Windows 7 — Page 5

Bassem said:

7 is nice, but what I don't enjoy about it is that it's still Vista under the hood. It has all the usual 'Vista-isms'.

* Insane 'choose-your-own-adventure' Control Panel

I thought I'd have trouble with this too, but it seems to be a lot more intuitive than XPs was.  I haven't wanted to turn Classic view on at all in Vista or Windows 7.

* UAC

What programs are you running that are giving you trouble with UAC?  I haven't encountered a single program that has a problem with it.  Sure, I get a popup when I run regedit or computer management, but I'd rather see that than have some piece of malware be able to do it in the background without me knowing it.  I don't run computer management at home that much anyway.  At work I get it whenever I open the management tools, so I just leave them open on my taskbar.

In Windows 7, UAC is being tweaked so it doesn't prompt when you try to do most of those things, but it'll still prompt if you try to change the UAC setting.

* Compatibility (Retro games particularly)

Uh, which games?  Just like XP, programs can be run in compatibility mode.  They can also be set to always Run as Administrator.  That'll give you a UAC prompt every time, but that's what happens when developers don't follow MS guidelines from the beginning (MS has always told developers to not use admin privileges unless they needed them...now they're being forced to follow that).

* Sucky OpenGL

If your OpenGL is having trouble, blame your drivers.  As far as I know, MS does not ship OpenGL drivers.  ATI and Nvidia typically supply their own OpenGL implementation in their drivers.  The desktop and Aero are implemented through DirectX.

* Painful networking (Sharing / Printers)

Again, what's the problem with this?  I have had no problems with it.  Sure, it's a little more restrictive by default than previous versions, but the restrictions can easily be disabled.

This honestly reads like a blog from January 2007, when Vista was first released.  I've read almost nothing but positive things about Windows 7, unlike what was published about Vista.  I've been running 64-bit Vista for almost 3 weeks now and I have yet to run into any problems (not even minor ones).

When it comes to computer nerdery, some people just like to complain no matter how many improvements get made.

I just disabled UAC in Vista. UAC was annoying me. I'd open something completely harmless and it'd take seconds of my life to make sure the Control Panel was safe to run. I'm running Spybot and ZoneAlarm Firewall so I'm not worried.

It's not bad OS actually.

Windows 7 as with Vista was made for anybody over 65 or who had purchased their first computer from Best Buy, Circuit City etc...and maybe took an adult ed class to "learn the computer"...

StormtroopersAreBetter said:

I just disabled UAC in Vista. UAC was annoying me. I'd open something completely harmless and it'd take seconds of my life to make sure the Control Panel was safe to run. I'm running Spybot and ZoneAlarm Firewall so I'm not worried.

It's not bad OS actually.

The control panel doesn't launch a UAC dialog.  This is why I usually wonder what people are doing when they say "I get UAC prompts all the time."  If you're installing software all the time, then no kidding.  But if you're not doing anything else, then you shouldn't be getting it very often.  I only get them when I attempt to diagnose a problem with a network adapter or add an exception to the Windows Firewall.

vbangle said:

Windows 7 as with Vista was made for anybody over 65 or who had purchased their first computer from Best Buy, Circuit City etc...and maybe took an adult ed class to "learn the computer"...

 

 

So the vast majority of PC users.  You could also put that label on most people that buy a Mac since they don't usually build those either.  As someone that did build his own, I can tell you that while Vista isn't a huge improvement over XP (though 64-bit Vista did push manufacturers to start writing 64-bit drivers), Windows 7 has a lot of features that are well worth the upgrade.  And that was just from using it for only an hour.

Got Windows 7 Ultimate for free. Installed it tonight and its great. Absolutely zero issues with hardware compatibility. All the programs I had installed for Vista work perfectly with 7 (including iTunes) . The task bar is simply amazing it's easily the best feature of the OS and well worth the upgrade alone (as long as you don't pay the ridiculous standard prices). I loved XP but 7 is finally a worthy successor.

Perks of working in IT

ferris209 said:

Dang! Well, I am one of those schmucks who paid near full price for Win 7 Pro, I got it for $284 shipped from Buy.com

And I thought I did good.

But I guess I ain't mad, I REALLY wanted that OS and did not want to wait nor get an "upgrade" edition that I'd have to hack everytime I wanted a fresh install. Plus, I wanted a license key I could easily move from one computer to the other if needed, which OEM version prevents.

E-Gads...I don't blame ya though. I was planning on having one of my friends in College purchase the Pro version through the Student discount deal for $30 ( and order a disk with it, extra $15). But I understand the peace of mind of having the full retail version, I think you made a good choice overall. The OS is great and it should be around a long while.

Im not sure what install route your planning but I had Vista Home Premium installed on my PC and I did a custom (Clean) install and it was so simple and smooth. Easily the most enjoyable OS install ever...no searching for drivers/Install disks..popped the disk in, ran the exceptionally quick installation...ran a couple window updates and all my hardware and peripherals were working like butter (including my 6+ year old printer). I have the Beta installed on my work PC ( did a dual boot with XP and that was simple as heck too). I was most concerned about iTunes and syncing my iPod touch once 7 was installed, but even that went issue free. Overall a great experience with it

ferris209 said:

Speaking of getting a good deal, I found out that Microsoft will sell Microsoft Office Enterprise Edition for personal use to Government employees for $10 as long as the government they work for has purchased an Office volume license. My city has a volume license, so I'm good there. Problem is that first I have to obtain some code from IT and then plug it into Microsoft's website, so now I am sitting and waiting for my IT dept to figure out what they are supposed to do to get the code. I wished they'd just let me use my city email to confirm my employment and sell the thing outright like they do for students.

For Office 2007? Funny thing is that our neighbor is in IT and as a gift he gave us a full retail version of Office 2007 Ultimate last year. So I have Windows 7 Ultimate and Office 2007 Ultimate and paid $0.00 hahaha not too shabby if you ask me.

Side note, I got a "Technical Preview" of Office 2010. It's not the jump that Office 2003 to Office 2007 was but it's a nice refresh. It seems that it has more features oriented for collaboration than anything else.

Octorox said:

I'm getting the 64-bit pro version soon via the student discount (a nice $45 dollars), although since Im installing it on my MBP with Snow Leopard I probably wont be booting into it all that often. You can clean install with an upgrade version right? I have a partition with Home Premium Vista 32-bit (which I bought in full but really dont care for) which I just plan to erase and install over.

Here is what I have found on that subject

    In order to install the upgrade version of Windows 7, you must have a qualifying Windows operating system installed and activated.  You cannot install an upgrade version of Windows 7 on a blank hard drive.  The installation procedure does not ask you to insert a Windows disc in the drive for verification, the actual qualifying operating system must be installed.

    If you do not have a qualifying Windows operating system installed with a genuine license activated, then you cannot use the upgrade version of Windows 7 - you would need a "full version" Windows 7 license.

    In summary:

       1. A qualifying Windows operating system must be installed.
       2. The qualifying Windows operating system must have a genuine license (product key) and it must be activated.
       3. To upgrade, boot to the qualifying Windows desktop, insert the Windows 7 Upgrade disc in the DVD drive.
       4. When the setup menu appears, select Custom (advanced) to initiate a clean install procedure.

The consensus is that if you insert the Upgrade disk and run the setup during a windows session, you can initiate a clean install or "custom" install as it is called. As long as the windows session you run it from has a valid product key and is activated.

Many articles regarding 7...from new features to tweaks

http://lifehacker.com/5386953/lifehackers-complete-guide-to-windows-7

dark_jedi said:

Yep I was XP Pro all the way but I have been hearing and reading a lot of very positive things about this new Win7,so where is the best place to buy the FULL version of Win7 Pro? seems pretty expensive.

Thanks

plus keep typing your comments,this thread has been pretty helpful to.

Amazon 

Newegg 

Depending on what you have currently installed on your computer I would consider the Student discount route.

dark_jedi said:

Thanks for the info Ghost,and if I was a student I certainly would love to take advantage of that discount,any students here want to give a hook up LOL.

1 more thing,do these versions come with both 32 & 64 bit versions on them?because I would love to take advantage of my 8GB's of RAM(I know my XP does not even see it let alone utilize it)and I have a Intel Quad Core @3.0 ghz,but the reason I never tried 64 bit is because I heard of a lot of problems,and a lot of software not working right,anyone have any info on this?

"Windows 7 Professional (includes 32 & 64-bit versions) lets you run Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP Mode, recover data easily with automatic backups to your home or business network, connect to company networks effortlessly and more securely"

That comes from the Amazon link I posted. I've heard some horrendous experiences with the 64 bit version of Vista (lots of program incompatibility) but I think that since Vista there has been some more push to increase the compatibility with the 64 bit versions. However I'm not sure how much easier things have become.

Think about it for a while, you gotta know someone whose in College still.