What's fixed with Windows 7? [closed]

What's fixed with Windows 7? [closed]

I installed Windows 7 RC, but really I just didn't see much difference between it and Vista. I was an early adopter of Vista and will admit that at first it stepped on a couple of devices due to missing drivers, however besides that it's always been as stable as XP for me. So really, for those who have been cheering about Windows 7, what's it doing for you? Why is it better and what do you think will tempt me to upgrade?

Asked by: Guest | Views: 302

Total answers/comments: 3

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Guest [Entry]

"In terms of ""what's fixed"" I would say the user experience. It is a much more pleasant OS to use, it feels responsive. In terms of what's new, here are some of my favorite features from the Beta/RC:

Media

It has better video codec support out of the box (mpg, mp4, avchd (mts), xvid, etc)
Media Center does some basic Transcoding, so you can watch the above video formats on an extender (such as an Xbox 360).
Media Center/Media Player support (unprotected) AAC audio files
Stream media from your pc over the internet
Play media to a shared device (remotely control media being played on another computer/device

Libraries / Home Group

You can group similar files in different locations into Libraries. These libraries can also be shared with other computers in your Home Group (simplified file sharing / networking of computer).

UI

The task bar is now a combination of the task bar and the quick launch bar.
Aero Peek - mouse over the icon in the task bar and get a list of windows for that application. Mouse over the application windows and you can peek at the open application (all other windows become transparent outlines)
Aero Peek also works with Alt+Tab

Better Performance

Benchmarks are showing better performance (though marginal). However the User Experience has improved in a way that the OS is perceived as being much more responsive than Vista.
Better use of multiple cores"

Guest [Entry]

"First of all it runs on much lighter hardware, making old laptops useful gifts for family members

Certain UI bits have been tweaked and fine-tuned making it feel more finished (like the taskbar and network settings)

But indeed if you know Vista, Windows 7 isn't a whole lot different, though there is more than meets the eye"

Guest [Entry]

"Personally, I am in the same boat you were at first: I actually grew to like Vista over XP, and I didn't really have any problems with it.

When I tried Win7, I was really wondering how it was having such great press while Vista was having such horrible press.

After using it more though, it just has way more polish. It has a lot of small tweaks to usability and visuals that just make it feel a lot nicer. It has some great window management features, and the new taskbar is a pretty good improvement.

Plus, the speed issue is a big deal for people, but frankly I didn't notice much difference (outside of startup time, which is a lot faster).

I don't really have a fast PC, it's a few years old (Core 2 Duo E6600), and Vista has never felt slow to me, so I didn't really notice any big speed changes in Win7. I do have 8GB of memory though (for software development), so I think that is probably why I never had problems with memory-hungry Vista. Frankly I think Vista isn't really all so slow, it just needs a lot of memory (and ANYTHING gets really slow when you have to go to the disk often)."