Windows7 Evangelist

Windows 7 is scarcely more than a month old. Most of the people who will eventually use it haven’t gotten around to trying it yet; those that have are still settling in. And the Win 7 experience will change rapidly as remaining bugs are squashed, missing drivers arrive, and compatibility glitches are ironed out. Even so, it’s not too early to start gauging what real people think of Windows Vista’s replacement.

So to riff on Ronald Reagan’s famous question from his 1980 debate with Jimmy Carter, Are Windows users better off today than they were a few weeks ago, back in the Vista era? We decided to ask the Technologizer community, a group of tech enthusiasts with a high propensity to acquire new operating systems quickly and push them to their limits. Starting on November 16th, we surveyed our readers (and Twitter followers) about their experiences with Windows 7. Our goal: to do a reality check on the mostly favorable initial reviews of the new OS (as well as our own survey of largely enthusiastic Windows 7 beta testers back in March).

The 550+ Windows 7 early adopters who took our survey mostly echo the positive response that the upgrade has received from professional reviewers, pundits, and users of pre-release editions. A sizable majority say they’re extremely satisfied with the OS and rate it as a clear improvement on both the beloved Windows XP and the widely-panned Windows Vista. Crippling installation problems–the bane of every upgrader’s existence, and always a legitimate reason to postpone switching OSes–were rare.

Our full report follows. But first, some quick facts on the folks who took our survey:

• Prior to using Windows 7, forty-six percent of respondents ran Windows Vista, and thirty-two percent ran Windows XP. Seventeen percent ran Vista and XP about equally, five percent ran an OS other than  Windows, and a whopping 0.7 percent used a version of Windows other than Vista or XP.
• Seventy-three percent upgraded an existing PC to the final version of Windows 7, and eight percent are running it on a PC that came with the OS pre-installed. Fourteen percent are still using a pre-release version, and six percent are running it on a Mac via Boot Camp or a virtualization program.
• Sixty-four percent of respondents rate themselves as expert Windows users; thirty-five percent say they’re intermediate ones. Less than one percent call themselves beginners.
• Sixty-one percent are using Windows 7 entirely or mostly for home/personal use. Twenty-five percent are using it about equally for home/personal and business use. Just fourteen percent are using it entirely or mostly for business use.
• Sixty-one percent are using a 64-bit edition of Windows 7, and thirty-one percent are running a 32-bit version.
• Eighty-two percent did a “clean”  install of the OS from scratch; nineteen percent installed it over Windows Vista.
• Fifty-nine percent say they’ve used Windows 7 extensively, and thirty-six percent say they’ve done so a fair amount. Five percent say they’ve just used it a little so far.

It’s important to note that our goal wasn’t to survey a representative, projectable, normalized sampling of all Windows 7 users. The responses that follow are from members of the Technologizer community who chose to take our survey. Their opinions are their own–but we think they make for interesting reading even if they’re not the last word on how average users will react to Windows 7.

Getting Up and Running

As with all things, first impressions count with operating systems. And if you’ve bought an OS as an upgrade,  the first impressions it makes come in the form of the installation process.

As I’ve written before, there’s no such thing as an operating system upgrade that doesn’t cause headaches for some percentage of the people who install it. In the case of our survey takers who installed Windows 7, however, the number who encountered major hassles was very small–presumably in part because Windows 7 is so similar to Vista under the surface. The fact that the vast majority of respondents performed clean installations rather than installing on top of Vista surely helped, too.

Eighty-four percent say the process went off without meaningful hiccups; thirteen percent say it went fairly well. A total of three percent reported major problems, two-thirds of which were resolvable. Pretty impressive–when PC World surveyed Windows XP users shortly after that OS shipped, half reported installation difficulties.

The fact that respondents’ upgrades tended to go smoothly doesn’t mean that they didn’t encounter any issues with their new operating system. Two problem areas stand out: More than forty percent had to try and resolve driver issues, and more than a third needed to deal with software incompatibilities. Other problems, however, were reported by a much smaller percentage of respondents. For instance, eleven percent reported crashes or blue screens of death. And only six percent said that Windows 7’s performance was poor, which is a relief given that the original version Windows Vista quickly developed a reputation as a poky resource hog.

Are the percentages of users who reported problems impressively low, or unsettlingly high? That’s subject to debate. But here’s something that isn’t: Both Windows XP and Windows Vista also suffer to some degree from all the gotchas that respondents said they encountered in Windows 7.

(In this infographic and those that follow, the scale of 0% to 100% represents the percentage of survey respondents who answered a particular question as indicated by the bars.)

The State of Windows 7 Satisfaction | Technologizer

Beyond Microsoft’s obvious and unsurprising bout of chest beating regarding the success of Windows 7, critical reviews of the American software giant’s latest operating system have been largely positive.

And, adding yet more weight to the platform’s gathering momentum, computer manufacturer Acer has this week openly applauded Windows 7 for helping drive its hardware sales.

According to Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci, the emergence and subsequent spread of Windows 7 should help the company register flat performance for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2009, which, while neither growing nor shrinking when compared to the preceding quarter, equates to a 25 percent year-on-year increase against Q4 of 2008.

Third quarter figures recently posted by Acer revealed a quarterly net profit of $108 million USD, which Reuters reports as a 14 percent jump compared to the same period last year.

“When we saw the features of Windows 7, we already knew that it would be good for demand,” enthused Lanci while speaking before reporters on Thursday.

Acer is not alone in tipping its corporate hat in Microsoft’s general direction, as rival hardware heavyweight Dell also experienced a sales surge directly after the operating system’s launch.

Acer applauds Windows 7 for spurring hardware sales – Software

Microsoft’s missteps with Vista, and attempts at redemption with Windows 7, offers firms valuable lessons in IT, be it in rolling out a new corporate application or delivering millions of copies of a new OS.

Windows 7 has been regarded as a make or break product for Microsoft, with many inside and outside IT left with a bad taste in their mouth from the company’s Vista operating system.

While I have enjoyed my experience with Windows 7 thus far, we certainly do not need yet another review of the software here. Perhaps even more interesting than the new operating system are the lessons a CIO and his or her IT shop can learn investigating Microsoft’s missteps with Vista, and attempts at redemption with Windows 7, as these apply to nearly any organizational effort, be it rolling out a new corporate application or delivering millions of copies of a new operating system.

Lesson 1: Don’t forget the core "experience"
While this may sound like consultant-speak, critical to any application is the experience of using the software. Microsoft touted Vista as having lots of improvements to the user experience, from an enhanced UI to improved ancillary applications. While all this was well and good, merely booting up Vista was a painful drawn-out experience.

No matter how wonderful your interface looks, beginning your interaction with a computer with five minutes of "Please Wait" is difficult to recover from.

Regardless of what application or project you are deploying, determine the handful of key "experience" related metrics. Just as Microsoft focused on boot times with Windows 7, ensure that basic expectations of how users will interact with your system, process or application are met.

While employees at your company likely have far less choice about which applications they use as compared to the average consumer, the "sale" will be a lot easier if initial impressions of the system are positive, and critical business scenarios are intuitive and easy to perform.

Lesson 2: Acknowledge your problems
Arguably it took Microsoft too long to acknowledge the problems with Vista. Many were fixed or mitigated as service packs for Vista were released, and once the release timeframe for Windows 7 was clear, Microsoft openly acknowledged Vista’s flaws, made the case for how Windows 7 would fix them, and moved forward.

Similarly, you are not going to win every battle as CIO, and will likely release an application, system or two that is a turkey. If complaints are legitimate, impact performance and usability of the system, and continue after the initial adjustment period of implementation, acknowledge and attempt to fix or mitigate them.

Avoid the old platitude of "managing expectations" or using management-speak to avoid labeling anything a problem and address the problem head on, detailing how you will attack it.

Lesson 3: Let the users in early and often
While there was much hullaballoo about all the usability testing that was done with Vista, I personally encountered few people that had laid their hands on the operating system before it was released. On the contrary, with Windows 7, even minimally tech-savvy people were downloading the release candidate and running it on all kinds of hardware, providing a massive testing cycle as well as free PR and buzz for the new OS.

With enterprise systems, the sooner you can let "real" users get their hands on a new system the better. Not only will they provide valuable feedback and exercise the system in ways you may never have imagined, they will also keep your IT organization honest since they will provide immediate, honest and trustworthy feedback about what you are working on.

These lessons are simple to understand and conceptually quite obvious. Yet the world’s largest software company clearly forgot these caveats as it released one of its most important and visible products. This example should serve as a model for CIOs to remain vigilant and, like Microsoft, not take their dominant position in the "market" for granted.

Your IT shop is no longer the only game in town, with competition ranging from old threats like outsourcing to the emerging availability of off the shelf applications in "the cloud". Microsoft seems to have redeemed itself with Windows 7; hopefully your IT organization can learn a far less expensive lesson by contrasting the Vista and 7 releases.

Patrick Gray is the founder and president of Prevoyance Group, and author of Breakthrough IT: Supercharging Organizational Value through Technology. Prevoyance Group provides strategy consulting services to Fortune 500 and 1000 companies.

3 Lessons a CIO can learn from Windows 7 : TechGuides : Tech Management : ZDNet Asia

Windows over Snow Leopard or Mac over PCs?
Image credit: Free Republic

Before Mac users get up in arms over my headline, I could have just as easily used, “Best desktop Macs sales ever”. It’s a numbers game all the way around.
Windows 7 News and Tips has recently reported that, “In it’s first month on sale the market share for Windows 7 has surpassed the total market share for OS X…It’s a clear indication that sales of Windows 7 are storming ahead.”
Simultaneously, BetaNews proclaims, “Nearly half the money spent at US retail on desktop PCs goes to Apple.” They go on to state that, “In October, Mac US retail desktop computer revenue share was 47.71…It’s a stunning number, given just how many Windows PC companies combined command so much more market share, while competing for the same revenue share.”
So is it Windows 7 over Snow Leopard? Or Macs over PCs? Business users should understand that one side or the other being the top dog really depends on how you slice and dice the statistics.
Look at my business as an example:

• Copies of Snow Leopard purchased since its launch: four
• Copies of Windows 7 (various versions) bought since its launch: three

It has been said that, "50% of statistics can be made to say anything 90% of the time." With this statement in mind, for my business here’s the most revealing statistic of all:

• Numbers of desktops, laptops, servers and netbooks (any manufacturer) bought since launch of either Snow Leopard or Windows 7: zero

I may be buying applications and Operating Systems, but I am not buying hardware. The economy just doesn’t permit it—at least not right now.
Whether my business computing needs are typical or not, I can’t say. What I can say is that I take these kinds of news items with a healthy grain of salt. Furthermore, I am somewhat agnostic in my business computing use. True, I prefer Macintosh and OS X for a variety of reasons, but I also use Windows XP, Windows 7 and a number of PCs in my business. Whatever is at hand and whatever suits my fancy at the time seems to work just fine for me.

Windows 7 beats Snow Leopard

This article is excerpted from the book "Microsoft Windows 7 Unleashed" by Paul McFedries, published by SAMS, copyright Pearson Education Inc. all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

There are two essential rules to management. One, the customer is always right; and two, they must be punished for their arrogance.
—Scott Adams

The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) is a system administration program that can act as a host application for a variety of tools. The advantage of MMC is that it displays each tool as a console, a two-pane view that has a tree-like hierarchy in the left pane (this is called the tree pane) and a taskpad in the right pane that shows the contents of each branch (this is called the results pane). This gives each tool a similar interface, which makes it easier to use the tools. You can also customize the console view in a number of ways, create custom taskpad views and save a particular set of tools to reuse later. These tools are called snap-ins because you can "snap them in" (that is, attach them) as nodes to the console root.

This article gives you an overview of the MMC and shows you a few techniques for getting the most out of its often-useful tools.

Reviewing the Windows 7 Snap-Ins

When you work with the MMC interface, what you’re really doing is editing a Microsoft Common Console Document, a .msc file that stores one or more snap-ins, the console view and the taskpad view used by each snap-in branch. You learn how to create custom MSC files in this chapter, but you should know that Windows 7 comes with a large number of predefined MSC snap-ins, and I’ve summarized them in the table below.

Launching the MMC

To get the MMC onscreen, you have two choices:

To start with a blank console, select Start, type mmc, and then press Enter. To start with an existing snap-in, select Start, type the name of the .msc file you want to load (see table), and then press Enter. Next page: Adding a snap-on.

Default Windows 7 Snap-Ins

Snap-In
File
Description

Active X Control
N/A
Launches the Insert ActiveX Control Wizard, which enables you to choose an ActiveX control to display as a node. I haven’t been able to find a good use for this one yet!

Authorization Manager
azman.msc
Used by developers to set permissions on applications.

Certificates
certmgr.msc
Enables you to browse the security certificates on your system.

Component Services
comexp.msc
Enables you to view and work with Component Object Model (COM) services.

Computer Management
compmgmt.msc
Contains a number of snap-ins for managing various aspects of Windows 7. You can examine hidden and visible shared folders, set group policies, access Device Manager, manage hard disks, and much more.

Device Manager
devmgmt.msc
Enables you to add and manage your system hardware.

Disk Management
diskmgmt.msc
Enables you to view and manage all the disk drives on your system.

Event Viewer
eventvwr.msc
Enables you to view the Windows 7 event logs.

Folder
N/A
Enables you to add a folder node to the root to help you organize your nodes.

Group Policy

Object Editor
gpedit.msc
Enables you to work with group policies.

IP Security Monitor
N/A
Enables you to monitor Internet Protocol (IP) security settings.

IP Security Policy Management
N/A
Enables you to create IP Security (IPSec) policies.

Link to Web Address
N/A
Adds a node that displays the contents of a specified web page.

Local Users and Groups
lusrmgr.msc
Enables you to add, modify, and delete user accounts.

NAP Client Configuration
napclcfg.msc
Enables you to configure Network Access Protection (NAP) for a computer.

Performance Monitor
perfmon.msc
Enables you to monitor one or more performance counters. See Chapter 6, "Tuning Windows 7’s Performance."

Print Management
printmanagement.msc
Enables you to view and manage either local printers or network print servers.

Resultant Set of Policy
rsop.msc
Shows the applied group policies for the current user.

Security Configuration and Analysis
N/A
Enables you to open an existing security database, or build a new security database based on a security template you create using the Security Templates snap-in.

Security Templates
N/A
Enables you to create a security template where you enable and configure one or more security-related policies.

Services
services.msc
Enables you to start, stop, enable, and disable services.

Shared Folders
fsmgmt.msc
Enables you to monitor activity on your shared folders.

Task Scheduler
taskschd.msc
Enables you to schedule programs, scripts, and other items to run on a schedule.

TPM Management
tpm.msc
Enables you to configure a work with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) security devices.

Windows Firewall with Advanced Security
wf.msc
Presents an advanced Windows Firewall interface.

WMI Control
wmimgmt.msc
Enables you to configure properties related to Windows Management Instrumentation.

READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE >> How to configure the Windows 7 Microsoft Management Console

With computers as inexpensive as they are these days, it’s not uncommon for one person to have several of them – this is true in my case, at any rate. I have an HTPC that does double duty as a print server, and a test server for Wordpress experiments, but since it’s connected to my TV I can’t use it directly if someone else is watching a show or playing a video game.

Luckily, Microsoft includes some handy tools for computer administrators and hobbyists who can’t always be sitting right in front of the computer they need to work on – it’s called Remote Desktop Connection, and you’re about to learn the basics.

Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) should not be confused with Remote Assistance, another Windows tool that we’ll be covering later, or Virtual Network Computing (VNC) software, some of which is available for Windows and Linux as freeware – VNC also provides the backbone for Apple’s Remote Desktop protocol. RDC is a different, Windows-native technology with its own distinct set of benefits and disadvantages.

First, each Remote Desktop connection requires a host (the computer being connected to) and a client (the computer doing the connecting). Microsoft considers Remote Desktop hosting to be a more business-oriented feature, and as such only Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions can be used to host Remote Desktop sessions. Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate can also host Remote Desktop Connections. Anyone using a Home or Home Premium variant of Windows will need to resort to using the aforementioned VNC software to connect to computers remotely.

This is the most restrictive thing about RDC – nearly any version of Windows, including the Home versions and versions all the way back to Windows 95, can connect to a Remote Desktop-enabled host computer, and Microsoft even offers a version of the client software to Mac users. I frequently use this to support Windows users on my work MacBook.

READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE >> Windows 7 Remote Tools: Remote Desktop Connection | Windows 7 News

A National Security Agency director just bragged to a Senate subcommittee about his agency’s close "cooperation" with Microsoft to, err, "enhance" how Windows 7 guards a user’s privacy. Doesn’t that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

The spooks at the NSA are, of course, notorious for their role monitoring internet activity, and for their use of warantless wiretaps to monitor U.S. phones, often illegally. So computer users could easily be worried to hear that the NSA has "partnerships" with Microsoft, which makes their operating systems; Intel, which makes their wireless chipsets; and McAfee, which makes their antivirus software (so-called!).

From NSA Information Assurance Director Richard Shaeffer’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security:

Working in partnership with Microsoft and elements of the Department of Defense, NSA leveraged our unique expertise and operational knowledge of system threats and vulnerabilities to engance Microsoft’s operating system security guide without constraining the user’s ability to perform their everyday tasks… All this was done in coordination with the product release, not months or years later during the product’s lifecycle.

Shaeffer also talked about his agency’s "trusting relationship" with the private sector, including a "partnership" with Intel and McAffee to promote a security protocol — or should we say, "security" protocol? — from the federal government.

These IT companies all want to do business with the government, so it’s to their advantage to be seen as cooperative in implementing federal protocols in their products. But should consumers distrust these ties? The general consensus among private-sector security experts canvassed by ComputerWorld was, in the words of one, "I can’t imagine NSA and Microsoft would do anything deliberate because the repercussions would be enormous if they got caught."

Right, because if there’s anything that clearly motivates these two massive organizations with virtually guaranteed near-term revenue streams, it’s fear of public shame. This is why we have not seen either entity doing anything embarrassing, recently.

Microsoft Let NSA Spooks ‘Enhance’ Windows 7 – Microsoft – Gawker

A senior Dell executive is bullish about a recovery in PC demand from businesses, saying the Oct. 22 release of Windows 7 sparked a surge in PC sales for the company.

This surge in PC sales led by the release of Windows was preceded by slowdown as customers put off plans to buy new computers. This helps explain why Dell’s third-quarter revenue came in below analysts’ expectations, said Steve Felice, president of Dell’s business unit that’s focused on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), during a conference call with reporters on Friday.

"At the beginning of October, we saw demand decline as customers put off their decision to buy, to wait for Windows 7 to fully launch. As soon as Oct. 22 hit, both our consumer business and our SMB business had a very healthy increase in demand," Felice said.

Prior to the launch of Windows 7, Dell’s direct sales in the Americas were running at about 80 percent of the company’s expectations. However, once Microsoft released the new operating system, sales surged and that figure rose to 110 percent, he said.

"We didn’t just see that increase in the last 10 days of October, we’ve now seen three weeks of November where that demand has been pretty consistently up," Felice said.

"That’s why even though analysts had expected even more revenue, we’re still quite bullish on the recovery that’s happening with the demand cycle in the commercial business and we believe you’ll see that in Q4," he said.

Unlike larger rivals Hewlett-Packard and Acer, which have benefitted from a consumer-led recovery in PC demand, Dell remains heavily dependent on PC sales to large companies and SMBs, even as the company works to diversify the range of products and services that it offers.

"We’re not surprised to see the recovery at Dell come a little later than others might have reported," Felice said, noting Dell’s earlier comments that the second quarter represented the bottom of the downturn and the company would see the beginning of a recovery during the third quarter.

"That’s exactly what we’re seeing and I think you’ll see continued strength in Q4," he said.

Windows 7 Sparked Surge in Business Demand for PCs – PC World