I first got to play with the next Microsoft operating system a few days before BETT (January 2009) when the public beta was made available.
Windows 7 is a vast improvement over Vista, improved speed, file transfer and other new features.
Speed
As my mobile laptop I have a HP Mininote 2133 with Windows 7. When I brought it, it came with a Vista Business and I hate to say it – but I had to downgrade to Windows XP. I was finding really bad performance on Vista when doing general day to day work in Outlook, Word and browsing the internet. I installed Windows 7 beta and found that it was faster than Windows XP. When Windows 7 RC was released I installed this again and still running it now. I also have Office 2010 Technical Preview and it still runs great.
My Windows Experience Index is 1.0
- Processor: 1.2 – VIA C7-M Processor 1.2GHz
- Memory (RAM): 3.4 – I have 2GB RAM
- Graphics: 1.0
- Gaming graphics: 1.0
- Primary hard disk: 5.1 – 120GB
Not the best but this doesn’t matter any more in Windows 7 – its fast enough for me.
Networking Speed
I remember watching a few videos over at http://us.gizmodo.com where they showed the difference between transferring files over the next. Microsoft have reported that this is again quicker in Windows 7
Paint
There is a new version of Microsoft Paint. In Office 2007 Microsoft released the new ribbon. I personally like it but a lot of people I have spoken to about it don’t. Well the good news for me anyway is that they have started to include the ribbon in some of the Windows 7 apps. Paint is one and so is WordPad. We’ll talk more about the Ribbon when we have a look at Office 2010.
WordPad
Again WordPad has the ribbon
So what is the latest regarding Windows 7? Well the good news is that it going to RTM (Release to Manufactures) which kind of means it done, finished and full release is on the 22nd October 2009. Keep an eye on your MSDNs, TechNets and Licensing pages with Microsoft as you will see it appear during August for you to implement into your school.
Alan Richards over at Westhatch school in Essex is doing some great work with his IT infrastructure. Alan has been keeping an blog about some of his work and will also deploying Windows 7. Keep an eye on his blog – I’m sure he will be doing a post or two about his work.
http://eportal.westhatch.essex.sch.uk/CServer/blogs/