On October 22, 2009 Microsoft reached the final milestone of the Windows 7 release schedule, namely general availability.
Customers worldwide have already started embracing the product, buying 234% more boxed retail copies of Windows 7 since the official launch compared to the first few days after Windows Vista GA. The NPD Group took into consideration only sales of Windows 7 through the retail channel in the US in order to note that Windows 7 retail sales were outpacing those of Vista, but it’s likely that actual sold licenses of the latest Windows client are more than reported by NPD, taking into account the fact that the platform is available pre-installed on OEM computers, as well as offered for download through online outlets such as Microsoft Store.

Windows 7 guarantees a completely revolutionary UX for users upgrading from Windows XP, and evolutionary, as Microsoft itself has put it, for those that migrate from Vista. Either way, the latest edition of Windows brings a consistent range of enhancements that set Windows 7 apart from its predecessors. Assessing the value associated with the innovations introduced in Windows 7 certainly leads to recommendation lists with more than seven items.

Users will find that some of the new Windows 7 features and capabilities will come into focus more than others. Without having this aspect become a representation of the value they will bring to end users, there are things that customers will want to try ahead of anything else. Below is a list with seven of them, although in all fairness, users that will actually keep count will find that the limit of seven items “might” not have been respected entirely.

1. Windows 7 editions As was the case with Windows 7’s precursor, Microsoft has bundled all editions of the operating system on the same installation media. This offers customers a chance to test drive other editions of the operating system, in addition to the SKU they actually acquired. The Windows 7 deployment process no longer requires the introduction of a product key, permitting the installation of any edition. This is an excellent change for end users to try additional releases of Windows 7, perhaps even on a secondary computer in their home. Windows 7 comes with an initial trial period of 30 days, which can be prolonged, if necessary.

At the time of writing this article, Microsoft continues to offer for download a free, trial release of Windows 7 Enterprise. Time-bombed to last for no less than 90 days, the Windows 7 Enterprise trial represents a chance to run the equivalent of the Ultimate SKU – the high-end edition of the operating system.

2. SLMGR-rearm Of course, in certain scenarios, the initial grace period of 30 days offered by every edition of Windows 7 might be insufficient for end users to decide whether they want to buy the platform or not. In this case, the Redmond-based company provided a perfectly legal method to prolong the trial period to 120 days.

Simply enter “cmd” into the search box under the Start menu and right click the highlighted result selecting “Run as administrator.” In the cmd window, enter the following command: slmgr. This will open the Windows Software Licensing Management Tool with a list of commands that can be run. Windows 7 users will be interested in running slmgr /rearm, a command, which resets the initial grace period back to zero. If slmgr /rearm is used on the 30th day of the trail period, it will offer another month of free trial. Users will only be able to rearm Windows 7 a total of three times.