How Dixons is (under)selling Windows 7

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

If you’ve been into a Dixons Group shop lately (i.e. PC World or Currys Digital), you’ll have seen the place festooned with posters and displays declaring that the arrival of Windows 7 means it’s “time for a new PC”.

From a marketing point of view, it’s an obvious message for Dixons to be pushing. But in reality, as we all know, one of the great merits of Windows 7 is that most of us don’t need a new PC to run it. I use it happily on an old Advent laptop with 1GB of RAM and a Pentium Dual-Core processor; David Bayon runs it on his Atom-powered Samsung NC10 netbook. If there was ever an edition of Windows that didn’t mean “time for a new PC”, this is it.

With Microsoft getting so much right in Windows 7, it’s a disappointment to see it permitting (perhaps even supporting) such a misleading marketing slogan. And I think it’s a mistake. In the coming years Windows is going to be increasingly threatened from multiple directions — by a buoyant Apple, by emergent operating systems such as Chrome OS and by cloud-based mobile computing. Surely as the battle grows Microsoft will want its best foot forward, in the shape of a satisfied user base. The last thing it will want is to be weighed down by still-lingering resentments over Vista.

Yet this slogan seems designed to deliver precisely that outcome. Dissatisfied customers won’t appreciate being told they must write off their old PC to escape their unsatisfactory OS. Many who can’t afford a new PC will stick with Vista and remain disgruntled with it. And those who know the truth – that any machine that runs Vista will run Windows 7 better – will resent Microsoft’s apparent collusion in an attempt to get them to waste money on an unnecessary new PC.

Windows 7 review: why PC Pro won’t be rushing its verdict

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

I’ve already received a couple of emails from readers asking why PC Pro hasn’t produced a Windows 7 review now that the RTM is officially out – and the reason is simple. We don’t want to rush to a verdict we may later regret.

To a certain extent, I think this happened with Windows Vista. Back in the hazy days of late 2006, early 2007 we nailed our colours to the mast and the operating system earned a five-star review. If I’m honest, I think we were too forgiving of its foibles, as we were so used to the OS being a beta. (more…)

Eyes down for Windows 7 upgrade bingo

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

Now that Microsoft’s done away with those silly E versions and decided to offer upgrade versions of Windows 7 in the UK, you might be wondering what versions of Windows can and can’t be upgraded.

Fortunately, Microsoft has produced a chart to show you what’s possible (click to enlarge):

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Has SideShow been sidelined in Windows 7?

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

We’ve downloaded an [cough] unofficial copy of the Windows 7 Release Candidate (Build 7100) here at PC Pro Towers. When compared to the beta build (7000) it appears to be the world’s most difficult “spot the difference” competition, but there are one or two subtle changes.

One notable omission in 7100 is Windows SideShow. It’s completely disappeared from the Control Panel and doesn’t appear when you perform a text search in Windows 7’s magnificent Start bar search. However, as the screenshot below proves, it was definitely there in Build 7000.

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The spec creeps slowly upwards

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

It took mere hours for my baseline Vostro PC to be bettered, thanks in no small part to blog reader Tom A pointing me in the direction of Ebuyer’s pre-built PC section. There, for a penny-perfect £249.99 inc VAT and delivery, sat the Zoostorm Versatile Premium PC which now tops my shortlist.

The specs improve on the Vostro: (more…)

Vostro does the business. But where next?

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Turns out yesterday’s fruitless visit to Dell wasn’t quite complete – I had only considered Dell’s consumer offerings. A quick jump to the business section took me straight to Dell’s cheapest Vostro PC, which at £211.60 including VAT and delivery is well within my price limit. So what else can I squeeze into the remaining £38.40?

It’s built around a Pentium Dual-Core E2200, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard disk and integrated graphics. My choices for affordable upgrades are:

• Vista Home Premium – add £20+VAT
• 2GB RAM – add £10+VAT
• from DVD-ROM to DVD-RW drive – add £20+VAT

As useful as it would be, I draw the line at paying more than £20 to upgrade to a DVD writer, so with the first two upgrades selected my new baseline system comes to £246.10 inc VAT and delivery.

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Windows 7: the Vista we always wanted?

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Like most of my colleagues, I’m feeling pretty upbeat about the new Windows 7 beta. I think almost every one of its new features and tweaks is a step in the right direction, and it’s already replaced Vista on my PC.

But what I find particularly encouraging is not just the code itself, but what it reveals about how Microsoft’s mood and methods have changed since the Vista launch.

For a start, Windows 7 shows every sign of arriving on time, or even early. That alone bespeaks a major improvement in Microsoft’s internal processes. Remember that Vista was originally intended for release in 2003, with a number of headline features that never, in the end, saw the light of day. Its successor, by contrast, is already so complete, and so stable, that many of us here at PC Pro are happily using it as our primary work OS. (more…)

British system builders feeling the squeeze

Friday, December 12th, 2008

The impact of the credit crunch has been widespread and well-publicised: Woolworths has seen more customers through its doors in the past week than it had in the past year thanks to a price-busting closing down sale, and banks are either collapsing or being nationalised at a fearsome rate.

As always, though, an economic downturn has a profound effect at every level of society – even if they don’t make the headlines. The IT industry, for instance, is feeling the haunting presence of the current crisis. In particular, system builders are feeling the squeeze as component prices rocket – and we’ve asked several of them for their thoughts on the future and how they’re planning to cope.

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Follow-up: Benchmarking Windows 7

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

Well, my last blog post certainly kicked up a storm. I’m glad so many people found it stimulating: I’m always interested to hear your responses.

But a few of you have raised good questions about the tests I used to compare performance between XP, Vista and Windows 7. So let me explain them in a bit more detail. (more…)

Windows 7: faster or just smarter?

Monday, November 10th, 2008

If you’ve been following the PC Pro blogs, you’ll know that we recently received a preview build of Windows 7. Useful work has pretty much ground to a halt as we’ve all set about nuking our Vista installations and upgrading our work PCs to this unsupported pre-alpha OS.

And the net effect? Surprisingly little. At this stage of development, over a year from release, Windows 7 looks almost identical to Vista. There are some welcome new features, as already noted by our esteemed editor and deputy editor (see their blog posts here and here); but the high profile changes (such as the snazzy new taskbar that Barry Collins saw in California the other week) are yet to be plumbed in. (more…)