Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP are the last 3 operating systems from Microsoft. What do they do? Which one is the best?
What Do They do?
The operating system of the computer is the software that actually operates the computer, at its most basic there was DOS you can still see this interface if you open a command prompt in windows. Just click on “Run” and type CMD and press return. This black screen and the little prompt was all you got, you could then type the name of the program you wanted to run. Then Microsoft releases the first version of Windows, this gave you the graphical interface and allowed you to use the mouse to start commands and programs. Then we fast forward to now and you have Windows 7. Often people mix up Windows with Office, Windows does not include Word, Excel, Outlook or PowerPoint these applications are part of the Office Suite and are paid for separately although there are Free and online cut-down versions available and this will be the subject of another Computer Chat. The Windows operating system does include a browser (Internet Explorer) and simple editing and word processing (Notepad and Wordpad) although the newest Windows 7 no longer includes an email program (Outlook Express). There are though a number of free email programs available including Windows Live mail.
Which One Is Best?
This is a “horses for courses” type question. Microsoft Operating Systems (OS) are specifically designed for certain hardware. The OS that came with your hardware will be fine to do what you want. The most important thing is to get the correct OS for what you want. MS release certain versions for certain types of user this basically divides into business and home. You can use Home for business but it does have some limitations, specifically if you want to use a Windows based server (IE Windows Small Business Server) you cannot use any of the centralised administration features, but you can just treat it as just another PC on the network.
There are other differences and I will go into more detail on the different versions in a future Computer Chat. As a rule of thumb home users should use Home Premium and business users should use Business sounds obvious but it amazes me how often what you would think of as a business laptop or PC comes with only Home Premium, so you do need to check. The other decision you need to make with Windows 7 is 32 or 64bit? The answer is that basically 64bit is the future, nearly all current 32 bit applications will work on 64 bit windows but the amount of memory you can have in a 64bit version is much greater. Any 64bit applications will work faster, Office 2010 can be installed as a 64bit application. I will add one caveat before you go down the Windows 7 road (32 or 64 bit) it is a good idea to check your printer to make sure there are:
a) Windows 7 drivers for it as windows XP drivers will not work.
b) 64bit drivers are available.
If you have a topic you would like me to cover, please let me know.
Mick Maidens is the Owner of Kent PCs for Computer Repairs in Challock (Nr Ashford).
Email: info@kentpcs.co.uk Phone: 01233 740306