Microsoft Windows 7 Professional [Old Version]

Windows 7 is a great operating system, much more intuitive than windows XP.I own a MacBook Pro and iMac (both intel based) and I run windows with vmware fusion 3 64 bit mode. Windows runs pretty well/ I am satisfied with the performance. However, I am very disappointed with sales/customer relations that Windows offers. If you want to install Windows 7 on multiple computers (YOUR OWN personal desktop and laptop for YOUR OWN individual use) you have to purchase multiple licenses meaning you have to buy the same product again- you should be able to purchase an additional license at a discounted rate.All in all, I only use Windows 7 for one program - AutoDesk Revit Architecture (which runs pretty well using vmware fusion). Once (if) Revit is made available to run natively on a Mac platform I will abandon Windows completely. I like the Mac OS much better than windows, and all the features + programs I use run better on Mac.

New review, after months of use: it is the best version of Windows ever, and I would say is just as good, or better than, Mac OS X. When I first installed it, it did something to the driver of my Gateway laptop's trackpad. I had to install a patch (after hunting everywhere for it, which took several days) and now it works close to perfectly. This is the Windows version Vista was supposed to be. Now Mac fans (of which I am one) can no longer smugly say "It will be just as buggy as the previous Windows", as one of the silly Apple ads said. I am tempted to give it 5 stars, but that would imply perfection, and no OS will ever be that.PREVIOUS REVIEW:I really looked forward to Win 7 after all the positive reviews. Here is my experience so far. The startup and overall performance of my computer, with 4Gb of RAM, a 1.83 GHz Intel core duo CPU and a 64-bit version of Win 7. While working on a Word and Excel doc, the computer spontaneously rebooted after installing new updates (without warning me it was about to reboot, or informing me it was installing updates, it just did it in the background so I had no idea it was doing so). After rebooting and restoring the Word and Excel session I was working on, I discovered, to my horror and frustration, the hyperlinks I had on my Excel doc, links to files on my external hard drive, had been edited to link to non-existing locations on my C: drive. How did this happen?? I spent hours having to re-edit the links on those cells to point to a folder on my external HD.Unbelievable!Also, my Gateway laptop trackpad seems incompatible with Win 7. When I move my finger across the trackpad the scrollbar scrolls down spontaneously, uncontrollably. I had to buy an external wireless mouse to deal with this, although honestly this may be a Gateway issue that they need to address. I've tried updating the trackpad/mouse driver from Device Manager, but I get a message saying I have the latest driver installed. Hopefully Gateway issues a fix, this is a VERY ANNOYING BUG!

When I built a new system a few years ago, I installed the "new and improved" Microsoft OS, Vista. I don't need to tell anyone who did the same how disappointed I was. On three occasions, Vista updates caused total system failure; Yes! Microsoft updates. This required re-installation of the OS, all the apps, and usually some user data, although I save data to disks other than the boot drive, so it was mostly the aggravation, and ~10 hours wasted time.I built another new machine a year ago, using an i7 mother board, and installed 6GB of ram, and Windows 7 Pro 64bit. I have yet to have a system crash, and many of the user niceties promised for Vista are part of Win 7. There were no monetary incentives to go to Win 7 from Vista, save the fact that nobody in their right mind would want to stick with Vista. I guess Microsoft knew that.Several people writing reviews have compared Win 7 to Mac OSX. I see that as ridiculous. Win 7 is based on DOS. OSX is based on freeBSD, a unix OS, created to be a multi-user, multi-tasking OS from time zero. Apple has the advantage of running on hardware designed by Apple, and in my experience, is MUCH more stable than any Windows incarnation. I have 4 Apples; Mac-mini, Mac-book Pro., Mac-pro-G5, and an iMac i7. I have never experienced a system crash on any of them, and they are left on/sleeping 24/7. The iMac i7 is 2-3 times faster than my Win 7, i7, machine, even though the Win 7 machine is over-clocked CPU-20%, Memory-15%.In my opinion, Win 7 is a vast improvement over Vista and some improvement over XP, and since I run several engineering programs requiring a Microsoft OS, I'm really happy that, on my hardware, it has been stable.I'm still looking for the guy/gal who says "I'm a PC, and Vista was my idea... grrr!

Having suffered through Vista, and not wanting a chance of even a vestige of that vile product on my system, I first installed a new hard drive! Then, booted to the Windows 7 install disk. Piece of cake!! I installed the 32 bit version. All of the drivers were there. The install took maybe an hour and a half. Perfect. Love Windows 7!!! If you have been using Vista, Win 7 is the equivalent of a drowning man surfacing for air. I kid you not. Get Windows 7 today!!Also, I attempted to order from CDW and got a couple of knuckleheads on the phone with them who knew absolutely nothing about the product. Was trying to decide on a version, etc. So, just did my own reseach on the Microsoft site and ordered from Amazon, a reliable source.Have since upgraded to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99 off Microsoft website. And I thought Win 7 install was a piece of cake! Like the new interface a lot; system actually seems to be running faster. Really like the way photographs are displayed--without the clumsy viewer from previous versions. Get Win 8 today!!