If you’re a Vista user (or, rather, victim) you’re in luck because this latest incarnation of Uncle Bill’s ubiquitous operating system is much smoother, much more hassle-free than Vista.

Vista users will immediately recognize the interface, because basically it IS Vista, but without all the nagging, sluggish, painful experiences.  In fact, except for the loss of a couple of minor software programs that it won’t run, I am almost convinced it’s time to give up XP.

Almost convinced.

Frankly, although Windows 7 has benchmarked higher than XP and Vista, I personally don’t feel it’s “faster” than XP.  It’s just cooler.   There’s a couple of decent new features, like “Libraries” which sort of work like a shortcut to any drive or folder you want.  So you can set up a “Downloads” library, and add any “downloads” folder on your system.  Then, when you go to download something, the libraries show up immediately alongside your documents folder in the save dialog.  This eliminates painful and time-wasting navagation to folders you might have buried somewhere.

Vista users will appreciate that you can just put in the disc and upgrade.  No reinstalling programs or settings.

Not so for XP users.  Although XP users get upgrade pricing, there is no upgrade path to Windows 7 from XP.  This means that you have to back up all of your settings (there’s a program on the disc that lets you do that – backs up your email settings, program settings, etc.).  Then you have to do a clean install of Windows 7.  Then you have to restore all of your settings.  Then, you have to re-install ALL of your software.  For me, “upgrading” from XP to Windows 7 took about five hours.

This lack of upgrade path from XP to 7 makes me hesitant about recommending that anyone give up XP for the supposed “power” of Windows 7.  Of course, Windows will stop supporting XP soon after it releases 7, just to make sure you upgrade.

For Vista users, it’s my opinion that Microsoft should give a free copy of Windows 7 just to apologize for years of painful computing.    As well, Windows 7 is just the way Vista SHOULD have been from the start, and there are not that many changes to warrant releasing it as a “new version” of windows.  It’s basically Vista that’s not so broken, and Microsoft should have released it as a Vista service pack.  An apology from Microsoft or free copies to Vista victims is not likely to happen, though.

You can still download the free release candidate from the Microsoft web site.  Just google “Download microsoft 7 rc” to find the link.  It changes from time to time.  Interestingly enough, I was unable to use Internet Explorer to do the download.  It kept failing.  When I switched to Mozilla Firefox, I had no problems.  Go figure.

If you are in the Kelowna area and don’t want to deal with the download or if you don’t know how to burn iso files to disc, feel free to contact me if you’d like me to install it for you.  I’ll charge my call-out fee for the installation, but the software is free.  It will run on your computer until July of 2010, but in March 2010 it will begin rebooting your machine every two hours until you buy a full copy.

You can pre-order Windows 7 on the Microsoft site and receive a substantial discount.  Home version upgrades are only $49, and Professional version upgrades are only $99. 

All in all, I like Windows 7, but frankly, I’m not convinced it’s going to be better than XP.  I’m fully convinced it’s better than Vista.