Windows 7 Could Shine Vista's Tarnished Image

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Microsoft thinks that the positive vibes from Windows 7 will spread to Vista.

With Windows 7 in the can and soon to be released to the world, Microsoft must be relieved that it can finally wash away all the negative feedback that it had to endure because of Windows Vista.

Despite all the important and positive infrastructure changes introduced with Windows Vista, users found the OS to be bulky, slow and not worth upgrading from Windows XP.

Windows 7 aims to fix all the wrongs of Vista and to start with a fresh, positive image of Microsoft's operating system. So far, all the early impressions from users of the beta and RC versions of Windows 7 have been positive. Interestingly enough, Microsoft believes that all the warm, fuzzy feelings surrounding Windows 7 will actually boost the image and reputation of Windows Vista.

"I think people will look back on Vista after the Windows 7 release and realize that there were actually a bunch of good things there [in Windows Vista]," said Steve Guggenheimer, vice president of the OEM division at Microsoft, in a ChannelWeb story. "So it'll actually be interesting to see in two years what the perception is of Vista."

Windows 7 is built off from the same code foundation as Windows Vista, leading some to call the upcoming OS as just a "second edition." But many of the changes and improvement in Windows 7 are crucial to a better user experience, which is in the end what determines popular opinion.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
74 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ColMirage
    Well, one thing is for sure, they didn't base that off the ME and XP relationship...
    Reply
  • jhansonxi
    Unlikely.
    Reply
  • computabug
    Fourth! Vista stinks and forever will stink. Never coming back to full time Windows again... Compiz and Kubuntu won me over after I realized how bad Windows was.
    Reply
  • omnimodis78
    After using Vista (both 32 and 64 versions) on friends' computers, I decided early on not to upgrade to it myself, and stick it out with XP. To this day, when I am forced to use Vista on somebody's machine, something always comes up that reminds me why I made that decision a while back. Vista is not good. Period. Yes, it may have done some good things, indirectly, but as an OS it fails multilaterally. Who warmed up to Windows ME after XP came out? Nobody, because ME was that bad. Vista, is equally that bad, and the sooner we can forget about it the better.
    Reply
  • bigpappaj
    Most the people who say Vista sucked... never used it on the hardware it was designed to be run on. Its 2009 and people trying to run Vista with 512MB of RAM on a Pentium pro need to upgrade. Vista was a huge step forward from XP and on appropriate hardware ran great.
    Reply
  • FlayerSlayer
    3.1 good, 95 mediocre, 98 great, ME lousy, XP great, Vista mediocre, 7 great again? It had better be good and be worth keeping for another 8 years like XP was, because the next one will blow again.
    Reply
  • hunter315
    I can see windows 7 improving microsoft's image, but vista just consumes to many resources, and with window 7's xp mode there wont be any compatibility issues but one good OS cant make up for one that lacking in performance. Hopefully MS will restrict the amount of junk oems can add to 7 to keep it from performing like vista.
    Reply
  • TidalWaveOne
    I like Vista... but think I'll like Windows 7 even more!
    Reply
  • captaincharisma
    yea vista failed because it was the newest version of windows in like what? 5 years maybe more. and people with 5 year old PCs who they had since 2001 expected vista to run smoothly on them. the bitching of vista was pathetic and showed the low intelligence of people putting it down
    Reply
  • scook9
    It is funny how all the people that bash vista even admit that they only use it once or twice. Perfect examples of IGNORANCE. I have had vista for2 years now, on 3 computers. It works well and after SP1 never gave me any trouble (just like XP wasn't that great until SP2). I just so happens, that I have grown to like Vista so much that I now consider using XP when I have to a burden.

    It really amuses me how it has become "cool" to get on the bashing Vista bandwagon - especially those who have barely used it, if at all. Grow up guys.
    Reply