Windows 7 hype seems to be ramping up fast as the launch date, October 22, approaches and Microsoft is doing every bit to create excitement. For instance, in some parts of the world people can host parties at their homes to celebrate the launch and win themselves a signature edition of Windows 7 Ultimate or even a PC. In the online world, Twitter users could follow Windows 7 to get prizes ranging from pizzas to candies.
Closer home, road shows are being organised in 16 cities (five metros and some tier-2 cities) to reach out to 1,800 channel partners with the new OS. The company has also initiated trials with consumers and corporates with its ?release candidate?, along with giving out ?release to manufacturing? to manufactures.
Microsoft has also announced the Windows Upgrade Option Programme from June onwards, which means that anyone who buys a PC with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate will receive a free upgrade to Windows 7. The company has tied-up with leading PC manufacturers like Acer, Dell, HCL, HP, Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba and Wipro and a select assembled PC vendors for the programme.
Talking about the promotions around the launch, Rajiv Popli, director, windows client, consumer & online business, Microsoft India says that the company has done numerous installations of Windows 7 in the corporate space. ?Companies like NIIT, Ranbaxy, Infosys, Wipro and even Bangalore and Cochin Airport have been the early adopters of the OS. Some of them have gone on record to say how it is helping them improve functionality and even reduce support cost,? he said. While Vista, Microsoft?s current OS, had a completely different look and feel from the earlier XP, Windows 7 builds on Vista without changing a lot of things. No wonder tech experts are calling Windows 7 ?Vista fixed?.
One of the major advantages with Windows 7, says Microsoft, is that it uses less footprint on the CPU, which makes it faster. While Vista required at least 1GB-2GB of RAM, Windows works well with 1GB of RAM or even lower. However, Microsoft?s recommended specifications for Windows 7 are 1 GHz CPU or more, 1 GB RAM or more and at least 16 GB of available disk space.
Popli explains this with an anecdote. In one of the Indian technology companies that ran a trail of Windows 7, several old PCs with 512 MB of RAM were about to be phased out. However, when the new OS was installed, they were brought back into the system. He adds that the company has paid special attention towards boot, resume and shut down speeds.
There are several other features introduced by Windows 7 that enterprises will look out for. For instance, the new OS has a feature called BitLocker, which protects information saved not only on the drives in the PC or a laptop but also on mobile drives like USB devices. ?Often these devices are lost as they are small in size, but the data in them could be critical. So, even if they are lost, the data is saved in the thumb drives, which is password protected and can be recovered,? says Popli.
Moreover, there are other features like PSR (problem solving recorder), which will help the support staff in companies to identify problems with the devices faster as Windows 7 takes and records screen shots of every click. This will save organisations valuable time and also support cost. The Direct Access feature will save companies the cost of VPN networks as PCs in office and even laptops with the mobile workforce will be able to connect to the corporate network directly.
There are several new security features which will come handy for organisations. Popli says that though it is difficult to put an overall estimate on organisational saving due to Windows 7, it could lead to a saving of Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000 per PC in an enterprise. Apart from the fact that Windows 7 can function well on devices with lesser RAM, another aspect which could prompt small & medium businesses migrate to the new OS is that many of the old XP application will run on Windows 7 in the XP mode.
At the consumer level, Windows 7 promises to simplify everyday tasks and has based several features over insights of user behaviour. It has a cleaner taskbar and one can, for example, open 50 Internet Explorer windows but the taskbar will show only the icon. Moreover, for those who require full concentration can shake away everything from the desktop without closing anything. There are jumplists, which enable the user to access recently accessed applications without going into several folders.
The features that stand out are the Homegroup, which seamlessly connect the user to other PCs at home and enable file sharing and even remote screening. Moreover, looking the rising popularity of touch screen devices, Windows 7 packs in some cool touch features, wherein one can use a stylus or even hands, to do almost anything on the PC, right from clicking on files to moving them around on the screen, to increasing or decreasing the size of pictures and even zooming in or out.