Now that Windows 7 is shipping on a large percentage of laptops, what are the new features it offers, and how is it different from previous versions of Windows? I set out to answer these questions.

Verions:

Windows 7 Starter (32 Bit only)
Only available on Netbooks. In reality it doesn't offer much more than what windows XP Home did. Various reports have suggested that Win 7 Starter tended to shorten the battery life by as much ass 1-2 hours. So the likelihood is that Win 7 Starter will have to share the Netbook market with Windows XP Home for a while yet.

Windows 7 Home Premium (32 Bit & 64 Bit)

A large majority of Windows systems are now shipping with Windows 7 Home Premium. There isn't a huge difference between 32 Bit & 64 Bit in terms of performance for most of us. So if you are asking "should I go for 64 Bit?" The answer is probably it doesn't matter. Unless you intend to run CS4 or other 64 Bit native applications, or have more than 4GB of RAM, the difference will be minimal. Bearing in mind that most applications such as Microsoft Office are 32 Bit, running on a 64 Bit system will mean a 10-15% decrease in terms of speed. This is slightly offset if you have 4GB of RAM (32 Bit Windows can only use up to between 3-3.5GB of RAM depending on the video card's RAM requirements) but once again, don't worry about it too much.

Windows 7 Pro (32 Bit & 64 Bit)

For those who have been using XP Pro and Vista Business, this is the natural upgrade path. Traditionally, what separated the Pro versions to the Home versions was the ability to join a Network Domain. Contact your system admin if you are uncertain if your company's network runs on a Domain.

However with Windows 7 Pro the advantage does not stop there. The introduction of Virtual Machine and Windows XP Mode have lifted Windows 7 Pro to a class of its own. Your old Windows XP applications (some of which will probably never be updated to run on Vista or Windows 7 Home Premium) will now happily run either within the Virtual Machine, or straight from within Windows 7 Pro's program list. Thank goodness for that! Sage users will be particularly happy because many older versions were not compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7 Home Premium.

Windows 7 Ultimate (32 Bit & 64 Bit)

Sounds good, doesn't it? I have been running Windows 7 Ultimate for a while now, and it really isn't that different from Windows 7 Pro for all intents and purposes. However the Multilingual Interface is pretty handy for me, as I can switch between English and Chinese (Simplified). This also allows software in other languages e.g. Microsoft Office Chinese Version, to be installed.

Common misconceptions

I get this one a lot. "Windows 7 is like Windows XP, and not at all like Vista." Of course this is utter nonsense. to the contrary, it looks and feels just like Vista. Because Vista had such a horrible reputation (some of it justified, but most of it unfounded), I think many refuse to believe that Windows 7 could have anything to do with Vista whatsoever.

"Windows 7 is a lot quicker than Windows Vista." Once again this is not strictly true. Many benchmarks have been carried out and the results are inconclusive to say the least. In my experience the amount of RAM used and the start up time of the two operating systems are about the same. In any case, unless your hardware is a bit dated, neither will really feel like they are hodding your system.

What we liked

New features like Snap, Peek and Shake. Makes you wonder how you ever lived without them?

Virtual Machine & XP Mode. Business users will love this one.

Readyboost. Buy yourself a 4GB SD card and enjoy faster start up time as well as launching applications. To be fair this feature was available on Vista, although hardly anyone ever bothered with it.

Did I mention XP Mode?

What we didn't like

Still a few compatibility issues. I have experienced some issues with Firefox earlier on during the Beta testing stages of Win 7, although it looks like everything is fine now. iTunes is another major issue that has been reported.

There is still a lot of confusion between 64 Bit and 32 Bit software. Users will be left wondering "should I download 64 Bit Firefox? Which version of Windows do I have?"

Verdict

Microsoft have over the years released OS's that did very well, like NT, 98, 2000 and XP. There were others that didn't quite make it. Remember Windows Millennium? It looks like with the release of Windows 7, Vista will be consigned to the dustbin of computing history. All the indications are that Windows 7 will take over the mantel of XP in the years to come and become the dominant operating system of the PC laptop market.