I’ve just installed Windows 7 on my sever and have to jump on the bandwagon of critics applauding the upgrade from Vista. Although I tend to be one of the few who enjoyed some the advances made with Vista, Windows 7 has certainly added the spit and polish it required. I only encountered one driver problem, and that was the lack of support for my HP printer. However that was easily overcome with a driver for another printer.
One problem I noticed with Windows Vista, and still seems to have been held over into windows 7 is the inconsistent file transfer speed to external devices. I’ve noticed than when transferring large amounts of data to MP3 players or external hard drives I can get dramatically varying rates of transfer. It could be related to the priority assigned to the process, but if I navigate away from the folders involved in the transfer, both on the device and on the machine, and not run any other program or start any process, I watched my transfer rate drop form 19MB/s down to 9MB/s. I stopped the transfer, and started it again and then had reached a rate of 33MB/s before dropping to an average of 23MB/s. Obviously there are a number of variables that impact the rate, but I’ve encountered this issue on both Vista and Win7. Even when transferring to an MP3 player I see dramatically different rates that defy logic. It reminds of the days when I used to live in Lagos, Nigeria. When calling back to the U.K. we would sometimes get a bad connection and have to hang up and dial again to see if it cleared up. I’ll have dig into this in more detail to try and pinpoint where the congestion is occurring, but it can be a little annoying. Especially during those times when you are in a rush to get out the door, and want to quickly transfer something over to a portable device.
Nevertheless, the interface for Windows 7 is a definite improvement. I think I like the libraries idea,and the potential for federated search within the enterprise, but simple changes like the interface to disconnect and connect VPN connections from the network connection icon in to the notification area makes for a much more usable experience.
