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Windows 7

So my Windows 7 copy came in the mail last week, actually last Thursday to my surprise. They really wasted no time in sending it which made it all the sweeter deal.

Anyways, so far I'm fairly satisfied with it. I don't really have any complaints on it, as most of the new UI changes have been for the better, and the hype surrounding it's better performance is warranted, in some respect though. I probably won't change any minds, but honestly it's a mostly painless transition from Vista to 7.

The whole Aero Snap feature is alright, it does make it slightly easier and little more intuitive to maximize windows and such and change their size, but it's really comes in as a "Oh okay, that's kinda cool" feature. Besides that, the biggest change I noticed at first was the task bar at the bottom, which gets rid of the all the text and the long rows and rows of open programs. They're all now integrated into what used to be the quick launch area.

Most of the changes in 7 seem to be related to window management, and tweaking it to be a little different and perhaps more "advanced." It's alright and all, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. Besides that, my favorite new feature is the fact that you can set your desktop background to switch every so often. I love it, because it freshens up my desktop every so often, so that it's not so stagnant because of how lazy I am.

About performance, I've noticed maybe a 8% difference in memory usage, and I have 2 GB of RAM. 7 seems to run constantly at about 32% memory, while Vista stayed at around 40%. So it's not a HUGE difference, but it's something nonetheless. Even now with Firefox open, I'm at 38% so it seems it does run lighter, but I do say that overall I don't really notice a difference. I'm just going off what my memory/CPU monitor says.

Overall, I say I'm happy with Windows 7. I would honestly say, if you can get a good discount on it, get it. It'll be well worth it, I'm just not too sure I can justify paying the full 200+ dollar upgrade on it now. In that case, if I were you I'd just get a new computer with it pre-installed.

Posted by dbz345, 11/04/2009 8:49pm
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Wow. Sounds like a very good investment.
Posted 11/04/2009 9:21pm
I've read your blog and after what I've heard about Windows 7 and what you described, I really see not much improvement in performance. Just some customization and an increase in ram and gb size. That's it. I need more info if I really want it. Something that's like I don't just need it, I WANT IT kind of feel.
Posted 11/06/2009 12:11pm
Whoa, my Vista runs at around 50% in terms of memory =O. Guess its cause of all the programs I keep open 24/7 that causes a lot of things to be in the cache. It's nice to know that 7 has a lot of nice little tweaks. I probably won't be getting it in India though , unless I buy a new laptop that comes pre-installed with it .
Posted 11/08/2009 8:45am
@ SonicHomeboy - Yes it was, even if most of the changes were minor, it still is quite a bit better than Vista.

@ Domovsky - Yeah, the increase in performance isn't too noticeable on my machine, but the numbers have consistently been better than Vista. But yeah, this isn't something that's like "OMG I HAVE TO HAVE IT!!", as it's more or less along the lines of a shinier, lighter more intuitive version of Vista.

If it helps though, in the week and a half I've had it, programs have yet to freeze up and crash. That in itself is a good sign already, as in my time with Vista, I could never last that long without an unresponsive program.

@ StalkingDeath - Yeah I try to keep as few programs running as possible, I'm sure if you did the same your memory usage would be lower like mine.
Posted 11/08/2009 2:10pm
Wish I could do that. I have the tendency to leave webpages open cause I'm lazy to open them again . And there's also the torrent client which runs 24/7 cause I download stuff non-stop. My messenger is always open, though I always appear offline . Guess these programs add up to that memory usage.
Posted 11/09/2009 2:00am
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dbz345
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