Windows 7 - Vista Proper
posted Saturday Oct 24, 2009 by Scott Ertz
This week was the big week for Microsoft, with the launch of Windows 7, the much anticipated successor for Windows Vista - the most under appreciated member of the Windows family. Win7 adds some new performance and visual improvements that Vista didn't offer. There are some pretty major feature enhancements, however, and they are what make Windows 7 so exciting.
The gaming enhancement that was made is in DirectX. Windows 7 natively supports DirectX 11 without any downloads or updates. In fairness, Vista will also support it after Service Pack 3 is released. Currently, few games run on DX11, but Windows 7 isn't really about looking at now, it is about being ready for the future.
The other great feature is called XP Mode, and is only available on Professional and above. If you have an older application that will not run on Vista or 7, then XP Mode can be enabled. Essentially, a fully working version of XP will boot up in a virtual machine and launch the application, giving you access to all of your needs from old apps.
Are you planning on switching to Windows 7? Have you been running the RC or Beta? Tell us what you think in the comments section.
