Windows 7, which has been out on the store shelves for about six weeks, seems to be getting good reviews from users who have installed it and use it regularly. PC World just released the results of a survey it conducted. The survey questioned Windows 7 users about their overall experiences with Windows 7 to see if the OS really lived up to the pre-release billing it received. Aside from missing drivers for some hardware and other similar glitches, users rated Windows 7 a relative hit.

Windows 7 Transition Has Been Relatively Smooth

According to the survey, more than 8 out of 10 respondents performed a clean installation, with just slightly fewer than 2 out of 10 installing the OS over a previous installation of Vista. More than 8 out of 10 users reported that their installation went off without a hitch worth noting and an additional 13% said the installation process went “fairly well.”

Roughly translated, 97% of Windows 7 users installed their OS upgrade with few or no problems. (PC World had more than 550 respondents to their survey.) That’s a major improvement over the results of a similar survey PC World conducted when Microsoft introduced Windows XP to the marketplace. In that survey, about half of all respondents reported serious difficulty when installing Windows XP.

In terms of performance, about 6% of PC World’s users rated Windows 7’s performance as poor, and 86% reported that they definitely would not go back to their old operating system. In all, that’s a pretty rosy evaluation of Windows 7. The operating system still suffers to some extent from drivers that are either not forthcoming from the vendor or are late to the party.

In some cases, manufacturers have opted not to support certain products in their line and that’s causing some grief for users. Many users report having to search for compatible drivers that will work with currently unsupported hardware. For those users, a driver management product like Driver Detective can be of invaluable assistance. Driver Detective will not only search for the correct driver for your hardware, it will also download and install the drivers for you. Each driver is kept up-to-date and should anything unfortunate happen to the driver software, Driver Detective will automatically uninstall the corrupted driver and reinstall a new one! Few things are easier to work with than Driver Detective.

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With the Big Day just days away, expect to see a plethora of announcements from Windows hardware manufacturers about the availability of drivers for Windows 7. The release date is next Thursday, and Microsoft has put hardware manufacturers on notice that it expects working drivers to be available for Windows-compatible hardware when Windows 7 hits the streets.
What’s The Big Deal About Signed Drivers
For some users, the subtlety of having a signed driver might escape them. For Microsoft, producing a signed driver is moving toward the R-word – requirement. Now don’t get me wrong; there is still such a thing as an unsigned driver, but unsigned drivers represent (as far as Microsoft is concerned) a potential hazard that computer users and system administrators alike need to watch out for.

What exactly is a “signed driver?” A signed driver is an assurance that a downloadable driver was produced by what Microsoft terms “a legitimate publisher.” If you’re planning on installing unsigned drivers for Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008, you’ll need to have administrator privileges. This is (presumably) to cut down on the ability of the end user to install – either purposely or inadvertently – potentially rogue drivers that could cause problems for a system.

Also, if you’re loading kernel-mode drivers on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista or Window Server 2008, these require Kernel Mode Code Signing (KMCS) to load.

Any driver that is hoping for the Microsoft “seal of approval” – that is, one that gets the Windows Logo mark – will need to be signed. Microsoft will not approve any unsigned drivers for use with the Windows Logo or Windows 7/Windows Vista-compatible programs.

At some point, these requirements may cause problems for users and/or administrators, but Microsoft’s toughened stance on Windows drivers stems from its less than pleasant experience with the Windows Vista release. Although Vista is about to be replaced with what promises to be a more robust, stable product, there are many hardware manufacturers that never produced a Vista-compatible hardware driver for their products. That situation left many Windows users in the lurch – not being able to upgrade because they would lose the use of critical hardware – or being forced to upgrade hardware for want of a working driver.

Microsoft is determined not to let third-party manufacturers sabotage the release of Windows 7 in the same way, so if nothing else, users should expect stronger driver requirements and a better complement of Windows drivers right out of the box on October 22.

Photo Credit: Microsoft

There are few things worse than a slow computer. Ok, there are many things worse than a slow computer, but working with a slow computer is maddening. If you can work faster than your computer, there’s probably a problem somewhere along the line. Although not the first suspects, Windows driver problems can cause severe performance degradations.

Bad Drivers Can Slow Your Computer Down
There are about a zillion things that can cause a computer to slow down, so troubleshooting a speed issue can be difficult. If you have the patience to locate the problem, you’re one step ahead of the game.

With speed problems, you want to know what the computer’s processor is doing and what the computer’s memory is doing. When these two resources are taxed, you can expect your computer to slow down. Windows comes with a performance monitor that can help you determine how much of your computer’s memory is in use, and how much of the processor is being used.

You can also use the Task Manager in Windows to find out what programs are running and how much of the processor’s capacity each application is consuming. If you have one process that’s taking up 90% of the processor, shut that application down using the Task Manager and see if your problem improves. It’s also a good idea to reboot the computer, particularly if an application has gone “walkabout” on you. Restarting the computer can clear out other problems in the OS or memory that may have caused the application to misbehave in the first place.

Once you restart your computer, look at the Performance Monitor and the Task Manager again. If the problem persists, scan your computer for viruses and malware that could be causing bad performance. Get rid of whatever you find.
You can also check your drivers. A missing, bad or corrupted driver can wreak havoc on your system. It can significantly increase the time it takes for your computer to boot, and it can also cause hardware malfunctions and other system-related problems.

To diagnose driver problems, unload your drivers and reload them manually one at a time. If you find the offender, uninstall it and re-install a fresh copy of the driver. Test your system to see if your speed problems improve. If unloading and reloading all of your drivers manually sounds like a chore, it is. You could also use a driver manager like Driver Detective. This program can automatically spot bad drivers, or drivers that are missing or in need of an update. Using Driver Detective to manage your drivers won’t solve all of your speed problems, but it will eliminate most of your concerns about your Windows drivers.

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As October 22 approaches, many PC users are debating whether to upgrade to Windows 7 or to remain where they’re at. A good portion of those users are currently “at” Windows XP, and are mighty happy, thank you very much. Windows XP was introduced in October of 2001 and struck a chord with Windows users. Its functionality, stability and power are all legendary in the hearts and minds of diehard Windows users. These users are least likely to welcome the opportunity to upgrade to Windows 7. So what’s the road ahead like for Windows XP users?

Windows XP’s Future Is Only Dimly Lit

Microsoft has made no bones about wanting to kill Windows XP. They’ve issued drop-dead dates for the product at least twice, and the latest kill order will take effect about six months after Windows 7 hits the stores. Users can purchase a double-downgrade license to Windows XP when Windows 7 graces the shelves only for that short window. After that, it’s anyone’s guess as to what happens to XP.
Right now, tech support is available for XP only on a per-call basis. The product is no longer available for sale on store shelves and Microsoft’s ability (and desire) to support the product is waning daily. Eventually, despite the outcry from users, Microsoft will pull the plug on support for the OS, effectively cutting XP users adrift.
Manufacturers will move away from XP support – Microsoft will make it hard for device manufacturers to continue supporting an unsupported OS – and users will no longer be able to get driver support for Windows XP. The big complaint about Windows Vista was that it didn’t make nice with Windows Server 2003. The complainers had a point. Vista’s inability to deal with Active Directory made it largely unsuitable for enterprises that had large AD installations.
Microsoft has addressed that with Windows Server 2008, which is scheduled for production release on October 22, alongside Windows 7. Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 go together like hand-in-glove, and enterprise users won’t have a lot of room to complain about what Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 don’t do. That doesn’t mean that Enterprise is dying to upgrade. It’s not. Upgrading is expensive and the Windows Server 2008/Windows 7 approach means that the average enterprise will have to upgrade both its servers and its desktops to get the benefits.
I strongly suspect that most enterprises will find it very painful to stay with Windows XP as time goes on. Fewer software publishers will provide XP-compatible releases, fewer hardware manufacturers will provide XP compatible drivers and as some enterprises upgrade, the laggards will come under incredible pressure to catch up.

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