Windows 7

Windows 7 is the latest version of Microsoft Windows, a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablet PCs and media center PCs.Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009,and general retail availability on October 22, 2009, less than three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista. Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2, was released at the same time.

Unlike its predecessor, which introduced a large number of new features, Windows 7 is intended to be a more focused, incremental upgrade to the Windows line, with the goal of being fully compatible with applications and hardware with which Windows Vista is already compatible.It has a multi-touch support, a redesigned Windows Shell with a new taskbar, a home networking system called HomeGroup] and performance improvements. Some applications that have been included with prior releases of Microsoft Windows, including Windows Calendar, Windows Mail, Windows Movie Maker, and Windows Photo Gallery, are not included in Windows 7;some are instead offered separately as part of the free Windows Live Essentials suite.

A number of capabilities and certain programs that were a part of Windows Vista are no longer present or have changed, resulting in the removal of certain functionality. Some notable Windows Vista features and components have been replaced or removed in Windows 7, including the classic Start Menu user interface, Windows Ultimate Extras, InkBall, and Windows Calendar. Four applications bundled with Windows Vista — Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Calendar and Windows Mail — are not included with Windows 7, but are instead available for free in a separate package called Windows Live Essentials.
Hardware requirements

Microsoft has published their minimum specifications for a system running Windows 7.Requirements for the 32-bit version are much the same as recommendations for premium editions of Vista, but the 64-bit versions are considerably higher. Microsoft has released an upgrade advisor that scans a computer to see if it is compatible with Windows 7.
Minimum hardware requirements for Windows 7 Architecture
Architecture 32-bit
Processor 1 GHz 32-bit processor
Memory (RAM) 1 GB of RAM
Graphics Card DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM driver model 1.0 (For Aero)
HDD free space 16 GB of free disk space
Optical drive DVD drive (only to install from DVD/CD Media)

Architecture 64-bit
Processor 1 GHz 64-bit processor
Memory (RAM) 2 GB of RAM
Graphics Card DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM driver model 1.0 (For Aero)
HDD free space 20 GB of free disk space
Optical drive DVD drive (only to install from DVD/CD Media)


Additional requirements to use certain features:

* BitLocker requires a USB flash drive to use BitLocker To Go.
* Windows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available hard disk space, and a processor capable of hardware virtualization with Intel VT or AMD-V enabled.