Simple Windows 7 Set-Up

Microsoft has outlined its plans to make the experience of setting up a PC running Windows 7 for the first time much quicker and easier. The company has said that it wants to create a better balance between the ‘out-of-the-box experience’ and the configuration options that a customer has when using Windows 7, the operating system Microsoft plans to launch in 2010.

Writing in the Windows 7 blog, Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, said that giving customers numerous configuration options during the setting-up process of Windows 7 was the wrong approach.

“Our context for the out-of-box experience would be that we don’t want to introduce complexity there, where customers are least interested in dealing with it as they want to get to the excitement of using their new PC,” said Sinofsky. “I think of it a bit like the car dealers who won’t hand you the keys to your car until you sit and watch a DVD about the car and then get a guided tour of the car,” he continued.

However, he did say that there would probably be more options for customising Windows 7 than in previous Microsoft operating systems. “For many releases Windows has had the ability to install or uninstall various features that are part of Windows. For Windows 7, many have asked for us to make this list longer and have more features in it. This is something we are strongly considering for Windows 7 as we think it is consistent with the design goals of ‘choice and control’,” said Sinofsky .