The PC World Challenge: 72 Hours of Windows 7

The Challenge

Switch from Windows Vista to Windows 7 completely. No going back to work with compatible programs. No jumping ship if a driver keeps you away from your Warhammer Online character. No tears. Windows 7 is your new home for 72 hours, starting from your initial download of the software.

The Spoiler

Microsoft doesn't know how to manage digital downloads. Nor does Microsoft know how to title its own applications--this isn't Windows 7, not by any means. It's Windows Vista SP2.

The Tribulation

Having completed my 72 hours in Windows 7 land, I'm going to adopt the same mindset and cap the writing of this post at one hour's length. Having seen no less than 40 different articles about Windows 7 over the past three days (if not three months), I'm not about to bore you with a list of the 89 most important features Windows 7 brings to the table. What I am going to chat about is what the actual process of jumping to Windows 7 is like. What happens? How do the new features of Windows 7 affect the general usage patterns of an operating system? What's the speed like? Why would I buy this to replace Vista?

I'll start with a cursory note that this article was actually supposed to run Monday morning--the whole concept of "72 hours in Windows 7 Land" being a fun little weekend activity that I would write up and post for all the people who gave up on downloading the beta on its horrible Friday release. About that. Seeing as Microsoft has no idea what "busy servers" entails, and apparently refuses to release its beta clients across a peer-to-peer distribution method a la Blizzard game patches, I waited. And waited. And waited, until I finally acquired a copy of Windows 7 well into Saturday afternoon. Leading the charge into the digital future, that's Microsoft.

Ahem.

I fired up Windows 7 on a drive I had pre-partitioned in preparation for the event. On one half sat a fresh installation of Windows Vista featuring all the latest updates and drivers I could get my hands on. On the other would sit Windows 7, as I wanted to compare the two's initial performance before installing a ton of my typical junk on either. I fired up my Windows 7 ISO and let 'er rip.

The Installation

Installing Windows 7 (x64) brought a tear to my eye, for I do love nostalgia and this installation routine is virtually a carbon-copy of Windows Vista's. Save for the addition of a new setup screen for establishing a Homegroup--Windows 7's answer to network file-sharing--there's nothing dramatic about the installation in the slightest. Compared to Windows XP, both Vista and 7's installation procedure (side note: I hope this never becomes the nickname for the operating system) are a godsend. But I'd love to see a more streamlined installation: Perhaps a way to set all the options you need to set up-front, so you can just sit back and let the 24:01-minute process do it's thing. I love making customized slipstream OS installation discs for this very fact. Convenience, Microsoft. Convenience!

Both installation processes forced two resets on my computer. And for those keeping score at home, the Vista installation took all of three minutes, twenty-six seconds less time than the Windows 7 installation. That's not a lot minute-wise, but it's still 16 percent more time than its predecessor. I'm also running a pretty souped-up PC--a stock-clocked Intel QX9650 running at 3.0GHz, four gigabytes of RAM, a speedy Western Digital terabyte hard drive, and an ATI Radeon HD 4850 video card. I can only imagine how long Windows 7 might take for a machine of less prowess.

Getting Started

A nice touch of Windows 7 is that it installed with more drivers configured than its predecessor. My Windows Vista installation came with five unknown devices attached, requiring me to find and install drivers for the video card and Ethernet drivers for the motherboard in particular. Windows 7 set itself to the highest resolution my monitor supports using what appeared to be Microsoft-friendly ATI drivers. My Internet connection "worked" immediately, allowing me to fetch whatever I needed without having to first find the CD that came with my motherboard. Nice.

(Ethernet woes aside, I like how Windows 7 now gives you a "files processed per second" time instead of a "Megabytes of speed" value.)

Further inspection of the Ethernet drivers revealed that these were less than stable for my system. I had horrific problems trying to make multiple connections to either the Internet or my network devices. The operating system froze up every time I tried to grab more than one batch of files from my NAS, download files from the NAS and Steam at once, or generally do anything but surf the Web. Frustrated, I went back to the my motherboard's CD drivers and that seemed to fix the problem just fine. This now-stable OS was ready to get used!

Best Products of CES 2009

Prime Time for Pocket Camcorders

Not only did major manufacturers such as Sony and Panasonic introduce their first pocketable video rivals to the Flip Mino HD and Flip Mino at CES 2009, but other big-name companies upped the ante with their next-generation pocket camcorders. For example, RCA announced its latest model--the slender, 720p high-def Small Wonder EZ209HD--priced at just $120. But the weather-resistant, 720p high-def-recording Kodak Zx1 (shown above) may be the new mini-camcorder to beat, especially if it lives up to the performance of its Zi6 predecessor.

The Zx1 feels solid in the hand, lets you choose from a range of case colors, comes with two rechargeable AA batteries and an HDMI cable, and stores video footage on a user-supplied SD or SDHC card. It will be available in April for the very nice price of $150.

Apple's Computer Sales Slide

Apple's share of the U.S. computer market dropped nearly 16% in the fourth quarter of 2008 as the economy continued its freefall, a research analyst said last week.

According to Gartner Inc.'s preliminary estimates, Apple sold 1.25 million machines in the U.S. during the last three months of 2008, an 8% increase year-to-year over the same period in 2007, but down 23% from the quarter before. Apple's performance dumped it into fourth place, a fall of one spot, behind Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Acer Inc.

For the quarter, Apple accounted for 8% of all the machines sold in the U.S, a 16% decline from the 9.5% in the year's third quarter. However, its sales share was still up from 2007's final quarter's number of 6.7%. And it held its own in general consumer electronics.

The poorer showing is not a complete surprise, since Apple historically sees a drop in sales share in the fourth quarter because of its strong back-to-school sales in the third quarter. Even so, the company continued to beat the U.S. average, down a dismal 10.1%, and posted positive numbers, something Dell and HP, the No. 1 and No. 2 U.S. sellers, couldn't manage.

Dell's estimated fourth quarter sales, for example, dropped 16.4% compared to the same period the year before, while HP's fell 3.4%.

Acer was easily the big winner last quarter, said Gartner, as it pushed Apple out of the No. 3 spot to capture 15.2% of the U.S. market and year-to-year gains of 55%. Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa attributed Acer's success to sales of inexpensive mini-notebooks. Those laptops, often dubbed "netbooks," and characterized by their small size, light weight and low price, did well in the face of the economic downturn.

And that bodes ill for Apple, which doesn't have a system in a category that grew by 20% from the third to the fourth quarter . "Because Apple doesn't have a presence there, it might have been affected," Kitagawa said.

Another possible explanation for Apple's slowdown, said Kitagawa, is its pricing. "I just don't know if their price was being accepted by consumers," she said.

Apple's least expensive laptop is a $999 MacBook, the single leftover model from the discontinued line featuring plastic cases. Netbooks, meanwhile, typically sell for under $500, and often for considerably less. Amazon.com, for instance, sells Acer's popular Aspire One 8.9-in. netbook for under $350.

Gartner rival IDC, meanwhile, also slotted Apple into the No. 4 spot, with an estimated 1.24 million systems sold, or 7.2% of all sales. IDC's estimates had Apple posting a year-to-year growth rate of just 7.5% for the fourth quarter, better than the negative numbers of Dell and HP. Like Gartner, IDC said that Apple's gains looked lackluster compared to Acer's 35.8% increase.

Analysts from both Gartner and IDC bemoaned the state of U.S. computer sales, with Kitagawa pointing out that the quarter's sales slide was the biggest since the last U.S. recession in 2001.

"The fourth quarter started out with a relatively optimistic view, but then it got worse every month," she said, noting that only consumer sales looked strong, and then only because of low prices for netbooks and steep price cuts for other systems.

"The value of the market shrank as a result of competitive pricing and the introduction of lower-priced mini-notebooks," said Doug Bell, an analyst with IDC, in a statement.

Nor should computer makers expect any good news soon. "The first half of 2009 looks pretty shaky, as the economic fundamentals need to recover before spending on PCs will resume," said Bell.

Apple is scheduled to deliver its earnings report on Jan. 21 after the stock market closes, and will reveal 2008 fourth quarter sales figures then. In the third calendar quarter, Apple said it sold 1.12 million computers in the Americas, and another 596,000 in its retail stores, the bulk of which are in the U.S.