Windows 7: What's in it for me?
Windows 7 has been out for a couple of weeks and, by now, you would already be bored by all the hype surrounding the new operating system. If you are buying a new machine, then choosing one with Windows 7 is a no-brainer. But for those who are still stuck in the Vista/XP era, things start getting a little gray. Should you fork out a few hundred dollars to upgrade your old PC or Netbook, or stick with what already works? With almost everyone using digital cameras and camcorders nowadays, not counting music and movie downloads, most would have gigabytes of multimedia files stored on their main PC. This makes synchronizing data across multiple machines difficult, if not downright impossible. Windows 7's HomeGroup feature makes networking desktops and laptops a breeze and even allows for remote access via the Internet. Hence, one need only store a single copy of the file on the main PC for access on other portables. Reason 2: Blu-ray Disc write Support Due to royalty reasons Windows 7 will not include a Blu-ray codec natively in its Windows Media Player, but that doesn't mean Microsoft is ignoring Sony's high-definition format entirely. Besides CD and DVD, the latest operating system allows writing directly to Blu-ray discs. This means users can now store up to 50GB of data on the optical format for backups. Reason 3: Multitouch support and touch pack Though tablet PCs have never really taken off, Microsoft believes the touch interface is the next big thing for PCs. In fact, we have already seen LCD monitors and conventional laptops with touch-sensitive panels. Windows 7 is not only multitouch-ready (depending on hardware), the Microsoft Touch Pack includes applications such as Microsoft Surface Globe, Microsoft Surface Collage, Microsoft Surface Lagoon, Microsoft Blackboard, Microsoft Rebound and Microsoft Garden Pond that showcase how touch has changed the way one interfaces with the computer. Reason 4: DirectX 11 for games This one's for the gamers. Windows 7 comes with DirectX 11 support which includes new features such as multithreaded rendering, advanced rasterizer and Shader Model 5.0. Granted only a handful of graphics cards and a few gaming titles support the new DirectX version at this time, this is expected to change in the near future. Reason 5: BitLocker To Go for external drives With external storage and USB flash drives becoming common peripherals, security is a major concern. Most users understand the need to lock down their PCs but fail to do the same to their portable storage devices. As such, there is a real security risk in carrying important data around on external disks. Windows 7 has extended the BitLocker feature from Vista to include BitLocker To Go that adds encryption and password security to USB storage. Tags: Microsoft Surface, DirectX, HomeGroup, Microsoft Windows 7, BitLocker
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