Microsoft changed their tune about providing a brain-dead Windows 7 version limited to running three applications at once for netbook vendors. Now Microsoft says Windows 7's improvements make it perfectly fine for netbooks without such limitations, except for one we'll talk about soon. But if Vista bogs down your netbook, will Windows 7 really be much better?
Some people believe Microsoft, and report improvements to the way Windows handles multiple open windows uses much less memory than Vista. I hope they're correct, but it's dicey to count on anything Microsoft says during beta periods.
The Register in the UK reports that the Windows 7 Starter Edition used on netbooks will be stuck with the Microsoft-supplied desktop background and color scheme. That seems a strange way to save resources, because backgrounds and color schemes don't take much disk space to save or resources to change, so there must be more to it. I bet this is one feature that will change between now and the shipping date, whenever that is, because of pressure by big hardware vendors.
Folks like HP and Dell load plenty of extra junk on their systems. While I'd be happy to see that stuff go away, I'll be amazed if HP and Dell and others accept a Microsoft desktop image they can't change so they can add their their own logo to the systems they sell. I suppose Microsoft could change that limitation and just let vendors lock their own screen images in place and not let the users change anything. However, right now, the Windows 7 contract agreement says the vendors can't change the desktop details.
I certainly hope Windows 7 runs like a jackrabbit when loaded on my next netbook. I'm just not getting my hopes up. I don't ever remember a Windows operating system that ran faster than its predecessor. Will Windows 7 be the first to slim down and run faster rather than bloat up and run slower? We'll see one of these days.
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Wakey wakey!!
Silly article, the author should have at least tried a Windows 7 beta or RC before writing this piece of text. I have been using Win 7 since before the official beta came out and it just FLIES.It's a completely new codebase, it's not Vista in new clothes. It's so fast it stunned everyone in my office and I bet everyone to come over and launch some heavy application and MAKE my PC look slow. Everyone failed. It flies so fast you won't keep up.
Win 7 on netbooks
Well, Win 7 RC runs pretty smoothly (not necessarily fast) on my six year old Athlon 2400+ system with 1.5 GB of ram, but it couldn't run simple things like Windows DVD Maker, Aero or Internet Checkers without a graphics card upgrade.I'm currently running Windows XP SP3 on an EeePC 900A with the Atom processor and 2 GBs of ram without any problems whatsoever, but when I loaded Win 7RC, it slowed to a snails pace and is relegated to most basic desktop graphics.
A few tech publications have already shown that Win 7 is only slightly faster (if at all) than Vista.
Windows 7 of netbooks
Yes, I second the others comments -- you should have tried it before commenting. So let me treat your article as a question rather than a scornful swipe by a Microsoft hater. (I'm not a fanboy of Microsoft, but don't like the false anything not Microsoft is better than Microsoft).So here goes. I'm writing this reply to you on the Release Candidate of Windows 7. This is a dual core notebook and it behaves much nicer as a release candidate. I'm suffering from some "upgrade quirks" meaning that I had Vista Ultimate 64 bit on here before and just upgraded -- so I didn't get rid of the strange Vista "blank screen" after logon where it takes 20 or so seconds to enumerate all the possible "screens" before deciding to turn on my laptop screen. My bluetooth stack isn't right because it won't sync to and broadcast to the headphones. there's also an issue with reading my lower capacity battery -- telling me it is defective when it is not. Other than that -- and recall this is a release candidate I installed when it came out several months ago -- it's super smooth and has never blue screened or crashed. It uses less overall resources and the handwriting recognition is beyond belief -- It can actually translate my cursive which I can barely read to highly accurate text. My co-worker has installed the same RC version on a Atom MSI netbook with 1gb internal RAM and a 16gb Readyboost USB and it flies. Even runs Aero on the netbook. He can even do basic Visual Studio .NET development (runs the IDE fine, but not great for self hosting any database apps for obvious reasons). We've even run Virtual PC on the netbook and it did OK. hardware virtualization is generally not available, and memory is usually tight, so don't expect that great. For ANYTHING you could want a netbook for, you can run Windows 7 full edition and not notice anything. Idling after everything boots up, Windows 7 has used less tha 512mb and that's with everything pre-fetched.