Windows 7 for You: Works the Way You Want

More than anything else, you’ve told us that you care about the basics. No one has the time to deal with PCs that aren’t snappy and responsive or fall short of expected performance—like taking too long to wake up from sleep. And we’d all like to feel more secure, online and off. In other words, everything should just work—and work the way you want it to. Windows 7 takes the improvements we made in Windows Vista and extends them. And that means you’ll get an operating system that is designed to start quickly, be more secure, and take advantage of powerful new hardware.


Start, Shutdown, and Resume
Windows 7 is ready when you are. It’s designed to start, hibernate, and shut down faster than Windows Vista. We also focused on ways to resume from sleep more quickly and reliably. And because resuming from sleep is much faster than rebooting your PC, you can use sleep when you really need your PC to come to life quickly.


Search and Indexing
When looking for information, you want answers, not delays. Search and indexing are both much faster now, because Windows 7 includes all the performance improvements from Windows Search 4.0, a Windows technology that indexes all the fi les on your PC, as well as several other significant new performance optimizations. Sorting and grouping of search results are significantly faster too.


ReadyBoost
PCs that are low on memory frequently swap data to disk, which can make performance lag. With Microsoft ReadyBoost™ technology, which we introduced in Windows Vista, you can use a fl ash memory device to cache frequently used data, which in turn makes your PC more responsive. With ReadyBoost in Windows 7, you can use multiple fl ash devices—such as USB keys, Secure Digital cards, and internal flash devices—at the same time.


Improved Memory Utilization
We’ve worked hard to reduce overall memory requirements in Windows 7. For example, hundreds of runtime components now use less memory, while the core memory needs are smaller when the computer is idle. Windows 7 can reduce the memory requirements for each open window by up to 50 percent. In addition, we’ve introduced trigger start services, an innovative feature that launches system services only when they’re needed and reduces the number of programs competing for system memory.


Solid State Drives
Solid-state drives (SSDs), an alternative to traditional hard disk drives, are becoming more popular. This popularity is partially due to the fact that SSDs are typically faster than conventional hard disk drives. We designed Windows 7 to work well with SSDs so you’ll have a chance to experience improved PC performance, more consistent responsiveness, increased battery life, superior ruggedness, quicker startup times, and reductions in noise and vibrations. Features such as disk defragmentation, Microsoft Super- Fetch™ memory management technology, and ReadyBoost (described above) are designed to improve system responsiveness and performance when data is being retrieved from traditional hard disk drives. In Windows 7, these features respond to a computer’s configuration and automatically turn themselves off for the newer, faster SSDs, where they are not necessary, which helps free up system memory.


Windows Experience Index
The Windows Experience Index measures the capabilities of your PC’s hardware and software, and expresses this measurement as a number called a base score. A higher base score generally means that your computer will perform better and faster than a computer with a lower base score. In Windows 7, the Windows Experience Index has been updated to reflect advances in processor, graphics, and hard disk technology. Maximum scores should generally be the same or higher for a computer system after upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7.


Battery Life and Notifi cations
We all know what it’s like to run out of power at a critical moment. That’s why we designed Windows 7 to extend the battery life for your mobile PC. Power-saving enhancements include increased idle time for the processor, automatic dimming of the display, and more power-effi cient playback for DVDs. We’ve also made battery life notifications more prominent and accurate, so you know exactly how much power you’ve used and how much battery time you have left.


64-Bit Computing Support
If you’ve gone PC shopping lately, you’ve probably noticed more computers with 64-bit processors and wondered what advantages they offer. Put simply, a 64-bit PC can handle larger amounts of information than traditional 32-bit systems. Because it can use more RAM (4 GB and up) a 64-bit PC can be faster and more responsive depending on the workload. If you tend to have a lot of programs open simultaneously, need to switch frequently between programs, or are an avid gamer, a 64-bit PC is a great choice. Windows 7 fully supports 64-bit PCs.


DirectX 11: DirectCompute
For PCs that have a graphics card that supports the Microsoft DirectX® 11 application programming interface, DirectCompute-enabled applications will perform faster on your Windows 7-based PC. For instance, certain applications that convert a digital media fi le to a different size or format will do that conversion (called transcoding) faster. So you’ll spend less time moving your home movies from a PC with Windows 7 to a portable playback device. DirectCompute boosts PC performance by taking on some or all of the application’s processing load, freeing up the computer’s main processor to perform additional tasks. If your PC has a graphics card that supports DirectCompute, look for applications specifically built for DirectX 11.

Source of Information : Windows 7 Product Guide

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