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Friday, October 23, 2009

A Game in the Life of Windows 7

Back from the store on a storm-drizzled thursday , i'm installing the 64-bit versions of the windows 7 domestic premium upgrade as i conformation this--not without a sense of irony--on a macbook pro running snow leopard. i've had the windows 7 disentangle candidate on my desktop (build 7100) since last may. i've been using this latest-gen 15-inch macbook pro for the past month. evenly it goes for those of us who gauge our geek-fluency in proportion to our collection of computer genotypes.

Despite the sense one has of déjà vu watching the installer beam "expanding windows files , " and "setup is starting services , " on through to "completing installation , " i'm veritably a little excited. it's here. no supplementary fitful waiting or wondering if the glitch you're experiencing , e.g. "internet explorer has stopped responding , " is beta-related. the primal words are benignant , kinder than i'd expected. that's good news for all , considering how long it's been since we've had a version of windows to crow regarding or this broadly acclaimed in the stipulation.



Just navigating around , the interface seems supplementary responsive. don't confidence me--see our performance tests for the science--but that's the sense you have fissure control panel and fiddling in the device manager , copying files and running driver updates and antivirus utility installs. i calm have mixed feelings regarding aero's default visual settings. it's fair , but the fade animations introduce an singular sense of delay fissure or switching between windows. you may rotate this off under "visual effects" in the performance settings without disabling the rest of aero's 3d finery.

Why domestic premium? speaking as a guy who uses windows to game wholly , i won't miss windows xp rage , or demesne combine , or automatic backups in the "professional" version. i can't say i care regarding bitlocker drive encryption or the option to skirmish up on my french , thai , or latvian (of 35 language alternatives) in the "ultimate" version. if you need whatsoever of those matters , whack yourself out , but if you're a gamer , domestic premium covers the essentials.

A few matters calm bug me--longstanding standard windows gripes overlooked (or maybe simply grudgingly tolerated) by reviewers. i started to install aol's immediate messenger , for specimen , and changed my intellect before clicking the "install" button , yet there's now a folder called aim6 under program files (x86) with an empty "install" text file. ill-will the way sloppy (intentionally or otherwise) applications leave this sort of detritus behind? i execute. care to wager what a registry glare on 'aim' or 'aol' turns up? can't these organizations be bothered to clean up after themselves after 15 years of 'program files' and the registry?

There's calm a jot of tomfoolery going on during game installs , too. installing a steam game , i clicked the box to put a shortcut on the institute menu , expecting i'd see one under windows 7's games box as desirably. the game box? you recognise , the one-stop shortcut shop off the institute menu designed to design perusing tree-like menus cluttered with nested folders and application links? instead , i attain a shortcut under 'steam' on the institute menu and zilch in the games glower. i thought the point of these os upgrades was to un-clutter.

Anyway. i'm off to put this object through its paces and blow out my half-terabye tough drive installing things on the shelf , simply to see. matters may be looking down for pc gaming , but who may say where we'll be in a year or three? if windows 7 carries wayward at the rate it's been pre-selling , maybe it'll finally ignite publishers from their console-soused stupor to confer this grand platform the help it deserves.

http://it-crater.blogspot.com/2009/10/game-in-life-of-windows-7.html

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