nad_masters's Full Review: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade Version for P...
Windows 7 Ultimate Full
The eagel has landed! After beta testing Windows 7 for almost 8 months, I'm happy to see it finally come out in retail-ready form!
With Windows Vista being seen as bloated, slow, and incompatible with most older software, will Windows 7 save Microsoft's reputation? Well, yes, actually. Already there is overwhelming amount of possitive reaction to the new OS. Joining Windows 7 is the new Zune HD, which is also making some waves. If Microsoft can create a tight integrated platform of Zune HD, Microsoft Live, integration with XBOX 360, and Windows 7, they can win it! Unfortunately at this moment, integration isn't all that tight. It's getting there though.
Windows 7
With the overall consenses that Windows 7 is more compatible with programs, think that's an illusion. Windows 7 is really nothing but Windows Vista on a diet. This mean if you have an old program that didn't work in Vista, it still won't work in 7. The illusion of better compatibility comes from the fact that Vista is now on the market long enough for software writers to update and patch their current software to work with Vista.
In fact, I bet if you use Windows Vista right now, you will say it just works without a problem. The real improvements in 7 lies under the hood.
The Different Sides of 7
Just as how I covered the different sides of Vista, Windows 7 have multiple editions as well. This time around, Microsoft left out the most basic of edition (for the retail market), Home Basic. All editions of Windows 7 include Aero Glass finally. This trims down the 4 available Vista editions to 3 available Windows 7 editions.
As with Vista and XP, you can get the retail box in Full or Upgrade. You an also get the OEM versions meant for system builders or enthusiests looking to save a buck. The OEM version ties the license to the PC it is first installed on, while the retail version lets you move the install to any PC you want. However, you will need to call Microsoft to let them know you are doing so. Of course, even with the OEM version, you can still call Microsoft and tell them that you had to replace the component that caused the activation to prompt, and they are usually still happy to let you do so. There is also no tech support from Microsoft if you decide to go wit the OEM version.
Lastly, the retail boxed versions include both 32-bit and 64-bit discs. If you go with OEM you only get one disc, so you will have to decide on the spot if you are going to install the 32-bit or 64-bit version.
The rule of thumb currently is this: if you have less than 2GB of memory (and you cannot upgrade any further), use the 32-bit version. If you have 4GB or more, use the 64-bit version. If you are between 2GB and 4GB, you can use either without any issues. However, my suggestion is go with 64-bit if you can, since computing rarely stay still or go backwards - we are always moving forward, so you want to keep step!
The Different Editions
Windows 7 Home Premium
Retail Full - $199.99
Retail Upgrade - $119.99
OEM - $109.99
Windows 7 Professional
Retail Full - $299.99
Retail Upgrade - $199.99
OEM - $159.99
Windows 7 Ultimate
Retail Full - $319.99
Retail Upgrade - $219.99
OEM - $199.99
Home Premium - As with Vista, this is the edition that most users would want. The only thing really missing would be NT domain access, which isn't something most users would miss at home. Even at this "lowest" edition, you get the full Aero Glass interface, which includes the transparent title bars and the 3D flip, as well as Aero Snap. Not only that, but you get a full-featured Windows Media Center, which is a great basis for a home theater PC.
Professional - This time around, Microsoft did not rip out the Windows Media Center. In fact, they just add more features on top of Home Premium and called it Professional. Perhaps the reason why it wasn't called "Business" like they did with Vista is the fact that they are repositioning this edition not just for business users, but also enthusiests. The main thing is the ability to log into NT domain networks. Previously, for you to have both Media Center and still be able to connect to a domain network, you would have to shell out a boat load of money for the Ultimate edition. Not so this time around. Professional have most of what Vista had for Ultimate. However, none of the Windows 7 editions have DreamScene, which is the animated/video wallpaper. I'm not sure how many people would miss that, but if you were one of the few who paid for Vista Ultimate, you'd be pretty angry it's missing in Windows 7 Ultimate.
Ultimate - So if Professional already have most of the features already, and DreamScene was gutted out and abandoned, what else is there? Well, BitLocker is still here. But then again, you can get the same functionality (drive encryption) with free 3rd party apps such as TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt also encrypts removable drives such as flash drives, which is akin to what BitLocker to Go does as well. You also get AppLocker, which allows you to control what software is allowed for a user to run.
Official System Requirements From Microsoft's own web site.
If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:
ˇ1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
ˇ1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
ˇ16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
ˇDirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Additional requirements to use certain features:
ˇInternet access (fees may apply)
ˇDepending on resolution, video playback may require additional memory and advanced graphics hardware
ˇFor some Windows Media Center functionality a TV tuner and additional hardware may be required
ˇWindows Touch and Tablet PCs require specific hardware
ˇHomeGroup requires a network and PCs running Windows 7
ˇDVD/CD authoring requires a compatible optical drive
ˇWindows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available hard disk space, and a processor capable of hardware virtualization with Intel VT or AMD-V turned on
ˇMusic and sound require audio output
Installation Full Install
Even when upgrading, it's always best to do a fresh clean install. However, you must back up all you data since you'll be wiping the hard drive clean before you install Windows 7. This gives you a clean slate to work with.
Whether you are installing the 32-bit or 64-bit version, the installation process and screens look exactly the same. In fact, there's no tell-tell signs until you boot into Windows and go to check your Computer's properties.
If you've installed Vista before, then you've seen it all before. The installation process for Windows 7 is the same as Vista except for a few differences. Because of this, please read my Vista> review for the installation process.
So what are the differences? Well, first, you don't get to choose which edition of Windows 7 you'd like to install anymore. This means if you bought Windows 7 Ultimate, then you can't use the same disc to install Home Premium to try it out for 30 days. While all versions are actually on the disc, Microsoft now disabled that function. There is a file you have to modify (or delete) to do re-enable this feature, but that requires you to edit and reburn the disc.
The other thing is that Windows 7 will ask you to create or join a HomeGroup. I'll cover that later in the review.
Installation Upgrade
If you are upgrading from XP, you will need to do a clean install, since 7 does not support an in-place upgrade in XP. However, if you have Vista, upgrading to Windows 7 is not only support, but also a very easy process.
Even though I still recommend a clean install, I wanted to test out an in-place upgrade, and decided to use my gaming laptop to do this. It's a Compal IFL90 (custom laptop) with a Core 2 Duo T7200 at 2.2 GHz, 4 GB of RAM, and a GeForce 8600GT GPU. It already has Windows Vista Ultimate on it, and loads of games, software, pictures, videos, and documents. It's a good test bed!
Of course, the first thing I did was back up the hard drive. If something goes horribly wrong, I wouldn't loose anything. Thankfully, the upgrade went smoothly.
Once I was booted into Vista, I went ahead and inserted the Windows 7 Ultimate disc. It came up and had just one button to push: Install. When you click that, you get a choice to do an upgrade or a "custom" install. When you click "custom", that lets you do a clean install (actually it reboots the laptop, and starts from there - just like the full install I described above). However, if you click on upgrade, it will first go on the internet to download updated install files. After which, it searches for where the current install of Vista resides, and just goes to town!
After a single reboot, you're done! It doesn't even asks for any info from you since everything it needs to know was answered when you first installed Vista.
Networking just works, all my desktop icons were still there, all my installed programs were still in the start menu, and while I see a new wallpaper, it looks like a worn-in Windows 7 machine. That's because it used to be a worn-in vista machine before. :)
I did notice that the performance was a bit sluggish for the first few days, but as time went on, it seemed to settle in and launch apps quicker without any stuttering or pauses.
It was an easy upgrade, but I still think performance would have been better if I did a clean install. It's great for someone who just can't afford to do a clean upgrade (too many things already in the right place). It may be in my mind, but it just didn't feel as fast as when I finally did a clean install (I did eventually do a clean install on my laptop).
User Interface Taskbar
Besides the fresh coat of paint (different default colors, more transparent title bars, etc), the most noticable change is the taskbar. It is a huge change from Windows XP, as well as Vista.
First, the taskbar is almost twice as thick as the old one found in Vista or XP. Second, the icons are larger to promote a more visual-oriented way of recognizing your programs. Lastly, there is no text to show you the name of the program running.
Prodding more, you'll find that the Quick Launch is now gone. Instead, you get to pin your most-used programs to the taskbar. I found it hard to get used to, and only found myself liking it when I upgraded my work PC to Windows 7. I found that by pinning my most-used apps to the taskbar, and 2nd most-used apps to the Start Menu, launching programs were quicker and more efficient. Before, I used to keep my most-used apps as shortcuts on the desktop. This required me to minimize all open windows to get to them, or click on an empty space on the desktop and start typing the first few characters of the program I want to launch.
Diving in even more, you'll find that there is a "Jumplist" feature. When you right-click on apps that are Jumplist aware, you get a list that is geared towards that application. For example, right-click on Internet Explorer, and you get a list of the most frequent websites you visit. You can also open a new tab or start "InPrivate" browsing (IE's answer to Firefox's Incognito mode - or as others like to call it "porn mode"). With Windows Media Player, you get a list of frequently played songs as well as the ability to play all songs in your library.
Just like Vista, if you hover your mouse over a running program's minimized icon, you get a live preview of windows related to that program. In Windows Media Player, it goes one step further, allowing you to pause or skip forward/backwards.
The notification area has also been drastically changed. Because of the thicker taskbar, the clock now have space to display the date as well. Background programs that usually indicate their presense here are swepted into a hidden area which you can invoke by hitting the up-arrow icon. You also get an ever-present Action Center icon (a little white flag) that basically gives you OS-related notifications (security, backup, problems found, etc). Rearranging these small icons are a snap as well! If you want something in the hidden area to always show, just drag it out of the hidden area to the visible part. The same if you want a visible icon to hide.
All the way to the right of the taskbar, you'll have the "Show Desktop" replacement. This time around, if you hover your mouse pointer there, all open Windows will becoe clear (like glass) so you can see your desktop. If you click on the area, all the Windows will minimize. Click it again, and all the windows will come back.
Some of the easy keyboard shortcuts also help you launch programs that you pin to the taskbar. Win+1 will start the very first program on your taskbar. Of course, Win+2 will start the second one, and so on, and so on. You can also use this combination to switch to a program that's already open but minimized.
User Interface Windows Management
Okay, enough about the taskbar... what about the other stuff? Well, besides the different default wallpaper and a much more transparent title bar and window borders, it looks more or less like Vista. That's fine, actually... there's nothing wrong with Vista's style of Windows. They look professional enough to fit in an office environment, but still very cool and interesting enough for the home. This is unlike the Fischer Price interface that XP defaulted to.
But Microsoft didn't leave well enough alone! They did, in fact, improved on windows management! You've seen the commercials and read about most of them - the Aero Shake (shake a window to minimize all other windows so you can focus on the task at hand, shake it again to bring all the other windows back), the Aero Snap (drag a window to the top to maximize, to the left or right to have it take half the screen), etc. However, I discovered a little more - if you take your mouse to the top or bottom edge of the window so the mouse pointer becomes a resize pointer, you can double-click to make the window take up the full vertical footprint of your monitor! This way, you can size it the way you want from left and right, but make it taller! I found it great to view web pages since not all sites use the entire left/right space. The window ends up like how the Mac OS "maximizes" their windows, taking up just the space the window needs, except Windows still gives you complete control!
All these management tools are augmented with new keyboard shortcuts as well. I find it useful in a multi-monitor setup. For example, I can't use Aero Snap to snap a window to right side of my left monitor (basically the middle of the whole set up) as it will just move the window to the other monitor. Instead, you can use the shortcut keys to snap it anywhere you want! Hold down the Windows key, and hit the left or right arrow key until the window snaps to the area you want!
Of course, there's the 3D flip to switch windows - basically a prettier Alt-Tab switch. Win-Tab will start the 3D flip, which shows live windows in a Rolodex-like animation. Once you're in this view, you can use the mouse wheel to flip the windows forward and backwards to find the one you want. The old-fashioned Alt-Tab still works, but it shows a small live window thumbnail instead of just the program's icon.
Perormance Low End
This is where Windows 7 really differs from Vista. Microsoft realized how sluggish Vista was, and decided to put 7 on a diet. If it wasn't for the netbook market, I don't think Microsoft would have cared! They wanted to discontinue and stop support for Windows XP, but they couldn't - netbooks were popular, and they didn't have the power to run Vista in any satisfying manor.
So instead of making a netbook-only edition of their new OS, they decided to make sure that any editions will run on low-end devices well. And I must admit, they did a very excellent job!
On my Acer Aspire One (Atom CPU running at 1.6GHz, 1.5 GB of RAM), boot up times were respectable. It took just as long to boot as Windows XP. When I tried running Vista, boot time was noticably longer - at least twice as long! Aero Glass works, and it seems to be able to do 3D flips of windows smoothly up until you get about 10 windows opened. That is pretty impressive!
During the beta period, I was putting Windows 7 RC1 on any PC I could find just to see how well it would perform. I was able to cobble up a Pentium III 800 machine with only 512MB of RAM. It was definately slow, but it ran! Of course, I would not call this usable at all. Every window took forever to draw. It was just interesting to see how this kind of hardware will run Windows 7, and it does. It's just a crazy thing to do, though.
A Pentium 4 2.8 GHz with 512MB of RAM and a GeForce FX5200 booted up a bit slow, but still livable. Aero Glass works with the FX5200, and surprisingly well until there were about 3 or 4 windows open and you try to use the 3D flip.
I also remember fondly of installing Widnows 7 on an old IBM Thinkpad running a Pentium M 1.6GHz CPU with 1 GB of RAM and a Radeon 7200. There were no drivers for Windows 7 for the Radeon 7200, which made windows management sluggish. After some Googling, I was able to find a way to hack XP drivers to work (there were no support for Vista either). Performance was much better, and the darn thing was actually very usable! Of course, no Aero Glass means no 3D flip or live thumbnails. It performed more or less like Windows XP.
I also have a Dell Lattitude D420, which is a ultra mobile laptop. It's got a Core Duo U2500 1.2GHz CPU (not a Core 2, mind you), 1 GB of RAM, and a 60GB 1.8" HDD. I mentioned the hard drive because it's not a standard 2.5" laptop hard drive! It's the same kind of hard drive you'd find in a small MP3 player like the iPod Classic. It's not meant to be used as a system hard drive! In fact, if you read reviews of the Dell D420, you'll see that many people complained about the peformance of the laptop due to the slow hard drive. Not even Windows XP ran well on it.
Surprisingly, Windows 7 booted up as fast as my Acer Aspire netbook! Aero Glass does work, since the graphics chip supported it, and it is very usable! Loading small applets (such as the programs included in Windows) loaded fairly quickly, including Internet Explorer 8! What really made Windows 7 perform sluggishly is when you try to install and run the full Microsoft Office 2007 suite. Well, what do you expect from a bloated office suite? It's not the fault of Windows 7 really.
All except the Pentium III machine ran Windows 7 at least well enough for netbook-like use, such as surfing the net, running a word processor, creating a spreadsheet, etc. If you don't multitask much, Windows 7 runs pretty decent on these low-end devices! Of course, memory dictates how any programs you can run simultaneously. The hard drive plays a huge factor in boot up and program load times, which Windwos 7 handled better than any other OS on the small D420 hard drive. The fact that the slow HDD didn't slow down Windows 7's boot time noticably means that Microsoft optimized the boot process, as well as trimmed down on their hard drive footprint. Smaller files mean less time spent loading.
Performance Mid-to-High End
While that's a testiment to how well Windows 7 can perform in low-end devices, what about mid-to-high end? Well, I'm happy to say that it scales very well! I would describe Windows 7 as "slippery" when it comes to modern hardware. My work PC is an HP dx7500MT with a Core 2 Duo E7400 (2.8 GHz), 2 GB of RAM, and an ATI FireMV 2200 video card (dual monitors). Animations and transitions are fast, and just feels very natural.
On my gaming PC at home running a Core 2 Quad Q9550 overclocked to 4 GHz, 4 GB of RAM, and an GTX260, I have to admit that it doesn't feel any faster than my work PC. Gaming performance seems similar to both XP and Vista (Vista wasn't that much of slouch anyways once everything is loaded up).
My HTPC running a Core 2 Duo at 2.53GHz and 2 GB of RAM ran Media Center fairly well. I had to upgrade to a faster (more modern) HDD and memory (to 4GB) to get truely stutter-free Blu-ray playback. The Geforce 8500GT helped a bit, but is getting a bit dated. Still, as a PC to record and play back high-def TV content, there was not pausing or stuttering! Also, networking and external drive access seem to be much improved as well. I used to have major pauses whenever I try to hit my Drobo or my shared folders for video content or even to browse the folder in XP and Vista. Windows 7 seem to be able to breeze through these shares better. There is still some pausing, but Windows 7 Media Center seem to start drawing the folders and rendering thumbnails as it loads, making it feel much more responsive. You can actually start moving the cursor while it loads.
File transfers via network or disk to disk is also much quicker. Of couse this isn't hard to do when Vista was such a slouch. Windows 7 is still a hair slower than Windows XP when it comes down to these tasks, but it is so small that it is negligble. So much so, in fact, that I declare the slow file transfers an issue finally fixed!
Programs and Drivers - Compatibility
I've notice many people who says Windows 7 is more compatible with older programs, and that's just wrong. It's really a perception, much like how people saw XP as an OS that broke many things. However, today we see it as a stable, secure, and familiar OS.
There's an explaination for that: When XP came out, it was radically different from Windows 98. When Snow Leopard came out, it was a different beasted compared to Leopard. When Vista came out, it was also completely different from XP. These major changes broke compatibility with software and drivers because they are new platforms. This is to be expected. Only time (and hard work on the software and driver programmers) will mend the issues.
So why does Windows 7 seem to have better compatibility? Well, think about it: Vista gave the programmers time to update and patch software and drivers to work with the new OS. So when Windows 7 came out, we were ready.
The title of my review for Vista "Are we Ready for Vista? Vista Ready for Us?" reflects this. That's right, people: Windows 7 is really Vista that's just been spruced up and had the fat trimmed. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Vista is more secure than XP, and was written much better. It's just a bit bloated, and Windows 7 is a fix for that blunder.
So if you have programs and/or drivers that are compatible with Windows Vista, chances are it will work just fine in Windows 7 as well. However, if you have that Windows XP app that didn't work at all under Vista, don't expect it to work in 7 either.
However, Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate allows (with a free download) you to run a full virtualized PC containing a fully (and free) licensed Windows XP Professional! This is so that you can run your legacy applications! This will give companies running custom software that ran in XP some time to keep productive with the new OS, while giving their programmers time to update or fix their application to work with the new OS.
It is NOT for gaming, however, since it does not support Direct3D or OpenGL accelleration.
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center (WMC) is refreshed yet again. This time around, the menus are much larger, giving it the same look as the Zune HD's menus. Just like Vista Media Center (VMC), WMC makes good use of your 3D graphics card to do alpha blending (the see-through effect) the menus and video content.
Also new (and cool) is the moving mosaic of album arts while you play your music. Just as well, a photo screensaver is now on by default. If you leave WMC on for a few mintues, it will start showing black and white mosaics of your photos. Then every once in a while, it would zoom into one of the photos and colorize it. It will then zoom back out, fading back to black and white, and continue with the scrolling mosaic. It's a nice effect!
As stated before, browsing through network shares and even to my Drobo that's connected directly to my HTPC via USB is much improved. It used to be that VMC would pause and lock up for a good while when I try to access shared folders with photos, music, and videos. WMC in Windows 7 seem to just breeze right through! The interface remains responsive while content is being indexed for thumbnail views.
As for recorded TV, WMC now uses a new container format. It allows for more restrictive DRM, giving content providers more control of your recorded content. Currently, there is no provider I know of that is taking advantage of it. I'm not very fond of this idea, but so far, it hasn't been intrusive. We'll see if it will continue to be trouble-free when content providers decide to take advantage of the broadcast copy protection flags.
All in all, it seems much more stable than Vista Media Center. There are a few issues still, however. I leave Media Center running all the time, full screen. Sometimes when I first turn on my TV and reciever, I get a blank screen or the resolution lowered itself, making everything look stretched. I would have to turn the reciever off - sometimes even several times, before it is fixed.
Vista and XP didn't have these issues. I've tried upgrading and downgrading the video drivers as well as play with the power saving options to no avail.
So, Should I Upgrade?
The quickest answer is YES! Windows 7 really IS the best Windows yet! However, not everything is that simple, right? Right.
First of all, if you bought a PC with Vista already pre-installed, the answer is a definate "yes"! After all, Windows 7 is just Vista spruced up. If your PC runs Vista, it will run 7.
If you have a netbook with XP, the answer is "maybe". XP is lightweight, and runs well on a netbook. You bought a netbook because all you want to do is surf the net, and do some light computing. Why would you want to spend the money for a Windows 7 license to upgrade a $300 or less laptop to just surf the internet? If you got it for free, then it's a no brainer - just do it! But if you have to shell out hard earn cash, you might want to think about saving that money for a faster machine instead.
If you have an older machine, I'd say "no". Sure, Windows 7 may run on it, but then again, a $300 desktop will probably be faster than what you have now, and will already have Windows 7 pre-installed! Also, don't forget that you will need to upgrade your memory or even your graphics card to fully experience Windows 7, and the cost of Windows 7 itself! Add all that up, and you can just buy a brand new PC with everything you need including Windows 7 already installed!
That said, I believe Windows 7 Ultimate an overkill for most people. Home users should definately check out Home Premium. Enthusiests and business laptop toters should get Professional for domain connectivity and other features. Of course, for those who is already looking into Professional, Ultimate may still be a viable choice, since for both Upgrade and Full retail boxes, it's only $20 cheaper ($199 vs $219 for the upgrade)!
If you're looking for OEM versions, you'll see the price jump is much higher ($159 vs $199). My advice is go with Professional if you are going to pay for the OEM license. Otherwise, if you are hard-set on getting Ultimate, get the Upgrade retail box for a license that can be transferred to a different PC.
Oh, you can definately use the Upgrade discs to do a clean install - you just have to Google for a workaround (editing a registry setting). The old Vista trick of installing the trial version, then installing on top of that to trick the installer to "upgrade" does not work anymore.
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