Review by Midnight Distortions

It’s almost that time for XP to disappear and if you’re one of those users that want to stay secure now is the time to upgrade to Windows 7.

This is probably the best OS from Microsoft yet and while this OS is not perfect, it’s very stable, secure and less resource intensive than Vista. It is also very fast, the UI is very appealing and has some great security features.

Pros:nnFast.

Looks Fantastic with Aero Glass.

Compatible with pretty much.. well just about anything from earlier version of Windows.

Better Video format capabilities allowing you to watch just about any video without any issues like in the early versions of Windows (98, XP)nnGreat OS to game with, XP was ‘pretty good’ and i had issues with Vista but Windows 7 is suburb!nImproved start menu, you can search for your less used programs, files and just about anything all within the start menu. And it’s not full screen!nnCons:nTakes up more resources than XP most likely requiring a new desktop.

Windows Media Player will sometimes freeze up, i really don’t know what causes it but it will often do it when cold booting your desktop and i also have 2 hard drives on the desktop with WMP set to both (music on both drives) so i’m not sure if it’s just doing indexing or something but either way it gets to be a hassle sometimes, this has happened to a few systems with different hardware so i don’t know whats up with that.

Windows update. Yes, this thing gets on my nerves and if you have Windows Defender enabled it will most likely have you update daily or every other day. One of the biggest gripes i have with the updates is that either if you reinstall your system (or install a new system) you will most likely be doing updates for about an hour or more and it drives me crazy when it’s asking to restart the computer. The updates should be a bit more silent and do all the updates that require restart all at once. I had to also put the updates to manually install as otherwise the OS will prompt for a restart which will take place if you don’t do anything or hit postpone. It doesn’t allow you to manually restart when you are ready. Often i will have music playing and once the computer restarts no more music so that is a big minus for me, the updates should be more silent and either have the restarts set to manual or a better way of doing updates that require restart.

Cost. For what Windows 8 is worth and the direction MS chose with 8, it’s really just sad that Windows 7 is at the price as it is. But in the end you get a true version of Windows 7 and not a butchered version of it, it’s practically worth it to get a copy of Windows 7 versus getting Windows 8. Home Edition of Windows 7 is really all most need and that is a bit cheaper than Professional or Ultimate. Even though Windows 7 is only supported through 2020, it’s all most really want out of an OS and you won’t have to mess with 3rd party alternatives just to keep your start menu. Windows 8 is not faster, it does save on system resources better than Windows 7 but not by much. If you have problems with Windows 7 performance i would check the hardware before assuming it’s Windows 7 itself. It is very fast and there is no notable difference in speed between Windows 7 & 8.

If you want to avoid UI headaches with Windows 8, just get Windows 7. You still have 7 years of support and who knows, if it’s popular and no one is getting Windows 8 or 9 or whatever, MS will have no choice but to extend the lifecycle of Windows 7, like they did with XP. If you like Windows 7 and don’t really care for the direction 8 is going towards, i suggest getting a copy of 7 so MS will restore the start menu and allow desktop users the freedom of choosing desktop UI or a tablet UI. I for one don’t see a need of a tablet UI on my desktop. It’s like trying to put wheelbarrow tires on a truck. It could be done if you do some tweaking but in the end it just looks silly and it’s not practical. That’s how i feel about Windows 8. Why bother tweaking Windows 8 to look like Windows 7, when Windows 7 itself has all you need and more. Windows 8 doesn’t even have native DVD playback, you gotta download and possibly purchase WMC to get it back and they are removing WEI and the backup features so Windows is becoming less and less like an OS and more like an app center device. Even if you prefer having XP over Windows 7, if your system is capable you can dual boot with zero problems with Windows 7 and XP. Just remember to have XP installed first and a hard drive with the XP partition up to half of what you have or about 20GB and 80GB (35GB minimum) for Windows 7. That way you have the best of both worlds. Windows 7 is great for both home, professional and business users.