Haven't yet switched to Windows 7?

Windows 7 has a different feel from either Vista or XP. In most cases, you won't decide whether it's better for you until you get used to it. But the differences are generally easy to figure out even without an expert to guide you.

Windows 7 is supposedly less prone to outside attacks. You can't prove that by me, though, because I never encountered a successful outside attack on Vista or XP -- except when that guest of my daughter used our home computer without our permission.

What I like about Windows 7:

Running with two monitors is a breeze; much easier than any previous Windows version. Simply press <Windows key>+p, to display a visual menu. Then choose which monitor(s) to make active and what to show.

If you're not lucky enough to have two monitors on your desktop, you'll still like the way Windows 7 allows you to easily adjust your screen views. You can drag a window to the side margin of your monitor, where it will automatically resize to take up one-half of the screen. And scrolling to the bottom right corner will show you where hidden windows are hiding.

You'll need to get used to the reconfigured task bar, the bar at the bottom of your screen that tells you which windows are open. In Windows 7, the text boxes for each open window have been replaced with large icons and better visual cues about your open applications. You can permanently pin your favorite applications to your task bar.

That means you'll need to learn to distinguish between open windows and pinned applications, which is really most important when you're getting ready to shut down or log off. (Hint: Open applications have sculpted edges.) Otherwise you'll inadvertently open applications when you're desperately trying to leave work at night. The most exciting part of the task bar is where it shows you thumbnail images of your open windows so you can choose the right one to view.

I also like the way the Start Menu has been reorganized. Instead of showing a single list of recently opened files, it shows them as fly-out menus with the proper applications so you can find the right file more quickly.

Similarly, Windows Explorer in Windows 7 allows you to organize your folders into libraries, which are collections of folders that might not necessarily be together on the disk.

Best yet, the voice recognition is quite accurate; and if you have a Tablet PC, the handwriting tools are easier to use than ever. It might finally be time you used these functions.

As usual, there are also things I don't like:

I found it difficult to install -- harder than any other Windows product, although my associates told me that they didn't run into the same problems that I found. Of course, I backed up first (always important) -- once as a full backup with Acronis True Image, and once of my files only, with clickFree, because I'm compulsive about backup redundancy before major upgrades. Then it still took me eight hours after all the restarts and reconfigurations.

I also have found incompatibility issues with Office 2007 (of all products!). Although I haven't run speed tests, it doesn't seem any faster. Microsoft always promises faster performance with new releases; and I rarely see it.

If your computer can accommodate 4 Gbytes or more of memory and is 64-bit compatible, you're better off with the 64-bit edition (instead of 32-bit), as it will reliably take advantage of the larger memory, giving you a faster, more stable system. You can download a compatibility checker at Microsoft.com.

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