I took advantage of the free download from Microsoft for Windows 7 Release Candidate 1.  If you want to download and evaluate it as well, the link is http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx.

As you read in previous posts, I am one of the few individuals out there who has actually been rather happy with Vista.  I like it’s features.  Performance is so-so, but ok as long as you have adequate memory. It ran all the programs I needed it to, as well as games, etc.  So, I really didn’t see what all the hate was about.

I noticed a lot of Vista-haters were super excited with Windows 7, so thought I better see what the fuss was about.

I have to say that I am extremely impressed.  The completely redesigned taskbar makes switching between programs, opening recent documents, etc, extremely user friendly.  Other snazzy features such as a hover spot on the taskbar which makes all windows transparent, allowing you to see your desktop (clicking the spot minimizes all windows), and “wiggling” a window to minimize everything other than that one, are pretty handy.

Driver installation & compatibility was not even a remote issue so far, except for older hardware, which didn’t work on Vista either.

Some software vendors need to step up and make sure their products are compatible.  For example, installing Symantec Antivirus produced a blue screen of death.  I’m sure they’ll be up to snuff by the time of release, and granted I didn’t try Norton Antivirus 2009 or the latest version of McAfee.

One thing I do notice that’s slighly annoying is that whenever I resume from standby, Windows thinks I want to look at Outlook right away, regardless of whether or not I had it open when I entered standby.  I’m going to assume this is a bug, but it’s very strange.  Outlook isn’t in any of my startup folders or registry locations.

Performance is much improved from Vista.  I’m quite impressed at how much snappier my computer seems to be.

For some of the productivity enhancements, check out this video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LWljyZEaAM

Bottom line:  I will definitely be upgrading to Windows 7 upon final release.  It’s enhancements are a definite improvement over XP, and takes all the good from Vista and makes it better.

One pet-peeve I’ve found with Vista (generally, despite the public hate, I like it) is that hibernation feature tends to disappear… usually due to a disk cleanup.  Essentially, when the hibernation save file is deleted, Vista removes the hibernation ability.

Luckily, turning it back on is very easy.

Click the “Start” button, and type cmd… then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to open in administrator mode. You can also right-click the item “Command Prompt” in the menu and choose Run as Administrator.

From the command prompt, type in the following command:

powercfg /hibernate on

You may have to restart your computer before it will take effect, however I’ve found that it enables hibernation immediately in most cases.

If this doesn’t work for you, there are some alternative methods, but this should work in 98% of the cases.  If it doesn’t, feel free to comment here, and we can shoot you some other ideas.

Enjoy your hibernation!