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Domicinator on 04 July 2009
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I have been using Windows 7 on my laptop since day 1 of Beta, and have been using it on my whole network since day 1 of the Release Candidate. It is damn solid. Let me count the ways:

1) It runs great on my $600 laptop that has a pretty wimpy dual core and 1 Ghz of RAM. This same laptop really struggled with Vista, which is what shipped on the laptop. As soon as I switched it to Windows 7, my issues with long boot ups and long waits to be able to start using the machine were solved. I get to my desktop much quicker, and it is responsive right away. My tower is a gaming tower, so it handled Vista and Windows 7 without breaking a sweat. Most of my testing has been on a laptop that had no business running Vista. This is NOT NOT NOT a new skin installed over the top of Windows Vista. Changes have been made "under the hood" on this OS and there is a noticeable performance improvement. That is the single most important thing to remember.

2) The new toolbar is awesome. Just use it. You'll see.

3) I am blown away by the new media functionality. You can now access your media library over an internet connection......and it works REALLY well. I've tried it out in several different situations, and it is seamless. You just open up your media player and there's your stuff. Even HD video streams damn near flawlessly just as if you were sitting in your own network. (This could probably be added to Vista too, but I don't know/remember if it's reliant on the new Homegroup feature or not.)

4) Homegroups make it much easier for Joe Schmoe to set up a network.

5) For some reason I was never able to get Vista to let me sync up with my 360 as a Media Center Extender, and it's working beautifully in Windows 7.

6) It will have free Windows XP virtualization in some of the skus.

7) Even in its release candidate status, it NEVER crashes. (Vista is actually pretty good about that too, despite what the Apple commercials tell you.)

8) It's going to be priced lower than Vista was at retail.

9) One of the biggest Vista haters/detractors I have ever met is blown away by Windows 7's performance increases and compatibility improvements, therefore I don't have to listen to him bitch anymore.

10) It looks sexy.

So there you have it. That's just my top ten list. I have more, but maybe that will be another day. Windows 7 is already getting a lot of positive feedback from casual users brave enough to beta test as well as IT professionals. It's going to sell well, and I'm thinking will give MS back some of the credibility that it lost with Vista. (For the record, I really liked Vista, because I actually used it for longer than a month after launch and didn't listen to the Apple ads.)