Windows 7

[KEN]

So I decided to beta test the 64bit version of Windows 7, and I have to say I actually quite like it. They fixed all the stuff I hated about Vista, and really made some nice enhancements that just make it a pleasure to use Windows. Anyone else here using Windows 7?

[wcmich16]

Lol im still using xp pro :) i stick with my fave OS

[gcountach]

Heard a lot of good things about Windows 7. I'm currently trying out Ubuntu 9.04 though so I didn't install it. I think I will end up getting win7 for my computer, though I'd like to wait at least 6 months to a year to make sure most of the kinks are worked out.

BTW, for simple tasks like checking mail, messaging friends, etc., Ubuntu 9.04 is a very solid OS choice (and you can't beat that price). Once you want to play some games though... time to load back into Windows.

But just a thought to those who has a non-gaming computer in their house they don't want to have to upgrade to 7 when XP becomes unsupported.

[kevmeister]

a friend of mine who's using the beta for win7 said it works pretty good, right out of the box. he said that the compatibility mode works good right out of the box, without having to patch the (insert expletive here) out of it. and it will work for dual booting too.

[roadweasel]

No, but thanks for the heads up - I'm about due for that new computer and I'm hesitant to buy one running Vista.

[KEN]

Like I said, no complaints here. Its nice to see Microsoft actually listened to the consumers with this OS. Weasel... NO VISTA. BAD WEASEL!

[MoparTM]

ive heard 7 is awesome but im still running hp media center extreme or somethign like that lol i got my pc the day vista came out so i got afree copy to install but stuck with my amazing version of xp

[BoDarville]

I love apples new tv commerical about windows seven

"There wont be any problems like the last sytem":D

[Pie]

Windows 7 is nice. I ran beta up until release day. I plan to buy it here pretty soon. It's like a mix of the best things from XP and Vista, without the massive crashing problems. Never once had it crash on me. I don't really like mac because the lack of software support.

Anyway, just my $0.02.

[gcountach]

http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/697221235_AxzRa-L.jpg (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/10/30/)

I guess Win7 is good, since it's really just Vista Service Pack 3... but there is still some serious annoyances about it.

Example: My friends and I just bought borderlands, and the friend who just built an i7 computer with win7 was the host, as per the "fastest computer runs the server" rule. Of course, we could not ever connect to him, he couldn't connect to us or IGN, etc. Clearly a firewall problem, right? Easy fix there. He just click on his taskbar and went to some firewall menu and hit disable.

But the problems were still there. A firewall was still blocking connections! After a lot of digging, he found out Win7 has THREE DIFFERENT FIREWALLS that he had to disable to finally get around it. THREE.

[Pie]

Better safe than sorry lol. Getting Borderlands here pretty soon too.

[cobra96]

i love windows 7 with the exception of i cant get any of the compatible drivers to work...i checked the compatibility of my Dell 926 AIO printer and my Logitech Dual Action Gamepad and downloaded the drivers for windows 7...still...nothing works...the gamepad works and everything but i cant configure it because the software isnt compatible...the printer driver will unzip and when i try to run the setup it will say its not compatible with this version of windows...and thats even after running it in compatibility mode...its frustrating

[gcountach]

i love windows 7 with the exception of i cant get any of the compatible drivers to work...i checked the compatibility of my Dell 926 AIO printer and my Logitech Dual Action Gamepad and downloaded the drivers for windows 7...still...nothing works...the gamepad works and everything but i cant configure it because the software isnt compatible...the printer driver will unzip and when i try to run the setup it will say its not compatible with this version of windows...and thats even after running it in compatibility mode...its frustrating

I thought I read Vista drivers would work in Win7... is that not the case or is your printer and gamepad just that old?

[cobra96]

well the drivers for the gamepad are working fine...its just the software wont work...the disc is for xp and the software they tell u to download is suppose to be for 7 but it doesnt run the software...

the drivers for the printer just wont install...i download the file and it unzips...i try running the setup file in windows 7 and in compatibility mode and it tells me...your version of windows does not work with your new dell printer

[gcountach]

32-bit win7?

Dell 926 AIO: http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=W732&catid=-1&dateid=-1&impid=-1&osl=EN&typeid=-1&formatid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=PRN_ALL_A926&hidos=WLH&hidlang=en&TabIndex=&scanSupported=False&scanConsent=False

Logitech Software for win7: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/441/288&hub=1&cl=us,en?osid=14

Keep in mind that in Vista/Win7 world, anything that doesn't work when you double-click it should be tried again with administrator privileges (especially if you're installing something like drivers). Right-click setup.exe and choose "Run as Administrator" to see if that resolves your problem.

[KEN]

My printer wasn't supported by windows 7, plugged it into the network and amazingly it was supported then. I will never understand that crap sometimes lol.

[cobra96]

just found out its a 64 bit and only has 2GB RAM...strange...at least the logitech software runs now...gotta try the printer...damn...it works...all because it was a 64bit

[Chaul]

I just got Windows 7 installed, but it wasn't problem free. I went for this deal to get the "free" upgrade having bought a new laptop with Vista. Well, the upgrade failed on first try. I had to install some upgrade advisor, fixed everything it whined about, and tried to install. However, there is a second compatibility check during the upgrade and this one whined about different problems. I cancelled, fixed the problems and tried again. This time it just gave me warning and adviced me to cancel and restart yet again - but there was no cancel button in the dialog, only "ok". So, I clicked that and it started installing only to fail later and giving me a system that wouldn't boot. On reboot I had a new boot menu with options "Windows 7" and "Windows setup". Windows 7 option whined about a failed installation and told me to reinstall (again). Windows setup gave me nothing but a command prompt and a blunt notion to fix it yourself, or something.

Oh well, I finally got it installed after booting from the upgrade disc and then upgrading the system. When I had rebooted into the new system, all worked well, except that restoring the old settings with Windows Easy Transfer failed on common files from a backup that I did earlier to a network drive on the old system. It whined about running out of space even though I still had about 200GB left on the laptop hard drive.

Anyways, so far I don't see much that has changed. Desktop background is of course different, task bar has icons instead of text. I can't fully minimize Windows Live Messenger even though the visual clue is still the same as on Vista (moves the icon to the system tray, but the icon reappears on the task bar anyways). The quick launch button next to task bar are now just as big as the rest of the task bar icons, slightly confusing me on what's actually running and what's a shortcut. Windows Firewall has been updated or made more complicated. Windows Mail has disappeared and has been replaced with Windows Live Mail more or less, but you may need to install that yourself. There are some new services for sharing media on your computer and it's on by default. There is an "action center" in the system tray or something that reminds you about fixing things that the system thinks is wrong. Separate issues for security and maintenance, but at least they are listed under the same dialog where you can easily adjust those, and probably turn off the whining.

[gcountach]

I just got Windows 7 installed, but it wasn't problem free. I went for this deal to get the "free" upgrade having bought a new laptop with Vista. Well, the upgrade failed on first try. I had to install some upgrade advisor, fixed everything it whined about, and tried to install. However, there is a second compatibility check during the upgrade and this one whined about different problems. I cancelled, fixed the problems and tried again. This time it just gave me warning and adviced me to cancel and restart yet again - but there was no cancel button in the dialog, only "ok". So, I clicked that and it started installing only to fail later and giving me a system that wouldn't boot. On reboot I had a new boot menu with options "Windows 7" and "Windows setup". Windows 7 option whined about a failed installation and told me to reinstall (again). Windows setup gave me nothing but a command prompt and a blunt notion to fix it yourself, or something.

Oh well, I finally got it installed after booting from the upgrade disc and then upgrading the system. When I had rebooted into the new system, all worked well, except that restoring the old settings with Windows Easy Transfer failed on common files from a backup that I did earlier to a network drive on the old system. It whined about running out of space even though I still had about 200GB left on the laptop hard drive.

Anyways, so far I don't see much that has changed. Desktop background is of course different, task bar has icons instead of text. I can't fully minimize Windows Live Messenger even though the visual clue is still the same as on Vista (moves the icon to the system tray, but the icon reappears on the task bar anyways). The quick launch button next to task bar are now just as big as the rest of the task bar icons, slightly confusing me on what's actually running and what's a shortcut. Windows Firewall has been updated or made more complicated. Windows Mail has disappeared and has been replaced with Windows Live Mail more or less, but you may need to install that yourself. There are some new services for sharing media on your computer and it's on by default. There is an "action center" in the system tray or something that reminds you about fixing things that the system thinks is wrong. Separate issues for security and maintenance, but at least they are listed under the same dialog where you can easily adjust those, and probably turn off the whining.

This is why I despise upgrade discs. If you are forced to use one, format the computer with the OS you have to upgrade from and just do a upgrade from a clean OS. Sounds like you got it all figured out though, so I guess this is just a footnote for if you have to reinstall at a later date.

Anytime you get a new operating system, you have to get accustomed to the new features and tweaks, but I've heard it was better overall by comparison to vista.

[BoDarville]

Windows & seems to be pretty kick ass from review else where:-/

[Chaul]

It's just the Windows 7 upgrade that fails. But the system after installation seems to run well enough and is stable. I haven't had one occasion yet where the resume failed, but with Vista that happened at least once a week. It would just try to resume to the old session, and keep trying, bars rolling forever. I'm a little jumpy after using vista for 2 months because it would whine and keep whining about everything until I turned the useless processes off. There's a little bit of the same in Windows 7, but access to these settings I find more straightforward. A few months ago I was still running XP, and Vista-like behaviour is still all new to me.

Edit: I spotted a resource monitor I hadn't seen before in Vista or Windows 7. This might be the best feature I've come across in Windows so far. You can monitor cpu, memory, disk and network use on per process basis. You can actually see which addresses your system is sending data to or receiving data from and how much, speed and total. I thought this was pretty cool.

[Bonez]

I am happy with Windows 7. I even upgraded my laptop to it from XP pro. Using win7 ultimate 64 and it runs faster than XP pro did on my laptop. It easily makes Vista obsolete as it should. I is what Vista was supposed to be. when upgrading a machine I always recommend people use the full version disk and not an upgrade one. Always seem to install easier and run better overall.

[BoDarville]

I am happy with Windows 7. I even upgraded my laptop to it from XP pro. Using win7 ultimate 64 and it runs faster than XP pro did on my laptop. It easily makes Vista obsolete as it should. I is what Vista was supposed to be. when upgrading a machine I always recommend people use the full version disk and not an upgrade one. Always seem to install easier and run better overall.

Vista was awful from day one. I cant wait to upgrade my department to W7.

[Ayce]

Here's a question for you.
I am thinking of getting 7, but I'd like to be able to dual boot, at least till I find out how well/crappy it works. My rig can handle it well enough, though I may be a bit low in the mem dept. (2gb)
I can still boot up the hacky, by switching boot drives, but I don't think that's the best way to go with Windoze.
Good idea or bad. Opine pls. :D

[Pie]

I'm about to install W7 as a dual-boot tonight. I'll let you know how it goes lol. I also only have 2GB.

[Ayce]

Thanks, Pie. :D

[Pie]

Thanks, Pie. :D Oh boy... what a nightmare... stupid new technology! My dual boot setup FAILED. So I just formated the HDD and installed W7 on a clean slate. Been hunting drivers ever since. Especially the one effecting W7's ability to detect my secondary HDD correctly. Resulting in 5 minute boot times...

EDIT: Turns out my other HDD is messed up. Explains a lot of the weird things it's been doing lately.

[Ayce]

Well, it's alive, more or less. I installed it on a seperate HDD. Running fine, but no sound. I have an ATI HD2600 vid card w/ HDMI sound. It detects that just fine, but my speakers are connected to the onboard Realtek HD Audio. & does not detect it, and installing the drivers is a bust. I get an "installation failed" error. The sound works fine when I switch to XP, though.
Back to the search. X(

[Pie]

It should download the correct drivers for you. Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Update

Check for updates. And download everything. Optional ones is where Non-OS updates are located. I had the opposite problem. Onboard works fine. My 7.1 surround does not. Guess that's what happens when you keep a sound card for 7 years..

[Ayce]

Yeah, that could be just too old, :laugh:

The funny thing here is, I looked again under CP, and it says nothing about HDMI audio. Just HD audio, and all I get is that there are no speakers or headphones attached. WMP 11 won't even try to play a file to see if it's just an odd speaker problem. Going to try the drivers direct from realtek, next.

[Chaul]

The HDMI part could be automatically disabling the onboard sound.. HDMI is going through the graphics card and I'm betting that it has it's own sound chip along side the GPU. But I wouldn't know how to disable it. My new computer is going to have 3 sound chips and I just know I'm going to be in trouble with W7. :p

[Ayce]

O.K. Got it sorted out. Had to uninstall the drivers, reboot and reinstall. After that, it still didn't work in quadrphonic config, si I tried the 5.1 and 7.1 setups. I found the speakers were plugged into the side channel for some odd reason. Switched speaker connections and voila, front and rear channels working right. :D

Not sure what will happen when I boot over to XP. :-/

[Pie]

O.K. Got it sorted out. Had to uninstall the drivers, reboot and reinstall. After that, it still didn't work in quadrphonic config, si I tried the 5.1 and 7.1 setups. I found the speakers were plugged into the side channel for some odd reason. Switched speaker connections and voila, front and rear channels working right. :D

Not sure what will happen when I boot over to XP. :-/

A massive explosion complete with flames and flying plastic bits!

[kevmeister]

I can see his tombstone now,...
"here lies Ayce,...
too much bass...
they found him lying...
on his face..."

:D

[Ayce]

:)) Sounds good to me.
Funny thing is, when I did switch back over, I had no front channel in XP. Checked the settings and switched to side speakers there, and all is fine. Seems to be a driver problem directing the sound to the wrong pinout. Duh.

[elitebyford]

so what is everybodys big deal with vista, i heard all the bum talk of it, and my ma's hp runs slower then dog poop with it and all her spyware/adware/antivirus/mal-ware/everythingdumbunderthesun/firewall, but my hp whitch is identical to hers but 1 yr. newer, and a smaller hard drive, seems to do ok, yes i have the occasional oppsie poopsie with the non-resposive programs, but nothing a ctrl + alt + tab and the task manager cant fix. and most my
pre-XP games work great in compatibility mode, (Rocket Jockey is awesome) the only issues i have are almost everytime i play the elder scrolls oblivion, i get the program not responding, but only upon exit and returning to windows, but i blame that on a loss of virtual memory or something because i play it off an ISO image and a virtual dvd drive, cuz i uh lost the disc :P hehehe. ya thats it. um, oh and i cant play burnout paradise without crashing to a blue screen, again, i blame myself for not buying anything EA related. (its ok if its um, you know right?) either way it dont matter cuz it crashes, every time. other then that, the last month or so Internet Explorer was consistantly cuasing an error, and then finally it popped up a little window from heaven stating that the version of IE was not up to date and to DL IE8, so i did and problem solved. but id say 85% of the crap i wanna do on Vista i can do with no problem, and i think thats swell for an HP.

[Pie]

7 is almost the same thing as Vista, they just rebuilt it and fixed a lot of the compatibility issues. Then added a different UI, added some more bells and whistles, and Presto! Another cash source for Microsoft. I just upgraded since I didn't see the point in buying a 64-bit version of XP or Vista for about the same amount.

[Allegedman]

I picked up windows 7 dirt cheap legally

i just have to know if i got the right version for my laptop

i picked up 64 bit but i think my notebook has 32 bit

[Pie]

I picked up windows 7 dirt cheap legally

i just have to know if i got the right version for my laptop

i picked up 64 bit but i think my notebook has 32 bit

What CPU does your laptop have?
If it's AMD the name of the CPU will tell you most of the time, "AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+"

If Not, Download CPU-Z(link) (http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php). Install it and start it.
After it starts look in the "Instructions" field, should look something like this "MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64".

It'll vary with the manufacturer and capabilities of the processor. You're looking for the "x86-64" part.
Which means it supports x86(32-bit) and x64(64-bit).

[Allegedman]

What CPU does your laptop have?
If it's AMD the name of the CPU will tell you most of the time, "AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+"

If Not, Download CPU-Z(link) (http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php). Install it and start it.
After it starts look in the "Instructions" field, should look something like this "MMX (+), 3DNow! (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, x86-64".

It'll vary with the manufacturer and capabilities of the processor. You're looking for the "x86-64" part.
Which means it supports x86(32-bit) and x64(64-bit).

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e142/allegedman/systemspecs.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e142/allegedman/systemspecs2.jpg

my system specs

i got 32 bit

[Pie]

my system specs

i got 32 bit

Yeah you would have to upgrade your CPU to run a 64-bit OS. And with it being a laptop... that's not likely to happen.

[budman21901]

I have been around computers many years, and have also worked in the field. I will say Windows is a good OS but they are better at business. Remember Windows ME before 98? Well that Vista before 7. Windows 7 will be good, but at the expense of millions of Vista users pocket books. Everyone that purchased Vista is basically beta testers testing there product. Microsoft has been a ripping businesses and home users off since Win95 days. They have been tried and convicted of it, and still continue to do it. I have a computer here today that the HD is crashed. HP wants me pay for a restore disk, and Windows won't give me a SLK key. Am i supposed to tell the customer they have to pay for something they have already paid for? I just can't do it anymore. I run Linux, and i can't ask my customers to do otherwise any longer. This proprietary crap has to stop. Its in superior to open source anyways. I am not here to bash windows, but if anyone needs any help with Linux let me know!

[Pie]

I have been around computers many years, and have also worked in the field. I will say Windows is a good OS but they are better at business. Remember Windows ME before 98? Well that Vista before 7. Windows 7 will be good, but at the expense of millions of Vista users pocket books. Everyone that purchased Vista is basically beta testers testing there product. Microsoft has been a ripping businesses and home users off since Win95 days. They have been tried and convicted of it, and still continue to do it. I have a computer here today that the HD is crashed. HP wants me pay for a restore disk, and Windows won't give me a SLK key. Am i supposed to tell the customer they have to pay for something they have already paid for? I just can't do it anymore. I run Linux, and i can't ask my customers to do otherwise any longer. This proprietary crap has to stop. Its in superior to open source anyways. I am not here to bash windows, but if anyone needs any help with Linux let me know!

Yep, anyone I know that wants to get a new PC, I tell them to come to me first. I will build it for them, they get a better PC with a lower cost. And they can do whatever with it.

I built mine, rebuilt my parents' emachine after a power surge cooked the psu, mobo and cpu, built my aunts, built 3 of my friends', rebuilt my ex landlords and going to do an upgrade on another friends here pretty soon.

Custom built PC users are increasing but at the same time proprietary systems are getting cheaper. Especially now that 7 came out, all those Vista systems are dirt cheap.

I've been meaning to try linux for years but since I mainly use my PC for gaming, i tend to stick with Windows.