Windows 7 (32-bit) Has The Green Light

Congradulations to Microsoft for finally releasing an operating system that can compete with Apple.

I am a veteran Mac user of 15 years and after previewing the Windows 7 Release Candidate in Parallels; I made the decision to re-partition my internal Hard Drive (20GB HFS and 200GB NTFS). I have not booted up in the Apple OS since installing Windows 7.

If you are a fan of the sleak and sexy Apple GUI; Windows 7 is as close as you will ever get, and the potential for the final release will give the Mac OS 'a run for it's money'.

I have been testing Windows 7 for about a month now, and it appears to be nothing more than a patched version of VISTA with more tweaks.

To explain Windows 7 in a nutshell, it's the ultimate VISTA patch; fixing almost every problem I've had with the Windows Operating System.

If you are looking to install the Release Candidate; the 64-bit version will run lightning fast on any Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

However, there is a bit of an issue with the drivers (as many 3rd party developers have not yet made the change to 64-bit).

The 32-bit version runs all the XP/VISTA software and drivers in an extremely powerful backward-compatability mode.

To the average user (this excludes gamers) there is no difference in the speed between 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

My recommendation is to stay on the 32-bit unless you know for sure that all your hardware is supported in 64-bit (the Apple iSight is not).

This new system is about 95% 'far-from-perfect'. Microsoft have again made the decision to implement an annoying Taskbar with these really stupid 'orange flashing lights', and the feature that allows programs to grab the attention of the Taskbar (even when it is hidden); and still not offering the end user with a customisable option to disable the hook.

My recommendation is to purchase the following programs:

1. Macdrive (www.mediafour.com), you must have this to Read/Write HFS drives; its not very expensive, so just buy it, don't be a reject and download some torrent!

We want these 3rd party software developers to survive so that they can fill in all the gaps left by Apple and Microsoft.

If you have any problems setting this up in Windows 7; Mediafour will not support you, but I will, so email me (xpress.yrself@hotmail.com).

At this stage, the only version of Macdrive that works is 7.2.5 and you must also download and install a free 3rd-party application Ext2Fsd (just google it, there are plenty of links).

This add-on utility maps the HFS partition to a designated drive letter each time you boot up the computer; something is weird in the code.

Macdrive is working properly, it just won't mount the drives (so it needs this little push until Mediafour releases a Windows 7 version).

2. If you are fed up, like I am, with the default Windows Taskbar, then the other program you will want to purchase is ObjectDock.

This extremely powerful application breaks the Taskbar-hook, so there are no more flashing lights, and it remains hidden. www.objectdock.com.