My windows 7 review

[rridgely]

Ok, so I said I would do a write up of my initial response to windows 7 and here it is.

I'll start with the bad...

1. DO NOT LET WINDOWS INSTALL YOUR DRIVERS. Caps are lame, but you need to pay attention to this. The first time I installed windows 7 I booted the computer, enabled auto updates and let it do its thing. The bad thing about the way it updates is that unless you click on the "number of updates" link in the auto update page you don't actually know what its installing. I went from having a fully functional machine to having my lan card not work(installed wrong driver) and my video card being crippled(installed OLD driver).

2. The verification process for the student version was crap. I had to make my own iso and then do a hacky thing in the registry to get it to validate. Would seem like I did something wrong, however if you said that you were upgrading from 32bit to 64bit they were supposed to give you a .iso to use(they did... 4 days later. Digital river customer support is slow).

3. The task bar at default is terrible(in my opinion). I often have 3 browser windows open, and I always launch them from the quick launch. In 7 if you try to make a quick launch that icon turns into your instance of the program. So to launch another browser you either click an icon somewhere else or have to right click your "quick launch" and make it open another one. Not a huge deal but I've been using windows for a long time, don't change crap like this, its annoying. Luckily you can very easily turn off the grouping and get your quick launch back.(they even through in a windows classic theme if your feeling like going back to 98... but the new aero themes are beautiful.

4. I wish they would have gotten rid of defender and put the "security essentials" program in its place. I hope that when I install essentials later that it will disable defender, if not I guess I'll do it myself, but I can see many people with slower computers having slow downs and not knowing their running multiple security programs.

So far thats it.

What I like so far:

1. I really like how they integrated the ribbon interface into pretty much all default software. Wordpad, paint, ect. They definitely are trying to get the mac principle of standardized interface in windows 7 and it works and its awesome.

2. They fixed UAC. I installed a bunch of software and not once did I feel like I needed to disable it. This was deffinitely not the case when I fixed vista computers, I would disable UAC first as it was more annoying than the viruses when I was trying to install stuff.

3. Updates are much less annoying than vista. You download the updates, install and reboot ONE TIME. Vista drove me freaking NUTS.

4. Seems snappy. I have this on a pretty nice computer(see my other topic) but it runs really nicely with no slowdown when opening programs, ect. So far I would say its got the looks of vista with the dependability of xp. Like it a lot.

I'm going to try "XP mode" tonight. I know its just a virtual machine, but it may be useful. I don't know what I will need it for but I got pro at the same price as home so it cant hurt to try it. I'm interested to see how it works with my processors "virtualization" chip.

Here are some helpful articles:

"activation"

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp

"quick launch"

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-7/add-the-quick-launch-bar-to-the-taskbar-in-windows-7/

[rridgely]

I got XP mode working.

And I'm about as underwhelmed as I expected. I wish they would have at least included an updated version of xp...

I haven't played with virtual machines much but I assume I can update it myself? I'll play with it later.(MUCH later) :P

[Eldmannen]

Your processor does not got a virtualization chip.

It got a couple of additional instructions used for virtualization added to the x86 instruction set architecture. Such as AMD-V and/or Intel VT, where VT has VT-x and VT-d.

I've only tried a beta or RC of Windows 7. Hopefully, I soon get around to trying the final release. Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" was released today, so thats whats up now for me.

[rridgely]

I guess your right. I didn't really look into it much, I just know some processors have it and some don't. Even some of the older Core2 ones don't so I figured it was hardware. whatever.

I just tried to install SP2 on my virtual xp and got an error, then I checked in the system menu and it actually has sp3 installed, I didn't check before. I just saw the old versions of IE and WMP and figured it was not up to date.

[ronboy51]

Hi,

I hope you can help me out with some info regarding Windows 7. I'm an old XP user, whose computer recently died requiring me to buy a new computer with the dreaded Vista. Let me say at this point that I'm NOT a technical user and have a limited knowledge of operating systems. I do know that I'm slowly losing the will to live while trying to load my old XP software to Vista. I'm actually a musician/music teacher which is my primary use of the computer. I've been getting more and more frustrated with Vista's inability to install my music software, i.e Cubasis, Bosendorfer 290 plus a variety of other music software. I've also been having a running battle with HP in trying to get my printer to work (the printer is only a year old, but inexplicably comes with software which only works with XP).

Anyway, to cut to the chase, my computer comes with a free upgrade to Windows 7. What I'd like to know is whether Windows 7 is any more compatible to my old XP software than Vista. I've been on the verge of re-installing XP, but do you think I should give Windows 7 a chance first, and if so can you give me any other advice. I've had poor responses from the various support for my old software (especially HP).

Thanks

Ok, so I said I would do a write up of my initial response to windows 7 and here it is.

I'll start with the bad...

1. DO NOT LET WINDOWS INSTALL YOUR DRIVERS. Caps are lame, but you need to pay attention to this. The first time I installed windows 7 I booted the computer, enabled auto updates and let it do its thing. The bad thing about the way it updates is that unless you click on the "number of updates" link in the auto update page you don't actually know what its installing. I went from having a fully functional machine to having my lan card not work(installed wrong driver) and my video card being crippled(installed OLD driver).

2. The verification process for the student version was crap. I had to make my own iso and then do a hacky thing in the registry to get it to validate. Would seem like I did something wrong, however if you said that you were upgrading from 32bit to 64bit they were supposed to give you a .iso to use(they did... 4 days later. Digital river customer support is slow).

3. The task bar at default is terrible(in my opinion). I often have 3 browser windows open, and I always launch them from the quick launch. In 7 if you try to make a quick launch that icon turns into your instance of the program. So to launch another browser you either click an icon somewhere else or have to right click your "quick launch" and make it open another one. Not a huge deal but I've been using windows for a long time, don't change crap like this, its annoying. Luckily you can very easily turn off the grouping and get your quick launch back.(they even through in a windows classic theme if your feeling like going back to 98... but the new aero themes are beautiful.

4. I wish they would have gotten rid of defender and put the "security essentials" program in its place. I hope that when I install essentials later that it will disable defender, if not I guess I'll do it myself, but I can see many people with slower computers having slow downs and not knowing their running multiple security programs.

So far thats it.

What I like so far:

1. I really like how they integrated the ribbon interface into pretty much all default software. Wordpad, paint, ect. They definitely are trying to get the mac principle of standardized interface in windows 7 and it works and its awesome.

2. They fixed UAC. I installed a bunch of software and not once did I feel like I needed to disable it. This was deffinitely not the case when I fixed vista computers, I would disable UAC first as it was more annoying than the viruses when I was trying to install stuff.

3. Updates are much less annoying than vista. You download the updates, install and reboot ONE TIME. Vista drove me freaking NUTS.

4. Seems snappy. I have this on a pretty nice computer(see my other topic) but it runs really nicely with no slowdown when opening programs, ect. So far I would say its got the looks of vista with the dependability of xp. Like it a lot.

I'm going to try "XP mode" tonight. I know its just a virtual machine, but it may be useful. I don't know what I will need it for but I got pro at the same price as home so it cant hurt to try it. I'm interested to see how it works with my processors "virtualization" chip.

Here are some helpful articles:

"activation"

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp

"quick launch"

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-7/add-the-quick-launch-bar-to-the-taskbar-in-windows-7/

[0_0]

If you can run your applications in Windows 7 and not in XP Mode, and have all the recommended system requirements met I would upgrade - but, that is a big butt. It may be helpful to check your applications websites and see if they offer upgrades to a Windows 7 spec otherwise XP is more than adequate to write and record music - virtual instruments in a virtual machine environment (XP Mode in 7) will need horsepower to run smoothly.

You will likely want to migrate to 7 eventually but not at the start of the semester, dual booting may be a better way to get familiar with Windows 7 and continue to write and record in an environment you're more familiar with, slowly moving apps over and testing them on the new OS.

My opinion of Vista - what little time I did give to it - was that Vista is far too intrusive to be useful for much of anything. I want to get to work and not spend a whole lot of time avoiding Vista's reminders to me that it is much smarter than I am.

Bottom Line: Windows 7 seems much better than Vista, it is new and not all apps will function problem free, so if your main goal is to write and record music (for the immediate future anyway) stick with XP and begin to investigate 7. If on the other hand, you don't mind a few hurdles and maybe doing without a few programs I would weather the storm - it will be sunnier than Vista but it will likely have some rain and a few storms, your investigating should clear up much of the concern regarding the software you want to run and the compatibility with Windows 7.

Windows 7 is the future and it looks much brighter than Vista but XP works, and if your priority is getting something done other than upgrading to the next OS stick with XP (for now).

You will get a number of people talking of how Windows 7 is more secure, so, if you do everything while connected to the internet this may be something to consider - this is not how I view my PC use - it is first a tool separate from the internet - then a toy for surfing the internet.

Remember these are my opinions so no griping if you should disagree - whoever you are...:P