Windows 7 is looking good

Windows Vista was released two years ago in November 2006, at least to business users, although it wasn't available to the general public until January 2007. Vista is two years old, so why am I still running XP? I'm not the only one and there are huge numbers of XP users who are sticking with the old operating system. Does this make Vista failure?

One of the reasons why many people have not made the switch to Vista is that XP is actually much better than anyone realised. It's a great operating system that runs on any hardware and there's a wide range of software and hardware devices for it. It's not 100% secure, but there are many security products to choose from and some of them are free. It's not 100% stable, but crashes are rarer than some people make out.

Another reason why XP continues to be used is that there doesn't appear to be any software that is Vista-only. If there were even just a few must-have applications or features that only worked on Vista, then a lot more people would upgrade.

Will Windows 7 be better? Yes. In fact, it looks fantastic. Everything I have seen and read about this new operating system is superb and once it hits the stores you will want to upgrade. Underneath it is still Vista, but Vista is actually a good operating system. In 2009 when Windows 7 is likely to be released PC hardware will be much faster than when Vista was launed three years previously, so it will be quick and responsive.

The main differences between Vista and Windows 7 is in the user interface. I don't mean the Aero look, but the tools and utilities that are bundled with it. For example, Paint and WordPad have been given an Office 2007-style make-over and sport new ribbon bars. New taskbar features and Star menu make it easier to access files and applications, gadgets are no longer in a sidebar and are on the desktop, libraries enable you to group documents into virtual folders (a bit like photo organisers let you create albums from images located anywhere on the disk), icons that show stacks of photos, simpler networking and sharing features, easier sharing of devices and media files, and more. There are a zillion new features and they are all to do with making Windows simpler, easier and more fun.

I won't go into detail about the changes because others have done it better, and besides, I don't have a copy of the beta anyway. However, you should check out some of the excellent sites on the web that are covering Windows 7, such as Paul Thurrott's. See part 2, part 3 and part 4 in particular.