Windows 7 is the Business for the User
My post Windows 7 x64 is fun might seem to echo quite a few comments on various forms and posts, but I do have a different view on how useful it is for business, based on about 18 months usage.
rather than regurgitate an endless feature list let me tell you what is really useful too me. To do that here is a typical day:
7am Arrive at the Microsoft campus because I hate traffic. I fire up my machine in seconds after slamming the lid shut the night before and instantly I am confronted with all the meetings I have come into the office for. hmm… the batteries looking iffy I wonder if George will let me order a new one?
My machine has now seen the wireless network (you have to have a domain joined laptop to get on the wireless network) and the corporate spam floods in!
8am Check the session I am running today. I right click on PowerPoint select the top file and I have my deck. This is because I have PowerPoint pinned to the taskbar and the deck I will present is pinned as well so it’s always in my recent list.
10am presenting in Chicago (our main lecture theatre) plug in the VGA cable here logo key P and I am projecting ready for my session, let’s hope the demo gods are smiling!
12 noon Start writing my blog post around what I have just been speaking about. I use the side by side feature (logo key right or left arrow) to snap live writer to the right of my screen leaving Internet Explorer 8 on the other side so I can get some links to resources on TechNet. I also use that snipping tool to grab a few screens.
2pm push off home. When I get in and fire up my laptop I get a set of keys in the system tray telling me I need to enter my smart card credentials. This is DirectAccess and when I have signed in I have VPN functionality that is effortless and makes very good use of the limited network bandwidth I have at home. With my laptop in this state our IT team can check/enforce policies even while I am at home such as ensuring I have BitLocker encryption enabled. Actually I can’t get in if my machine isn’t up to date thanks to Network Access Protection.
3 pm I need to print my pass for TechEd Dubai and forgot to do this at the office. No problemo my home machines are running windows 7 and I have a HomeGroup which I can see by simply setting my network location to home and entering my secure passphrase to access it.
Now I can print to my PC connected printer, pick up some music, but my wife on her PC can’t see my laptop as Home Groups don’t expose domain joined machines.
5pm Oh ***, I need to paste some links on my post that I’m working on. They’re in something I read a month or so ago, but exactly what I can’t remember. That’s simples - I just type in what I’m looking for from search in the start menu to get e-mails , documents in one list from my drive and designated sites such as the corp intranet and Bing.
I am not sure this could all be done on a heavily modified XP laptop but it would be slower for me and I would have to invest in third party tools for the encryption VPN etc. I absolutely know this because my wife has a shiny new laptop
Technorati Tags: Windows 7,DirectAccess,HomeGroup,VPN,BitLocker
which she uses to connect to her corporate network and it’s painfully slow.
I am also not sure if anyone who’s posting on windows 7 not being good for business is actually relying on it rather than just playing with it.
However I am very sure that I wouldn’t go back to using XP if you paid me whether that’s for the serious business of playing games or my hobby of Evangelist at Microsoft.