10 Responses to “Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Reviews”

1. M. Chiou says:

   30/06/2010 at 11:27 am

   Review by M. Chiou for Living Cookbook 2008
   Rating:
   I’ve made 2 cookbooks now, and each time I show them, no one can believe that they are my own recipes, and not just printed off the web customizable comment section on the recipe is the only way that someone can tell I didn’t just steal the recipe! It’s amazing what using this software and printing on good quality paper does – it looks absolutely professional quality. The software is easy to use, easy to install, and you can set it to back up your collection every time you exit the application. I take a recipe I find online or see on TV, I make it, and then record my changes and make it my own. I plan on using this software to create the cookbook I plan on passing onto my kids. I have to say though, not only is this an excellent application created by a small, proud company, the incredible product support (directly from the developer) on their forums and the supportive community dedicated to Living Cookbook is what sets this application apart from all others. It literally is the only software I would pay for.
2. bkl says:

   30/06/2010 at 10:54 am

   Review by bkl for Living Cookbook 2008
   Rating:
   Living Cookbook 2008

   I bought Living Cookbook 2005 2 years ago after extensive research into all the cooking applications available. The reviews for Living Cookbook were great then and 2008 is even better. I upgraded to 2008 this last Xmas and am even more impressed with this version. I am a professional Web and User Interface designer, so I’m more critical than most users would be. Let me tell you why this application is so good:

   ENTER RECIPES QUICKLY
   
   New recipes are very easy to enter. The feature I like best is Recipe Capture. Copy any recipe from the internet, or your own text file, and then paste it into a field under the Capture Tab. To copy the ingredients to the Ingredients Tab, highlight that text and press the Ingredients button. Voila! All the ingredients are copied to the Quantity, Unit, & Ingredient columns. What has just been copied is highlighted in a color so you know it’s completed. Copying the procedures and all the other recipe information is equally easy. Highlight the text and click on the button name that matches the information.

   Entering recipes is flexible. Scan in your recipe collection or favorites from cookbooks. (You do need to supply the scanner.) Import them from other software that use Food Data Exchange, MasterCook, Meal Master, or text file formats. Copy recipes using the Capture tab. Alternatively, manually add recipes using the Autofill feature. A few characters and the software fills in the rest. It will even fill in the Quantity and Unit from the Ingredients field if you enable Pen Scanning. (This is one my only quibbles in terms of UI: It’s not a logical location to enable the feature even though it was created to make pen scanning easier.)

   PLAN MEALS EASILY
   
   Whether you’re planning for a party or the family’s weekly dinners, select the recipe you want and add it to a Menu file. Scale the recipes to the number of guests. Create a Shopping List with all the menu ingredients totaled and organized by store and by category. It even tells you the cost of each item. (I haven’t verified if the cost matches our expensive region, but it should give you an idea of how much the weekly meals will cost.) You can even keep an inventory of what you have on hand. Planning takes no time at all with no extra trips to the grocery store.

   FIND RECIPES FAST
   
   Key word tags (Recipe Type): Add a tag from the existing list or add your own tag to recipes you enter. Some examples of my personal key words are Holiday, Family, Low Fat, each season (spring, summer, fall, and winter to take advantage of seasonal ingredients).

   Search makes finding recipe categories very quick. Got an aunt who is vegetarian, and allergic to nuts, wheat, and dairy products? Use the Advanced Search and pick up to 4 key words (Recipe Types), include or exclude whatever ingredients, and you have a list of possible recipes. No more browsing many cookbooks, searching each chapter for recipes that fit multiple needs. This feature is useful for grocery store sale items and or the apples you need to use, so you can save money too.

   Click on a cookbook folder and recipes are listed showing the Name, Rate (5 stars, 2 stars) Difficulty, Type (key words). That makes scanning to find the right recipe is easy.

   MAKE IT YOUR OWN
   
   Create your own cookbooks. I made a “Family Favorites” cookbook, created CDs and gave them to my family for Christmas along with a copy of the software. We can email recipes to each other so sharing is a breeze. I also have a cookbook called “Try Me” for all those recipes I’ve collected over the years that I’ve wanted to test. No more newspaper articles to laboriously leaf through. Another cookbook I created is “Company’s Coming” for the times I entertain and want recipes that are easy, but elegant.

   You can organize recipes or menus however it suits you. I created folders for Appetizers, Beverages, Breads, Desserts, Eggs & Cheese, Entrees, First Courses, Sauces & Marinades. I made subfolders for some categories – like Entrees are split into Beef, Poultry, etc.

   IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH
   
   Each recipe automatically calculates nutritional values so you know what’s in it. This is invaluable for diabetics, hypertension, or just to lose weight.

   RESPONSIVE SUPPORT
   
   If you can’t find the answer in the Help files or Tutorials, LC has a Discussion Forum covering most topics. I added 2 questions to an existing thread and got answers back within 24 hours.

   There a more great features, but this review is too long already. If you aren’t persuaded by now how great the software is, reading more probably won’t change your mind.
   
3. Dana Demerchant says:

   30/06/2010 at 10:25 am

   Review by Dana Demerchant for Living Cookbook 2008
   Rating:
   I have been using this software for a number of years , along with other recipe software. I have found myself abandoning all other software for Living Cookbook 2008 ( LC08 ) .

   In these times of rising food prices , I have found that by using this software I have saved so much money on my food bill , just from meal planning.

   We print out our own hard copy family cookbook and we intend to use the services of Tastebook.com which can take an LC08 file and make it into a cookbook no different than what you would buy in the store.

   There are websites that can do what LC08 does but you take the risk of being banned , the site going down , your net connection going down and a host of other issues. With LC08 you can make backups and export them to a CD or a removable flash drive , you keep the control of your own recipes , menus , meal plans , shopping lists etc.

   Service , Lee ( the programmer ) doesn’t brush you off. He works so hard to fix issues , answer questions and improve the program . Unlike other programs that are more interested in becoming a social network.

   I honestly can not hit on every topic that makes LC08 a great program , download a free trial for yourself from the Livingcookbook website and be sure to check out the capture and scan features. Capture is the ability to copy and past a recipe into the program via a few clicks. The scan feature allows you to save old paper copies of family recipes , into an image , which you can view from within the program.

   I hope you enjoy LC08 as much as I do.
4. Litza Stark says:

   30/06/2010 at 9:31 am

   Review by Litza Stark for Living Cookbook 2008
   Rating:
   I’m a computer programmer and an avid cook, and for years I fantasized (and even tried to write) my ideal recipe database program. After admitting defeat, I rigorously explored several websites and software packages, including Now You’re Cooking and BigOven, but when I got to Living Cookbook, I knew I’d found everything that I was looking for.

   I don’t even use the menu planning/shopping list features — my favorite features are:

   (1) It’s ridiculously easy to snag recipes from websites and other sources and get them into the Living Cookbook format.

   (2) If you’re not interested in using a feature, it’s easy to change your settings so that you don’t have to see it on your recipes or exports.

   (3) If you like having your recipes on paper in your kitchen, it’s ridiculously easy to publish a beautiful paper cookbook with table of contents and index (this was one of my main goals) and to customize its appearance.

   (4) There’s incredibly clear and comprehensive documentation included in the software, as well as excellent support available on the online forums.

   If you’re looking for flexible, robust, well-supported recipe software, look no further. This product would be worth twice the price.
5. The 'M' Family says:

   30/06/2010 at 9:24 am

   Review by The ‘M’ Family for Living Cookbook 2008
   Rating:
   Ok, I have literally tried all of the cooking software out there and when I tried Living Cookbook over 2 years ago – I was hooked! It is by far the best and most amazing program for organizing your recipes in one place. It is very robust, but easy to learn… so you can use it for a few recipes or thousands! I recently upgraded to the latest version `Living Cookbook 2008′ and I’m glad I did… it’s fully compatible with my new Vista Laptop and I love the ability it has to customize everything (from the fonts and colors, to the recipe layout and more).

   Since I started meal planning, our family has saved over $200 extra on groceries each month! And in case anyone might be wondering, we shop and eat all organically. Living Cookbook has no troubles keeping up with all my custom foods – and lets me enter in as many new ingredients as I want.

   My favorite features are the Meal Planning; Inventory; and Shopping List capabilities… no more guessing when I go to the store. It literally lets me drag and drop recipes/meals to a calendar, and it will generate a shopping list of what I need to buy… but it also takes into account the inventory I already have on hand – so no unnecessary purchases! If you take the time to enter in food prices, it can also calculate shopping costs too! The only thing I’d like to see added is the ability to adjust my inventory on hand `on the fly’ within the inventory table list. But Lee has assured us, that this is one of the upgrades he has planned for a near-future software update.

   I must also comment on the outstanding support offered by ‘Lee’ (the software’s developer) on the support forum. How often do you buy something and have the ability to ask questions directly from the source!? On the rare occasion when I’ve had a question, Lee’s response time has been quicker than when I call my own Mother for help!

   My one warning to new users… Beware – this software is addicting! My husband recently came out of the bedroom half asleep to inform me that it was 1:30 in the morning – I had been glued to my new upgrade to Living Cookbook 2008 and was having so much fun that I didn’t realized so much time had passed!

   Enjoy & God Bless!
6. Jordan C. Brice says:

   30/06/2010 at 9:06 am

   Review by Jordan C. Brice for Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
   Rating:
   I have used every Microsoft OS since DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1. Until now my favorite was Windows 2000. XP was pretty solid (after service pack 2) except for all of the security holes. Every time I would need to fix an XP machine it wasn’t because of something wrong with the OS itself, but because the machine had virus/spyware/trojans etc. Enter Vista. MS fixed most of the security problems but did so at the expense of performance and stability. Now with Windows 7 you get the best of both worlds. XP was released in 2001 and hardware has come a long way since then, but the OS itself remained relatively static and could only take advantage of newer hardware at a basic level. Vista was an improvement and Windows 7 handles it better still.

   I think Vista, although I had few problems with it, will go down as ME 2.0. At the same time Windows 7 will be XP 2.0. People will cling to it and MS will have to kill it off before people will move on to it’s next offering, whatever that may be.

   With that said I would highly recommend that both XP and Vista users upgrade. Unlike previous upgrades you will actually get better performance and use less resources post-upgrade. A first for MS. Security is rock solid. If XP is swiss cheese, then Win 7 is the wall of China. You no longer have to download the “patch of the day” from Windows Update. I haven’t played around with Media Player, but Media Center is great for watching DVDs and remains pretty much unchanged from Vista. My favorite features are Jump Lists, AERO Snap (for working in two windows side by side). Networking is a bit easier (especially compared to XP). Performance is much improved from Vista and is comparable to or even faster than XP. Calculator, Paint, and Wordpad have been updated. If you are upgrading from Vista you do lose a couple of progams, namely Windows Mail and Photo Gallery. Updated versions can be downloaded from Windows Update for free. The only downside is that upgrading from XP requires a clean install.

   As far as the upgrade process itself goes, it’s painless. Just be sure to run the upgrade advisor before you do. All that’s required of you is a product key (at the end of the installation) and activation. So all you have to do is pop the disc in, grab a good book, and before you know it you’re in computing heaven.
7. Adrienne Austin says:

   30/06/2010 at 8:53 am

   Review by Adrienne Austin for Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
   Rating:
   This purchase was for my HP notebook PC, purchased in 2008 with Vista pre-installed. I hated Vista for several reasons which Win7 completely rectified. The biggest problem was the minimal help HP offers with laptops older than 2009, so getting all the drivers and programs that were part of the proginal HP package was a pain but we have recoverd 95% of what was lost in the transition. I’m very pleased with the speed and general performance of this OS.
8. William W. Davis says:

   30/06/2010 at 8:12 am

   Review by William W. Davis for Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
   Rating:
   I’ve been using Windows 7 since its beta release, but my laptop’s been running the final version for weeks now. I really disliked Vista and preferred XP still, but Windows 7 has tipped the scales…finally. Windows 7 has been reliable and it’s snappier than Vista. Windows 7 sips laptop battery power so my 1-year-old Dell XPS M1530 runs longer under Win7 than it did under Vista. But what I really like about Windows 7 are the new and improved features it offers. Here’s a list of my favorites:

   #1 VIRTUAL LIBRARIES
   
   With virtual libraries, the special folders like Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos have all become libraries. Instead of being a physical storage location, they’re indexes that point to one or many locations on the computer you’re using, as well as other computers you’re networked with. In a home setting, where you’re running Windows Home Server, you can now easily direct file stores to your server. Also in the home, housemates can easily see each others’ data by including their respective folders in one another’s libraries. When you search a library, you’re searching your computer and any other computer that has folders you’ve added to your library. You determine which physical location will be the default location for saving new files to your library. This is, for me, the single best feature of Windows 7, and is an excellent reason to upgrade.

   #2 START SEARCH
   
   The Start Search has been improved in Windows 7 so results appear instantly as soon as you click the Start button, and then either type the name of a program on your computer, or a task you’d like to perform (like, “change my display settings”). No more hunting folder hierarchies to find that elusive program, or spend time figuring out where Microsoft has placed something in the Control Panel. This is a tremendous time-saver.

   #3 AERO SNAP
   
   The Aero user interface has three new tricks — Shake, Peek, and Snap — but only Aero Snap is a major leap forward. Have you ever tried comparing the contents of two windows together, side-by-side? It’s painful to do because you have to fiddle with resizing the two windows. With Aero Snap, now all you do is grab the title bar of one window, sling it to the left, and Windows 7 will automatically resize the window to fill-up one-half of your screen display. Do the same with a 2nd window by slinging it to the right, and it’ll fill-up the right-side of your display. You can start comparing two windows in…an Aero Snap. Aero Shake and Peek are cute, but not nearly so helpful.

   #4 TASKBAR
   
   Gone is the Quick Launch bar that too many people didn’t know existed. Now, the whole Taskbar is a quick launch bar — drag and drop any program icon onto the bar, and you’re one click away from starting the program. Also, it’s so easy to move the taskbar around now. I keep it on the left vertical on my computer. Gone is the system tray, too — Notification Area takes its place. The Action Center alerts you to anything you need to do to keep your computer working smoothly.

   #5 PROGRAM COMPATIBILITY
   
   Any program can be run in one of many compatibility modes now. Windows 7 has a wizard that will help you pick the right, earlier version of Windows under which to run an older program — just right-click on the program icon and choose “Troubleshoot Compatibility”. Or, You can do the same thing more quickly by right-clicking on a program icon, click the Compatibility tab, enable Compatibility mode, and select the earlier version of Windows you want to run with your program.

   #6 STICKY NOTES
   
   Less functional that the Vista Sticky Notes — which nobody used — but now I actually use Sticky Notes to put reminders on my Desktop. They’re quick, easy, and work just like a regular Post-It note only you don’t get fingerprints on your screen!

   #7 JUMP LISTS
   
   There are two kinds — Jump lists that let you quickly pick a task to perform, and Jump lists to quickly select a document to open and edit in the associated program. Jump lists include most recently used files, or you can pin your own files, too. These are nice time-savers.

   #8 SAVED SEARCHES
   
   In Windows Explorer, you can create filtered searches and then save them in your Favorites for later use. This is handy to find filtered data in the future. When you re-execute the search, it creates a dynamic results set (so your search is never stale).

   #9 CONTENT VIEW & ARRANGING
   
   Also in Windows Explorer, two new features. Now you can arrange a folder into subdivisions by date (great for your pictures folders!). You can use the Content view to combine thumbnails of files along with details that usually are found only in the Details view.

   #10 USER ACCOUNT CONTROL
   
   Most everyone hated UAC in Vista (even though it helped to keep your computer safe). In Windows 7, Microsoft tamped down the annoyance factor of UAC. You can change your date and time without setting off UAC, for example. You can also decide whether UAC should go into secured Desktop mode whenever it does get triggered (secured Desktop is when your screen darkens and you’re forced to respond to UAC’s dialog box asking permission to run a program or make a change to your system). You can easily turn-off UAC, too.

   #11 PAINT, WORDPAD, CALCULATOR
   
   All three of these utilities got updated. Wordpad and Paint have the Office-like “ribbon” now, and Calculator has a few new memory keys, touch sensitivity, and a Programmer view for those dealing with hexidecimals and binaries.

   #12 HOMEGROUP SHARING
   
   This is the easiest way to share data with others in your (home) network. HomeGroup creates a password that is shared among computers, and that takes care of all the issues with user accounts, file permissions and “access denied” problems. This is great for unsophisticated home networks. I made this feature last because I’m not using it — I just think it’s a great idea for inexperienced users. Note: all the networked computers need to be running Windows 7 to make HomeGroup sharing work.

   In short, think of Windows 7 as Windows Vista done right.
9. Just Anonymous says:

   30/06/2010 at 7:49 am

   Review by Just Anonymous for Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
   Rating:
   I’ll admit, I’ve been running Windows 7 for six months now: the preproduction version of it and have just upgraded to the gold code. So I have quite a bit of experience with the operating system. Let’s get to the nitty gritty:

   Should you upgrade from Windows Vista? YES! I mean it – upgrade today.
   
   Windows 7 is quite simply faster, more stable, boots faster, goes to sleep faster, comes back from sleep faster, manages your files better and on top of that it’s beautiful to look at and easy to use. Even the preproduction version of Windows 7 was better than my Vista with SP2.

   Should you upgrade from Windows XP? Maybe, but for different reasons.
   
   XP is a good operating system and if you don’t need to add new hardware or software, XP is good. However, XP is old as an operating system. Also chances are that if you’re running XP, you might not meet the minimum requirements for Windows 7 – check the compatibility site at Microsoft to see if your system will support Windows 7. That said, Windows 7 is light years ahead of Windows XP in terms of functionality, ease of use, etc – to me it’s worth buying a new system.

   64 bit or 32 bit?
   
   If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s ok skip this section. If you have a core2 duo or core 2 quad or a multi cpu machine, go with the 64 bit OS, it handles memory and the CPUs much better. If you have a single core CPU, one CPU or run special programs that require 32bit, then stick with 32 bit for now.

   BEFORE INSTALLATION:
   
   I recommend you have:
   
   -a core 2 duo or core 2 quad machine
   
   -4gig of RAM (That’s about $50 in today’s market)
   
   -good hard drive with (200 gig – it doesn’t need that much but that’s another $50)
   
   -back up your files to a USB drive like Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDME5000TN (Midnight Black)

   -check to make sure your computer is compatible with Windows 7

   INSTALLATION:
   
   Installation was very straight forward. You put in the CD and reboot your machine. You might have to enter your bios and enable the “boot from CD” option. Once the machine reboots a nice screen comes up to guide you through the installation. You have the option to upgrade your PC or do a clean installation. I did an upgrade and it brought in all of my files and settings from my windows Vista system. It worked great.
   
   The upgrade did take about 2 hours for me so definitely consider.
   
   I noticed that early on in the installation the operating system went out to Microsoft’s site to look for the latest and greatest updates, so I think this should help Microsoft respond quickly to any hiccups with compatibility.

   WHAT DOESN’T WORK:
   
   The driver from my old HP Inkjet printer for 2001 doesn’t work on Windows 7 so there are some things that will not transition. I had to use a generic HP driver which doesn’t give me the quality that I got from an injet – so overall, I’m up and running with that printer but I’m degraded on the inkjet front. That said, I recently upgraded to a HP CP2025DN Color LaserJet Printer that I love so no real loss there. I’ll likely pick up a cheap inkjet for the occasional photo that I might need to print. Everything else upgraded.

   BENEFITS
   
   -faster boot time
   
   -faster go to sleep
   
   -faster wakeup
   
   -faster about 20% to 30% faster at running applications than my Vista – seriously (but those are my results without any benchmarks or anything like that, just seeing how fast Adobe Illustrator loads, and how fast all the applications respond)
   
   -joining wireless networks is much easier
   
   -the interface is just plain beautiful
   
   -my wallpapers are now a slideshow that can be set to change every few minutes (I’m not stuck with the same picture)
   
   -Gadgets – these are wonderful little small applications that you can drag onto your desktop. I have a weather gadget and a calendar gadget on my desktop that tell me
   
   -Better taskbar management – hovering over the taskbar icons shows me mini windows of what’s running
   
   -Better file management – I can organize my files into Libraries that are sortable not only by type but by folder or other data. It’s great! I can browse through my presentations or illustrator files!
   
   -Windows Media appears to be smoother which I love.
   
   -You get some virus protection and firewall with Windows 7 but consider something more comprehensive like McAfee Total Protection 3User 2010. Yes, it’ll make your computer run a bit slower but

   CONS:
   
   - Some older programs might not work and some drivers might not be available like my inkjet driver.
   
   - Other than that, there aren’t too many drawbacks to Windows 7 – it’s a great OS.

   WHICH VERSION SHOULD I GET?
   
   I got the ultimate version because I have clients who ask, “is your hard drive encrypted?” — I wanted to be able to say yes and have sensitive data encrypted one of my computer volumes – Bitlocker is only available in the Ultimate version. Ultimate also includes Multilanguage support.

   If you’re a home user that doesn’t do a lot of networking, you might consider just the home premium edition. If you’re using a laptop and connect to networks at work, you might want the Professional version of the operating system to help you with domain joining. Also Windows Professional gives you the option to run applications in XP mode so if you have old applications you can use that nifty feature. I already have 1 application running in XP mode – it’s nifty to run an old application.

   NOTE:
   
   The box contains both the 32 bit and 64 bit OS.

   OVERALL:
   
   It’s very hard to write a comprehensive review on an entire operating system so I didn’t even try – I’m sure magazines will devote entire articles to the operating system and several books will come out. My goal here is just to give everyone a glimpse of what I’ve found to date with this new OS. I do hope this has helped you in making a decision.

   Hats off to Microsoft on Windows 7. It’s more of a refined Windows Vista than an entirely new operating system but it was needed. Thank you.
   
10. Mute208 says:

    30/06/2010 at 7:43 am

    Review by Mute208 for Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
    Rating:
    Here comes Windows 7, nearly three years after Windows Vista and eight years after Windows XP. By most accounts, Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. Do we finally have a worthy successor to XP?

    PROS:
    
    - Fast startup and performance
    
    - Stable
    
    - Nice aesthetic and functional changes to the desktop
    
    - Improved networking, power management & security
    
    - 32-bit & 64-bit versions included
    
    - Windows Media Center
    
    - Windows XP Mode (Professional & Ultimate only)

    CONS:
    
    - User Account Control still annoying
    
    - Upgrade can be challenging
    
    - Expensive

    There are only two Microsoft operating systems I’ve personally skipped since DOS 6.x– Windows ME and Windows Vista. Windows ME was so terrible that PC World coined it the “Mistake Edition.” Vista, when initially released, was considered to be bloated, relying on higher hardware requirements than XP, while being outperformed by XP on identical hardware. With Microsoft fast-tracking Windows 7, I decided to skip Vista altogether and upgrade to 7. This review briefly touches upon some of the key features and enhancements of Microsoft’s latest OS.

    PERFORMANCE & STABILITY
    
    One of the welcome enhancements Microsoft made was start-up time. The shutdown time has been improved as well. Also, in my non-benchmarked experience, Windows 7 has been at least as fast as XP if not faster. The kernel changes and ability to run the 64-bit version probably has a lot to do with that. Most benchmarks from around the Internet seem to support my observations.

    64-BIT
    
    I am elated to finally upgrade to a 64-bit operating system in order to take advantage of more memory support and modern processors. I have Intel Core 2 Duo processors in both my systems with 4GB of physical RAM but XP only allowed 3.25GB for system use.

    DESKTOP
    
    At first login, you’ll notice the changes to the taskbar. The taskbar is no longer just a place to store quick launch icons and view open windows. It now provides functionality in the form of Jump Lists, which allow you to select your most frequently opened files or links from the apps you have “pinned” on the taskbar. The clock and calendar are improved and the Show Desktop icon is now integrated in the far right corner. Other desktop enhancements include Aero Peek, Aero Shake, Snap, new themes and wallpapers. You also get gadget support. All of these features combine to create a much improved and enjoyable desktop experience.

    LIBRARIES
    
    Windows 7 introduces a new feature called libraries. Previously, your system had shortcuts to My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, etc. which had files residing in only those specific folders. Files can now reside anywhere on your system and be organized inside libraries. It’s similar to how many music and photo applications organize files.

    NETWORKING
    
    Even as good as XP was, networking was cumbersome. Windows 7 makes connecting two or more Windows 7 systems together easy, using HomeGroup. This enables easy sharing of files and devices. One downside is that HomeGroup is only supported between Windows 7 systems. File transfer performance between computers has been vastly improved and connecting to a wireless network has never been easier on a Windows machine.

    SECURITY
    
    Security in Windows 7 is good and comes with Windows Firewall and Defender. Still, you’ll probably want to invest in a more comprehensive Internet security suite, like Norton Internet Security 2010 or Kaspersky Internet Security. User Account Control (UAC) has been tweaked in order to give user accounts more flexibility in controlling their own security as well as providing more detailed information so the user can make better decisions about whether to allow certain actions. Coming from XP however, it is still annoying and I choose to turn it off. Also, in Windows 7 Ultimate, you can encrypt entire hard drives as well as external portable storage devices, like USB thumb drives. Though this is a welcome integrated feature, much of the functionality can be found in a popular open-source program called TrueCrypt. If you want encryption but not multi-language support, you could just get Windows 7 Home Premium and use TrueCrypt.

    POWER MANAGEMENT
    
    Power management has been improved overall and you should be able to squeeze more battery life out of your laptop, even when using your DVD drive. Sleep and resume has also been improved. XP wasn’t always consistent when entering or resuming from sleep mode, but Windows 7 has been perfect.

    WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER
    
    I’ve only briefly played around with WMC but it looks promising. It has some fun options for media, especially when you’re connected to the Internet. It may even be an adequate replacement for component DVR’s should you choose to use it as the centerpiece to your entertainment center. The biggest advantage for me is that Windows 7 now includes a DVD decoder. This means that I can now watch DVD’s natively. WMC is available in all Windows 7 editions except Starter.

    WINDOWS XP MODE
    
    For applications that ran in XP, but won’t on 7, there is now XP Mode. It isn’t perfect and your system has to have virtualization support and turned on. Go to your system BIOS to check. If supported, then install Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode. Check your hardware if you intend to use XP Mode. XP Mode is only available in Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate editions.

    RECOMMENDATIONS
    
    If you’re an XP holdout, like I was, I recommend upgrading. Vista SP2 users may have less reason to upgrade but might want to just for the changes to the taskbar and the UAC improvements. For users who don’t need to use their computers in a corporate environment, then Windows 7 Home Premium edition is a good choice. I’m guessing most power users will choose Professional, which adds XP Mode and Domain Join. Ultimate also adds drive encryption and multi-language support. I suggest a clean install for best results. If you’re a Mac OS X user, there is probably nothing in Windows 7 compelling enough for you to consider switching.

    SUMMARY
    
    Windows 7 is the premium Microsoft OS that Windows users have been waiting for. It’s fast, secure, stable, visually appealing and fun to use. Windows 7 will make your old system feel fresh and new again. New system owners with Windows 7 pre-loaded can feel confident that they’re getting the best Windows OS ever produced.