Fewer than three years after Windows Vista was completed, Microsoft finished work on the most significant release of Windows in years. The development of Windows 7 was very different from its predecessor because the development team was under new management: Windows division president Steven Sinofsky. New features were kept secret until a quality benchmark was met and Microsoft was certain that the features would make it into the final product. Public deadlines were never provided. When asked when Windows 7 would be completed, Microsoft would only provide a vague two to three years after Windows Vista, followed up by, “When it’s ready.”
Clearly, a response to the public relations problem caused by the numerous features dropped and deadlines missed with Windows Vista, the change in style also allowed the developers to focus on writing high quality code rather than rushing to get new features into the release. Microsoft was very focused on reliability and performance data provided by every pre-release version of Windows 7. The millions of beta and release candidate installations provided an enormous amount of valuable data, such as how long it takes your computer to start, what applications are crashing, what device drivers are missing, and how you perform common tasks. Microsoft knew exactly what code needed to be optimized, what drivers were not performing well, and even where to improve the user interface to make Windows easier to use.
The end result is an operating system that was developed with quality per-formance as the goal. Windows 7 is fast, reliable, and easy to use. No wonder many are calling Windows 7 the best version of Windows to date.
Having said all that, Windows 7 is not 100% perfect. There are over one billion Windows users and a wide range of unique hardware configurations. While the majority of users may prefer to do a task one way, others may prefer a completely different way. The same goes for the appearance of the user interface. Everyone has different preferences and likes different things. This is where Windows 7 Tweaks will help you customize Windows 7 so it is tuned just for you. This book shows you how to customize almost every aspect of Windows. By the time you are finished with this book, your Windows 7 will look and feel as if Microsoft designed it just for you.
As mentioned earlier, performance has been greatly improved in Windows 7, driven by performance data and focused optimization. The result provides a much better experience than Windows Vista, but there are still many features that you may not use that contribute to slower performance, depending on how you use your computer. This book is going to help you cut the fat and help you improve the performance of Windows 7 even further. This book guides you through speeding up Windows 7 from the boot to the core Windows components.
Security is another important topic with Windows, in general. Windows XP had a horrible security track record when it was first released, with numerous viruses attacking and crippling the OS. Windows Vista shifted the security pendulum far in the other direction aiming to increase security significantly, but at the cost of annoying so much that many simply turned off the security features. Learning from past mistakes, and also from data collected from the beta and RC users, Microsoft has found a good balance of security and annoyance in Windows 7. It’s not perfect, but it is significantly better than Windows XP or Windows Vista. This book shows you how to use and configure Windows 7 security features and increase the security of your computer.
