Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette, and I am the tech editor at how stuff works dot com. Sitting across from me, as he always does on the occasions on which I podcast, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, so, um, the number seven, the number seven, number seven. Don't jump ahead, We've got listener mail to deal with. Okay, let's do that. Then this listener mail comes from Ted. Ted says, so when are we getting the low down on Windows seven? As a user, I'm loving the new OS is as better OS than XP and Vista, and finally starts to rub off the black eye for MS. So when are you going to tackle the elephant in the room. M thanks and chat later, Ted, Well, we don't tend to tackle elephants. They're very large. Yes, they tend to charge. Yes, we can take away their credit cards. We will. Someone left a footprint in the butter we will. Um. We will, however, tackle Windows seven. Yeah. I should point out too that this is a little difficult for us, simply because UM, as a group that typically does not do product reviews. UM, we don't have a review copy of Windows seven in the house, although both of us have had the chance to mess around with the preview version that Microsoft released last year. We have a test machine that we use for stuff like that and lenox um, so you know, in a way, we have had the chance to mess with it some, but we haven't had a chance to really mess with the full version. Yeah, and part of that is because the office as a whole has not moved Windows seven, so we don't have access to it on our work machines, and neither Chris nor I have purchased a computer since Windows seven went gold and uh, and I'm using a Mac at home. So I mean, we just haven't had a chance to use it in our personal lives really, but there's been a lot out about it, so we can talk about it. Uh. First of all, would you say that, when based upon what you've read and the limited experience you've had, that Windows seven is a huge jump over Windows Vista. Well, in doing some research for it, I wanted to see what other people were saying, because you know, even frankly even if it was we were they were asking us just about our own experience. I would still want to see UH sort of temper that with some of the other reviews that I've read online and get a feel for what other bloggers and professionals were saying about it too. Um. Based on based on that, I would say that people in general seem to agree that UH Windows seven is a very good interface. Yes, um. I even talked with with our I T professional who's in the office. Um. He said in his opinion that Window seven is the second best OS that Microsoft has ever released. You know, I didn't ask, I was afraid to ask. But program Well, the problem is too that people Vista still has a very you know, as to point out, sort of a black eye, although you know by now people don't complain about it nearly as often as they used to. Well, it's because it's been some time and upgrade it. Well yeah, but it's still not I think the bells and whistles, plus a lot of the machines on which people were trying to install it at first, you know, may not have been able to handle it, whereas newer computers with it UH pre installed are ready and you know, it wasn't such a big deal for people who were on Vista, But most people I've seen who have upgraded to Windows seven seemed to really like it. I think for people who's stuck with the Vista platform and who continued to patch it and updated as they became available, probably have come around to to thinking that Vista is not really as bad as everyone was making it out to be. Now. When it launched, it certainly didn't have the support or the the versatility that people expected, particularly when it came to things like driver issues, drivers for things like video cards and sound cards, and and just peripherals. Yeah, people were having problems with their computers crashing. They would have all these peripherals that worked perfectly when their machine was running Windows XP, but when they upgrade Windows Vista, suddenly they would get all these notifications that things weren't working correctly or the or the computer would crash. Um. And as we said, you know, eventually, over time, Microsoft was able to address a lot of these problems through patches, but the damage had already been done. That that the early perception was just that Vista was not a strong operating system and that it had too much stuff stripped out of it during the development process, which is true. There were quite a few features that were supposed to be Windows Vista that ended up being pulled before it went gold, and so that has prompted some folks to say that Windows seven is really what Vista should have been the whole time. Well, I will give you some more evidence that people like Windows seven. Um. Then Windows Vista took about a year to get ten percent of the market. Uh, Windows seven did that in three months. Apparently so many people were waiting for uh an upbring system that wasn't Vista, that they were very willing to jump from XP directly to seven. Yeah. Well this this was this is based on an article I read in All Things d by John Paskowski. And um, you know, basically, one in ten computers as of the end of January, we're using uh Windows seven. Um. And as a matter of fact, another article I read and seen it um said that Microsoft is, as a result of the success of Window seven, enjoying record profits. Um. However, that's for people who are actually buying the operating system from Microsoft. So people are upgrading to Windows seven, but they're not necessarily buying new machines with Windows seven. On it because PC manufacturers with Windows seven are not doing as well. Um. I think that's a result of the economy. Of course, a PC, a brand new PC is much more expensive than a copy of an operating system, and a lot of people might be looking at netbooks, which some netbooks do run Windows seven, kind of stripped down version of Windows seven. It's not the same one that you're going to find on a fully fledged desktop. But you can also find netbooks on running the Linux operating system, and um, pretty soon you will see some running the Google Chrome OS. But that that means that often the Linux ones tend to be priced lower than the Windows ones. Not by a whole lot, but every little bit tends to help. So I think a lot of people just and have have purchased Linux machines instead of Windows machines when it comes to the netbook market, although some of those same people end up being dissatisfied when they realized that the Linux machine doesn't do everything they expected it to do. It's no fault of Linux, really, it's more of not a lack of education on the part of the consumer where they just think, oh, this is a computer, that means that this can do blah blah blah, And that's not always the case. It is often very dependent upon the operating system, the processor, the memory of the computer. All that kind of stuff definitely takes a place apart and what the computer can and cannot do. But I think in the average consumer's mind they just think computer. That means I can do this, um, and when they get something that can't do that, they get frustrated and then go and return it. But at anyway, yes, it's true the Windows seven machines that are on the market now just haven't been moving very quickly. But again, the the economy bright plays a very large factor in that, and it's generally if you're if you're interested in and purchasing. So now I mean, I'm sorry, Window seven. Uh, there are there. It seems like there was some confusion at the very beginning of what versions we're going to come out. Well, yeah, before before it launched, we had heard that there were going to be six versions. Yeah, and I think there I think there still are. It's just that o M, which is original Equipment manufacturer. They you know, they come pre installed on systems like netbooks and other computers. Right, that would be like like the netbook would be a stripped down version, like I said, but you could get Windows seven Premium, or or Windows seven Ultimate or Windows seven Professional. I think are those those are the main three for if you were if you're looking at upgrading a desktop, and I think in most cases, Windows seven Professional would be more than what most people would need. I don't seem I don't see a whole lot of value to Windows seven Ultimate for the average user. I mean, for for real power users maybe, but for most people myself included, I include myself in this group. I don't see any need to go beyond Windows seven Professional. Yeah. Yeah, Well, the Home Premium is the most stripped down of of the three, and it's um and it lacks a lot of the features. It's basically just the rudimentary version, you know, for the average computer. I guess um it doesn't have the XP mode, which that's that's uh, one of those modes that a lot of businesses really essentially demanded. I think. I think the reason why that mode is in there is that's Microsoft's nod to corporate the corporate world. Because the XP is one of those proven platforms and a lot of businesses still use XP. I can think of one that's very close to us right now that still uses the XP operating system run many of its computers, all of them. We have a few, uh, we have a few Mac based computers. There are a couple of people with the newer laptops who have Vista. Really. Oh and then we also have a one Linux machine. Yeah that's true, probably more than more than one, but one that went actually so um. But at any rate, yes, we we mainly depend upon Windows XP machines. And there are a lot of companies out there that have proprietary software it was specifically designed with Windows XP in mind. Now, these are these are companies. Sometimes they have hundreds of employees, each of whom has a computer. That's big business. So if Microsoft had not built in some form of XP compatibility where you could run in XP mode, uh, they might have risked dis you completely counting out that whole section of the market. But by building in the XP capability, you allow these these companies to come in and say, well, we should get we should upgrade two Windows seven. Uh that I'll make most of our processes go more smoothly. And for the stuff that is proprietary and legacy, that has to run XP. We still have XP modes that we can still run it now. Um. Yeah, that that's the case too, especially for out of large companies, at least in my experience, that they get to supporting a particular OS, they've got it, they've got it downpad. If they need to push out an update system, why they can do that without having to worry about who's on what. Um And some you know, especially very very large companies, are really slow to migrate. UM. I worked for one company a few years ago where they were actually two os is behind the current just because they had everything. It all worked, and I kind of uh, I mean said said is that sort of seems in a way, especially if you love the you know, seeing what's on the cutting edge, you know, you have to appreciate that. Put your shoe feet in the shoes of you know, the person you have to manage all that and go you know what, if it just works right, why why make the risk of moving to a new operating system that's both expensive and not guaranteed to work. Yeah, those are two big risks there. And uh yeah, so it makes sense from a corporate perspective, But going back to consumers, UM, that's a lot easier because then you're just dealing with with one machine. You know, a handful of machines in your house. Yeah, you're not having to convince some some person in charge of the entire uh whatever you wanna call it, I T department, whatever, whatever particular department oversees the the computer purchases for your company. Uh, you don't have to sit there and think about that. On a scale of this is gonna affect two machines or whatever, it's usually going to be two or three at most. Um. There's some some nice elements to Windows seven that make it attractive to consumers, one of which is that Windows seven was optimized for machines that have multi core processors. Yes, now that's something that Windows XP does not have. You don't it's not, Um, it's not optimized in that way. So that means that if you have a machine with a multi core processor, uh, the Windows seven operating system is built in such a way that it will use that to the best of its ability. And that uh, just because you have a multi core processor doesn't mean it's gonna run a particular program better than another computer. It has to be the program has to be designed to run on a multi court processor. Yes, it does, and in this case with Window seven, that means that you get things like faster load time. It shuts down faster than Vista. Um, and it does have a really pretty snappy booting and shutting down sequence compared to uh TO specifically compared to Vista. Also compared to my Windows X being machine which now approximately takes four days to shut down. Yeah. Yeah, I find that the longer you use a machine, the more digital crud accumulates, and it's bits and bites. Yes. Um, So there are all other things that are added into Windows seven. They're the home Groups Oh yes, which is a home Groups is a a product from from Microsoft that's supposed to make it easier to set up a home network. Um. Home networks are really not that difficult to set up, but it can be a little intimidating for someone who is not used to working with computer networks. Well, home Groups takes a lot of that out of the equation. It does a lot of the thinking for you. There is one major downside to home Groups. Yeah, it works with Windows seven machines and yeah, so if you are running multiple computers on different operating systems, the home Groups option isn't necessary, isn't gonna necessarily work for every machine in your house. It'll work for anything that's running the Windows seven and you can still network the computers. It's not like it prevents you from networking. It's just that the the tool itself won't be applicable in that case. Um. It's uh. Also, it's also better designed with as to work with direct x ten UM standards, which is that's mostly used in gaming, it's used for video cards and sound cards and uh. Again, one of the problems with Vista was that whole driver issue. The Microsoft really took a good look at that when they were designing Windows seven to try and avoid as much of that as possible. Sometimes it's impossible to avoid that because you know, unlike Apple, Microsoft is not in the business of designing computers from scratch. They don't they don't build every single element that goes into a computer. They're designing an operating system. That's it. It's it's the platform that exists between the hardware and all the applications you want to run. Um. They're not the ones building the video cards, sound cards, all that kind of stuff, and they don't dictate what goes into a computer they have you know, they might work with developers to make sure it works properly, but they don't. They don't demand that you use a specific video card or sound card, whereas a different there's another company that's taking a very different approach. Yes, you're you're thinking of Apple Cane, And I'm not saying that one approach is better or worse than the other, by the way. No, Actually they both have their good points and their bad points. Um. You know there's that diversity that the diversity of uh, you know, the PC, the traditional you know, Windows Slash Linux, not a Mac PC that has you know, you can you can build your own you know, put your own case together, throw whatever graphics card you want to in there with a motherboard and you know, put it, put all the guts together. The thing is, you know, while that it can be inexpensive, very inexpensive. You have to get all the drivers for that. Sometimes they don't support it. For example, actually on our test machine here's an example. Um I install installed the newest version of a Buntu Linux and Windows seven the test release we got last year, neither of which had a driver for the sound card on that um sound does not work on that machine gradually updating. Actually the one who did recognize the sound card and I'd given up trying. I had, as of this podcast, tried the Windows seven to see if they've actually uh done this is this is an old Dell machine actually probably a couple of years old now, um, and uh, you know, you figure it was recent enough where they would do it, but they had, you know, they just hadn't gotten around to releasing the driver as part of the main software. And of course they're a third party people who will write, especially with the Linux community. They are all sorts of developers who are working with that UM, who may or may not be interested in putting something together. UM, but from Microsoft. In a lot of cases, you know, it's either from them or one of the major like the sound card manufacturer, who's interested in in writing those drivers. Right. And And to get back to the argument of of controlling everything versus versus just taking a hands off approach. UM. One of the pros of the hands off approaches that you get machines in a variety of price ranges, so you could buy a computer running the same operating system. You can look at a selection of them, all running Windows seven the same version of Windows seven at different price points and different capabilities, and you're gonna see that, you know, a very wide range. You might see something that around the four dollar level, and there may be others that are two thousand or more depending upon the specs. Uh. The other approach, the Apple approach, you're going to have fewer choices. You're gonna it's usually a tiered choice and you may have three or four options, but it's uh, you're not going to find a cheaper version of the same kind of machine from someone else. It's all through one company. But on the flip side of that, it's pretty much guaranteed to all work together because it was designed that way. Yeah. So because the developer of the operating system is also the manufacturer of Hartwell their contract the manufacturer of the hardware. So it's one of these five chips, it's one of these seven hard drives. You know, we're pretty much sure that we have a driver for that. So back to Windows seven. Yeah, one of the cool features is the home media stuff, which it incorporates very well. So if you wanted to use your computer as a media PC, um whether or that means to you just watching media on your PC directly or even networking it with your television. UH so hooking your your PC up to your TV so that your PC becomes kind of a a media server. Really, the Window seven comes with that capability built in. UM, if you I think it's I'm not sure if Premium has it. I know the professional does. But if you if you just run the software, you can do things like connect kind of like a DVR. You can pull content from the web and uh and stream it to your television. UM. It does require that you hook your computer up to your TV, which is a step that some people find intimidating. It's getting easier and easier, especially when you find a machine that has h d M I boorts and all you really need is an HDMI cable and the right software and then you're ready to go. UM it's getting so easy now that I think that the average consumer could very easily set up a media PC and his or her own home with uh, you know, just just by buying the right machine. Back in the day, it meant that you had to know your way around different codex and uh, different networking solutions. UM it's much easier now. So that's one I mean that and that we we started to see that in Windows Vista. They incorporate a lot of the home media stuff and Windows Vista. But again it just when upon launch was not the most stable or reliable service. Yeah. Yeah, um, and the interface has changed pretty substantially too. I mean there are there are a lot of benefits to using Windows seven over some of the earlier versions. One of the things, as a person who's probably been using a lot of guests, Yeah, I've been using a Mac longer than I have Windows, although I've used both for many many years now. Um, I really like the fact that UH, as opposed to the XP machine that I use every day, Windows seven basically has one instance of a particular program in the task bar. Now, when you mouse over that, you can see a preview of all the different UH windows that you have open in that. So if you have for for word documents open, it's basically one instance of word and you can you know, easily find it just by mousing over that. And which I think, Uh, you know, I've had I've had laptops with small screens and when you have multiple documents open and they're they're all you can you can barely tell what it is at the bottom that always frustrates. Yeah, but this is far more elegant and a lot more streamlined, although you know, there is that trade off when you can see which what is in you know the name of whatever it is that you have opened, and you can go, okay, well that's the one I want to click on, just when it gets so out of hand on some of the earlier versions. But I really, I really like that. That's one of those things that I just found easy and it's um, you know, just using the operating system on a day to day basis, you know, editing articles, doing research podcasts and things like that. UM, I've noticed that, you know, it's easier to find preferences. UH, different menus are make make a lot more sense to me than they did in earlier versions. So it's obvious that they've taken a lot of user interface UM information research into uh, into the design process of trying to come up with this. And I also should point out too that on the test machine that we've tried Office which is UM, actually there I think a final release candidate as of the recording of this, so that it's probably going to hit the shelves before too awfully long, um, but it also shows a lot of maturity since the previous version of Office. I know this was the Windows seven thing, but the two of them worked together very very well. And uh, I'm impressed by the new Office as well. And the less said about Office two thousand seven, the better. Yeah, I kind of um might have wanted to skip that, although the uh, there are some things they changed. That little bubble in the upper left window. If You've used Office two thousand seven, you know what I'm talking about, that's gone away. They have a file menu over there now in Office, which makes it it's it actually makes a little sense. It's actually more intuitive, and yeah, builds on what was before. I don't get the the nest the feeling of necessity to when you, whenever you come out with a new version to totally change the user interface that you have built up over the past versions, unless it was just so unwieldy that it just didn't make sense to keep on building on that and just you want to start over. Uh. So many programs do that, where they'll the next version will be a complete change, and it means that you have to take the time to learn the system that you theoretically should already know. Um, I hate that this is a personal pet peeve, but I was gonna also mention Radar or tech Radar, which is a UK site, did a test running Windows seven. Actually they had this was back in the beta days, so it was a Windows seven beta versus Windows Vista versus XP okay benchmark, Yeah, bitchmarking test between the three and discovered that Windows seven was the best whenever you were copying several files up to a megabyton size or up to a gigabye, it's faster than then both XP and Windows Vista. It was also faster for network copying files of up to a gigabyt and size, it was faster than than together to However, um, interestingly, uh, the the if you were to network copy one megabyte files, XP was actually faster. That happens. I mean they found that with macOS ten snow Leopard as well. Um, there are certain things that it does better, and there are certain things the previous virsion of the Osterich I think it's kind of funny. Well, what's interesting is in their benchmark tests, under all the benchmarks that they did, Windows Vista performed, Uh didn't. It was never first ever in any of the benchmarks. Uh. That didn't mean they came in last every time, but they were never first. It was either XP or Windows seven, which means that Vista just wasn't the best at anything. That's kind of sad. Um. And granted this was the beta, so it wasn't the same as the necessarily the same program that that came out available to everybody. Uh. I actually have a word to say about that if you're somebody like if you're somebody like us who downloaded uh, the free version of the operating system, which I gotta say, Uh, excellent move on Microsoft's part to give people an opportunity. It's for marketing reasons and for um, for consumers to actually have the opportunity to get their hands on an early version of the operating system. It was the best move Microsoft could make considering the pr they had to be dealing with with. But you can also you can also upgrade uh your operating system online too, which is an also a good move where you want to necessarily buy the disc. But if you did, excuse me, download a a copy of that early preview release, there's something you need to know, at least depending on when you listen to this. Otherwise, if it's afterwards, you're gonna go, why is my computer shutting down? Well, Microsoft is going to shut your computer down. Um, let's see I misplaced the date on that. It's gonna be like this is gonna be like a inspector gadget thing where after thirty seconds the message explodes. Okay, so yeah, if you're using the Windows seven preview, uh, you have to upgrade to the full version. A full version. I assume it doesn't necessarily matter which one for March one, because at that point Microsoft is going to let you use the operating system for two hours, and then your computer will shut down and it will not save your work. And if you try to open it up again, Microsoft will send Clippy out after you, and then Clippy will ask you over and over, I see you're trying to operate a defunct operating system. Can I help? Well, actually, it's uh, it's a little bit more serious than that. They're going to change. You won't be able to have custom wallpaper anymore. It will be a solid black background with a persistent message I'm actually quoting from the Microsoft side, with a persistent message on your desktop. You'll also get periodic notifications that Windows isn't genuine. That means your PC may no longer be able to obtain optional updates or downloads require in genuine Windows validation. I think if they have I think if they have Clippy deliver that message, it would be more effective. Yes, exactly, I guarantee it would be more effective. I mean, granted, if your operating system is no longer working and it's telling you why it's no longer working, that should be effective enough. If Clippy is doing it, Yeah, it just adds a little expediency to the matter in my opinion. Well, I am sure that there are people working on ways to keep the preview release going. Um, those are are probably who I say probably, I mean most definitely not legal. Um, not that I'm sure that they're gonna necessarily know that you're doing it, but I wouldn't recommend it anyway. Um, Yeah, I think it's ah and I guess in somemation, since we're sort of winding down at this point, I think it's a good release. Um, I've been very impressed with it. It has been you know, I haven't done any scientific benchmarking or anything like that, but it's been uh, it's been faster, it's been smoother, um, and I do like it better than next pum on four sly as of March one, I will probably not be able to trust it, you know, get a whole blog post written and then suddenly it will shut down without saving my work, and that would be kind of a bummer. Yeah, but I do, but I do like it quite. It's nice. Um, it'll be um and of course before we we sign off and we should wrap up here. But currently there are now rumors that Windows eight is already in the uh not not just in development, because that's not a surprise when a when an operating system hits the market, you can get you can bet that the company has been working on the successor to that operating system already before it even hits the store shelves. But the rumor now is that we may see Windows eight before the end of two thousand eleven. Just not really that shocking. I mean, all Bring systems used to come out every couple of years. It's just it feels like for something as Major's not Brings system, it just feels kind of weird, like, wow, you don't even get two years out of it. But maybe it's because everyone's been using XP for so long and they just skipped this to and now they're thinking, oh and not brings system is supposed to last X number of years. Yeah, well I think uh, I think too. It sort of benefits tech companies to continue that go go go cycle because you know, if they could keep people buying a hundred and release for their operating system every two to three years, you know that that keeps the cycle up, It makes them seem like they're more innovative. Got to pay those shareholders. Yeah, and that I mean, it's it's like people buying you know, new phones or new MP three players or whatever. You know, it's less than two years stocks. Yeah, I'm not touching that, but why that's why I replace them, right, Okay, then all right, well that wraps up this discussion on Windows seven. Keep keep your ears tuned to tech stuff. We are doing lots of different spotlights on on various programs over the next couple of weeks, probably um no fourmal reviews, but you know, yeah just over there right right stuff so that you guys can kind of get a little more information about these these different uh products that are out there on the market and Ted, I hope that uh, that suffices for our elephant in the room discussion. If any of you have any questions, suggestions, criticisms, things like that, write us our email addresses tex stuff at how stuff works dot com. Remember, check out our blogs, check out our live show every Tuesday at one pm. Check out the articles on that wacky website we call how stuff works dot com because it's awesome and Chris and I will talk to you again really soon for more on this and thousands of other topics, because it how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you

Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette, and I am the tech editor at how stuff works dot com. Sitting across from me, as he always does on the occasions on which I podcast, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, so, um, the number seven, the number seven, number seven. Don't jump ahead, We've got listener mail to deal with. Okay, let's do that. Then this listener mail comes from Ted. Ted says, so when are we getting the low down on Windows seven? As a user, I'm loving the new OS is as better OS than XP and Vista, and finally starts to rub off the black eye for MS. So when are you going to tackle the elephant in the room. M thanks and chat later, Ted, Well, we don't tend to tackle elephants. They're very large. Yes, they tend to charge. Yes, we can take away their credit cards. We will. Someone left a footprint in the butter we will. Um. We will, however, tackle Windows seven. Yeah. I should point out too that this is a little difficult for us, simply because UM, as a group that typically does not do product reviews. UM, we don't have a review copy of Windows seven in the house, although both of us have had the chance to mess around with the preview version that Microsoft released last year. We have a test machine that we use for stuff like that and lenox um, so you know, in a way, we have had the chance to mess with it some, but we haven't had a chance to really mess with the full version. Yeah, and part of that is because the office as a whole has not moved Windows seven, so we don't have access to it on our work machines, and neither Chris nor I have purchased a computer since Windows seven went gold and uh, and I'm using a Mac at home. So I mean, we just haven't had a chance to use it in our personal lives really, but there's been a lot out about it, so we can talk about it. Uh. First of all, would you say that, when based upon what you've read and the limited experience you've had, that Windows seven is a huge jump over Windows Vista. Well, in doing some research for it, I wanted to see what other people were saying, because you know, even frankly even if it was we were they were asking us just about our own experience. I would still want to see UH sort of temper that with some of the other reviews that I've read online and get a feel for what other bloggers and professionals were saying about it too. Um. Based on based on that, I would say that people in general seem to agree that UH Windows seven is a very good interface. Yes, um. I even talked with with our I T professional who's in the office. Um. He said in his opinion that Window seven is the second best OS that Microsoft has ever released. You know, I didn't ask, I was afraid to ask. But program Well, the problem is too that people Vista still has a very you know, as to point out, sort of a black eye, although you know by now people don't complain about it nearly as often as they used to. Well, it's because it's been some time and upgrade it. Well yeah, but it's still not I think the bells and whistles, plus a lot of the machines on which people were trying to install it at first, you know, may not have been able to handle it, whereas newer computers with it UH pre installed are ready and you know, it wasn't such a big deal for people who were on Vista, But most people I've seen who have upgraded to Windows seven seemed to really like it. I think for people who's stuck with the Vista platform and who continued to patch it and updated as they became available, probably have come around to to thinking that Vista is not really as bad as everyone was making it out to be. Now. When it launched, it certainly didn't have the support or the the versatility that people expected, particularly when it came to things like driver issues, drivers for things like video cards and sound cards, and and just peripherals. Yeah, people were having problems with their computers crashing. They would have all these peripherals that worked perfectly when their machine was running Windows XP, but when they upgrade Windows Vista, suddenly they would get all these notifications that things weren't working correctly or the or the computer would crash. Um. And as we said, you know, eventually, over time, Microsoft was able to address a lot of these problems through patches, but the damage had already been done. That that the early perception was just that Vista was not a strong operating system and that it had too much stuff stripped out of it during the development process, which is true. There were quite a few features that were supposed to be Windows Vista that ended up being pulled before it went gold, and so that has prompted some folks to say that Windows seven is really what Vista should have been the whole time. Well, I will give you some more evidence that people like Windows seven. Um. Then Windows Vista took about a year to get ten percent of the market. Uh, Windows seven did that in three months. Apparently so many people were waiting for uh an upbring system that wasn't Vista, that they were very willing to jump from XP directly to seven. Yeah. Well this this was this is based on an article I read in All Things d by John Paskowski. And um, you know, basically, one in ten computers as of the end of January, we're using uh Windows seven. Um. And as a matter of fact, another article I read and seen it um said that Microsoft is, as a result of the success of Window seven, enjoying record profits. Um. However, that's for people who are actually buying the operating system from Microsoft. So people are upgrading to Windows seven, but they're not necessarily buying new machines with Windows seven. On it because PC manufacturers with Windows seven are not doing as well. Um. I think that's a result of the economy. Of course, a PC, a brand new PC is much more expensive than a copy of an operating system, and a lot of people might be looking at netbooks, which some netbooks do run Windows seven, kind of stripped down version of Windows seven. It's not the same one that you're going to find on a fully fledged desktop. But you can also find netbooks on running the Linux operating system, and um, pretty soon you will see some running the Google Chrome OS. But that that means that often the Linux ones tend to be priced lower than the Windows ones. Not by a whole lot, but every little bit tends to help. So I think a lot of people just and have have purchased Linux machines instead of Windows machines when it comes to the netbook market, although some of those same people end up being dissatisfied when they realized that the Linux machine doesn't do everything they expected it to do. It's no fault of Linux, really, it's more of not a lack of education on the part of the consumer where they just think, oh, this is a computer, that means that this can do blah blah blah, And that's not always the case. It is often very dependent upon the operating system, the processor, the memory of the computer. All that kind of stuff definitely takes a place apart and what the computer can and cannot do. But I think in the average consumer's mind they just think computer. That means I can do this, um, and when they get something that can't do that, they get frustrated and then go and return it. But at anyway, yes, it's true the Windows seven machines that are on the market now just haven't been moving very quickly. But again, the the economy bright plays a very large factor in that, and it's generally if you're if you're interested in and purchasing. So now I mean, I'm sorry, Window seven. Uh, there are there. It seems like there was some confusion at the very beginning of what versions we're going to come out. Well, yeah, before before it launched, we had heard that there were going to be six versions. Yeah, and I think there I think there still are. It's just that o M, which is original Equipment manufacturer. They you know, they come pre installed on systems like netbooks and other computers. Right, that would be like like the netbook would be a stripped down version, like I said, but you could get Windows seven Premium, or or Windows seven Ultimate or Windows seven Professional. I think are those those are the main three for if you were if you're looking at upgrading a desktop, and I think in most cases, Windows seven Professional would be more than what most people would need. I don't seem I don't see a whole lot of value to Windows seven Ultimate for the average user. I mean, for for real power users maybe, but for most people myself included, I include myself in this group. I don't see any need to go beyond Windows seven Professional. Yeah. Yeah, Well, the Home Premium is the most stripped down of of the three, and it's um and it lacks a lot of the features. It's basically just the rudimentary version, you know, for the average computer. I guess um it doesn't have the XP mode, which that's that's uh, one of those modes that a lot of businesses really essentially demanded. I think. I think the reason why that mode is in there is that's Microsoft's nod to corporate the corporate world. Because the XP is one of those proven platforms and a lot of businesses still use XP. I can think of one that's very close to us right now that still uses the XP operating system run many of its computers, all of them. We have a few, uh, we have a few Mac based computers. There are a couple of people with the newer laptops who have Vista. Really. Oh and then we also have a one Linux machine. Yeah that's true, probably more than more than one, but one that went actually so um. But at any rate, yes, we we mainly depend upon Windows XP machines. And there are a lot of companies out there that have proprietary software it was specifically designed with Windows XP in mind. Now, these are these are companies. Sometimes they have hundreds of employees, each of whom has a computer. That's big business. So if Microsoft had not built in some form of XP compatibility where you could run in XP mode, uh, they might have risked dis you completely counting out that whole section of the market. But by building in the XP capability, you allow these these companies to come in and say, well, we should get we should upgrade two Windows seven. Uh that I'll make most of our processes go more smoothly. And for the stuff that is proprietary and legacy, that has to run XP. We still have XP modes that we can still run it now. Um. Yeah, that that's the case too, especially for out of large companies, at least in my experience, that they get to supporting a particular OS, they've got it, they've got it downpad. If they need to push out an update system, why they can do that without having to worry about who's on what. Um And some you know, especially very very large companies, are really slow to migrate. UM. I worked for one company a few years ago where they were actually two os is behind the current just because they had everything. It all worked, and I kind of uh, I mean said said is that sort of seems in a way, especially if you love the you know, seeing what's on the cutting edge, you know, you have to appreciate that. Put your shoe feet in the shoes of you know, the person you have to manage all that and go you know what, if it just works right, why why make the risk of moving to a new operating system that's both expensive and not guaranteed to work. Yeah, those are two big risks there. And uh yeah, so it makes sense from a corporate perspective, But going back to consumers, UM, that's a lot easier because then you're just dealing with with one machine. You know, a handful of machines in your house. Yeah, you're not having to convince some some person in charge of the entire uh whatever you wanna call it, I T department, whatever, whatever particular department oversees the the computer purchases for your company. Uh, you don't have to sit there and think about that. On a scale of this is gonna affect two machines or whatever, it's usually going to be two or three at most. Um. There's some some nice elements to Windows seven that make it attractive to consumers, one of which is that Windows seven was optimized for machines that have multi core processors. Yes, now that's something that Windows XP does not have. You don't it's not, Um, it's not optimized in that way. So that means that if you have a machine with a multi core processor, uh, the Windows seven operating system is built in such a way that it will use that to the best of its ability. And that uh, just because you have a multi core processor doesn't mean it's gonna run a particular program better than another computer. It has to be the program has to be designed to run on a multi court processor. Yes, it does, and in this case with Window seven, that means that you get things like faster load time. It shuts down faster than Vista. Um, and it does have a really pretty snappy booting and shutting down sequence compared to uh TO specifically compared to Vista. Also compared to my Windows X being machine which now approximately takes four days to shut down. Yeah. Yeah, I find that the longer you use a machine, the more digital crud accumulates, and it's bits and bites. Yes. Um, So there are all other things that are added into Windows seven. They're the home Groups Oh yes, which is a home Groups is a a product from from Microsoft that's supposed to make it easier to set up a home network. Um. Home networks are really not that difficult to set up, but it can be a little intimidating for someone who is not used to working with computer networks. Well, home Groups takes a lot of that out of the equation. It does a lot of the thinking for you. There is one major downside to home Groups. Yeah, it works with Windows seven machines and yeah, so if you are running multiple computers on different operating systems, the home Groups option isn't necessary, isn't gonna necessarily work for every machine in your house. It'll work for anything that's running the Windows seven and you can still network the computers. It's not like it prevents you from networking. It's just that the the tool itself won't be applicable in that case. Um. It's uh. Also, it's also better designed with as to work with direct x ten UM standards, which is that's mostly used in gaming, it's used for video cards and sound cards and uh. Again, one of the problems with Vista was that whole driver issue. The Microsoft really took a good look at that when they were designing Windows seven to try and avoid as much of that as possible. Sometimes it's impossible to avoid that because you know, unlike Apple, Microsoft is not in the business of designing computers from scratch. They don't they don't build every single element that goes into a computer. They're designing an operating system. That's it. It's it's the platform that exists between the hardware and all the applications you want to run. Um. They're not the ones building the video cards, sound cards, all that kind of stuff, and they don't dictate what goes into a computer they have you know, they might work with developers to make sure it works properly, but they don't. They don't demand that you use a specific video card or sound card, whereas a different there's another company that's taking a very different approach. Yes, you're you're thinking of Apple Cane, And I'm not saying that one approach is better or worse than the other, by the way. No, Actually they both have their good points and their bad points. Um. You know there's that diversity that the diversity of uh, you know, the PC, the traditional you know, Windows Slash Linux, not a Mac PC that has you know, you can you can build your own you know, put your own case together, throw whatever graphics card you want to in there with a motherboard and you know, put it, put all the guts together. The thing is, you know, while that it can be inexpensive, very inexpensive. You have to get all the drivers for that. Sometimes they don't support it. For example, actually on our test machine here's an example. Um I install installed the newest version of a Buntu Linux and Windows seven the test release we got last year, neither of which had a driver for the sound card on that um sound does not work on that machine gradually updating. Actually the one who did recognize the sound card and I'd given up trying. I had, as of this podcast, tried the Windows seven to see if they've actually uh done this is this is an old Dell machine actually probably a couple of years old now, um, and uh, you know, you figure it was recent enough where they would do it, but they had, you know, they just hadn't gotten around to releasing the driver as part of the main software. And of course they're a third party people who will write, especially with the Linux community. They are all sorts of developers who are working with that UM, who may or may not be interested in putting something together. UM, but from Microsoft. In a lot of cases, you know, it's either from them or one of the major like the sound card manufacturer, who's interested in in writing those drivers. Right. And And to get back to the argument of of controlling everything versus versus just taking a hands off approach. UM. One of the pros of the hands off approaches that you get machines in a variety of price ranges, so you could buy a computer running the same operating system. You can look at a selection of them, all running Windows seven the same version of Windows seven at different price points and different capabilities, and you're gonna see that, you know, a very wide range. You might see something that around the four dollar level, and there may be others that are two thousand or more depending upon the specs. Uh. The other approach, the Apple approach, you're going to have fewer choices. You're gonna it's usually a tiered choice and you may have three or four options, but it's uh, you're not going to find a cheaper version of the same kind of machine from someone else. It's all through one company. But on the flip side of that, it's pretty much guaranteed to all work together because it was designed that way. Yeah. So because the developer of the operating system is also the manufacturer of Hartwell their contract the manufacturer of the hardware. So it's one of these five chips, it's one of these seven hard drives. You know, we're pretty much sure that we have a driver for that. So back to Windows seven. Yeah, one of the cool features is the home media stuff, which it incorporates very well. So if you wanted to use your computer as a media PC, um whether or that means to you just watching media on your PC directly or even networking it with your television. UH so hooking your your PC up to your TV so that your PC becomes kind of a a media server. Really, the Window seven comes with that capability built in. UM, if you I think it's I'm not sure if Premium has it. I know the professional does. But if you if you just run the software, you can do things like connect kind of like a DVR. You can pull content from the web and uh and stream it to your television. UM. It does require that you hook your computer up to your TV, which is a step that some people find intimidating. It's getting easier and easier, especially when you find a machine that has h d M I boorts and all you really need is an HDMI cable and the right software and then you're ready to go. UM it's getting so easy now that I think that the average consumer could very easily set up a media PC and his or her own home with uh, you know, just just by buying the right machine. Back in the day, it meant that you had to know your way around different codex and uh, different networking solutions. UM it's much easier now. So that's one I mean that and that we we started to see that in Windows Vista. They incorporate a lot of the home media stuff and Windows Vista. But again it just when upon launch was not the most stable or reliable service. Yeah. Yeah, um, and the interface has changed pretty substantially too. I mean there are there are a lot of benefits to using Windows seven over some of the earlier versions. One of the things, as a person who's probably been using a lot of guests, Yeah, I've been using a Mac longer than I have Windows, although I've used both for many many years now. Um, I really like the fact that UH, as opposed to the XP machine that I use every day, Windows seven basically has one instance of a particular program in the task bar. Now, when you mouse over that, you can see a preview of all the different UH windows that you have open in that. So if you have for for word documents open, it's basically one instance of word and you can you know, easily find it just by mousing over that. And which I think, Uh, you know, I've had I've had laptops with small screens and when you have multiple documents open and they're they're all you can you can barely tell what it is at the bottom that always frustrates. Yeah, but this is far more elegant and a lot more streamlined, although you know, there is that trade off when you can see which what is in you know the name of whatever it is that you have opened, and you can go, okay, well that's the one I want to click on, just when it gets so out of hand on some of the earlier versions. But I really, I really like that. That's one of those things that I just found easy and it's um, you know, just using the operating system on a day to day basis, you know, editing articles, doing research podcasts and things like that. UM, I've noticed that, you know, it's easier to find preferences. UH, different menus are make make a lot more sense to me than they did in earlier versions. So it's obvious that they've taken a lot of user interface UM information research into uh, into the design process of trying to come up with this. And I also should point out too that on the test machine that we've tried Office which is UM, actually there I think a final release candidate as of the recording of this, so that it's probably going to hit the shelves before too awfully long, um, but it also shows a lot of maturity since the previous version of Office. I know this was the Windows seven thing, but the two of them worked together very very well. And uh, I'm impressed by the new Office as well. And the less said about Office two thousand seven, the better. Yeah, I kind of um might have wanted to skip that, although the uh, there are some things they changed. That little bubble in the upper left window. If You've used Office two thousand seven, you know what I'm talking about, that's gone away. They have a file menu over there now in Office, which makes it it's it actually makes a little sense. It's actually more intuitive, and yeah, builds on what was before. I don't get the the nest the feeling of necessity to when you, whenever you come out with a new version to totally change the user interface that you have built up over the past versions, unless it was just so unwieldy that it just didn't make sense to keep on building on that and just you want to start over. Uh. So many programs do that, where they'll the next version will be a complete change, and it means that you have to take the time to learn the system that you theoretically should already know. Um, I hate that this is a personal pet peeve, but I was gonna also mention Radar or tech Radar, which is a UK site, did a test running Windows seven. Actually they had this was back in the beta days, so it was a Windows seven beta versus Windows Vista versus XP okay benchmark, Yeah, bitchmarking test between the three and discovered that Windows seven was the best whenever you were copying several files up to a megabyton size or up to a gigabye, it's faster than then both XP and Windows Vista. It was also faster for network copying files of up to a gigabyt and size, it was faster than than together to However, um, interestingly, uh, the the if you were to network copy one megabyte files, XP was actually faster. That happens. I mean they found that with macOS ten snow Leopard as well. Um, there are certain things that it does better, and there are certain things the previous virsion of the Osterich I think it's kind of funny. Well, what's interesting is in their benchmark tests, under all the benchmarks that they did, Windows Vista performed, Uh didn't. It was never first ever in any of the benchmarks. Uh. That didn't mean they came in last every time, but they were never first. It was either XP or Windows seven, which means that Vista just wasn't the best at anything. That's kind of sad. Um. And granted this was the beta, so it wasn't the same as the necessarily the same program that that came out available to everybody. Uh. I actually have a word to say about that if you're somebody like if you're somebody like us who downloaded uh, the free version of the operating system, which I gotta say, Uh, excellent move on Microsoft's part to give people an opportunity. It's for marketing reasons and for um, for consumers to actually have the opportunity to get their hands on an early version of the operating system. It was the best move Microsoft could make considering the pr they had to be dealing with with. But you can also you can also upgrade uh your operating system online too, which is an also a good move where you want to necessarily buy the disc. But if you did, excuse me, download a a copy of that early preview release, there's something you need to know, at least depending on when you listen to this. Otherwise, if it's afterwards, you're gonna go, why is my computer shutting down? Well, Microsoft is going to shut your computer down. Um, let's see I misplaced the date on that. It's gonna be like this is gonna be like a inspector gadget thing where after thirty seconds the message explodes. Okay, so yeah, if you're using the Windows seven preview, uh, you have to upgrade to the full version. A full version. I assume it doesn't necessarily matter which one for March one, because at that point Microsoft is going to let you use the operating system for two hours, and then your computer will shut down and it will not save your work. And if you try to open it up again, Microsoft will send Clippy out after you, and then Clippy will ask you over and over, I see you're trying to operate a defunct operating system. Can I help? Well, actually, it's uh, it's a little bit more serious than that. They're going to change. You won't be able to have custom wallpaper anymore. It will be a solid black background with a persistent message I'm actually quoting from the Microsoft side, with a persistent message on your desktop. You'll also get periodic notifications that Windows isn't genuine. That means your PC may no longer be able to obtain optional updates or downloads require in genuine Windows validation. I think if they have I think if they have Clippy deliver that message, it would be more effective. Yes, exactly, I guarantee it would be more effective. I mean, granted, if your operating system is no longer working and it's telling you why it's no longer working, that should be effective enough. If Clippy is doing it, Yeah, it just adds a little expediency to the matter in my opinion. Well, I am sure that there are people working on ways to keep the preview release going. Um, those are are probably who I say probably, I mean most definitely not legal. Um, not that I'm sure that they're gonna necessarily know that you're doing it, but I wouldn't recommend it anyway. Um, Yeah, I think it's ah and I guess in somemation, since we're sort of winding down at this point, I think it's a good release. Um, I've been very impressed with it. It has been you know, I haven't done any scientific benchmarking or anything like that, but it's been uh, it's been faster, it's been smoother, um, and I do like it better than next pum on four sly as of March one, I will probably not be able to trust it, you know, get a whole blog post written and then suddenly it will shut down without saving my work, and that would be kind of a bummer. Yeah, but I do, but I do like it quite. It's nice. Um, it'll be um and of course before we we sign off and we should wrap up here. But currently there are now rumors that Windows eight is already in the uh not not just in development, because that's not a surprise when a when an operating system hits the market, you can get you can bet that the company has been working on the successor to that operating system already before it even hits the store shelves. But the rumor now is that we may see Windows eight before the end of two thousand eleven. Just not really that shocking. I mean, all Bring systems used to come out every couple of years. It's just it feels like for something as Major's not Brings system, it just feels kind of weird, like, wow, you don't even get two years out of it. But maybe it's because everyone's been using XP for so long and they just skipped this to and now they're thinking, oh and not brings system is supposed to last X number of years. Yeah, well I think uh, I think too. It sort of benefits tech companies to continue that go go go cycle because you know, if they could keep people buying a hundred and release for their operating system every two to three years, you know that that keeps the cycle up, It makes them seem like they're more innovative. Got to pay those shareholders. Yeah, and that I mean, it's it's like people buying you know, new phones or new MP three players or whatever. You know, it's less than two years stocks. Yeah, I'm not touching that, but why that's why I replace them, right, Okay, then all right, well that wraps up this discussion on Windows seven. Keep keep your ears tuned to tech stuff. We are doing lots of different spotlights on on various programs over the next couple of weeks, probably um no fourmal reviews, but you know, yeah just over there right right stuff so that you guys can kind of get a little more information about these these different uh products that are out there on the market and Ted, I hope that uh, that suffices for our elephant in the room discussion. If any of you have any questions, suggestions, criticisms, things like that, write us our email addresses tex stuff at how stuff works dot com. Remember, check out our blogs, check out our live show every Tuesday at one pm. Check out the articles on that wacky website we call how stuff works dot com because it's awesome and Chris and I will talk to you again really soon for more on this and thousands of other topics, because it how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you