Windows 7

[Barnacle_Bill]

Got my free upgrade to Windows 7 today. Ran the compatibility check and looking good with a few things I need to address. Has anyone else done the upgrade? Any problems?

 

[NoKlu]

Re: Windows 7

I would order the disc and do a clean install instead of doing the upgrade over top of Vista.

 

[Knightgang]

Re: Windows 7

I never even went to Vista. The few computers that I have used that have Vista, I can't stand them...

So, I will not be going to Windows 7 any time soon, if ever...

 

[Bifflefan]

Re: Windows 7

I would order the disc and do a clean install instead of doing the upgrade over top of Vista.

You should be able to do a clean install with the upgrade disk.

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: Windows 7

I haven't run the upgrade. I heard that it can take a very long time depending on the speed of your computer.

I do run Windows 7 on one of my computers (clean install) and it has worked great so far.

I also use Vista and apart from a few programs not working it has been better than XP for me.

 

[Barnacle_Bill]

Re: Windows 7

I got the disc.

 

[dr_bowtie]

Re: Windows 7

I never do the Upgrade...I always fresh install...

even with the Upgrade disk...

 

[lowkee]

Re: Windows 7

If you do decide to do the upgrade, let us know how it goes. I've yet to hear of someone doing an in-place upgrade to Win7. I think everyone has been trained to never trust MS with an upgrade, myself included :redface:.

 

[Scooch_2]

Re: Windows 7

I recently purchased a new laptop that came with Vista and upgraded to Windows 7 as soon as it was available. The upgrade ran fine, but I didn't spend much time using it as vista.

So far, I would say it works better than expected. I had used Vista on a few machines including a work laptop and did not like it. I'm considering upgrading my other home PC to Win7 from XP.

 

[Barnacle_Bill]

Re: Windows 7

I did the upgrade today with no problems. It just took a long time.

 

[NoKlu]

Re: Windows 7

The Reason I said to get the disc is some of the upgrades are a download only and if you want a disc you have to pay. From what I understand W7 is a smaller program and a clean install is considerably better than the upgrade. I just got my new PC friday and put W7 pro 64 bit on it. It took about 15 minutes to install and I'm lovin the speed. It might have something to do with the i7 920 cpu and the SSD and 6 gig's of ram. Finally no waiting for things to load and I can run everything at the same time with out it slowing things down.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Windows 7

I'm going to stay with XP for as long as I can. I have too many programs that will have to be replaced if I go to Win 7.

One thing that I looked into is backwards compatibility for XP compatible software. Best Buy told me that Win 7 Pro has an XP emulator, but the upgrade is $200, which annoys the heck out of me. I suppose that its a lot cheaper than buying new photo editors, etc., but I really don't have a reason to need anything other than XP, so why spend the money?

I've been fooling with Ubuntu (Linux), because I would love to lose Windows altogether, but its a major pain to use any software, other than open source programs written for it. It just seems like you have to download patches to get anything to run.



???

 

[NoKlu]

Re: Windows 7

The only reason I did it was to upgrade my PC that is a 64 bit machine. So far I only have 1 old program that I loaded and it said it was incompatible even in XP mode,but it's running fine. If you do decide to upgrade you can find an OEM version of PRO on the net for 30-40 bucks cheaper than that. If you know anyone in University they can get you a copy for 30 in the US or 40 in Canada. I agree with moving away from Microsoft but the Mac machines are way too much money and you really have to know your way around a PC to work with Linux.

 

[dr_bowtie]

Re: Windows 7

I'm going to stay with XP for as long as I can. I have too many programs that will have to be replaced if I go to Win 7.

One thing that I looked into is backwards compatibility for XP compatible software. Best Buy told me that Win 7 Pro has an XP emulator, but the upgrade is $200, which annoys the heck out of me. I suppose that its a lot cheaper than buying new photo editors, etc., but I really don't have a reason to need anything other than XP, so why spend the money?

I've been fooling with Ubuntu (Linux), because I would love to lose Windows altogether, but its a major pain to use any software, other than open source programs written for it. It just seems like you have to download patches to get anything to run.



???

Everything that will run in XP will run under win7 100%...there is Compatibility mode if you need it...(right click the exe file and run it under compat mode) but you wont I havent found a single one yet....

Win7 also comes with Virtual XP...free of charge..you get this as a download direct from MS...it has 2 parts..the Virtual Machine app and then the XP install...

All you need then is a board and CPU that support Virtual Machine...AMD socket 939 or newer or and Intel C2D or C2Q or newer...no Semprons or Celerons....

Linux is a different animal....but works for everything but gamining and even then there are some games that do work under Linux....for others there is WINE which is a Windows Emulator....

For simple easy to use Linux I recommend PC Linux OS 2007 or newer...also free but University written and is very easy to use...

Although you need to download packets for apps think of it like this...for windows you need to go buy it and install it...for Linux you just download and install it from the Synaptic Package Manager...for FREE...

 

[Barnacle_Bill]

Re: Windows 7

Run this program and it will tell you where you stand. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15

 

[Subliminal]

Re: Windows 7

I've been running 7 since the initial beta came out. I have it running on two computers at my house.

1 is a dual core 8gb ram monster, which runs it fantastic. I use this computer to stream meadia to my home theater, play games, do graphic design, etc...basically my main computer. Windows 7 runs everything as fast as XP, but looks better doing it. I'd say it is a worthy upgrade...and I went straight from XP to 7, never really tried Vista until I got a new work computer with it installed...and quite honestly, that computer runs hassle free.

Where I think 7 shines is that I also run it on an old p4 computer with 512 ram...and it runs totally perfect on that computer as well.

So, I'd say 7 is great...and I'm a computer snob...I used to stay I'd stick with XP till the end, but you know what...7 rules.

 

[Cofe]

Re: Windows 7

Here is a useful pic. from ZDnet of the different versions of windows 7 and what they have to offer.

 

[i386]

Re: Windows 7

I don't like Vista. I had the Windows 7 beta but didn't spend a lot of time with it.

Last week I was issued a new Thinkpad at work with Windows 7. So far I have been a little annoyed with trying to find the locations of things but overall it seems fine. I think once I get proficient with it I'll be more productive with it than I was with XP. I like pinning things to the taskbar and jumplists. Our network at work is huge. Pinning folders to my windows explorer jumplist gets me to places quickly without drilling down through a large hierarchy.

 

[lowkee]

Re: Windows 7

One nice feature in Win7, which I use more than anything, is the start menu search. Hit the windows key and just start typing. Today I hauled out my bluetooth mouse for my laptop and didn't feel like hunting down where to get it configured, so I hit the windows key and typed "bluetooth" .. 2nd item in the list "add a bluetooth device". Granted, this method won't get me any more educated as to where stuff is.. but who cares

 

[roscoe]

Re: Windows 7

One nice feature in Win7, which I use more than anything, is the start menu search. Hit the windows key and just start typing. Today I hauled out my bluetooth mouse for my laptop and didn't feel like hunting down where to get it configured, so I hit the windows key and typed "bluetooth" .. 2nd item in the list "add a bluetooth device". Granted, this method won't get me any more educated as to where stuff is.. but who cares

Yep, just like "Spotlight" on a Mac.
This, along with many of the new features from vista and 7, are examples of Microsoft playing catch-up, again.