Windows 7 for Engineers

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit is the way to go for the future, It is looking better and better with a few minor problems that weren't too hard to fix.
It is the finished version of what VFH (Vista from Hell) should have been. They release a product before it was ready to be released to the public.
Audio drivers needed tweaking; Bluetooth, video drivers, sidebar management, and networking is excellent, they fixed the problems with the sidebar and all programs menu. Even with a very high volume copying of files between computers is better at not locking up explorer in winxp.

Renaming conventions changed to eliminate extension and very fast searchs for files.

Power management is a key reason why I upgraded because with (VFH) my laptop constantly overheated and shutdown when running cpu intensive operations.
In Windows 7 that problems has gone away. There are great sidebar gadgets to monitor the temperatures of the cpus with SPeedfan.

You can listen to XM radio with the sidebar gadget as a subscriber and there are countless sidebar gadgets out there for every need.
Here is how to learn to make sidebar gadgets.

http://www.innovatewithgadgets.com/2008/04/downloads.html

http://www.innovatewithgadgets.com/
http://gallery.live.com/default.aspx?pl=1

Most CAD programs: Pro/Engineer 2-5, Solidworks 2009, Autodesk Inventor 2010,

www.ptc.com/ www.solidworks.com www.autodesk.com

Problems with Mentor Graphics Pads 9.0 is only 32-bit and
Orcad 16.2 is still only 32-bit and has problems running. They need to build a 64-bit version for Windows 7 for electrical designers.
and electrical programs to see how they run.

Ansys 12.0 64-bit runs great in Windows 7 but Ansys 11 had problems loading.
So you need to upgrade to Ansys 12

http://www.mentor.com/products/pcb-system-design/design-flows/pads/ and http://www.cadence.com/orcad/

They have a great Winxp mode which is a virtual machine that run most of all older programs including a few win95, which you can download from Microsoft.

http://blogs.intel.com/technology/2009/05/reality_check_-_windows_xp_mod.php
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

You have to have "virtualization" on the motherboard eventhough it may be in the cpu. You can check your system to see if it has "virtualization" Hopefully, Microsoft will have a software fix for systems without it.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/support/configure-bios.aspx
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-xp-mode-virtualization-intel,7709.html
http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/

Sun Microsystems has a virtual box that allows you to run Winxp within it.
The libraries are a great addition to organize your network connections.
http://www.virtualbox.org/

I shall add more items as they come in such as compression utilities like winzip, winrar, and defragmentation programs such as Diskeeper 9.0, and windows media center in windows 7.