Windows 7 Enterprise Trial

When I tried the Windows 7 Beta, and then the Release Candidate, I was frustrated by the way that things were working in general. I know for a fact that the install was done correctly, as both were installed twice, with no errors noted, but each of the four times, there was a slowness, and general lack of responsiveness after boot up that I was not liking, and I was very surprised that others were getting good results, on what was ostensibly similar hardware.

Tonight, I installed the Windows 7 Enterprise 90-Day Trial, and found that, after fighting with it for about 45 minutes, things are progressing nicely.

Now this is not to say that the Windows 7 experience is all smiles, because it is far from that. I am however, convinced that many will like it, as the eye candy, and the newness of it will please those who are not looking too deeply into the bowels of the operating system. If you are someone who uses the ‘My Computer’ interface of either Windows XP or Vista, you will like the interface of the Windows Explorer. If, on the other hand, you like the way the Explorer was set up using the menu interface (file view-details) for it, you’ll probably hate it, and go looking for a replacement immediately. My suggestion would be Explorer², as it gives freedom and power that the Windows Explorer has never had. (There is a totally free, lite version, and it does not nag at you to upgrade – I have spoken of it here before – all the accolades still apply.)

If you are someone who cares about the structure of the file system, you will be either frustrated or sorely disappointed, as the folks at Microsoft have tried to copy the Unix file structure, and botched it badly. Again, many folks who never used a tree view of the explorer won’t care one whit that so much has been made difficult, seemingly for the sole benefit of being difficult. Others will either get used to it or search for how to change the way things work (work on that is progressing at my house right now).

One thing that I am happy about is that a video card that had no support in the Beta or RC, can now be used with Vista drivers to give the Aero interface, which is quite nice. (Many fans of eye candy will switch for this feature, along with the not-so-gentle prodding of Microsoft stating that the end of mainstream support for XP is now gone.) I suspect that many will find that acceptable performance can be found for Aero without buying a new video card, if you had a mid-range card for the year 2003. No, it won’t get a great mark in the Windows Experience Index, but it will work acceptably, and lend the look that will get you into the ‘cool person’ category for those casual users not totally up on technology.

Because of this, I feel that many people who have high end single core processors with adequate RAM from 2003-2005 will find an upgrade to Windows 7 a fairly easy one, other than the fact that Microsoft has not made an in-place upgrade path. No matter what you read, you are always better off by backing up and doing a clean install.

The Enterprise version will make a quick and easy way to check if the ‘real thing’ will please you enough to bother with the upgrade – it is better that you do it yourself, and don’t take my word, or anyone else’s. If you can borrow a hard drive, burn a DVD, and devote 3 hours to an install (this includes all the updates, the correct video driver, and any other drivers that are not included in the DVD – I was quite surprised that there seemed to be no nVidia or ATi drivers on the disk whatsoever), and perhaps another 5-6 hours to playing with this, you will be better off, and know if this is your year to upgrade or not. (BTW, no games are in the Enterprise version – but otherwise, it is a complete version, allowing all the fixes that are available now to be installed, and a more complete evaluation of the product. [update - games are there, simply not installed by default~~~use add/remove in Control Panel to add them. This of course, may be the largest selling factor for the eye candy crowd. The included games are quite nice!]

(If you can afford an additional $55 dollars, you can get a 500 – 640 GB hard drive to allow the dual booting of what you have now, and Windows 7. It will be the very best way to compare, and instructions to do this are easily found. If anyone can’t find an explanation, put up a comment, and I’ll outline the instructions for you.)

I am not as adamantly against Windows 7 as I was earlier in the development, but I would still advise doing the above, to see if the look and feel is appealing, and what you want, because, when the day is done, what you will be paying for is look and feel.

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Windows 7 Enterprise Edition  – the high priced spread! Yours for 90 days!

- the first download after the antivirus! Internet Exploder 8, buh-bye!