Windows Vista is a thoroughly competent personal computer operating system, and that turned out to be its problem.
Launched with the slogan “the wow starts now” the OS contained almost nothing to immediately delight its users. That somehow felt wrong given Microsoft’s insistence that it is the most dynamic and innovative technology company on the planet, spends oodles of time listening to what its customers want and spends colossal sums on research and development to catapult us all into the future.
It felt wronger still when Vista’s most visible features were a jazzed up ALT-TAB that only worked with an expensive graphics card and a security system that did the job but was so inelegant that it seemed designed to annoy and confuse users.
Which brings us to Windows 7, which was demonstrated to TechTarget ANZ yesterday by Microsoft.
Microsoft started by emphasising its efforts to ensure that popular independent software vendors’ products work with Windows 7 more or less on the day of the OS’ October 22 launch. The company is also working to ensure that drivers-a-plenty reach the market before launch, so that whatever obscure peripherals you rely on are ready to go.
The company has given itself a goal of achieving 98% compatibility for 100% of customers. SearchCIO ANZ has long felt that the efforts required to achieve this must be galling to Microsoft, which surely never asked for the role of shepherding thousands of other companies in this way yet now finds itself having to do so in order to create a good user experience. We came away from the briefing feeling that Microsoft is now happily resigned to the enormity of the task it has made for itself.
Another topic to receive a lot of emphasis at the briefing were numerous small tweaks to the user interface that probably will enhance knowledge workers' productivity. There are more glossy graphics, many redesigned to make the UI touchscreen-friendly.
These improvements have a shallow learning curve, but surely represent incremental rather than important innovations for business.
A more welcome feature will be the fact that the OS now loads faster, as it no longer defaults to starting every process that could conceivably be needed during a computing day. For example, the background processes needed to operate a Bluetooth device now load only when the device is connected to a PC, saving RAM and processor cycles. Other memory tricks mean dormant apps or Windows also use less RAM and CPU cycles, two welcome innovations that may make it possible for business to buy cheaper PCs or make do with older machines.
Microsoft believes three features are of special value to business.
One is data encryption system BitLocker, which has been overhauled and can now protect media on removable devices so that stray USB drives do not turn into data loss nightmares.
A second is the 'AppLocker' feature that prevents the installation and/or operation of desktop applications to stop end-users messing up perfectly good standard operating environments (SOEs) or compromising security with unwanted applications
A new enterprise search feature is the third and turns Windows Explorer into a client for federated search across the desktop, applications, unstructured data and the Internet.
All three features appear effective, but we could not shake the feeling that while Windows clients and servers have both had respectable backup utilities for ages, they are hardly ever used in anger because third party tools do a more comprehensive job. BitLocker therefore seems unlikely to challenge enterprise data loss management products and AppLocker appears an adjunct to single sign-on and SOE. Enterprise search, meanwhile, lacks connectivity to the kind of content/knowledge/document management applications that businesses actually use to store unstructured data, with the exception of Microsoft’s own SharePoint. Needless to say, this reduces its effectiveness.
It is therefore questionable whether these three features will make a big difference to businesses with large PC fleets and the resources to acquire and operate dedicated tools, as we suspect such organisations need more comprehensive products than those built into Windows 7.
Where the OS may shine is its improved connectivity tools. Microsoft demonstrated features that see a PC automatically alter its security stance depending on the kind of network to which it connects. Improved VPN tools and the simpler connections the offer will be welcome for remote workers. Windows' notorious WLAN connection tool also seems to have had a welcome makeover. Another new feature reduces the chattiness of sessions linking Windows 7 to Windows Server 2008 R2. Microsoft says doing so removes the need for WAN optimisation and/or WAFS and therefore reduces IT complexity. It's hard not to like that!
The ability to operate Windows XP in a virtual machine that is transparent to users will also be a hit, as it means older applications need not be remediated to operate in Windows 7. And improved virtual desktop features will be winners for those who prefer this mode of computing.
Overall, there’s a lot to like about Windows 7. It’s not in any way startling, diluting (self-created?) notions that Microsoft can – or should – upgrade the experience of using a computer along with the upgrade to its operating systems.
Even so, it is also hard to see business stampeding towards the operating system as a must-have upgrade because we cannot see that it will dramatically improve end-user productivity. IT professionals will enjoy many of the product’s new features, but as these are best-accessed in concert with Windows Server 2008 R2 we expect that new desktops will be deployed as part of larger projects.