Five Ways Windows 7 Could Become another Vista

Windows 7 is finally here. The sun can shine and the birds can chirp. Ding dong, Windows Vista is dead! Perhaps that is a bit premature. Windows 7 hasn't been officially released for 24 hours yet, so its understandable if the jury is still deliberating. There are certainly those who think Windows 7 is nothing more than Windows Vista with an extra bell or whistle thrown in for eye candy.

To be honest, I like Windows 7 and believe it will be a phenomenal success for Microsoft. Earlier I wrote a post detailing 5 reasons to upgrade to Windows 7. But, just to play devil's advocate, let's take a look at 5 ways Windows 7 could become another Vista.

1.     UAC still there. UAC-- the bane of Windows Vista-- hasn't gone away. Microsoft altered the behavior and added a configuration slider than enables the user to select what level of protection UAC will provide, thus controlling the volume of pop-up alerts generated by UAC. However, after much debate with the security community during the Beta testing, the default setting is still set to what users experienced with Windows Vista. Frankly, UAC serves a purpose and it is better to leave it alone. But, those who dislike UAC are going to have to go into the control panel and modify the configuration to their liking or be faced with the same pop-ups that annoyed the world with Vista.

2.     Hardware and Drivers. Windows Vista stumbled and fell right out of the blocks as a result of lagging hardware and device driver support. The vendors just weren't ready when Vista was launched and Vista never really recovered from the damaged reputation even after most of those issues were resolved. The legal issues Microsoft faced with the Windows Vista compatible logo debacle didn't help either. Users get upset when they get a new operating system and find out that their existing printer, wireless router, webcam, or other peripheral hardware doesn't work with it. They are left with the choice of not having the hardware or springing for new hardware that is compatible which doesn't make them happy campers.

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