With Windows 7, PC users will at last have a strong, modern successor to the sturdy and familiar, but aged, Windows XP, which is still the most popular version of Windows, despite having come out in 2001. In the high-tech world, an eight-year-old operating system is the equivalent of a 20-year-old car. While XP works well for many people, it is relatively weak in areas such as security, networking and other features more important today than when XP was designed around 1999.
随着Windows 7的上市,个人电脑用户终于能有一款强大而新潮的替代产品,来淘汰稳定、熟悉但年代久远的Windows XP。尽管早在2001年就上市,但Windows XP仍是目前最受欢迎的Windows操作系统。在高科技领域,一款拥有8年历史的操作系统就相当于一辆拥有20年历史的汽车一样。虽然XP受到很多人喜欢,但很多方面的性能相当薄弱,例如安全性、网络连接性以及其他现在重要性超过1999年左右XP设计时的性能。

After using pre-release versions of Windows 7 for nine months, and intensively testing the final version for the past month on many different machines, I believe it is the best version of Windows Microsoft has produced. It's a boost to productivity and a pleasure to use. Despite a few drawbacks, I can heartily recommend Windows 7 to mainstream consumers.
我使用预先发布版的Windows 7已经有9个月了,最后这个月在很多不同机器上对最终版软件进行了大量测试,我相信这是微软所推出最好的Windows版本。Windows 7提高了生产力,操作令人愉快。尽管还存在一些缺点,但我仍衷心地向主流消费者推荐Windows 7。

Like the new Snow Leopard operating system released in August by Microsoft's archrival, Apple, Windows 7 is much more of an evolutionary than a revolutionary product. Its main goal was to fix the flaws in Vista and to finally give Microsoft customers a reason to move up from XP. But Windows 7 is packed with features and tweaks that make using your computer an easier and more satisfying experience.
去年8月,微软竞争对手苹果公司 (Apple)发布了新的雪豹(Snow Leopard)操作系统。和雪豹一样,Windows 7更多的是一款改进产品,而非革命之作。其主要目的就是解决Vista的缺陷,最终给微软用户一个淘汰XP的理由。但Windows 7带来了诸多新功能和调整,让你更加轻松便捷地使用电脑,带来更加令人满意的体验。

Windows 7 introduces real advances in organizing your programs and files, arranging your taskbar and desktop, and quickly viewing and launching the page or document you want, when you want it. It also has cool built-in touch-screen features.
Windows 7在组织你的程序和文件,安排你的任务栏和桌面方面作出了实际改进,能够迅速地在你需要的时候,浏览和启动你想要的网页或文件。这一软件还有很酷的内置触摸屏功能。

It removes a lot of clutter. And it mostly banishes Vista's main flaws -- sluggishness; incompatibility with third-party software and hardware; heavy hardware requirements; and constant, annoying security warnings.
Windows 7取消了很多繁琐之处,基本上消除了Vista的主要缺陷──反应迟缓、不兼容第三方软硬件、繁重的硬件要求以及不断跳出、令人心烦的安全警告。

I tested Windows 7 on 11 different computers, ranging from tiny netbooks to standard laptops to a couple of big desktops. These included machines from Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer, Asus, Toshiba and Sony. I even successfully ran it on an Apple Macintosh laptop. On some of these machines, Windows 7 was pre-loaded. On others, I had to upgrade from an earlier version of Windows.
我在11个不同的电脑上测试了Windows 7,从轻薄的上网本到标准笔记本电脑再到两台大型台式机。这其中包括了联想(Lenovo)、惠普(Hewlett-Packard)、戴尔 (Dell)、宏碁(Acer)、华硕(Asus)、东芝(Toshiba)和索尼(Sony)等厂商的产品。我甚至成功地在一部苹果Macintosh 笔记本电脑上运行了Windows 7。其中一些机器是预装的Windows 7。在其他机器上,我必须从较早版本的Windows进行升级。

In most cases, the installation took 45 minutes or less, and the new operating system worked snappily and well. But, I did encounter some drawbacks and problems. On a couple of these machines, glacial start-up and reboot times reminded me of Vista. And, on a couple of others, after upgrading, key features like the display or touchpad didn't work properly. Also, Windows 7 still requires add-on security software that has to be frequently updated. It's tedious and painful to upgrade an existing computer from XP to 7, and the variety of editions in which Windows 7 is offered is confusing.
大多数情况下,安装过程耗时不超过45分钟,新操作系统运行的顺畅良好。但我确实遇到了一些缺陷和问题。在两台机器上,漫长的启动和重启时间让我想到了 Vista。在另外两台升级后的机器上,显示或触控式鼠标等关键功能不能正常工作。此外,Windows 7还需要安全软件插件,必须频繁更新。在一部现有电脑上从XP升级到Windows 7让我觉得冗长而痛苦,Windows 7以诸多版本推出也让人困惑。

Finally, Microsoft has stripped Windows 7 of familiar built-in applications, such as email, photo organizing, address book, calendar and video-editing programs. These can be downloaded free of charge, but they no longer come with the operating system, though some PC makers may choose to pre-load them.
最后,微软在Windows 7上取消了熟悉的内置应用程序,例如电子邮件、图片组织、通信录、日程表以及视频编辑软件。这些软件可以免费下载,但不会随操作系统提供,不过一些电脑厂商可以选择预装这些软件。