Windows 7

Windows 7 is the latest Microsoft Windows operating system. It has been available on the retail market since October 22, 2009, not quite three years after the release of Windows Vista.

Technically, there are six versions of Windows 7, but the main three for consumers will be, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate.

The minimum requirements, according to Microsoft, for the 32-bit version of Windows 7 are a 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM (forget it, I say at least 2GB, just like Vista), 16GB of hard drive space, and a DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) 1.0 or higher. For 64-bit systems you will need again a 1 GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 20GB of hard drive space, and a DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher.

Microsoft has a lot riding on the success of Windows 7, especially after the big Vista fiasco. Microsoft really needs a winner here, and early reports indicate that maybe Windows 7 has provided just that. Windows 7 is proving to be much more than just what Vista should have been. For one thing, it won't require the hardware upgrades that turned out to be the death of Vista. Microsoft has made sure to make Windows 7 as compatible as possible.

According to the critics, Windows 7's biggest improvement is that it is much less annoying. Fewer annoying alerts and pop-up balloons, and more user control of them, is a big plus. Fewer non-essential programs, and improved organizing of your desktop, files, and windows are two more major pluses. But frankly, I don't care what the critics and the reviewers think. I want to know what the home users and regular people like me think. So I'm asking, 'What do you think?'

What is your opinion of Windows 7 so far? Share it!