Windows 7 is coming to a store near you

Well, it feels like a life time ago when I first started investigating the next and greatest thing since sliced bread, yes Windows Vista.  After a 5 year gap between operating system versions, there was a lot of hype around Windows Vista and how much better it is than Windows XP.  Many argue against that and have not yet gone down the route of implementing Windows Vista into their networks or on their home PC’s.  XP has better start up times, ummm, yes if you are running XP on today’s hardware, but how about we run XP on a Pentium 4 with 256 RAM and compare that against Windows Vista on current hardware…… you get my drift.

It will be 2.5 years next month since I went live with Windows Vista and deployed it on my network of over 100 machines.  Was it smooth sailing? Did we have any application compatibility issues? Did my printers stop working? Did everyone think I was crazy?  Well, nobody goes in with a blind eye and there were many months of testing and re-testing and piloting before I took the plunge.  However, after the long nights and some hair pulling moments I am happy to say that I have not looked back and even with the slight hiccup here and there I would be more than happy to manage a Windows Vista network over a Windows XP network any day.   Are you sold yet?  Okay enough with the ramblings, the reason for this post isn’t about Windows Vista, but about the up and coming Windows 7 and how much better it is than Windows Vista.

Windows 7 has already been released to business customers under a Microsoft Volume Licensing agreement and will be released to the general public on 22 October 2009.

Well, you have probably guessed it, I am already running Windows 7 as my primary work machine and I can’t rave more about it!  I am sure you have read the publicity around Windows 7 being the saviour for Microsoft and I am not disagreeing.  I am sure Windows 7 will bring a lot more faith to end users who have been scarred by Windows Vista bad publicity and its shortcomings.  I am lucky to have been introduced to Windows 7 since its beta days and I am more than happy with the way Windows 7 is progressing.  It’s snappier, more responsive with a few nice touches.  I won’t go into them in too much detail at this moment but have provided you with a link to the Microsoft Windows 7 site http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx .

Here are some screen captures from the new Windows 7 operating system;

Windows 7 starting up

Windows 7 default theme

Windows 7 comes with a number of installed themes (new Windows 7 feature) including a country theme depending on your system locale.  Example below has Australia as the country theme listed.

Windows 7 “Australia” theme selected

Each theme comes with pre-set sounds and backgrounds.  Backgrounds alternate every 30 minutes.  Notice the ability to click on Next desktop background in the below screen.

Windows 7 Start Menu hasn’t changed much since Vista, however does come with some nice touches such as “Jump lists”

Windows 7 has gone big and bold with their icons and taskbar.

Well that’s a small snippet of what to expect from the upcoming release.  How will it compete with Apple’s latest Mac OSX Snow Leopard?  Only time will tell… And if you are lucky to be running both like myself, then you are definietly experiencing the best from both worlds.

Will you be upgrading any time soon?