Eager to work with Windows 7

by Ossama Gharib
(6th of October, Egypt)

1. First Looks
   • Before I start writing about my experience with Windows 7, I need to say the words that was at the beginning of an old song: Nobody is perfect all

     of the time, because there is no perfect reason… (so, what would be the output of a software that is made by people… who are not perfect)

   • So, any software could have some problems that would/should be solved in future releases. One could work with a workaround until the new release is

     out.

   • Really, the beginning was so difficult for me; as an advice, try to take your time to be familier with Windows 7. Please, do not judge quickly on

     such eye-candy operating system.

   • I have started working (not just testing) with Windows 7 from April 2009 (Beta “Ultimate” 32-bit & RC “Ultimate” 32-bit).
   • My previous Windows version was XP; did not work with Vista at all (was working with KDE 4.2 on openSUSE 11.1 “linux distribution” instead).
   • The navigation through the folders and files: you would enjoy it.
   • Windows 7′s performance is much better than Windows XP (faster and smoother).
   • Stability (just one-time Blue Screen Of Death: Sun’s VirtualBox would crash when the BIOS’ virtualization is disabled; such problem does not occur

     anymore “no need to enable the BIOS’ virtualization”).

   • Sticky Notes (Very nice tool to use for writing down your notes).

1. Switched to Vista Business (32-bit)
   • The difference in performance and stability (Vista has simple features compared to Windows 7; like, taskbar).
   • To safely-remove a flash drive from Vista, you need to close the Windows Explorer (listing files on the flash drive) before the eject action.
   • On Windows 7, you could eject the flash drive anytime you like (without any annoying message).
   • Almost continuous freezing on Vista; not the case on Windows 7.
2. Back to Final “Enterprise” (64-bit) 90-day trial
   • Better performance over “Ultimate” 32-bit (Deals nicely with my 4 GB of RAM; best case for the “Ultimate 32-bit” RC was dealing with 3.5 GB of RAM

     only).

   • Problem with IE 8 (regular freezing; more stable in 32-bit RC!!!); Firefox 3.5 works better.
   • Drivers (special thanks for the “Action Center” of Windows 7): automatic search for better drivers. Some drivers need you to manually install

     them.

   • Notifications on error occurence (credit goes to “Action Center” again).

1. Windows XP Mode (for Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise; NOT for Windows 7 Home Premium)
   • You could run any installed program on the genuine Windows XP with SP 3 (you would have it after installing the Windows XP Mode… on Windows

     Virtual PC).

   • There was a challenge in the new home-automation company that I have started working at 3 months ago; they claim the software that they mainly use

     would not work properly on Windows 7 (just for Windows-XP machines). But, it is currently working on Windows 7 without problems.

   • A second issue that I could have faced when we (at work) need to communicate with the company’s devices… is dealing with the COM port (works

     perfectly on Windows XP Mode, using Windows XP’s HyperTerminal).

2. Development environment (both 32 & 64 bit): Windows 7 runs the following software without problems: IIS, Apache server, PHP, Microsoft Visual Studio

   2008 Express Edition, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 & 2008 Express Editions, MySQL 5.1, PostgreSQL 8.4, Cygwin 1.5 & 1.7 beta, Subversion 1.6 &

   TortoiseSVN).

1. For a totally free home-edition antivirus (the first nicely-working antivirus on Windows 7) is Avast; conclusion after testing almost all antivirus

   software: Norton, Kaspersky, you name it. Actually, such nice antivirus was tested by me on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

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