Review by Joe Albanese

I started with Windows 3 and upgraded myself past the much-heralded Windows 95, the Millennium edition, straight through to Vista (which was supposed to eradicate the bad taste that was affixed to the word Windows). After awhile, they all became a blur with features being added, and then dropped, without rhyme or reason. Overall, however, there was nothing that really made it a better version of Windows.

Windows 7 shows proof that Microsoft listened to the customers and decided to give them a product that met their needs. Windows 7 (I’m referencing the Ultimate version, 64 bit) was a very long install (I upgraded from Vista) clocking in at 5 hours. Immediately I felt a pang of disappointment when it did not keep all of my settings (sounds, image size for folders). However, that was not the end of the world and I promptly forgot about it when I realized that Microsoft gave us Windows 7 and they managed to provide me with two necessary elements where I refused to compromise: the program gave me back disk space so I went from a hard drive almost half full to one that now has 65% disk space free. Not bad at all. Then, I immediately became aware that this is the first version of Windows where speed is of the essence. Whether rebooting, opening programs (which I can now keep on the bar instead of searching the START menu (you can still pin them there so don’t worry), saving files, etc., Windows 7 moves so fast that my three year old HP notebook was rejuvenated.

Windows 7 does have some bells and whistles: SNAP allows me to open two programs (I tried it with WORD and ONE NOTE) and have them side-by-side. It’s easy even though you might not use it frequently. You can also add sticky notes and get a sneek-peek of open programs. Nice.

It isn’t often that you upgrade (or even purchase) a program where you immediately notice major differences but Windows 7 not only retains the best features of former Windows programs, it adds benefits to the end user.