The State of Windows 7 Satisfaction

WINDOWS 7   IS only a few months old. Most people who will eventually use the new as haven't tried it yet; those who have are still set¬tling in. And things will change rapidly as bugs are squashed, missing drivers arrive, and compatibility wrinkles are ironed out. Even so, it isn't too early to start gauging what people think of Vista's replacement.

To do a reality check on the mostly favorable initial reviews for the new operat¬ing syste

(nno.pcworto.corm 64223), we at Technologizer (technoLogizer.com) decided to ask for opinions from our community, a group of tech

enthusiasts with a high pro¬pensity to acquire new ass quickly and to push them
to their limits. Starting on November 16, 2009, we sur¬veyed the site's readers (and Twitter followers) about their Windows 7 experiences. Positive Response About 615 Technologizer readers responded. A sizable majority said that they are extremely satisfied with the as and rate it as a clear improvement on both the beloved Windows XP and the widely panned Windows Vista. Crippling installation problems-always a legiti¬mate reason to postpone switching aSs-were rare

Prior to using Windows 7

46 percent of respondents ran Windows Vista; 32 per¬cent ran XP. Just 17 percent used Vista and XP about equally, 5 percent ran an as other than Windows, and 0.7 percent used a different version of Windows

Among those surveyed, 73 percent upgraded an exist¬ing PC to the final version of Windows 7, while 8 percent use a PC that came with the as preinstalled; 14 percent are working with a prerelease version, and 6 percent run it on a Mac via Boot Camp or a virtualizaticn program.

As for Windows knowl-

edge, 64 percent of respon¬dents rated themselves as expert; 35 percent said they were intermediate. Less than 1 percent were beginners
For 61 percent, Windows 7 is entirely or mostly for home or personal use; 25 percent are using it about equally for home and business. Just 14 percent are using it entirely or mostly for business.
Also, 61 percent of respon¬dents use a 64-bit edition of Windows 7; only 31 percent are running a 32-bit version.
A whopping 82 percent did a "clean" install ofthe as from scratch; 19 percent

?How did Windows Ts installation go

installed it over Vista

Finally, 59 percent report¬ed they've used Windows 7 extensively, and 36 percent said they've done so a fair amount. A scant 5 percent said they've used it a little.

It's important to note that our goal wasn't to survey a representative, projectable, normalized sampling of all Windows 7 users. The re¬sponses here are from mem¬bers of the Technologizer community who chose to take our survey. Their opin¬ions are their own-but we think the results make for interesting reading

Installing Windows 7 With ass, as with all things, first impressions count. And if you've purchased a new as as an upgrade, the first impressions it makes come during the course of the in¬stallation process.

Among survey takers who installed Windows 7, the number who ran into major hassles was very small, pre¬sumably in part because Windows 7 is so similar to Vista under the surface. The fact that the vast majority of respondents performed dean installations rather than installing on top of Vista surely helped, too.

In our survey, 84 percent said the process went off without significant hiccups; 13 percent said it went fairly well. Only 3 percent reported major problems, two-thirds of which were resolvable. Pretty impressive-when PCWorld surveyed Windows XP users shortly after that as shipped, half reported significant installation issues