The good news is that, in time for Windows 7′s first anniversary on October 3rd, Microsoft is bringing back the Family Pack. It’s the same deal as before — three upgrade licenses for $150, although you’ll probably be able to find it a bit cheaper online. If you haven’t already upgraded your machines to Windows 7, it’s definitely worth considering as, once again, it’s only available “while stocks last.” The Family Pack will also be sold in Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Australia and “many other markets” on or after October 22nd to mark Windows 7′s first anniversary in those territories.

Have you upgraded to Windows 7 yet?

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The sound of cheers swell across the nation: Today, Vista users can finally dump the clunky and sluggish operating system for Windows 7. Praise for the new version has already started coming in from early adopters and reviewers.

When I bought my laptop recently, I couldn’t downgrade Vista for Windows XP, as I would have liked. But it had everything else I needed. Knowing Windows 7 would arrive within months, I made the sacrifice — and it turned out to be a worthy one. Here are some of the reasons why I’m happy I’ve made the upgrade to Windows 7.

Install

Before installing, I ran the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to make sure my laptop was ready for the upgrade. It caught a few things related to the laptop itself; all easily fixed. After addressing the issues, I did a final run of the Upgrade Advisor to ensure everything cleared.

Next came the tough part: actually upgrading. I gulped as I kicked off the upgrade festivities. Upgrading took over an hour along with several required restarts before I finally met Windows 7 face-to-screen. The laptop and I survived. Everything that was on my machine before the upgarade remained intact, except it had fewer pinned programs and Quick Launch applications. Windows 7 scores with its smooth and uneventful install.

Exploring the Redesigned Taskbar

The first thing to notice, apart from the snazzy Aero interface, is that the Quick Launch toolbar and system tray have both received a serious makeover. They both remain in their usual spots, with Quick Launch to the right of the “Start” button and the system tray in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. But the Quick Launch toolbar no longer has a little popup. Instead, all of your Quick Launch icons appear in full view. If a Quick Launch application is open, its Quick Launch icon turns into a taskbar right where its icon lives. That took some adjustment for me to get used to.

Windows XP Quick Launch

Windows 7 Quick Launch

Ready to peek, shake ‘n snap? One feature I loved on previous versions of Windows: show desktop. It used to be an icon in the Quick Launch popup. In Windows 7, it’s known as “Aero Peek” and it works even better. It’s the tall rectangle button by the system tray next to the clock. Click, and — whoosh — all the windows shrink so I can see the desktop. Or move your mouse over the button to have all the windows fade away until the pointer moves away. That’s two nice options for revealing the desktop.

If you have a bunch of windows open and want to minimize all of them except one, you can do the Aero Shake. No, it’s not a new dance craze. Rather, you select the window you want to keep open and shake it. Everything else will disappear to the taskbar. If you work with two monitors or box multiple windows side-by-side, this new feature will save you loads of time.

To Snap, drag the window to any edge of the screen to instantly resize the window. It’ll expand vertically or horizontally depending on the edge of the screen you snap it to. You don’t have to mess with resizing and it gives you another option to open up the window without maximizing.

The system tray works like the old Quick Launch toolbar. Rather than a handful of icons appearing and then pressing the < button to see the rest, you can turn off (hide) system icons as well as control the notification area icons. For example, Network is a notification area icon. You can show its icon, hide it or only show notifications. While you could control this in past versions, this set up makes it easier and adds the extra option of “only show notifications” not present before.

Windows XP System Tray

Windows 7 System Tray

The flexibility and new options in system tray and Quick Launch is great if you who like an organized desktop. The Aero Peek, Shake and Snap features also add a drop of fun into the operating system.

Built-in Photo Editing

It looks like Microsoft — with Windows Live Photo Gallery — wants to step on the toes of photo management and editing apps like Google’s Picasa. The gallery not only lets you organize and manage all your photos, but also edit and post them online using your Windows Live Account right from within the application. Its editing features include auto adjust, resize, red-eye correction and all the usual staples found in any other photo application. If you work with photos all the time, you’ll probably prefer to use your existing tools, but if you only work with photos occasionally having these features on tap is very useful.

Windows 7 Live Gallery

Backup and Restore

Backup and Restore looks like a great feature for those who have a DVD, external or network drive for saving backups. However, I haven’t tested this feature because Windows 7 won’t connect to the external hard drive, even though it sees it. Windows likes to save personal data in different places — not just in “My Documents” and “My Media” — and the built-in backup functionality knows just what to save. This feature will make it easier for the non-techie user to protect their data.

Windows 7 Backup

Search

Windows 7 takes searching to a new level. Hit the Start button and enter words into the search box. It’ll search files, documents, emails and more, or take you to Windows Explorer for more search options and filters. Of all the new features in Windows 7, the lightweight easy-to-use Search surprises me the most — in a good way.

Windows 7 Search

Performance

Performance is noticeably faster in Windows 7 than in Vista — that includes things like working with devices like USB thumb drives, too. Improved performance for both memory and USB devices alone puts Windows 7 miles ahead of Vista. Despite the heaviness of the default Aero interface — part of it the fault of not having a higher-scoring graphics card in my laptop — and a couple of other quibbles, Windows 7′s improved performance and new features make it worth dumping Vista for good.

However, will I upgrade my Windows XP computer to Windows 7? Not anytime soon. XP still works fine for me, and I’ll wait until Microsoft addresses any kinks in Windows 7 before upgrading.

Are you upgrading to Windows 7?

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• Deployment Platform
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While primarily aimed at system administrators rather than home or small business users, if you’re looking to make the move to Windows 7 there will undoubtedly be some information in here that will help. The book is a free download (6.5 MB PDF) from Microsoft.com.

Are you moving to Windows 7?

(via gHacks)

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Is It Worth It?

I’m generally not in a hurry to rush out and buy the latest and greatest OS. It’s always worth reading the reviews, and following reports of bugs. In this case, it’s been a while since Snow Leopard came out, and there’s already been a .1 maintenance release that seems to have dealt with most of its known issues.

Snow Leopard is, by all accounts, not that heavy on new features, but it’s also relatively inexpensive. Most of its advantages are under the hood, with 64-bit processing and better memory management. But one feature caught my eye: the ability to synchronize the Address Book (including pictures) with Gmail or Google Apps — a feature that’s been around for a while, but which, for some reason, was previously only available to iPhone users.

Can Your Hardware Handle It?

This is an important consideration. Windows, in particular, is notorious for increasing its memory and disk space requirements with every release. And with computer prices falling all the time, it’s often tempting to just buy a new computer with the new OS pre-installed. But I decided that my Mac could work with the upgrade.

Is Your Software Compatible?

Planning for an upgrade made me realize just how much outdated and unnecessary software I had accumulated on my hard drive. Luckily, a couple of sites have compiled lists of what works, and what doesn’t, under Snow Leopard. I looked at several of them; I found this one particularly useful. It even has an application called SnowChecker that can be used to find what programs you have, and display information about their compatibility.

When you discover programs that are listed as incompatible, you can either find an upgrade (sometimes a beta version), switch to an alternative app that is compatible, or decide that you don’t need the functionality it provides.

Do You Have Backups of Everything, In Case Something Goes Wrong?

When preparing for major upgrades, I probably spend more time making sure that all of my data is backed up than I do anything else. Of course, I use the OS’s built-in tools like Time Machine, and I store multiple copies of customer data on an external drive, in the cloud through Dropbox, on my smartphone through Missing Sync, and on my company’s development server (which itself gets backed up). But it never hurts to make manual backups of really irreplaceable data, so — for example — I made backups of my address book in VCF, CSV and Address Book Archive format. You might think that I’m overdoing it, but I felt that the time was definitely worth taking after learning of Sidekick’s data loss and an apparent bug in OS X relating to guest accounts that could cause it to lose data. As Kevin over at jkOnTheRun says: “Services fail…what are you doing about it?”

Do You Have the Time to Plan and Execute the Upgrade?

Of course, doing all of this takes time, which is why I prefer to undertake projects like this after business hours. Even if it means missing a beautiful fall weekend. That way, I don’t have to interact with clients or put out fires, and being offline for a while won’t make a difference. I picked up a couple of good books at my local college bookstore where I bought Snow Leopard, and got to page 50 of Terry Pratchett’s “Nation” while waiting for the installation, so it was time well spent!

So far, I have been extremely pleased with how much faster many of the programs I use run under Snow Leopard, especially those that are available in 64-bit mode. And I’m happy with many of the OS’s new features. So for me, the time spent has definitely been worth it.

Have you upgraded to the latest operating system? How has it worked for you?

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Due to their favorable price points, and how very mobile they are, netbooks — small, light portable computers — remain one of the hottest hardware categories. If you’re in the market for one, I posted some shopping tips on them back in early March. Since that post, there have been quite a few developments on the operating system front, which may affect any planned netbook purchases you may have. Here are some of the key issues that you should factor in if you have your eyes on a new netbook.

Having used netbooks for more than a year now, I have found them to be particularly ideal for mobile writing tasks, and I often tote one in favor of a larger, heavier laptop. That said, I still wouldn’t use a netbook as my primary portable computer, because they don’t have fully stocked local resources. They are best thought of as adjunct systems, when ultra-mobility really matters.

Since my March post on how to shop for a netbook, there have been many announcements related to the two primary operating systems that run on netbooks: Windows and Linux. (Apple continues to stay out of the category, perhaps because of its long-standing focus on premium hardware categories.)

On the Windows front, of course, the big news is Windows 7. It is slated to arrive in the fourth quarter of this year, and will be the operating system found on a slew of netbooks shortly after it arrives. Microsoft’s latest offering is also getting many good reviews, including positive comments about its mobile features. There is every sign that Windows 7 will arrive early in the fourth quarter, so if you are looking to buy a netbook, you may want to wait to try it out.

I made the point in my previous post on netbook shopping that it’s best to try one out in a very hands-on way before buying. That’s especially true for a new Windows 7-based netbook. It’s also likely that Microsoft and OEMs will work in tandem to offer Windows 7 netbooks at good price points.

There has also been much hubbub surrounding Linux-based netbooks. While it may not be immediately apparent, both the Intel-backed Moblin operating system and Google’s upcoming Chrome OS are based on Linux. Intel has handed the keys to Moblin over to The Linux Foundation, and it’s being squarely aimed at netbooks.

There’s a good chance that Moblin-based netbooks will arrive by the end of the year. Moblin is getting notice for its very fast boot times and its performance, and because it’s an open-source operating system, it may arrive in ultra-inexpensive netbooks. If you aren’t planning to get a netbook for a few months, it’s worth keeping on your radar.

In the longer term, systems based on Google’s Chrome OS may also disrupt the netbook space. That said, Chrome OS is getting a lot of hype for a platform that hasn’t arrived yet, and it won’t arrive until 2010. It’s squarely aimed at netbooks, but it faces many uphill battles as a new operating system. If you’re in the market for a netbook now or will be soon, I wouldn’t recommend waiting for Chrome OS. That’s especially true because of how immediately useful netbooks are, and how inexpensive they are. If Google’s Chrome OS is a runaway hit in the space immediately upon arrival — and I think that’s unlikely — you can still get a lot of good use out of a system between now and when it’s delivered.

While many people summarize the decision-making process surrounding netbooks as consisting of little more than deciding whether you can do without some local hardware resources, there’s more to it than that. As we move toward the end of this year and next, which operating system is on your new netbook promises to be an important issue to pay attention to.

Are you delaying a netbook purchase for Windows 7, or waiting for Moblin?

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Download and install the software (I’m not sure why it can’t be a standalone .exe), make sure all the devices you normally use are plugged in, and hit ‘Start check.”

Windows Upgrade Advisor will then take a few minutes to scan your hardware and let you know whether your machine is ready for Windows 7 or, if not, what action you need to take. As you can see in the screenshot, because my machine is running XP, Upgrade Advisor is recommending backing up all of the data on it, as it will require a clean install of Windows 7.

As I noted in my post about the Windows 7 RC launch earlier this week, the hardware requirements of Windows 7 are not much more onerous than those of Vista, so even fairly old machines should be able to run it. However, it’s useful to have a tool to check before committing to the upgrade.

Windows Upgrade Advisor is still in beta (so may still have some bugs) and is free to download and use.

Are you planning on upgrading to Windows 7?

(via Windows Experience Blog)

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If, like me, you stuck it out with XP and skipped Vista, you should consider upgrading. As Martin Brinkmann at gHacks explains, Windows 7 greatly improves on XP in several key areas:

Speed and Performance: This is perhaps the most important reason for upgrading. Windows 7 beats XP in all performance benchmarks.

Security: Windows 7 will provide much better “out of the box” security than XP, while at the same time cutting down on the annoying UAC prompts that plague Vista.

Hardware Compatibility: While it should be possible to continue running XP for quite a while, some future devices might not support the older OS.

Design: Windows 7 features a much more contemporary design scheme, coupled with a huge range of customization options and themes.

There is also some brand-new functionality, including multitouch support — a feature that, at first, I thought was a bit gimmicky. However, having now owned an iPhone for a while, I’m looking forward to seeing the new hardware that will be enabled by this move.

You might be concerned about the ability to run Windows 7 on your hardware. The good news, as ZDNet notes, is that the requirements of Windows 7 are not much more onerous that those of Vista:

• 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
• 1 GB of RAM
• 16 GB of disk space (or 20 GB for 64-bit users)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

If you’re planning on adding XP Mode (a virtualized copy of Windows XP that ensures full backwards-compatibility), you’ll need 2 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of disk space and a CPU that supports hardware visualization.

As the RC is not the final version of the OS, you won’t get much in the way of support from Microsoft, so if you’re not reasonably tech-savvy it would probably be better to wait until the full retail release (due out in October, if the rumor on Pocket-lint is correct). You’ll need to be able to burn an installation DVD from an ISO and be able to back up and restore the applications and data on your computer, because if you have XP you have to do a clean install of Windows 7. Microsoft has posted full installation instructions.

The RC should be available to download through July, and you’ll have until March 1, 2010, to buy a full Windows 7 license.

Will you upgrade to Windows 7?

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The really good news is that Windows 7 will include “XP Mode”:  a fully licensed, virtualized copy of Windows XP. XP Mode will be available as a download for users with Windows 7 Professional and up. As Jeff Atwood notes:

The attraction of virtualizing older operating systems is that it throws off the eternal yoke of backwards compatibility. Instead of bending over backwards to make sure you never break any old APIs, you can build new systems free of the contortions and compromises inherent in guaranteeing that new versions of the operating system never break old applications.

XP Mode should mean that Windows 7 is completely backwards-compatible with XP, and should also mean that Microsoft can start removing the older cruft from the OS that is currently only there to ensure backward-compatibility.

I’m looking forward to checking out Windows 7. Are you?

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