Microsoft Windows 7 is the ninth full release of the windows operating system starting with Microsoft Windows 3.x. It was released on October 22, 2009. It will support 32-bit and 64-bit versions. As with the development with all Microsoft Windows operating systems it had many code names and many revisions but, in early 2008 it was officially announced with the name Windows 7.
The minimum hardware requirements for Microsoft Windows 7 are a 1GHZ processor for the 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The RAM requirements are 1GB for the 32-bit and 2GB for the 64-bit. The video card must have a directx 9 graphics processor with the WDDM driver model. You will need at least 16GB of hard drive space available for 32-bit and 20GB for the 64-bit. You will need a DVD drive if you install from media.
There are a multitude of different types of licensed versions of Microsoft Windows 7. They are Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, and Windows 7 Ultimate. One of main the main differences between the versions are all of the home versions do not have Windows Server Domain support. You can upgrade from Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. There is also a family pack upgrade which allows upgrades to three machines similar to what MAC did with OS X Snow Leopard.
Included with Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, and Windows 7 Ultimate is Windows Media Center. The reception for the release has been fairly positive, with some proclaiming that is it “The Best Windows Ever!” Most people agree that it performs much better than Windows Vista on a similar machine.
