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Head to Head: Windows 7 vs Windows Vista

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By Benny Har-Even, 4 Nov 2009

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In our latest head to head, Windows 7 faces its immediate predecessor, Windows Vista. Will Vista be able to mount any kind of challenge?

Vista's backup was an improvement over XP's basic tools, but it didn’t let you choose what you wanted to backup, which resulted in very large cumbersome backups. Windows 7 trumped it with a much more granular approach letting you easily choose what to back up and where you want to put it.

While Windows Vista shipped with DirectX 10, this was mainly of significance to gamers, and proved to be something of a damp squib in that regard anyway. Windows 7 ships with the next generation – Direct X 11. Of more significance in Vista was the arrival of the Windows Display Driver Model, which enabled the whizzy effects of Aero Glass. Windows 7 takes the SDDM to version 1.1 which can take advantage of hardware acceleration to reduce memory usage and improve performance.

In terms of whizzy though, there’s little to beat the fact that touch is cooked into Windows 7 itself. While there isn’t much immediate benefit to businesses, it works nicely in machines such as HP’s touch smart range. Windows Vista can just stand and admire that one.

When it comes to getting work done, Windows Vista proved to be something of a problem if your hardware wasn’t compatible, but with Windows 7 Ultimate we get Windows XP mode – providing full compatibility for older apps from within the new operating system.

As ever, while Vista moved things on from XP, Windows 7 adds some intelligence and well thought out advances that could make a real difference to what you use your computer for.

Winner: Windows 7

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4 comments

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I am running Vista Ultimate and feel...

ripped off by Microsoft because ... [we] never received the extras we paid good money to get," said "Hellfire" in a long comment. "The very least that they should do is offer a heavily-discounted upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate to those that have lost money by purchasing Vista Ultimate.... (quote itworld)

By JaKowal on Wednesday Nov 4

Lack of drivers & problems with older applications

I bought a new machine and dual booted with XP and Vista 64. XP wouldn't install on SATA only system and had to slipstream (combine drivers and services packs onto a DVD). Vista 64 wouldn't work with some of my perpherials like a serial A4 graphics tablet and there where no update drivers for scanner and film scanner and no support for video and TV hardware. The support came for some things 18 months after launch, but was lacking for others. In upgrading to Windows 7 (leaving XP alone) it hung for 4 hours with no indication of what it was doing. All the software had to be installed again, even though this was W7 64 Ultimate over Vista 64 Ultimate. Most of the software to be installed would not run. There are no SCSI drivers, even for current Adaptec cards, no drivers for a current HP printer and it is hard to find a method to enable installation as Vista 64. Having installed and fixed compatibility to XP SP2 the application prompts for permission everytime it is run. Never did that in Vista. The background for Vista was okay, neat. The W7 is terrible. I have switched it to plain, making it more like my XP screen. Over all this was the hardest upgrade to install since Windows 3 days before drivers where on the internet. It would seem the age old advise for products from M$ remains true - don't get any until at least the first service pack.

By Ip_gfge5146c4406 on Friday Nov 6

No version of Windows can be purchased

@Benny Har-Even: "with its relative affordability, free alternatives have lost some of their lustre..." Let's get this straight once and for all, one can only buy a *licence* to run a copy of a Windows OS, one can never *own* a copy. In contrast to this abomination, a user always *owns* their copy of the "free alternatives" to which you refer.

By 6tricky9 on Friday Nov 6

No drivers?

For those having trouble locating Windows 7 drivers for SCSI cards and the like, it can be worth taking a look at the Windows Server driver offerings, as they often work. I've now got Windows 7 running on a Dell PowerEdge 2600 server, the fiddly bit being the driver for the onboard PERC4/DI RAID controller. If I recall correctly the Server 2003 driver worked a treat. Older HP printers have a generic driver, but for some unfathomable reason Microsoft then decide, if you have two such printers (e.g. a Color LaserJet 4500 and a LaserJet 5000), to hide one behind the other, making switching between printers a pain.

By MartinP on Tuesday Feb 22