Guide to Windows for a Mac user

Question

I've been a Mac user since Windows XP was still a new operating system so I've pretty much ignored everything that's gone on in the Windows world for years. But for a variety of reasons I'm now using Windows 7 every now and then and I'm sort of lost when it comes to administering the box. There seems to be a lot of guides around the internet for Windows->Mac switchers, but none for Mac users trying to use Windows.

So, what do I need to know about my Windows 7 machine?

• I assume that you don't have to do fresh installs every six months like you did with Windows XP, right?
• Is it reasonable to use right out of the box like a Mac, or are the defaults really bad?
• What about backups? Does Windows 7 come with the equivalent of Time Machine?
• What about sharing files between computers on my home network? Does Windows automatically configure a sharing folder enabled that I can plop stuff in?
• What about a Spotlight equivalent? (I use that all the time to find preferences panes on my Mac)
• What deleting software that I'm just trying out. What's the equivalent of deleting the application file and ~/Library/Application Support directory? I see that in Windows you go to a specific Uninstall application, I assume this gets rip of all traces of the app?
• Is there anything else that a Windows 7 user should be aware of?

Answer 1

1. I don't know what you are talking about with regards to needing to do a fresh install of XP every 6 months. If you did, I can assure you that you did something wrong. I have been running my current install of Windows 7 for almost two years now, and it runs flawlessly.
2. Yes, you can use it with the defaults. Everyone has their own personal tweaks on the desktop, etc., but as far as most things go, you can use the defaults.
3. I do not know what Time Machine does in detail, but Windows 7 does come with a backup program, and also the System Restore function, which is designed to restore a previous set of settings, when the computer was working.
4. Windows certainly can do sharing, but it is not automatic. That would be a huge security risk.
5. Windows does have an extensive search feature, which can also use Advanced Query Syntax, which is very powerful.
6. I am not sure what you mean by trying software out. Many companies offer trials, but many don't. Of course, you can uninstall programs in "Programs and Features".
7. Nothing that I can thing of: Millions of users use it daily, and don't need anything special.

It really should only take you about a week to become acclimated. Sure, you will have things that will pop up that will require you to learn something new, and do a bit of searching, but that is to be expected.

Answer 2

As far as Time Machine goes, I feel a little used and under advertised feature of Windows is the Volume Shadow Copy Services(VSS).

It is better known by it's GUI, the Previous Versions tab.

System Restore and Windows Backup both use the Previous Versions tab. System Restore, be default, backs up all your files under your profile, registry, and other protected DLLs. Windows Backup just backs up whatever you point it to.

System Restore, by default, is triggered automatically after every install of a program. By default, it also is triggered once a day at bootup, but if first waits for you to be idle for 10 minutes. Kind of an odd number IMO.

Restoring is easy. Use the previously mentioned Previous Versions Tab under each folder/File's Properties. Or you can just launch Backup/System Restore (old way of doing things). It is easy to figure out which version you want. Just like Time Machine, just scroll to your desired date. You can even right click and start browsing and opening documents, like the Quick Preview. All from the Properties Window. If the file is on a separate piece of media, then Windows will prompt for it then, rather than before.

Unlike Time Machine, your encrypted files can be backed up while you are still logged in.

Time Machine definitely has a more streamlined interface. While Windows Backup can be fully configured from one dialog box, System restore requires you to punch into the Task Scheduler to make more granular scheduling changes.

By far the biggest advantage Windows Back/System Restore has on Time Machine is that they can detect block level changes. That means, rather than copying a whole file, they can just copy the changes if there already a previous backup copy. This is a big plus if you use a lot of VMs (Hear! Hear!). This allows you to be very very liberal with your backup strategies. Lion's Document Version does sort of(?) does block level-ish backups, but only for certain file types.

For example, we got about two months worth of bi hourly backups of one of our 1TB-ish network shares. Total Disk usage: 20GB. Windows Server by default allows VSS to use up to 10% of a volume. Considering we don't need two months worth of changes, I'll probably be changing that. . .

I wanted to type all this out because this was one of the biggest changes I pushed for when I started working, plus it has saved countless lives and gray hairs (or maybe prevented. . .)

I'm totally got nothing done for the past hour because I found out someone is making backup strategies a primary shopping point.

edit

BTW, pretty much every piece of software these days allows at the very minimum a 30 day trial. These includes pretty much every piece of Microsoft software, Adobe, Anti-Virus (I recommend none), etc etc.