coderchris.com

I’ve been using the released version of Windows 7 for about 4 days on and off now and have to say it seems to be a massive improvement over Vista.

In my opinion it’s what Vista should have been (the whole release of Vista vs. XP being akin to the release of Windows ME vs. windows 98 i.e. a bit of a joke, with the real improvements come in the next version again – in that case XP in this case 7).

Anyway, things to note so far are:

• Battery life seems to be improved – Win 7 seems to require a lot less juice to run well
• Stacked taskbar icons make the management of multiple applications easier
• Icon themes are nicer than Vista
• Network management is much improved over Vista for those who change networks a lot
• Start up screen is fairly funky
• User Account Control and other Security options are less intrusive
• Windows Media Centre is included in the Pro Version (Vista Business excluded it…)
• So far ALL of the applications that I used to run on XP and Vista seem to run without issue, even small 3rdparty standalone tools (programs that don't require an installer to run)

That’s a fairly short list so far but just for those improvements (minimal though some of them may seem) I’d say it’s worth it.

I’d recommend upgrading for anyone who’s currently using Vista, especially on a laptop and for those of you still running Windows XP, though in your case you might also need a hardware upgrade too.

I have a Toshiba A200-1V0 Laptop as do a lot of other people in the UK due to it's price vs. features.

It's a great little machine, but the supplied battery life leaves something to be desired.

On the front of the box when I bought it there was an offer to get a second battery sent out if I registered with Toshiba - I did and they sent me the battery.

Turns out that there are 3 different batteries that are available for the Toshiba Equium A200-1V0:

• The supplied 3 cell one lasting about 45 minutes to 1h 15 minutes depending on usage
• A 6 cell option, which lasts for around 2-3 hours depending on usage
• A 9 cell option which I've yet to try.

Toshiba sent me a 6 cell battery for registering with them which helped me out no end on my journey to work (1h 15 mins on the train each way). With the original battery I had to charge the machine each end, at home and at work, meaning that I always had to carry the power supply plug with me.

With the free6 cell batter I just had to charge the machine once a day i.e. at home over night ready for the next morning meaning I could leave the supply plug behind.

BUT I want to go further and actually get the 9 cell option now I've seen how much an improvement the 6 cell is over the 3.

I looked on the Toshiba website (http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com) but there was no information there, so I phoned the number shown: 0870 444 8944 to try and order it as a spare part. Still no luck as I phoned on a Saturday and Toshiba use a 3rd party who don't work weekends to deal with repairs and spares: http://www.topazsupport.co.uk - 0844 800 2835

So I visited them and they only show a 6 cell replacement battery: http://www.topazsupport.co.uk/product248.html which seemed a bit odd.

I'll call them on Monday to find out exactly what the situation is but it doesn't seem that promising

But on the plus side I now know all the people to call if the thing ever goes wrong!