Window 7 Installation Features
Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010
by Dennis Levenhagen
pcinfospace
The reason for writing this article is to clear away some fears of installing or using the new operating system Microsoft has forced on us. Window 7 will be referred to as Win 7 as shown below.
How is it different?
This may be a matter of opinion. However, I like how it is NOT different. I was pretty used to working with Vista versions prior to Win 7 release. By luck they didn't move everything and added features that do not blow your mind. Win 7 now has an Organize option. This is a dropdown that allows you to Cut, copy, paste Undo, redo, select all, Layout , folder and search options, Delete, rename, remove properties, properties and close. When you click on a file you can bring this menu down to make one of these decisions. This search feature that is great for those that are unfamiliar with the way windows works. As a seasoned professional I would rather use the old cut and paste feature or even the keyboard shortcuts. The new way is menu driven but does work.
Email. The one thing that everybody uses they don't have. It no longer has outlook express. If you want a desktop email application such as Outlook or Outlook express it is no longer in the operating system software. You must now download Microsoft Live Mail from the Microsoft site. I feel it no longer makes sense to do it that way. Try to run it from the provider's site if possible. If you need scheduling software buy Outlook 2007. I hate spending money on this stuff but I do like the program.
Installation
I have installed Window 7 Home Premium on small drives and large drives. I have paid attention to weather it was on an Intel process or AMD. I even loaded viruses programs after I installed it. This all looked good to me and I could not detect any real problems.
Operation
I feel that it operates smoothly, doesn't cause any crashes and runs good with the programs I have seen installed with it so far.
Networking other computers
I have only worked with a few systems as of this writing. I had no known problems creating a network, sharing or any other issue.
The Internet
I saw no significant difference in the way it accesses the Internet. It does try to make you use Microsoft Explorer 8. I find no problem with that at this time.
RAM
I heard a lot about how much RAM the system takes. Although it may very per system, I seem to disagree. One system I tried it on only had a 40 GIG drive and 512 MEG of RAM. It seemed to load and run fine. I did not load many programs with it due to disk space. It did not seem to bog down when I used word or Excel.
Older system
I was wondering how it would run on older systems. I loaded it on a Pentium 4 processor system with a 40 GIG drive. It seemed fine. This unit also had 512 MEG of RAM.
Are there negatives?
I'm sure there must be. I just didn't find any. In fact I feel it will even run on a system that does not have a Dual Core processor and a small hard drive. I feel that if you can run it with one GIG or more of RAM on any computer that isn't older that Pentium 4 you'll be fine. I still would rather see more RAM if the mother board allows it. I would recommend a fairly large drive of at least 80 GIG so you will have room for other programs and data. It does take 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit) just for the operating system. Really old mother boards may have to slow of a bus speed to allow the system to run decent.
Possible problems you could run into
Drivers for your sound card, video or other devices that may be attached to your computer may need the latest Windows 7 driver. In some cases you will need new hardware if the Manufacture doesn't have the right driver.
Programs may not load and/or work. If the program is not window 7 compatible it may need to be upgraded or replaced.
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