The Good News

Like a new car, its shinny, very colorful and has lots of new buttons.  I can add things to my desktop like a big clock or a calendar.  It also lets me know the rating of the computer from its weakest performing hardware.  I can resize the free space on my hard drive without a 3rd party program.  And the flip screen---WOW!  I can change the desktop automatically, every 10 seconds if I want t. Not all, but most desktop and notebooks, the drivers load automatically(even the hdmi drivers for HDTV).   And there is Ready Boost also. A fast 4 gig pen drive and I have just upgraded my ram.  My favorite part is I can turn off that annoying "Are you sure?"

The Bad News

The 64-bit version does not recognize my card reader, esata port, or 7.1 surround sound inputs and outputs. The 32-bit does recognize the card reader.  It took a gig of my ram and virtualized it for my video card.  My screen freezes.  I get error messages about stuff that works and no error messages on stuff that does not work.  Then there is a nag screen when an update has finished loading up that it is going to reboot, when I am working.

 I am up to 8 gigs of ram (DDR3=$60 per 2 gigs) Screen still freezes, esata does not work. If I tell Microsoft about it,  they say check with your hardware manufacture,  The hardware (mobo) says its the ram, the ram company says its the video card software the video card software says its Microsoft....and they all say on the package, "Windows 7 compliant." 

v  Does the product perform as describe? Well yes, if the pretty colors and extra buttons is all you want.

v  Any problems with the product, from a normal users view? The 64-bit has some problems with the hardware

 v  Does it exceed its standards? That would be a NO. It feels more like XP but slower and cost more.  Take away the pretty colors and buttons and its XP, year one, all over again. I was expecting more like, video confercing, texting, 3d...oh well, maybe Windows 8