Comments on: Windows 7: A second look

By: Karun AB » Is Microsoft delaying Vista SP2 launch?

Karun AB » Is Microsoft delaying Vista SP2 launch? — Thu, 21 May 2009 09:42:21 +0000

[...] requirements (mostly the former I presume). As for organizations, if XP legacy is an issue, surely Windows 7’s XP Mode is there to help [...]

By: bhavik

bhavik — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:19:06 +0000

hmm.. well said :)

By: Karun

Karun — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:24:30 +0000

The reduction in memory, taskbar pinups/superbar awesomeness and sticky notes were all things that everyone already knew about imo.
A lot of less technical people want to move from XP to 7 (skipping Vista) because they heard 7 has lower requirements. While I personally don’t support the jump, I have heard people even in Microsoft say that this was one of the things they aimed at. Such a set of people was targeted for this OS. So I really didn’t feel like blowing the same trumpet again.

Good point about XPM for enterprises with legacy apps. No idea why I didn’t think of it earlier.
And thanks for the info about V-WiFi. Never tried general AdHoc.
A good use of V-WiFi would be in enterprises/colleges which have wireless internet and intranet. Say the internet is for the public generally passing through campus (something like a college network) and the intranet is more work oriented (administrative office work for universities). Rather than having to jump all the time, you could simply stay connected to both.
Sure, most organizations would have wired networks for intranet instead of wireless but lets not poke holes, shall we.. its just an illustrative idea of the simultaneous existence of internet and intranet :P

By: bhavik

bhavik — Sun, 17 May 2009 20:57:28 +0000

i liked the review :)
few points here –
About Virtual Wi-Fi: it doesnt support the relaying of packets, thats done by Mesh Connectivity Layer (as we did in BE proj ;))
2ndly: @ A is in range of an access point X but user B isn’t. But user B is in range with user A. User A could relay the connection from X to B providing B with an active connection to the network.
Well, what if this is unneeded by A. B’s using A’s network resources to connect to X thus depriving it of full potential. Also A is a security breach (can turn into mole, listening to all B’s conversations)
I am not saying V-WiFi is not needed, just your reasons are unreasonable. ;)
lastly: you dont need V-WiFi for Ad-hoc networks. you can still setup ad-hoc to create LAN and play :D

Ps. About Win7 – Did you talk about the memory usage, the taskbar pinups, the all new StickyNotes app, compatible applications who weren’t compatible on vista.

Replying to Sriram/You – Windows 7 XP mode may not mean anything to us, but its really important for Enterprises who have legacy applications bound by XP. In that case, MS offers them an easy way to migrate to the latest OS while still keeping the older versions running on the VPC.

cheers :!

By: Karun

Karun — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:29:26 +0000

Windows 7′s XP Mode seems to be nothing more than a seamless integration of Windows with Virtual PC much like VMWareFusion for the Mac. :-)
It is meant for times when Compatibility Mode (which does provide an emulated WinXP Environment when asked to do so) doesn’t seem to work for your intended application.

Compatibility mode, at times seems iffy. XP Mode on the other hand is a guaranteed solution ;) (at the cost of slight performance albeit).

I’d like to run a few benchmarks for Performance on XPM. I now know what my next post is going to be about ;)

By: Karun

Karun — Sun, 17 May 2009 17:52:29 +0000

1) Microsoft has been putting a lot of effort into UX since Longhorn development first started. Win7 is much more than a face lift.
2) I’ve never seen open in a new process before. Seriously. :P
3) If you ever need to make batch scripts, go powershell! :)
4) There are some (quite rare) apps that don’t work in Compatibility mode. To me, it is a secondary option for Compatibility. If an application refuses to work in Vista, go for the default compatibility mode. If it still refuses to work, you can go for XPM. But there is more to this feature.. You might WANT to run applications at times on XP. There might be applications that run differently on XP and Vista/7. Compatibility mode tries to run the application in an emulated XP shell (so to say). XPM on the other hand actually runs the application on WinXP (I’m guessing).
There isn’t a need yet for actual use but I’d like to play around with it a bit more. I’d like to know how it works and what it does. Lets see if I can get my hands on some documentation or some other means to do this.
5) I was mainly referring to Win+ for quick launch making its transition to Superbar icons rather than being scrapped. Most people don’t know about it. Very few (of the entire Vista population) actively use it. I am a Win+ addict on Vista so I’m glad it was retained in Win7 despite Quicklaunch being shelved. Its not really meant to be a “feature” btw :P
6) Read what I said carefully. I don’t dislike UAC. I dislike UAC from Vista RTM because of multiple prompts. I am all for security. Why do you think I have it switched on on my laptop? Certainly ain’t laziness.

By: Sriram Iyer

Sriram Iyer — Sun, 17 May 2009 17:39:08 +0000

Hi there again,

a few points I would like to make here:
1. Facelift for the sake of… is pretty pointless. The ribbons is useful for complex programs where the objective is to be task/result oriented, and not be application oriented. Paint and wordpad are very simple programs, so the cosmetic change wouldn’t matter much
2. The open in new process shortcut command is pretty neat, but you got to remember the actual function was present afaik right from windows 200 if not 98SE.
3. Nothing much to comment about powershell, its great for UNIX guys as well.
4. XP Mode as far as I can see it, does not really appeal to me. There is no application (atleast I haven’t encountered one yet, touchwood :P )that wouldn’t have run if you’d set the compatibility mode to “Windows XP”. It seems that the so-called “XP-Mode” is just a kind of a fancy front end for the powerful Compatibility mode. I could be wrong though, because all my programs (read: Comanche 4 and host of other stuff) ran rock solid with the Compatibility mode setting.
5. I’m surprised that you actually say “Remembering/Retaining keyboard shortcuts” as a feature. It’s our damn right. Using computers for over 12 years now, I pretty much want my Ctrl+S to save and Ctrl+F4 to close child MDI. You don’t need to thank the car manufacturer for bundling 4 wheels and the steering wheel you know. Those things are a given, and expected.
6. Oh and what ever you say about the UAC, I actually like it. Many people might find it annoying but that’s the price you pay for security. And I’d much rather prefer extra prompts as compared to auto-elevation of processes. In short, even when Windows 7 comes out, I will set the UAC to maximum. But yes, multiple UAC for one action seems ridiculous. You can’t blame them, they HAVE fixed the problem with Vista SP1.

Lol at the 101% efficiency. New thermodynamics laws are in the order pretty soon.