What CIOs need to know about Windows 7
December 4, 2009, 12:29pm PST | Length: 00:04:07
This episode of CIO Sanity Savers looks at five different aspects of Windows 7 and the potential impact that they could have on IT.
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Transcript
Jason Hiner: Operating systems have become very utilitarian and are not something that IT leaders prefer to spend much time thinking about. But, Windows 7 is poised to replace Windows XP as the standard OS for businesses, so CIOs need to know what it can do and how it can help them.
I'm Jason Hiner, and this week on CIO Sanity Savers, we'll look at five different aspects of Windows 7 and how they can impact IT in important ways. Stay tuned.
No. 1: Power savings
Arguably the best part of Windows 7 is its power management improvements. Reports have shown that the power tweaks in Windows 7 can result in savings of up to $50 in power per machine per year. For laptops, the power savings can translate in up to a 30% increase in battery life, which could give your road warriors some additional productivity.
No. 2: Application compatibility
One of the biggest headaches of operating system upgrades is dealing with the incompatibilities in drivers and software. This is one of the things that killed Windows Vista. Fortunately, Microsoft has done a better job with Windows 7. Virtually any software or devices that run in Vista will also run in seven. And if you have old software that ran in Windows XP or earlier, there's an XP Compatibility Mode in Windows 7 that runs those older apps in a virtualization layer.
No. 3: Performance
Windows 7 is addition by subtraction. Microsoft has slimmed down the OS to the point that it takes fewer resources to run. In fact, Windows 7 can even run on netbooks, unlike Vista. Microsoft has also taken some programs out of the default installation and made them available as free downloads. This, combined with the fact that Windows 7 takes advantage of the latest CPU and graphics hardware, makes the new OS boot faster and feel generally more responsive than Windows XP machines.
No. 4: User interface
Here's where we come to a double-edged sword. Windows 7 introduces the most radical change to the Taskbar since it was first introduced in Windows 95. It now relies almost exclusively on icons, mouse-overs, and thumbnail previews. Some users will love it, but a lot of others are going to be confused by the changes, the same way they were with the new Ribbon interface in Office 2007.
No. 5: New tools for IT pros
For the IT professionals in your department who will likely be working from Windows 7 machines and managing lots of Windows 7 systems, there are some new tools that they will appreciate, including Problem Steps Recorder, Power Shell version 2, Credential Manager, the Action Center, and more.
To go deeper on this topic, TechRepublic offers a great set of tutorials and tips to help you prepare for Windows 7. I'll provide a link to that material in the blog post for this week's show.
I'm Jason Hiner, and this has been an episode of CIO Sanity Savers. For more, you can find my blog at hiner.techrepublic.com and you find me on Twitter at twitter.com/jasonhiner. Thanks for watching. See you next week.
