Microsoft Windows 7

Almost three years after Windows Vista and eight years after Windows XP was first released Windows 7 is finally here. That some reviews are saying Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. Do we finally have a commendable successor to XP? The short answer is... we think so.

Unlike Vista, which introduced a lot of new features, Windows 7 is intended to be a more focused, incremental upgrade to the Windows operating system range. One of the goals was to fully compatible with applications and hardware with which Windows Vista is previously compatible, while at the same time resolve many issues that have dogged Windows Vista over the years and caused headaches for Microsoft.

Performance appears to be improved with Windows 7, particularly if you are running it on a multi-core CPU which most PCs are there days. But very importantly the stability, which was questionable in some circumstances under Windows Vista causing crashes and the dreaded blue-screens of death (BSoDs), appears to be noticeably improved.

Is this the best version of Windows yet? Time will be the true judge, but here we're impressed with what we've seen so far and have started to upgrade some of our Windows Vista PCs to Windows 7.