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Windows 7 Meets PC Makers

With the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) barely over, Microsoft conference organizers have already moved onto WinHEC, the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference. PDC was all about Windows 7. Guess what? So is WinHEC!

Most know that one of Vista's biggest bugaboos is hardware incompatibility. It's no surprise, then, that hardware compatibility was Topic No. 1 at WinHEC, where Windows execs touted a new approach to integrating and loading all those device drivers.

Most also know that one of Vista's biggest bugaboos is performance -- at least, the lack thereof on lower-end hardware. For Windows 7, Microsoft is using parallel techniques to speed hardware and is changing the way applications load. Instead of loading and remaining in memory, applications will be loaded just when needed.

Finally, most know that one of Vista's biggest bugaboos is the eternity it can take to shut down the machine. Windows 7 should be orders of magnitude faster to turn off -- in part, I'd guess, because fewer items remain active in memory.

Will Windows 7 compete more with Vista or XP? And does XP SP2 satisfy your computing needs? Send me your thoughts at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on November 06, 2008


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