I thought it would be interesting to see everyone's memories and opinions on changes made to Microsoft's flag ship OS over the years!

-Here is mine-

I believe the best enhancement to windows ever would have to be the standardizing of software with easy to use installers and constant updates to ensure a stable machine.



This should be interesting.

Timeline of Microsoft Windows: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microso...ne_of_releases

The ability to turn off internet exploder in windows 7 FTW!!!

Even though Microsoft wont remove security flaws, at least now it lets us turn them off.

I'm satisfied with the evolution of Windows.

The only release of Windows that I was unhappy with was WinME. I've been very happy with every other release including Vista and so far very happy with 7. I even like IE8 - except on the couple of pages that I visit which don't render properly. I just wish IE7 would have come out sooner - can't believe I had to live with busted png support for so long.

I'm one of the few that didn't have problems with WindowsME. I ran it on a 1Ghz Athlon T-Bird with probably 256megs of RAM (maybe 512 but I doubt it), and a GeForce 2MX 32Meg video card. It was very stable for me, guess I just got lucky. (Asus A7V motherboard).

I don't have any real problem with Vista either, I'm still running the same install from about a month after it released.

I have the beta of Windows 7, but I admit I haven't used it all that much. I really don't care for the new task bar, but I think you can change that... It seems quick, but it may not be a fair comparison since it is a brand new install compared to a 2 year old install of Vista.

Yes I agree with SNGX1275 as Windows 7 has not even been released and Vista has about nearly two years or past two years.

But I used Windows 7 and still using and can say even it is a Beta it is a great one, In one phrase, it is Vista but highly ameliorated. The new task bar is nice but that not the thing that make me like it, for a beta it is very stable and fast. Some tests have been done and show how Windows 7 is very nice, even faster than Windows XP. Also we should not forget that Bill Gates mentioned that it would be the better OS Microsoft has ever created in terms of stability and performance.

But better the evolution is going and better people want beautiful OS and easy to use one. So Microsoft try his best to make a beautiful and reliable OS but sometime to make it easy it take more Power(RAM, Processor etc...) thus we see it less stable than other version and then criticize it.

Frankly hang the beauty of the OS just give me screaming performance for the applications I care about. I am sick to death of waiting for large files to be processed bue to OS inefficiencies on 64bit!!
Yeah win gets prettier but give me speed and reliability!!

David

Another thing to be aware of with Windows 7 is that right now everyone that runs it has the "ultimate" edition. Once it goes retail there are going to be several versions again, and if you get too accustomed to having some features you might be discouraged to learn you need to spend $500 or whatever it will cost for the full scaled version.

Yes that's true Windows OS prices has increased and I think that for Windows 7 it will go a bit higher that Vista too. But for a home user a home edition(home premium) will be fine, but i'm sure after sometimes Microsoft will have to reduce the price as if it is too high not too much people will change.

I have the beta, installed it on my toshiba laptop played around for a few minutes and ran the vista recovery disk. It looks cool and everything but it feels more like Vista Service Pack 3 to me.

Hey Windows 7 is Windows Vista but a version of Vista largely more stable, faster, more reliable etc....

The Service Pack 2 of Vista is a little the same but Windows 7 is better. Windows 7 by some test get the results to be better than Windows XP and Vista on performance.

I'm not going to "upgrade" any of my vista computers to 7, when the time comes and I build a computer with 7 out I will happily buy it then. Until then Vista and Mandriva Linux are my favorite flavors.

That's your choice!!!

I am now running Server 2008 Standard 64 bit and LOVIN IT!

Screaming fast performance, awesome stability... windows 7 will wait for me.

Check out this site for server 2008
http://www.win2008workstation.com/

Not that I'm a fan of M$, but this really isn't fair. To engineer software reliably to a point past where you think hackers will ultimately be able to think of a way around security sometime in the future, is well, a pipe dream.
M$ does release their little fixes, and the monthly, "Malicious Software Removal Tool", in some sort of timely manner. So I'm at least a little reassured that they at least have our interests at heart, if not our best interests.

On the other hand, the fact that the corporation is a bully as a whole, and whether we have much effect on what we want Windows to be, is probably worthy of further discussion.

What has improved since XP, is Windows color management, which now probably rivals Apple's "Color Sync". So that to be involved in graphic arts or photography, doesn't require springing for a Power Mac.

The tragic irony here is that aftermarket LCD monitors with MVA or IPS panels are almost extinct. The clamor for ever more "affordable" screens has left us with a bunch of crap, TN, 6 bit panels, which change color and density if you so much as blink. This pretty much negates any gains in the color management strategy of the OS. Just a photographers 2 cents here.

Well technically each build of windows is based off the last build... so really it's just been improvements on improvements... I love PC's, but I wish they could perform as well as apple computers do...

LOL - all I could do was laugh at that last statement. I'm a user/owner of both for a long time and the only people I've met personally who say such things are the zealots. PCs can perform just as well as any Mac I've ever seen - and if you put the same amount of money into them they will most often perform better. The only reason I have my Macs is because of specific software.

You have to admit LNCPapa, the old Macs performed way better than the old IBM PCs with half the Ram too.

But obviously these days they are generally counted as on par with eachother

I'm still on XP at home and at work, and I don't intend to upgrade until I have to for either. That said, If I had to order all new PCs I'd order them with Vista; I just like them all to match, to more easily diagnose problems. I do hope that when the new Windows goes live that Microsoft will make it 64 bit only, to cut down the damn number of drivers people have to write.