has matured into a truly user friendly mainstream file management tool.

When I take the above and put them together, in the time that I've been Beta testing Windows 7, I've almost never used the "Normal" Windows Explorer. It's mostly been Libraries, Search or both working together!

And of course, the new Media Player 12 I think is just totally awesome, especially that you don't need third-party codec packages to play xVid or DivX videos!



Don't even try to compare Windows XP to Windows 7. Thats like trying to compare a Model T Ford Pickup to a Bantam! XP is an extinct dinosaur...

 

[onlyconnect]

That's really helpful, thanks Peter. I know what you mean when you say too much has changed.

Tim

 

[12eason]

Memory use for me, mainly.

 

[garysgold]

I have to agree with Peter on the Libraries. Makes things much easier for me. Also some of the Aero functionality. I use snap to side, snap to height and snap to maximized the most. I was hopeful for the taskbar. I use quicklaunch to be able to drag and drop a group of files (pics mostly) onto an icon and have the files open in that program. Although this works with windows programs and a few other programs, it doesn't work with any of my graphics progs. or with MS Office 2007. I do like the jumplists for the pinned icons though.

Gary

 

[Romulinx2]

I like the low memory usage.
Faster & easier to use GUI.
Library features.
Media Center features.
Better/faster graphics handling.
Self repairing/backup functions.
Backwards compatibility.
Virtual Hard Drive features.
Reliability.

Also the overall smoothness and integration of everything.

 

[myzr7]

Hello Tim, Good luck with your article and welcome to SevenForums. I'm just your average Joe casual user and I like the eye candy the rasmataz you know the wow thats cool! Just the newness of the whole OS after using XP for what seems like ten years. New taskbar and aero peek are my favs because of the looks I get from someone who has not been using seven before, they sit down beside me or jump on the pc and start navigating " whats this?" "wow how did you do that?" .
So stabilaty is nice and security yeah, UAC ho hum. Give me the eye candy. lm

 

[Win7User512]

Increased efficiency and quicker. (esp when moving, deleting files)

New taskbar (no quick launch, but the pinning system now)

It puts the windows side by side in the taskbar and you can move them. I always wanted to be able to move them around on the taskbar.

More configurable UAC.

Probably more that I'm not thinking of at the moment.

P.S. MS is approaching the general release of Vista SP2 and the Win7 RC, but still no graphic detailing the fragmented state/defragmenting states of the hard drive???

Madness!

 

[ten]

I'm not a big fan of Windows 7. Still prefer XP over it.

Here are a few things I do prefer over XP...
The ability to rename a file and have only the file name highlight (When show extensions is turned on).
Disk Management is more powerful. Shrink volume, etc.
Media Player plays XviD and x264.
The libraries is a cool feature but it comes at the expense of worse performing Windows Explorer.
Search start menu. ( Hate the start menu though...still prefer classic )

There's more but that's all the pops into my head right now.

 

[garbanzo]

Dzomlija mentions libraries, search, and media player 12. interestingly, i don't use any of these features! i use Directory Opus as my file manager, which has had 'libraries' for many years. i use Everything for searching, it's faster and easier than windows search. and for media, i use MPC and foobar, which outperform media player 12 by several parsecs

just goes to show you how diverse computer users are i guess

anyway, what do i like about windows 7?

i like that it's sexy as hell, but still snappy, taking up under 700mb ram on idle.

i like the new taskbar and all the goodies it entails. it's fantastic.

i like the new start menu. a lot. i actually use it now! i don't have to worry about all the crap that apps throw in there, because when i click it, i just see the apps i've pinned. if i want something that's buried several levels deep, i just type it in.

i like the 'cross referencing' for lack of a better word. there are a dozen ways to get to the same dialog box now, instead of just one. i no longer have to know the correct sequence to get what i need - i just look someplace where i might find it, and within a few clicks, i'll be there.

 

[Digger]

The libraries is a cool feature but it comes at the expense of worse performing Windows Explorer.

I would have to agree with that, but only on the premiss and basis on the beta. The RC seems to have concentrated on this more as well as the index. I can say this with my own test of loading up over 2gb of pics for wallpaper. It was horrible in the beta. Tho still could be a little quicker, its a much better and a needed and welcomed improvement in the OS. Also i have to compliment the effort in how things are now being indexed and searched/grouped within libraries and the example of the wallpaper directory/subdirectory improvement.

So, i would recommend just for your own trials, install the RC tomorrow. You will be pleasantly suprised as far as this goes.

Personally this is one of my fav small features of windows now, along with the improvement of index which has came a long way since it reared its ugly head long ago.

The next feature which all ties together is the Homegroup and Libraries. Both are a nice feature once you get your grounds about it and finding how powerful and convienant they both are. I hope that MS continues work and focus on this area as i believe its a CORE function and selling/persuading point to others, especially XP users that never were convinced to migrate to Vista when this feature was introduced in its beta, years ago.

 

[Win7User512]

i like the 'cross referencing' for lack of a better word. there are a dozen ways to get to the same dialog box now, instead of just one. i no longer have to know the correct sequence to get what i need - i just look someplace where i might find it, and within a few clicks, i'll be there.

Can you give an example of this? I'm not sure what you mean. Thanks.

 

[ten]

I would have to agree with that, but only on the premiss and basis on the beta. The RC seems to have concentrated on this more as well as the index.

So, i would recommend just for your own trials, install the RC tomorrow. You will be pleasantly suprised as far as this goes.

I never tried the betas. I've been using RC since the day after it was leaked.

I have a pretty low end system by today's standard..single core P4 2.0. Even so In XP when I click explorer, it opens instantaneously. In 7 there's a noticeable delay. I notice this sluggishness even after it's open and just browsing around my folders. The overall feel of the OS just doesn't have that snappiness that XP exhibits for me. Case in point, I just did the Restart Time test.
Windows 7: 83 Seconds
XP: 65 Seconds

 

[Win7User512]

I have a pretty low end system by today's standard..single core P4 2.0. Even so In XP when I click explorer, it opens instantaneously. In 7 there's a noticeable delay. I notice this sluggishness even after it's open and just browsing around my folders. The overall feel of the OS just doesn't have that snappiness that XP exhibits for me. Case in point, I just did the Restart Time test.
Windows 7: 83 Seconds
XP: 65 Seconds

I understand and appreciate this sentiment, but you have to consider that there is more code executed, even though it is machine code that is executed quickly; more code = longer time.

Not to mention, it could be because of the new graphics environment. Drawing those windows take more computation that the XP windows.

 

[Digger]

I never tried the betas. I've been using RC since the day after it was leaked.

I have a pretty low end system by today's standard..single core P4 2.0. Even so In XP when I click explorer, it opens instantaneously. In 7 there's a noticeable delay. I notice this sluggishness even after it's open and just browsing around my folders. The overall feel of the OS just doesn't have that snappiness that XP exhibits for me. Case in point, I just did the Restart Time test.
Windows 7: 83 Seconds
XP: 65 Seconds

well, if you intend to stick with that pc as your main rig, well, then yea, by all means your best bet would be XP. I dont have any top of the line system by todays standards at all either, but i can really tell a huge difference. This would depend on your System Specs, of which i cant tell of any in your details other than you are running XP. I have a dual core which is a difference, along with dual chan mem possibly another difference. When running in single chan, this rig is a donkey on 7, even with the dual core.

 

[Digger]

I never tried the betas. I've been using RC since the day after it was leaked.

I have a pretty low end system by today's standard..single core P4 2.0. Even so In XP when I click explorer, it opens instantaneously. In 7 there's a noticeable delay. I notice this sluggishness even after it's open and just browsing around my folders. The overall feel of the OS just doesn't have that snappiness that XP exhibits for me. Case in point, I just did the Restart Time test.
Windows 7: 83 Seconds
XP: 65 Seconds

Ten, i bet that when XP came out years ago, you were probably on a 98 windows pc, possibly dual booting 2k... you would have experienced the same problem. I dont use the XP and Longhorn example, as Longhorn was a much more drastic of a curve in OS to OS than say XP to 7 in a hardware way of looking at things, performance wise.

 

[ten]

Nope. I dumped 98 as soon as 2K came out. I couldn't stand the crashes and general slowdowns exhibited by 98. I was on 2K for years after XP came out. I was finally forced to make the switch to XP when some of my apps started experiencing weird bugs in 2K that XP seemed to cure. I would still be on 2K if authors would thoroughly test their apps in 2K. I dont use Security Center, themes or some networking enhancements which is the only main differences between 2K and XP.

 

[ten]

Can you give an example of this? I'm not sure what you mean. Thanks.

I think he means like this for instance...

Procedure 1: Right click desktop > Personalize > Change Mouse Pointers.
Procedure 2: Control Panel > Mouse > Pointers

There's a lot of this going on. Where links in dialogs are replicated in other dialogs/links.

 

[Meyithi]

I really like the Taskbar for numerous reasons. It eliminates the need for a dock, looks nice when vertical which is a first and of course jump lists are great.

Libraries and "Dynamic Folders" such as the Games Explorer/Folder, IE Favourites dropdown etc. desperately need speeding up before RTM, in fact I'd say they are 7's biggest weakness.

 

[7077]

Thing that first chatches my attention must be the taskbar (very fancy looking without the quick launch).
Like many I also like the Search function. It's awesome!
So far I haven't used the Libraries, but I'm sure I'll give it a go.
And the owerall performance is OK.

There must be many other things too, but for now, that's enough