Windows 7

[Cush]

Well I took the plunge and bought it and after a day of using it I can say that Im well impressed so far !. So much quicker than Vista and even XP. Almost everything Ive installed has worked, the only exception being my sound card software.

[Motormaniac]

Why do they change these things so often?

Seems like only yesterday I had to upgrade from XP to Vista, and that was painful. I'm reluctant now to change to Windows7. I might just wait till I buy a new laptop. That'll come with Windows7 installed, I'd imagine.

[RickHondaR]

Originally Posted by Motormaniac

Why do they change these things so often?

To keep getting people like us to buy the latest product and make a lot of money

[katsock]

Bill Gates Syndrome: If ain't broke, fix it till it is.

[kenP]

Originally Posted by Motormaniac

Why do they change these things so often?

Seems like only yesterday I had to upgrade from XP to Vista, and that was painful. I'm reluctant now to change to Windows7. I might just wait till I buy a new laptop. That'll come with Windows7 installed, I'd imagine.

I only got Windows 7 because I needed a new laptop, my old one was starting to struggle. If Vista scared you, don't panic, Windows 7 is much nicer.

[Jack The Lad.]

Originally Posted by katsock

Bill Gates Syndrome: If ain't broke, fix it till it is.

No wonder Sir Bill is at the moment the 2nd richest guy in the world.
Who else would let their product loose on the market and then get the folk who bought it, find the gremlins for him at no cost to MS.

Who Else ?? :- well Honda springs to mind.

[hgt]

just installed ubuntu 9.10, wipes the floor with xp and seven far far far faster, never realised how bad windows is until now.

[J. Derek Riddell]

Originally Posted by J. Derek Riddell

I've got Vista on my Desktop PC (that I am using now) and I have detested it from the very beginning ... I use XP on my Laptop and Netbook, which I vastly prefer to Vista ... So, I'm definitely going to change Vista (at least) for W7 ...

O.K. - finally did it - Desktop PC now migrated from Vista 32-bit to Seven 64-bit (so I had to do a 'clean install') ...

All in all - not that easy and certainly not quick ! ...

It took hours yesterday evening to do the "Settings & Files Easy Transfer" thing - BUT - I did do it from 'C:\' to 'E:\' - the latter being an extra internal 1TB unit, which proves that you do not need an external or removeable hard drive, no matter how much the W7 instructions insist that you do ! ...

Actually installing W7 itself was pretty quick - once I had realised that I had long ago 'screwed around' with the "boot order", such that I had to 'manually' interrupt the boot and select the DVD drive ...

Then, 'downloading' the "Settings & Files" back from 'E:\' to 'C:\' went a good deal faster than the original 'uploading' did, but still not a quick process (and longer than the W7 install) ...

Then came the really frustrating and time consuming part - installing all the original programs \ devices \ drivers \ etc. ...

Some (like the printer) happened after I ran 'Windows Update' - some (like my Norwegian Lottery smart card reader) took bloody hours of Internet searching, finding several sites (including the card reader manufacturer !) that got the W7 parameters wrong, before I found a fix (that usually involved a registry correction)

Most were somewhere in between the two extremes, but I had forgotten just how many "add-ons" I originally had, so I'm still not finished ...

Total elapsed time used so far is about 12 hours !, although the majority was waiting time (especially the "Easy Transfer" protocol) ...

More to find and install tomorrow - mostly easy stuff - just more time ...

Note :- couldn't for the life of me get "HTC Sync" for my new 'Hero' mobile to reinstall - and I can't even find any mention of W7 compatibility on the HTC website at all - anyone out there done \ managed this, so far ? ...

p.s. - Seven is already much better than Vista ever was - so, despite the "moaning" above, I'm actually well pleased ...

[Pottsy]

Workaround for HTC Hero Sync Problem in Windows 7 My Digital Life

[J. Derek Riddell]

Originally Posted by Pottsy

Workaround for HTC Hero Sync Problem in Windows 7 My Digital Life

"Takk skal du ha, Herr [Pottsy]" !!! ...

The fix worked just fine - several individual steps to go through - but no issues at the end ...

I think l've now reinstalled all other 'executables' and drivers as well, with the exception of a number of PC games, which will need to wait until tomorrow, because I've had enough for today ! ...

p.s. - something I forgot to mention yesterday - you can install the 32-bit system, realise that you were so stupid (afterwards) as to have inserted the wrong disk, then install the 64-bit system that you intended to all the time - so, I'm now living proof that installing W7 is pretty bullet-proof ! ...

[kenP]

I'm glad I hadn't got much stuff to transfer onto my laptop.

I've noticed that all the new machines seem to come with the 64 bit version installed, looks like 32 bit is dead.

[J. Derek Riddell]

Originally Posted by kenP

I'm glad I hadn't got much stuff to transfer onto my laptop. I've noticed that all the new machines seem to come with the 64 bit version installed, looks like 32 bit is dead.

Yeeppp - if you have Vista 64-bit already installed, then you can simply install Seven 64-bit as an "upgrade", which would be pretty quick ...

However, I see recently that Microsoft are now recommending that you do a "clean install" even for the above, seemingly to avoid 'legacy' Vista issues conflicting with Seven ...

Anyway, apart from my PC games, I'm now home and dry - next step is probably to install more RAM (which the 64-bit system handles readily) and upgrade the video card - alternatively, the January sales are coming soon, so I might just splash out on a new machine (and give my son the current 2-year old model) - or do both ! ...

p.s. - bugger, just realised that I've forgotten about "OpenOffice" - both free and better (IMHO) than Microsoft Works - pretty much 100% Microsoft Office compatible - downloading and installing now ...

[Santtu Pikkarainen]

Originally Posted by hgt

just installed ubuntu 9.10, wipes the floor with xp and seven far far far faster, never realised how bad windows is until now.

I work with Ubuntu from release 8.04 and never looked back. It's very, very good!

[Evil Berto]

Originally Posted by hgt

just installed ubuntu 9.10, wipes the floor with xp and seven far far far faster, never realised how bad windows is until now.

ubuntu is good, but lacks the driver support and features of any windows.mac based operating system

Windows 7 is the daddy atm, its so amazing.

[Santtu Pikkarainen]

Originally Posted by Evil Berto

ubuntu is good, but lacks the driver support and features of any windows.mac based operating system

Windows 7 is the daddy atm, its so amazing.

Hmmmm.... which features do you mean???? I can do whatever I want with Ubuntu. Drivers are only an issue of very new hardware.

[Evil Berto]

Originally Posted by Santtu Pikkarainen

Hmmmm.... which features do you mean???? I can do whatever I want with Ubuntu. Drivers are only an issue of very new hardware.

Not tried the latest ubuntu, dont get me wrong i was very impressed with the previous versions, but the inability to do any sort of windows tasks is a little hinderance..

however it is on my firewall pc at home

[Santtu Pikkarainen]

Originally Posted by Evil Berto

Not tried the latest ubuntu, dont get me wrong i was very impressed with the previous versions, but the inability to do any sort of windows tasks is a little hinderance..

however it is on my firewall pc at home

Okay, things like Photoshop aren't there for Linux, but Gimp is a reasonable alternative. Games might be a problem, although most of them should work with Wine. For what I do at home it's the perfect OS. And I think that most people who do the "default" internet, email and write a letter stuff can safe some money by switching to Ubuntu (no money for OS, no virusscanner needed, build in very good firewall, and very good build in safety).

[Evil Berto]

Originally Posted by Santtu Pikkarainen

Okay, things like Photoshop aren't there for Linux, but Gimp is a reasonable alternative. Games might be a problem, although most of them should work with Wine. For what I do at home it's the perfect OS. And I think that most people who do the "default" internet, email and write a letter stuff can safe some money by switching to Ubuntu (no money for OS, no virusscanner needed, build in very good firewall, and very good build in safety).

It is a good alternative to the many many linux based OS's

Just i think windows and Mac os offer so much more, but then there not free...

[J. Derek Riddell]

Originally Posted by Evil Berto

It is a good alternative to the many many linux based OS's. Just I think windows and Mac os offer so much more, but then there not free...

And - unfortunately - W7 isn't yet totally "unbugged" ...

My PC games are running way slower on Seven 64-bit, than they were on Vista 32-bit ...

Windows Update hasn't done anything to fix it, so I guess that tonight I'll have to go and manually hunt for appropriate updated 'NVidia' drivers and \ or fixes ...

Mind you, apart from games, Seven is still much better than Vista (which isn't actually saying all that much, as Vista is generally a pile of steaming poo) ...

[Evil Berto]

Originally Posted by J. Derek Riddell

And - unfortunately - W7 isn't yet totally "unbugged" ...

My PC games are running way slower on Seven 64-bit, than they were on Vista 32-bit ...

Windows Update hasn't done anything to fix it, so I guess that tonight I'll have to go and manually hunt for appropriate updated 'NVidia' drivers and \ or fixes ...

Mind you, apart from games, Seven is still much better than Vista (which isn't actually saying all that much, as Vista is generally a pile of steaming poo) ...

Thats just it though, 7 wasnt designed for games, and dont forget there running on the vista kernel sturcture not the 7 one, which they will run slower until they bring out patches for it, and your also running 32bit games on a 64bit kernel..


Nvidia should already have 7 drivers out, like most companies.. :S