What's the difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8?
Windows 8 vs Windows 7: security, cloud, task manager
There are a couple of other relatively minor, but significant changes in Windows 8 that may make it worth an upgrade for Windows 7 users. Windows 8 has a cloud focus to it which might be a tempting feature. Microsoft stores all your settings and customisations in the cloud so whenever you log on to a Windows 8 machine you will have it looking and working your way.
Other elements of the cloud system include pulling your email from Gmail, for example, and viewing all your photos from Facebook. And each Windows 8 device comes with a ready-enabled SkyDrive account.
In terms of security, as well as the additional peace of mind that downloading apps from a curated Windows Store brings, Windows 8 features a lock screen which allows you use a picture password. This means you can affix a photo to the lock screen, and replace your password with a gesture traced out over the photo. Because of the additional complexity this adds in over a traditional alphanumerical password, it ought to be more secure.
Staying with the theme of security, Windows 8 is the first flavour of Windows that comes with antivirus baked in, in the form of Microisoft Security Essentials, which sits alongside the software firewall in Security Center. You could justifiably save yourself a few quid by not bothering to buy security software (although standalone security vendors will have a thing or two to say about this). There's also an all new Task Manager, offering two different ways to view information: one simple, one more complex.
Windows 8 vs Windows 7: speed
That's about it in terms of significant feature changes, but Microsoft would have us believe that Windows 8 is much faster than Windows 7 - it certainly works on the same hardware, which removes one barrier to upgrade. (And it won't be an expensive upgrade, either.)
Bill Karagounis, Principal Group Program Manager for the Windows 8 Fundamentals Team, recently claimed that startup times were 40 percent faster than Windows 7 on the same hardware, and that the memory footprint of the new OS is '10 to 20 percent better'. He said that the Windows code base comfortably scales on all devices from tablets right up to workstation PCs, and demonstrated Windows 7 and Windows 8 running on similar laptops, with relatively low specifications (including just 1GB RAM).
According to a demonstration Karagounis ran, Windows 7 uses 389MB of system memory, Windows 8 only 330MB. And this in an operating system that includes more functionality.
Karagounis also showed how an older Asus UltraBook with a second-generation Intel chip could boot from cold in just 8 seconds. However, he said that Windows 8 was intended to be what he called 'always on, always connected'. 'You don't boot and shut down Windows 8', he said. Further, he suggested that the OS was designed to be always running switching on and off instantly like a smartphone. He demonstrated the power draw of an Intel-system on a chip Windows 8 slate, using virtually no power in sleep mode, with only the occasional tiny peak when it checked for or received data.
The device was, he said, connected to the web, working in the background in a mode he described as 'connected standby'. Karagounis sent an IM to the slate, at which point he power draw peaked and the device set off an alert. This status applies to Windows RT PCs, and Intel SoC PCs . In the demonstration the power draw goes up instantly something then happens, and then drops off quickly when so-called connected standby kicks in.
This is all Microsoft's own take on things, however, but recent independent tests suggest that Windows 8 uses less memory, and Windows 8 performs better than Windows 7, on the same hardware.
Comments
angarato_surion said: lol i wouldnt isntall it and iwould port my net apps to metro only if i wanted to make a tablet version and got bored of using bigger icons in the toolbar Ibet the windowsforms namespace will exist for almsot as windows exist and win7 is the best Can i make a question for non touchscreen devices as notebooks and desktops is adding anything usefull dont tell me the facebook integration or some other social crap like performance security etcif it is as win7 then nope sorry it doesnt worth to relearn and reteach non advanced users to move from win7 to win8 P
cheryle said: Hijust read ur comment above and i have clicked LIKE on iti am however still a bit confusedlolWOULD YOU SAY WINDOWS 7 IS STILL BETTER THAN WINDOWS 8
Soulman said: A couple of points the article says that Win 8 is designed to be always on does this mean1 The end of reboots when a new app needs to do something to the register or the system crashesThat future Win updates amp patches as there will be wont need to shut down and reboot2 I dont keep my computer always on when Im not using it a to save electricity amp b to stop any malicious programmes for trying to access my computer even with a firewall anti virus programmes etc running and would turning on amp off affect the OS to much Im sure not but worth a mentionAlso not much talk of what resources it would take up you briefly mention RAM being less than Win 7 but what disk space does it take etc when up grading from XP
Johnyboy said: We have waited many years for media convergence between computing and living room electronics and it has still to be properly achieved so it is interesting to see computing convergence on the myriad of devices out there achieved with software It seems to me that being able to take your own interface and apps with you is the major plus of Windows 8 and if it works is a big leap forward but in the corporate world this is a potential nightmare unless the feature can be easily disabled in business machinesI am very surprised at the Microsoft take on always on with regards to security Their own anti-virusmalware suite is not particularly brilliant and an always on computer can be used very successfully for DoS attacks etc unless their sleep system somehow overcomes this potentialReporting generally now seems to be increasingly disparaging of Windows 7 which is a very good OS and is still at the heart of Windows 8 there seems no real need for businesses to change any time soon but I can see the joy of it for domestic purposes combining all the hardware into one easy to use system Apple of course are ahead of this game with their sharing system
Maccyroo said: Most traditional desktop usersrunning Windows 7 wont havemuch interest in metro social networking apps and even less interestin touch screen features From a desktop users point of view apart from an improved explorer interface which can be easily duplicated on Windows 7 machines by running the free Better Explorer what new featuresare there in Windows 8 for desktop usersYou dont seem to have given us much useful information inthis article with regard to that particularquestion which im sure would interest many peopleFrom what you have said in this article it appears that Windows 8 reclassifiesall mainstream software we currentlyrun on XP and Windows 7 desktopsaslegacy software If you want to run that software in Windows 8you then have to open a type of virtual machine within Windows 8 itselfThis sounds like regression fordesktop users running Windows 7 not progression I use a third party utility to totally customize my start menu in windows 7 It behavesa little like the classic start menu but is farmore efficient and is customized to my own needsYou seem to be saying the start menu is still there in windows 8 butit has been renamed ascharms Who the hell thought that idiocy up Someone who went to school at Hogsmeade with Mr Potter perhapsI trialled the consumer preview for a few weeks and got nothing positive out of the experience at all other than installing Better Explorer on my Windows 7 machineMatt please tell us in simple termsIs there anything in Windows 8 desktop mode apart from having all our mainstream software reclassified as legacyto make an upgrade forWindows 7 desktop users worthwhileor not