A new version of the Windows operating system always makes users, and especially musicians, a bit skeptical about the upgrade. There have been several bad experiences in the past, and in some cases most users would even postpone the upgrade to a new version, i.e. Windows Vista, until an improved one would show up. The 7th version is here and the rumors about it, make the upgrade look tempting. Let’s see if the rumors can turn out to be true!
Step 1: Installation
It seems like Microsoft has made a huge progress in making the installation procedure as compact and rapid as possible. All a user has to declare is the language and the regional settings and, after just a few restarts, the operating system is set up within 20 minutes! Nevertheless, the advanced users will feel very unhappy with the lack of option to select parts of the software to be installed. Perhaps an ‘advanced setup’ feature would be more convenient.
Step 2: Booting up for the first time
For those who upgrade from Windows Vista, the new interface experience will not be as dramatic as for those who replace Windows XP. ‘Aero Peek’ will surely get most of the users excited, while the new taskbar will provide an aroma of different platforms – Mac OS X and KDE. The notification system and the user account control (UAC) seem to be a lot more quiet than the ones of Windows Vista. The brand new ‘action centre’, which replaces the ’security centre’ of Windows XP, will be in charge for announcing critical news about the operating system.
Step 3: Setting up the hardware
In most cases, Windows itself will recognize and install the appropriate drivers for each part of the hardware – no need for frustrating searches over the Internet or for CDs that came with your hardware. Most motherboard parts are properly installed with the included drivers database. For anything else, the ‘windows update’ will get the job done for you. You only have to separately install drivers for devices like external audio interfaces. In the case of Firewire audio interfaces, be extra cautious with the driver installed for the IEEE 1394 chipset. In my case, it had to be replaced with the generic ‘1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)’ driver to get my TC Konnekt 8 up and running, smoothly. A blue screen might appear when changing the driver – nothing to worry about. Everything will be normal, afterwards. Needless to say, the ASIO4ALL driver is, still, a neat solution for seamless workflow on audio and MIDI operations.
Step 4: Recommended Software
It would be useful to add some utilities to your software arsenal:
- CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com), to clean the cache memory appropriately.
- Defraggler (http://www.defraggler.com), to defrag your hard disk drives efficiently.
- RevoUninstaller (http://www.revouninstaller.com), to uninstall applications radically.
If you run Defraggler, you ‘ll be happy to see that just after the installation there’s no urge for a defrag, as in previous versions of Windows.