by Artemis

Created on: July 24, 2010

Windows Vista was not a failed product. It sold well. Microsoft sold millions of copies of Windows Vista, and in terms of its investment in development of Windows Vista, Microsoft made a good profit from it. Not many software sold millions of copies. There's only one thing missing in the marketing of Windows Vista: it didn't capture people's heart. Unlike Windows XP, its predecessor, Windows Vista had never made anyone in love with it. So deeply in love that people would refuse to change, or even to upgrade to a newer version.

Yes, I mentioned it implicitly. So many people, including me, refused to upgrade to Windows Vista after years of using Windows XP. First, Windows XP is already enough to meet most people's needs. Second, many people don't want to go through a learning curve to get used with Windows Vista, another radical leap from Windows XP.

People's reluctance proved to be correct when Windows Vista was found to be full of hassles, kept asking for approval for many little things it does, yet still prone to malicious attacks. Another major reason not to upgrade to Windows Vista was speed. Computers run much slower after being upgraded to Windows Vista, due to the heavy burden Windows Vista brings. Therefore, Windows Vista required much stronger hardware, which was expensive at that time, and consumed so much computing resources.

Windows 7 requires the same hardware as Windows Vista does. Being 2 years younger, Windows 7 comes at a better time. Fast processors, large memory and gigantic hard drive are now much cheaper, thanks to the Moore's Law. By the time Windows 7 was released, those hardware most people dreamed of 2 years before had already been more common.

The advantage of same hardware requirement is obvious in the speed: start up time and loading time are significantly less, even when compared to Windows XP. In my personal experience, this may be the first time Microsoft keeps its promise on "faster start up" and "faster process". Simple reason: the release of previous versions of Windows always required stronger computing power, and would always be slower on the same hardware as the result.

With the exact same hardware on my laptop, Windows 7 runs significantly faster in start-up and application loading, when compared to Windows XP (not to mention heavier Windows Vista).

Windows Vista security hassles are significantly minimized. I rarely get any request for approval in Windows 7, while my friends got it everyday in Windows Vista.

Drivers are

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