Archive for January, 2009

Just after 2.5 years of Windows Vista’s release, Windows 7 is here. Windows 7 is what I would say Windows Vista should have been. Many people call Windows Vista a failure but it’s not a failure. It was infect a necessary step to create the future foundation of Windows. Windows Vista gave the users, designers & developer new technologies like Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows Card space, DirectX 10, WDDM, Instant Search, Software based sound system in form of HD Audio Standard, UAC & much more.

However, Vista was to be very frank, way ahead of its time. People were very familiar with the experience of Windows XP, its Interface and way of working. They were running Windows XP released in 2001 on modern hardware of that time like Pentium 4 & Athlon64. Since Windows XP didn’t have a GPU accelerated User Interface, most of the computers were using outdated Intel Onboard graphics or similar without the support of DirectX 9 at least due to which users started to have a misconception that the system requirement of Windows Vista is very high. What they didn’t see was that the minimum requirement to run Windows Vista was a GeForce FX 5200 graphics card with 128 MB VRAM which used to cost Rs 2,000 in the year 2006 end. This wasn’t an expensive upgrade considering the benefits it gives in long run but still at least in India people stayed with Windows XP just because it didn’t require a graphics card update.

But, this made the foundation for Windows 7. Vista increased the minimum RAM a PC should have from 512 MB to 1 GB & 2 GB isn’t that costly today either. Since 4 GB RAM is also very possible today, this resulted in the awareness of Windows Vista 64bit edition which was way better then Windows XP 64bit edition as nearly all the manufacturers now have 64bit drivers for Vista. This has increased the penetration of 64bit computing in our daily life. Today a new PC with something like a Core 2 Duo E4500 & 2 GB RAM with onboard GeForce/AMD/Intel GMA X3/GMA X4 series onboard GPU can be purchased for as low as Rs 17,000. Vista did make the price of PC components to reduce & paved the path for a solid Windows 7 foundation. Today computers with above mentioned configuration are common & have more than enough horse power to run Windows Vista, Windows 7 & all the high definition content people are getting these days.

With Windows Vista, Microsoft gave developers .net 3.5 & WPF due to which for the first time Microsoft was paying attention to user Interface & designs. Now we can see more & more 3^rd party developers coming with WPF & GPU accelerated applications which are able to use the hardware available today such as multi core CPU & GPU.

Microsoft also released UAC with Windows Vista which was hated & criticized because at the time of Vista’s release applications were developed with admin privilege by default resulting in many security breaches. Users had trouble using their old applications but today after 2.5 years, almost all of the applications out there are made with UAC in mind & they run with standard user privilege. The benefit can be given with an example that now a Virus cannot penetrate Windows internal files if UAC is turned on. Why would an application need to make changes to system files just to run, unless it is some Security application like antirvirus or firewall. Based on this concept UAC was created to be annoying so that developers can make application with a better security model.

Now comes Windows 7. Windows is more like Optimized Windows Vista code. Due to all what Windows Vista did, the foundation & road to Windows 7 was paved long back. Today, the security of Windows is rigid due to UAC & almost all the applications out there today are UAC aware which means fewer security risks on Windows 7.

Windows Vista came with a new Windows Display Driver Model requiring DirectX 10. Because of this crashes are reduced due to a malfunctioning or corrupt graphics subsystem. Now, even if a game you are playing crashes, Windows OS will not crash & the graphics system will just restart itself. Windows 7 brings Computer Shader with DirectX 11 due to which developers can use the GPU for doing things other than crunching frames in a game cos GPU is nothing more than a CPU which calculates for graphics. nVidia & AMD are doing this in form of CUDA & Brock+ already but with DirectX 11 developers will have a single unified API. Now, developers won’t have to code for 2 separate graphics architecture from nvidia & AMD, They can code in either DirectX 11 or OpenCL & be assured that it will work on any compatible GPU out there. This made sure that in the future the GPU can also help the CPU in computing & can be used better instead of sitting idle when a user is just working on Windows. Today GPU are able to decode High Definition content taking some load away from the CPU.

Vista gave us a new Sound Driver model based on HD Audio specification from Intel. UAA is all software based sound API due to which the need of an expensive external sound card like Creative SoundBlaster Audigy isn’t required any more to play EAX based games which is propriety Creative Labs technology. Since we have multi core CPU available today, taking out some power from them to process multi channel Audio & 3D Audio in games & Movies isn’t that taxing on system resources. Now developers can freely create Positional 3D Audio in games & rest assured that if the computer has a HD Audio Solution, then it will give the desired performance & quality.

Windows Vista was blamed that it has DRM inbuilt, well….here is the thing, DRM doesn’t comes in front unless you have some DRM content playing. I would rather have support to play DRM content & not use it, then need it & not have it like in case of Linux or Mac OS.

Vista made us familiar with a new UI which is being enhanced in Windows 7. Explorer is much easier to work with compared to Windows XP. Finding content is easy with instant search.

Vista gave us Trusted Platform Module support due to which securing your data on a laptop became easier & better.

Windows Vista also made 64bit applications & drivers widely available due to which Windows 7 64 bit can be used easily in day to day computing as everything is 64bit compatible today either natively or via a emulation of 32bit on 64bit hardware.

Last year saw the herald of Netbooks & Intel Atom platform. For the first time, small & inexpensive laptops were possible with enough power to do most of the tasks other then gaming when you are on the go. Asus EEE PC pioneered it & today almost all the companies have a Netbook available such as Acer Aspire One or Lenovo Ideapad S10. The penetration of Mobile Phones have increased tremendously & even basic smart phone such as HTC Touch is available for Rs 8,000 which brings us more close to computing on the go. Now, we just don’t have one PC at home, we also have one in our pocket.

Windows 7 is all set to make life easy with its new features & technologies. I won’t be writing about the usual features which are being talked about everywhere as you can easily see the new features on the Windows 7 homepage. I will however talk about some features which won’t be highlighted much but will make our life easier under the hood.

• Search is an essential part of our computing life today. Can you imagine your life without Google? How hard will it be to find information online? But why limit the benefit of search to Internet only & why not bring it to the Desktop. Windows 7 has federated search which means you can search online on websites like Youtube etc from your Start Menu itself by using a search connector available freely on the website.
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• UAC is almost fixed. I am using Windows 7 beta with UAC turned on & unless I am tinkering with the internal of system, installing an application which needs admin rights, or doing something I should not do, UAC doesn’t bothers me. Users can configure UAC according to their taste now.
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• LCD monitors are all the rage these days due to falling LCD Prices & availability. I bought my 20" LG L206WTQ LCD Monitor in march 2008 for Rs 10,500 only. It has a resolution of 1680 X 1050 which is quite big for something like Windows XP where everything becomes very small & the 48pixel icons start to look bad. Windows Vista gave us a nearly resolution independent UI in form of Bigger Icons & Vector based UI of WPF, Windows 7 is just taking it one step further. I myself run my Monitor at its native resolution & 120 dpi. However, for a resolution like 1920X1080 or higher I would prefer something more, & Windows 7 gives me that. Higher DPI makes text & icons etc look more crisp & better on a big screen. Windows 7 also bring the ability to calibrate your monitor which usually most people don’t do to get better visual quality & color reproduction. There are 3^rd party tools which are doing this, but having this feature in build in Windows means more & more users will start to calibrate there Display. Windows 7 also has the Cleartype Tuner Powertoy inbuilt
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• Windows 7 brings a unified interface for all the maintenance of your PC in form of Action Center. This is a central location & an update to security center.
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• You no longer have to go through device manager or the whole control panel to look & configure your devices as Windows 7 makes it easier in form of Windows Device Stage & the Device & printers Panel. Device Stage is the future of managing your digital camera, Mobile phone, Portable Media Player, Netbook, Laptop, Mouse & what not.
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• Windows Homegroup is a new feature introduced in Windows 7 where you can share your music, pictures, documents, videos and printers with other machines in your home network. I can’t say much about this feature as I am not using it.
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• Windows 7 is being made with Touch Based computing in mind. Anyone remember Tablet PCs which never got popular due to there high cost. Well, I find tablet PCs the best form of a mobile computer even more than a Notebook or Netbook. They are making a comeback now with Windows 7 as The UI of applications is made with Touch Screen computing in mind. The future of computing is Touch UI which although was available since a long time, but is made popular only by Apple iPhone.
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• Internet Explorer 8 is finally something Microsoft has done right. It is being long hated for not supporting the latest Web standards but with Firefox & Webkit in the market now, Microsoft is finally making the rendering engine of IE 8 as standard compliant as possible.

These were just some highlights of what Windows 7 is & how it can very well be the best Windows ever released. Creating perfection takes time, & with Windows 7, Microsoft is close to a perfect OS. The beta of Windows 7 is releasing tomorrow, Friday January 9^th 2009 freely from Windows 7 Homeapge.