Both outside and inside Microsoft, the hype of Windows 7 is ever growing. Not only is Windows 7 more visually appealing, stable, more power efficient and performing, it delivers a whole host of great capability for business users.
However, let's not forget what started this all, Windows Vista. Yes, Vista had it's share of problems when it was first released back in February 2007, however those days are behind it, particularly with the delivery of service packs one and two, and Windows 7 expands on many of the capabilities pioneered in Vista.
For example, the enhanced driver model. Traditionally (XP and previous), drivers were stored in the kernel, which meant if they had a bug or became unstable, the whole system would crash (i.e. a BSOD). Now, as often as possible, drivers are now rarely stored in kernel mode, which ultimately means better stability, and fewer (if any) BSODs. If a driver fails in Vista (and 7), you'll get a message stating that the application has crashed, rather than the whole system going down.
And let's not forget the new WIM format. WIM is a hardware-agnostic, file-based image format, meaning that you need only one image to address many different hardware configurations. The WIM image format also lets you store multiple images within one actual file. For example, Microsoft can ship multiple SKUs in one WIM image file. You store images with and without core applications in a single image file. Also, you can mark one of the images as bootable, allowing you to start a computer from a disk image contained in a WIM file. WIM also has a number of other advantages:
- The WIM image format enables compression and single instancing, thus reducing the size of image files significantly. Single instancing is a technique that allows you to store two or more copies of a file for the space cost of one copy. For example, if images 1, 2, and 3 all contain file A, single-instancing stores a single copy of the file A and points images 1, 2, and 3 to that copy.
- The WIM image format allows you to service an image offline. You can add or delete certain operating system components, patches, and drivers without creating a new image. Rather than spending a few hours updating an image, which you do now with Microsoft Windows XP, for example, you can update an image in minutes. For example, to add a patch to a Windows XP image, you must boot the master image, add the patch, and then prepare the image again. With Windows Vista, you can simply service the image offline.
- The WIM image format lets you install a disk image on partitions of any size, unlike sector-based image formats that require you to deploy a disk image to a partition that's the same size or larger than the source disk.
- Windows Vista provides an API for the WIM image format called WIMGAPI that developers can use to work with WIM image files.
- The WIM image format allows for non-destructive deployment. This means that you can leave data on the volume to which you apply the image because the application of the image does not erase the disk's existing contents.
From a security perspective, Vista introduced a whole host of new capability from the core upwards to make it our most secure (released) OS to date. Look at the enhanced security model, BitLocker et al. Take a look at the report on vulnerabilities between XP and Vista and see the improvements.
And of course, Vista offers great manageability, allowing IT admins to be in more control of their environment then ever before, with loads more group policy settings to control power, accessibility etc.
Of course, Windows 7 builds upon everything in the above, but let’s not lose sight of the other improvements we’ve already made to get there!
