Thursday, August 20, 2009

So I decided that since I have now installed Windows 7 and have been very pleasantly surprised that I would share my experiences with the world in the event people are looking for something like this. Before I jump in to the changes in the built-in calculator I would like to provide a little more information on this series so people don’t get confused.

I am using Windows 7 RTM (Final Release) using 64-bit hardware a big CPU and lots of RAM.
However I am also using Windows 7 on my old Dell Inspiron 2200 with a very old and small CPU and 512 MB of RAM and it runs fine!
I am testing Ultimate and Enterprise editions
I got them from MSDN so no, they are not yet available to the public.

OK so with that said I have decided to start with the calculator in Windows 7. It may seem like a stupid place to start however the vast improvements make it very worthwhile to mention. The first change is the overall look and feel of the calculator as shown in the screenshot below. It has a new and improved GUI which does make it very easy to use.

I think one word in general covers my happiness about the calculator: “History”. That’s right it finally has a history option that keeps tons of entries in the display that you can then cycle back and forth through.

Some other notable features that are now included:

1. New Modes have been added you now have Standard, Scientific (Pictured), Programmer and Statistics. It also means that the calculator now has more power to perform advanced mathematical functions.
2. As shown in the second screenshot they have also built-in a lot of other tools into the calculator. My favorite is the unit conversion. Now I don’t have to browse the net every time to remember the exact formula.
3. Microsoft also added a new feature called “Worksheets” where the tool allows you to enter multiple values in and it then performs more complex math. One of the included worksheets helps you calculate mortgage or car payments.
4. Lastly they have added in some nifty data mathematics functions. They can help you determine the number of days between two dates and times as well as another couple of features.

So the bottom line is the changes to the Calculator are welcomed in the new release. Not only does it look sharp but it is actually usable without having to download some other program. It also keeps people without Excel or even others without Excel from having to do complex functions and calculations.

My Score:

B+

It gets a B+ because there still is not any way to do simple graphing or algebraic expressions which I would surely think is possible to do, maybe with a service pack or the next OS.