Windows 7 challenges the Mac to stage the Empire counterattack

Some experts indirectly praised: "Windows 7 as Microsoft's next-generation operating system, it already has the advantage that Windows Vista should have been designed. ”

A California technical consultant, Rob Enderle, who has been using the Windows 7 trial for a few months, commented: "Windows 7 is designed to fix major problems in Windows Vista." This is the biggest change that has been made since the introduction of Windows Vista without changing the basic computer code. ”

Less than three years after its highly criticized predecessor, Windows Vista, was released, the free beta of Windows 7 is already available on the market, and the official version will be available in the fall. The final price of Windows 7 has not yet been announced, and the online download version will expire next year.

Windows Vista is criticized for being slow, unstable, difficult to use (too many confusing warnings), and incompatible with many Windows XP software. This has led to a large number of users choosing not to upgrade to Windows Vista and continue to use Windows XP.

But Windows 7 is not limited to patching Windows Vista. It also has some new features: such as the Aero Snap feature, which allows two windows to be arranged side by side; vibrates a window to minimize other windows on the screen; and can create a computer from your computer to another computer via the Internet. Audio stream.

Windows 7 also gave Microsoft a chance to beat Apple. In the TV commercial that the PC helped the Mac, Apple satirized Windows Vista as a desperately complex and ill-conceived.

Enderle said: "The design of Windows 7 makes Apple's operating system look stupid. Windows 7 is much better than Windows Vista and is much more streamlined. ”

The problem with streamlining is that Windows 7, at least one of its versions, will be designed to work on netbooks. Netbooks, as a fast-growing segment of personal computers, have to degrade performance because of their portability. And Windows Vista consumes too much resources for netbooks to run well on it. This has forced Microsoft to use the less profitable old Windows XP operating system on netbooks. Enderle commented: "Windows Vista is designed to have better network security than Windows XP, and that's what Microsoft wants to keep. Therefore, Windows 7 has been improved on this basis, retaining the advantages of Windows Vista's network security. ”

Microsoft's senior technical expert at Bloomington, Geoff Choi, said: "I agree that Windows 7 and Windows Vista are similar, but Windows 7 is heavily optimized for computer memory usage. “

 Windows 7 is much faster than Windows XP SP3 (the latest version of XP) and Windows Vista. Choi said.

Geoff Choi said: "At present, the Windows 7 beta version called Release Candidate 1 that users can download may not be much changed than the final release of Windows 7. At this stage The main purpose is to find and eliminate bugs. ”

The similarity between Windows 7 and Windows Vista is the double-edged sword.

The good thing is that consumers can run any Windows Vista program on Windows 7, although the final software compatibility list has not been announced. This will be very different from the transition from Windows XP to Windows Vista that year. In that excess, many older Windows XP programs could not run in Windows Vista.

The downside is that some XP programs that don't work on Windows Vista still don't work on Windows 7. This is important for users who are still using Windows XP and not upgrading to Windows Vista.

In order to solve this problem, Microsoft designed the XP mode. XP mode is a standalone downloadable program that allows XP applications to run in the context of Windows 7. But not all Windows 7 versions support XP mode, which is supported in the current beta. You can download the XP mode software installation package from http://tinyurl.com/dl2slq.

But XP mode also has potential problems. Not all computers can run XP mode because their processors do not support virtualization technology. The computer requires an Intel VT or AMD-V processor to run XP mode.

Another problem that must be considered when upgrading another Window XP user to Windows Vista is that the Windows 7 installation process is not just about putting the installation CD into the computer. The entire upgrade process can result in the loss of data and applications. Therefore, before upgrading, users must transfer their data to an external storage or flash drive.