October 1, 2009

By the end of the month Windows 7 will officially be out and available.  I don't know why every time a new version of Windows comes out, I seem to be less than enthusiastic than the news media.  It could be because, ever since Windows 1.0, every time they announce a new version of Windows they tell us it is going to be completely different and overwhelmingly improved.  It seems like each time the new version hits the streets, it is only slightly different, and other than some cosmetics and a few performance enhancements, it is just a glorified version of the last rendition.

That said, as I told you in the past, I've been beta testing Windows 7 and I am less than impressed.  I think Microsoft is hoping the corporate environment will embrace Windows 7, since they have been stand-offish from Windows Vista.  Unless something changes from the release candidate version to the release to manufacturing version, I am underwhelmingly impressed, in fact, I like Windows Vista better.  The performance improvement is so small you can't really tell any difference.  If you have a wide screen monitor, you'll hate the fact that they did away with the Windows sidebar.  Now, if you want to use gadgets, you will have to run every program in a window and size the window to allow viewing the gadgets.

Even though the beta seemed to run most programs acceptably, there always seems to be a lot of driver and software problems when a new operating system is introduced.  I didn't load all my programs, so I'm sure there will be some glitches.  Be particularly careful if you're using older programs.

Just keep one thing in mind, as I've stated many times in the past, I don't recommend upgrading an operating system.  If you want the new operating system, wait until you purchase a new computer.  If you are going to attempt to upgrade your operating system, make sure to image your hard drive BEFORE you do it.  That way, it will be easy to get things back if you need to.

If you want to upgrade, and you have Windows Vista, I recommend partitioning your hard drive and installing Windows 7 on a different partition.  That way you can dual boot your computer and use Windows 7 and make sure everything is OK prior to getting rid of Vista.

We are at Microsoft's mercy, and whether we like it or not, they are going to keep coming out with new versions of Windows on a regular basis.  So. here we go again.