Well it’s not every day we buy software from Microsoft, but unfortunately we need those Windows and we’re big boys now so can’t just download a crack…. We went for Windows 7 Home Premium, as the difference between Home and Pro is tiny, especially if you’re not running one of those Microsoft servers. Anyway, here are some or our findings, it’s not a review but just a quick list of what we like and dislike:

WE LIKE:

- Firstly, there is a nice plastic lunchbox included with each copy – it can easily fit two sandwiches when you take the discs out
- 32-bit and 64-bit discs included
- Very fast and smooth setup, 99% of the drivers are included so you don’t need a motherboard driver CD anymore
- Doesn’t hang or slow down like Vista, it’s actually as fast as Windows XP
- Fast start up, even the fancy UI works quite well
- Auto detects multiple monitors, ASIO soundcards, SPDIF audio, etc
- Love the new taskbar and start menu, some of the UI features are actually useful
- Nice and big icons for the printers and other devices
- Some of the functions have been simplified indeed and work much better
- Great simple function allowing to toggle between destop wallpapers every few seconds or minutes
- Stable, also the 64-bit version
- Grouping folders under libraries works well for my needs

WE DISLIKE:

- ridiculous leftovers from the old user interface, some of the screens haven’t changed at all since Windows 3.11
- 10 years should be enough time to upgrade the calculator and character map
- networking sucks big time, unreliable and even more confusing than before, still having problems between two Win 7 PC
- XBOX still can’t see any of the Win 7 PCs although firewalls are off and Media Sharing is on
- can’t apply own icon to a folder, there is an option in the folder attributes but it just doesn’t work
- ZIP archives can be read, but RAR is still a mystery

WE ABSOLUTELY HATE:
- Microsoft TV ads

3 comments »  Posted 4th November 2009 |