Windows 7 : Review & Test Drive Part 5:Performance tweaks

Performance tweaks

Some of the biggest criticisms of Vista relate to performance,and Microsoft appears to have made addressing them a priority.Boot time for a Microsoft-furnished laptop with final code seemed fast.Microsoft is tajing steps to speed up windows 7.First ,windows 7 initializes many services in parallel;and second,it has fewer services to initialize.

Another are microsoft is says it is working on is the way th OS allocates memory to new windows.In Vista,the memory allocated goes up as you add new windows,to the point where the system sometimes shutdowns aero for lack of available memory.In windows 7,esch new windows will be allocated the same amount of memory.In Windows 7,each new window will be allocated the same amount of memory,so adding new windows wont strain system resources as quickly.

Other chages are designed to make the os less crash-prone.Fault-tolerant "heaps," for example,are intendedto address memory management headaches without crashing problem apps;at the same time,process reflection should reduce crashes bye allowing windows to diagnose and(maybe) repair process issues without crashing the appliication involved.MIcrosoft also says its new Os will "sandbox" printer drivers so that glitches stemming from poorly written drivers wont create difficulties either for other drivers or for the system as a whole.

Microsoft is also working on ways to prolong notebook battery life.Examples of such tricks would include enabling laptop to cut back on background activities,to intelligently dim displays(technology simillar to that used in mobile phones),and to play back DVD's more efficiently.

Windows 7 : Review & Test Drive Part 4: The Magic Touch Interface?

The Magic Touch?

One major area of change in WIndows 7's interface may not mean much to most PC users:Only a handful of current machines,such as HP's TouchSmart PC and Dell's Latitude Xt laptop,support multi-touch input.But in theory this feature would let you operate a touch-screened-equipped windows 7 computer as if it were a massive iphone,using your finger-tips to launch applications ,shuffile windows around,and enlarge and shrink photos by grabbing them with both hands.

Not suprisingly.microsoft has'nt yet enabled all of this functionality.Using TouchSmart PC at a Windows 7 reviewer's Workshop,we could fingerpaint with photo manipulations that would be a lot more useful in real life.

Check out this video on windows 7 touch interface.

Microsoft promises that windows 7 will ship with more touch features.Th company is also working to make the OS smart enough to figure out whether you're using a mouse or your fingers so it can adjust accordingly.For example,if you tap the start button with your fingertip rather than with the mouse pointer you'll get a slightly larger Start menu that requires less finess to navigate.And you dont see a mouse pointer when you touch the screen withyour finger-you get a brief puddle effect where you've made screen contact.

Will the touch interface that makes the iphone cool work on a laptop or desktop system?We're skeptical,but windows 7 lays the software ground that will allow pc manufatures to give it a try,at least.

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Windows 7: Review & Test Drive Part 3: UAC:Lets Try That Again

UAC:Lets Try That Again

Windows Xp's reputation for shaky security stemmed in part from scary possibility of hackers worming their way into your PC and launching applications or changing settings at will.

In vista,Microsoft responded with User Account Control,a safeguard that tries to protect you by asking,in effect ,"Are you sure?" before executing a wide variety of system actions.The problem is that ,in the vast majority of instances,those actions are intentionally initialted by user.Telling Vista that you know what you are doing gets old quickly.But vista's UAC essentially has only two settings:on & off.

Windows 7 still lets you opt for full-tilt UAC or no Uac at all.It adds two usefull intermediate settings, though:One notifies you to attempt to install software or change settings without making you click to continue,and the other notifies you only when a program tries to change settings.Both of those options alert you when potenially dangerous actions transpire on your PC ,but your work wont grind to a halt nearly as often as it does with vista's version of UAC.

The UAC settings reside in a new control Panel section called Windows solution Center,which replaces Vista's Security Centre.It's home to features for adjusting security settings,using Windows update,and backing updata.the Solution lets you turn off various windows notification,such as those warn about security settings.Turn off every nagging notice that windows 7 lets you disable,and you could windup with least instrusive edition of os in a long time.

Did we say that windows 7 is longer on substance than style?For the most part ,that's true.But the new features for applyings themes to windows interface are nicely done.As before,the theme controls lets you choose collection of wallpaper,color schemes,sounds,and screen savers to give windows an instant makeover.

In windows 7,however,you can see a full-screen preview of a theme's effect on the OS with one click,and its's easier to create and save your own themes than it is with Vista's antediluvian controls.

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Windows 7 : Review & Test drive Part 2: Icon Clutter,Begone

Icon Clutter,Begone

Windows notification area,also known as the system tray,has traditionally packed more aggravation per square inch than any other area of windows,since it tends to bulge at the seams with icons for applications that you dont remeber installing and that often pester you with ballons alerting you to things that you dont care about.In windows 7 ,Microsoft finally supplies you can use to tame the mess.

For each app,you can choose to display or hide its icons that dont fit in the Notification Area now pops up,rather than shoving applications into the taskbar on the left.You can drag and drop icons between overflow and notification sections.

Clicking on a little empty rectangle at the far right of the new taskbar minimizes all open windows so you can see the desktop.This feature exited as an icon in vista's Quick Launch toolbar,but you might use it more often if you're a fan of the windows Gadgets introduced in Vista:The Sidebar that formerly housed them(also new in vista) is gone,and you can simply place them anywhere on the desktop as you please.(Microsoft says users complained that the sidebar ate up tpp much screen real estate,especially on smaller laptops.)

Microsoft also introduced a couple of easy-to-use windows management features.If you want to work in a pair of windows side by side,dragging the second window to either side of the screen.If you drag a window to the top of the display,it snaps to the top and maximizes to full screen.

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Windows 7: Review & Test Drive Part 1: The interface:A kindler,Gentler Windows

The interface:A kindler,Gentler Windows

Windows vista emphasizes style over substance with features such as aero's translucent windows frames (woo-hoo!) and flashy but not useful flip 3D windows switcher.

Many elements ,such as desktop search,play cath-up with Apple's Mac OS X and existing free warmed-over OS X.

The Windows taskbar undergoes its biggest remodelling job ever: The familliar bars containg the name of a running application and a tiny icon gone,and in their place are unlabeled,jumbo icons that look like gargantuan versions of the icons in the old taskbar's quick launch tooolbar-as well they should ,since ,in windows 7,they supplant Quick Launch.( The new taskbar does look rather like OS X's Dock and includes similar features such as the ability to rearrange icons by dragging and dropping-but it's different enough that it doesnt feel like a Dock clone)

Windows Vista's taskbar introduced previews of windows,thumbnail-size,that appear when u hover the mouse pointer over a app in taskbar.They are quite handy,but you can see only one of them at a time.In windows 7,thumbnails for multiple windows appear on a screen simultaneously,in a ribbon like horizontal strip.Hover over one of the thumbnails, and you

get full-size preview of the windows; you can also close windows from thumbnails.

Click on an icon in the taskbar-or on a program in the start menu-and you get a "jump list", anew windows feature providing one click acess to tasks associated with an application-play all music for windows media player,for instances,or a listof recently opened files in Word or Excel.

Not all jumbo taskbar icons represent running applications,however.In windows 7,these can also represent devices attached to your PC.

The new taskbar on demo Pcs suggest it could make life in windows more pleasant in ways that vista's splashy effects dont.

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Windows 7 : Review & Test Drive

With Windows Vista catching heat from all sides,

microsoft is putting a big push on a replacement.

Our hands-on evalutaion of early beta suggests that the os is on the right track as hype it creates.

what if microsoft waved a magic wand and everything people hatred about windows vista went away??

You might have an operating system that you liked -and thats what microsoft appears to be striving for with windows 7.

We checked out the beta of the future os,& though at this point many featues are missing or works in progress,the improvements to everything from user interface to memory management look highly promising.

of course,some of the promised features are things that Microsoft has pledged - and failed to deliver-brfore.Wasn't vista supposed to be faster than its predecessor?

No wordings on pricing and editions, for example.And there's some questions on when windows 7 will ship,since Microsoft has given early 2010 as the target date, but some insiders say it will launch sooner.

Microsoft had said all along that windows 7 would refine (but not rewrite) the vista kernel.However ,some new features depend on support outside of microsoft's control.For example a few network enhancement will work only if your emplyer install windows sever 2008 R2-or if your network includes more than one windows 7 pc.other features wont be visible unless hardware vendors activates them.And microsoft has slimmed down the code by offloading applications (such as email and photo management) hat were once bundled with the os:

Someapps you'll be able to download ,and others you'll acess as web services.

But the os that remains tries very hard to please users by addressing some of the biggest gripes people have had about vista,and by generally making everyday tasks accessible and easy to perform.These efforts in the beta look pretty good.

Check Out This HD Video On WIndows 7

7 PROMOSING FEATURES IN WINDOWS 7

After the disappointment Vista create what can winows 7 do to fullfill the expectation of the masses??

Will it :

Trim Vista's Bloat??

Speed Up Your PC's

Cost More

Run XP applications??

Be Secure??

Make you Forget Vista

Or Drive you to buy a MAC!!!!

Here is a the list of changes that is implemented in Windows 7.

Thanked Good Microsoft has done a great work in windows 7,we can say it confidently after checking out windows 7 final!!!!!!

This is what we found on testing windows 7 .

1)Better Memory Management to speed up system performance

2)Jumps lists for easier,context relevant access to files and features.

3)Moveable taskbar icons.

4)Customizable UAC (User Access Control) settings,it was not customizable in Vista causing annoying pop-ups in vista.

5)Better Window Management via ability to snap windows to screen edges and move maximized windows.

6)More control over system-tray icon placement and notifications

7) Windows Media Player's "light-weight" mode.

The detailed Review & Test Drive is divided into different parts as given below.

Read in order :

1)Windows 7: Review & Test Drive Part 1: The interface:A kindler,Gentler Windows

2)Windows 7 : Review & Test drive Part 2: Icon Clutter,Begone

3)Windows 7: Review & Test Drive Part 3: UAC:Lets Try That Again

4)Windows 7 : Review & Test Drive Part 4: The Magic Touch Interface?

5)Windows 7 : Review & Test Drive Part 5:Performance tweaks