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My 7 favorite things about Windows 7

5th November
2009
written by Ted
  1. It was free! Well, for me anyway–I got a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate – Signature Edition for nothing since I hosted an official launch party.
  2. Trim: Windows now officially has the best SSD support on the market thanks to support of the ATA TRIM command. On my OCZ Agility SSD it gave everything a nice little speed boost, too!
  3. Task bar: Microsoft has FINALLY copied the Dock from OS X. And it is good.
  4. Mature 64 bit support
  5. Auto driver download: this has actually been around since Vista *shudder* but for me it was new. You plug in a piece of hardware and Windows Update finds drivers for you. It’s magical. I really want OS X to copy this.
  6. Start key auto search: you just mash the start button and start typing and it will find stuff. Also works as a great quick launch (i.e. type “Windows Update” to open Windows Update from wherever they’ve buried it now)
  7. DirectX 11: I feel like I’ve finally joined the modern GPU era after so long on XP
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Nerdy

5 Comments

  1. Nathan
    05/11/2009

    Seconded! Adding to your list:

    * Usable backup software
    * Fast (Feels faster than Vista, certainly)
    * Easy, quick installation and support for installing from USB sticks
    * Less nagging [1]
    * Built-in program compatibility troubleshooter actually worked the one time I’ve needed it so far
    * Resource Monitor — way more informative than Task Manager (search for it in the Start menu)
    * Task bar quick actions [2]

    And one bonus extra-geeky item:
    * PowerShell — I have only scratched the surface of this tool, but I’m intrigued. Lots of potential goodness here, from the sysadmin perspective.

    [1] Lots of the little pop-up messages you’d get in Vista are consolidated into the “Action Center” and are simply color-coded by importance: red for critical, yellow for important, but optional

    [2] These are the right-click menus that can give you quick access to a program’s features or controls from the taskbar — much potential here, and I hope software developers take advantage and do good things with it

  2. Nathan
    05/11/2009

    Wow, sorry the formatting on that came out so hideous…

  3. Ted
    05/11/2009

    I haven’t played with PowerShell yet but I’m intrigued by it. And how could I have forgotten the usable backup software being included by default. That should reduce the number of tech support calls I get by at least half right there :-)

  4. C?R?S
    05/11/2009

    Apparently as a student I get a free (or cheap-as-free) upgrade… I assume you suggest going for it, even though I’m just a civilian and not an ubernerd? =)

  5. Ted
    06/11/2009

    Yeah, if you’ve got Vista now, get Windows 7. If your PC came with XP originally, I’d say wait until you get a new computer before taking the plunge.