Windows Vista's less than stellar reputation and poor uptake are due in large part to the heavy demands it makes on system hardware. When Vista appeared in the autumn of 2006, PCs and notebooks were less powerful than today's machines. But even with modern hardware, anyone using a Vista-based system soon senses that this is an operating system suffering from the software equivalent of having the handbrake left on.
Microsoft cannot afford a repetition with Windows 7, and so has optimised all of the OS's major system components. From startup to login, everything in Windows 7 is faster.
Microsoft has now finalised Windows 7 and announced its Release To Manufacturing (RTM). Build 7600.1685 has been chosen for the RTM, and ZDNet used this version test the performance of Windows 7 against Vista and XP on various platforms.
Talkback
Page 4..... Vista SP3...
:S
...and now corrected.
Windows 7 initially launched at £44.97 for Home Premium, and 89.97 for Professional here in the UK. These were both full versions. These are now nearly double their launch price.
Did they really sell out this fast or was it extremely well run marketing?
A discount Window of three weeks was cut short to a day in some cases (Amazon.co.uk) and a week for the likes of DSG Group/Dixons.
Its possible large orders were made by possible 'grey' resellers, with the intention offering upgrades to non-technical customers, if the price does actually settle at its current price, its a pretty good margin on each installation.
MS will possibly examine these pre-orders in more detail via Credit reference agencies, to weed out possible multiple purchases of more than 3 copies per address, and cancel any large suspicious orders.
The 'Harry Potter effect' is still to happen, this is large boxes placed at the front of supermarkets on the day of the release. This operating system will be the first to emulate Harry Potter sales. Windows 7 purchased amongst the weekly shop.
Asda is likely to be one such outlet offering Home Premium at below cost on the day of release. But its still likely to settle around £50-£60 for Home Premium. £100 for Professonal. The 3 licence Famiily Pack might sell for around £89 initial heading up to £119 later on.
So don't panic purchase - get your on the day of release from a box at the front of the store near you - Asda, Tesco, Dixons, Comet will all be there helping you celebrate the release (of your money).
And of course Snow Leopard is heading to market in September, with an upgrade price likely to be £24.99. If Apple put this on the shelf next to a brand new apple mac, along the lines - we don't charge you £200 every two years (like some) to upgrade something we hadn't actually finished and macbooks have a great new marketing strategy.
Feel sorry for the Vista customers that supported MS at launch - they really have had a raw deal. Having bought Vista Ultimate, then asked to pay £200 within 2 years to get a respray (per machine!). And actually if your running Vista Ultimate SP2 I'd keep your money in your pocket, for the average user Vista SP2 compared to Windows 7 really isn't worth paying £200 for, regardless of the hype generated by Windows 7. Vista to Vista SP2 is your free upgrade to most of Windows 7, stick with it till Windows 8/2012.
"So don't panic purchase - get your on the day of release from a box at the front of the store near you - Asda, Tesco, Dixons, Comet will all be there helping you celebrate the release (of your money). "
Yup :D very good.
Vista's superfetch works at low I/O priority, it doesn't monopolize the system resources, it doesn't slow down anything.
Win7's superfetch is worst than Vista because free RAM is waste RAM; but stupid users complained for cache used by superfetch... and you'll get a worst product such as Win7.
Windows 7 download please
this is NOT a place for os downloads