The Windows 7 public betas received an enthusiastic reception from just about everyone, with reviews praising them as fast, efficient and crammed with interesting new features.
But does this mean that Windows 7 will be the best version of the OS ever?
Seasoned Microsoft watchers may be wary, remembering that Windows Vista was also lauded on release, with early reviews offering little clue of the problems to come. And a look beyond the excitable headlines reveals some analysts who are already pointing to issues with the new operating system.
Richard Jacobs, Chief Technology Officer at Sophos, highlighted significant problems with XP Mode, the software compatibility tool that provides a copy of XP that runs on your Windows 7 desktop.
"XP Mode doesn't share security settings, security software or patches with the host," Jacobs said, "or inherit any security from Windows 7." And the real problem? "Microsoft isn't providing any tools to help you handle this extra complexity. XP mode isn't a bad idea, but without built-in management, it's a security disaster."
SECURITY ISSUES: XP Mode is useful for running older software, but is it a "security disaster"?
Developer Leo Davidson has exposed problems with the new UAC settings, which allow trusted Windows components to bypass the system and so cut down on the prompts you receive. Sounds good, until you realise that this creates a loophole for malware to exploit.
Davidson warns: "There's nothing to stop third-party programs from injecting code into one of the privileged Microsoft executables, such as Explorer, in order to gain full elevated access to the machine without displaying any UAC prompts."
And the problem is easy to exploit, Davidson says: "It only took me a few hours to write proof-of concept code that was able to run anything with elevation, without triggering a UAC prompt."
And while Microsoft hopes improved power management and speed will make Windows 7 the ideal choice for netbooks, a recent online test reported the operating system lost anything up to a third of its battery life when pitched against Windows XP.
Many netbook forums have threads discussing similar problems, and complaining that Windows 7 is much slower than an XP setup.
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article10presentations
October 22nd
1. It’ll be interesting to see how well Windows 7 does, as it looks set for positive uptake at the moment but the maintaining the level of initial interest might be difficult. Staying on top of software releases is really important to businesses for a whole host of reasons and will definitely encourage the uptake of the new OS. It might be interesting to see the effect that the advertising campaign has on success of Windows 7. It’s something that is really important to our business, as we are a design company, and so always follow.
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