On October 22, 2009, Windows 7 was released. It went on to become one of the most popular Windows versions of all time, providing a much needed bounce back after Windows Vista. Two of the most beloved Windows versions ever, Windows 7 and Windows XP, were both released in the same week, 8 years apart.
Windows Vista vs Windows 7
Vista was terrible. It’s not so much that it was a bad idea. Windows Vista had some great ideas, but it was terribly bloated and the mainstream hardware of 2007 struggled to run it.
I can summarize Windows 7 as Windows Vista done right. There were a few UI enhancements between Windows Vista and 7, but they were iterative. The main thing it did was take the enhancements Vista offered over Windows XP, but optimize the code to make it faster and more efficient, making it usable on hardware that couldn’t run Vista well.
Vista is one of the most hated Windows versions of all time, but the people who buy top-of-the-line systems and replace them with a new top-of-the-line system every three years or so didn’t hate it. I knew a guy who actually liked it. The problem was that a low-end system from even 2009 couldn’t run Vista well. Windows 7, on the other hand, ran acceptably on any system that could run later builds of Windows XP acceptably, including low-end netbooks.
And a system that could run Vista acceptably ran 7 even better.
The biggest bottleneck with both operating systems was the hard drive, so if you put an SSD in either a Vista or Windows 7 system, it benefited tremendously. In fact, if you load Vista on a system from a few years later with a reasonably fast multi-core CPU and SSD, you can question what was wrong with it.
Spurring adoption of Windows 7
Microsoft really wanted to get its user base to migrate from Windows XP. So one of the things they did to encourage adoption was selling a family pack that included three Windows 7 upgrade licenses at a discounted price of around $120. This made it affordable to upgrade all of your existing PCs to Windows 7.
This was the last time Microsoft did this. One could argue that Windows 7 was the last version of Windows that was worth paying to upgrade. The upgrade to Windows 8, if you can call it that, was free. The upgrade to Windows 10 was free. Part of the resistance to Windows 11 is that it requires hardware upgrades to run, and there’s nothing wrong with those PCs except their inability to run Windows 11 unmodified.
Taking 64-bit computing mainstream
Windows 7 also took 64-bit computing mainstream. The early single-core Athlon 64 CPUs didn’t necessarily run Windows Vista very well either. And while 64-bit Windows XP existed, it had compatibility issues. Windows 7 was the first 64-bit Windows version that could run well on all existing Athlon 64 systems. Mainstreaming 64 bits brought security and performance benefits in the long term.
Streakiness with Windows versions
Microsoft has been running an on and off and on again streak with its operating systems since the initial release of Windows XP. Windows 7 was the rebound from Windows Vista, and Windows 8 was so bad, I actually ran Vista over Windows 8 for a while when I was short on licenses, and I wasn’t the only one. I’m not sure anyone likes Windows 10 as much as they liked Windows 7 necessarily. I recommended waiting to upgrade from 7 to 10 and I don’t think anyone argued with me. But Windows 10 is much more popular than Windows 11. As far as some people are concerned, Windows 7 was the last great version of Windows.
Even though I find it hard to consider Windows 7 retro myself, I understand why people are nostalgic for it. It’s not safe to use as a daily driver anymore, but you can make a nice retro gaming PC with it. And if you don’t think of Windows 7 as retro, consider this: MS-DOS 6.22 was 15 years old when Windows 7 was released. Windows 7 is now more than 15 years old.
What is it about October?
For whatever reason, Microsoft releases a lot of new operating system versions in October. Two of its best, including Windows 7 and XP, were in October. But two of its worst, DOS 4 and Windows 8, were also in October.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.
why’d ms get rid of Aero glass 🙁 for 10/11
I use classic shell for 10. does classic shell work with 11?
Open-Shell, which is basically the same program, works with Windows 11
(https://open-shell.github.io/Open-Shell-Menu/)
thanks for commentating
im happy with 10 + 7 shell
Yes, it does
I’m in the minority for liking Windows 8. I found Metro refreshing but I do understand why everyone hated the interface. Interface aside though, it felt like Windows 8 was snappier than Windows 7.
At the time, I thought Vista looked better.
Without wanting to belittle it, W7 has practically the same performance as Vista SP2. I tested both in 2011. Clearly, W7 would have been a mere Vista Service Pack if it had worked out of the box.