Thread: Windows 7

Anyone on it?

I upgraded today from Vista and it was all trouble free apart from my wi-fi driver which I had to unistall. It reinstalled itself as soon as I switched it back on after the installation though.

I'm not keen on the whole new setup on the taskbar though. I suppose it may work for some but I've changed it to the traditional method and created a quick launch toolbar as it's what I have used the most for the last year or so on Vista.

Another little bug was with MSN. For some reason when MSN is open it has 2 windows open on the taskbar and doesn't minimise to the system tray. I found out that by running Messenger in compatibility mode for Vista it runs as it always has done.

Other than that it's great!

I love Aero Peek and Snap. I'm doing a degree at the moment and Word and Excel are my main tools. Snap just makes things nice an simple when I'm doing my assignments.

Not sure on the supposed speed increase just yet. It's definitely not slower though.

I like that they added a United Kingdom desktop background (wallpaper) theme. It's got The Giants Causeway on right now.

All my programmes so far work ok apart from Daemon Tools Lite. Might have to find a newer version for that though.

Been using it for a while, RTM & its nothing spectacular tbh, taskbar did my head in 1st but now I see benefits with the aero changes, I also as you found the msn icon fix as that annoyed the hell outta me, also the show desktop was removed & the silly tab by the clock added, got fedup moving across to the right all the time to show desktop, so I created a show desktop icon again with a little trick from online.

Its definitely quicker, less buggy as vista, but its not liking my router in italy atm, but could need a belkin update for that or the N wifi mini pci needs an updated driver from dell or should I say atheros.

Dell btw are fecking useless & arrogant gits aswell, the term static precaution isnt a term they know to well when swapping parts out, they made more of a mess of my studio xps 13 than it started with, emailed michael dell aswell, got passed to executive office here but still arrogant as before, so another email coming across to mr dells office.

Overall if you want to fix vistas issues, then it will do this mostly because the drivers are written better which was vistas main problem, wasnt down to MS mostly, was crap written drivers & they still are, namely nvidia, useless idiots, even the studio xps with sli mode didnt work properly until the last month, its been for sale for a year from dell now, ridiculous, but even now its buggy with losing dual screen to my HD screen when screen powers of on laptop to conserve power, maybe screen saver mode would help, but also preserves the lcd, ati next for sure, much better drivers, reliability, nvidia are on way out of gpu aswell I believe so thank god, they have good ideas, but cant back it up with good drivers.

I'd say though windows needs a rather large jump to new features & ease of use with windows 8, something with some outside of the boxthinking, as its just the same old windows atm, nothing to make me go wow yeah have it now, its in joe bloggs terms a glorified windows 95 as was 98, 2000, xp, vista.

Business side & IT users see benefits but everyday users its just skinned to look different that Wincustomise can do for alot less to say XP.

Ive installed it on my standalone test pc at work. Just use it for basic things at the moment but seems ok. Boot up time is nice, minimal processes help. Not interested in the flashy marketiing ploys, just how it runs.

Few little annoying things but Ive got x64 ultimate to put on my home pc too when I get round to it.

One bug Ive found is you cant do a a my documents redirect. No fix as of yet. I expect to find more faults as I go along but Im sure they will be addressed eventually in a service pack lol

As Nige said, people who use their PC everyday for work and networking will find things much easier and quicker.

Home users may as well stick to XP if they are just going to use it for a bit of ebay every now and then.

Still Vista can kindly shove it now that 7 has been released

Vista sucks salty goat testicles imo

I don't understand what was wrong with Vista! I loved it when it first came out. It was how Windows should always have been. Never really had problems with it either.

Originally Posted by MintyS3

One bug Ive found is you cant do a a my documents redirect. No fix as of yet. I expect to find more faults as I go along but Im sure they will be addressed eventually in a service pack lol

Just hunting registry for a setting to swap this over to my NAS mapped drive, found something under a SID that I thinks my username, has some homefile & default location settings in there, will play around more & change some to see if this affects my docs default location, also will check rest of registry for what I did in vista.

Obviously you have a different id on your machine than mine below, but shows the branches to look in as an example.

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1509316327-2552989869-544126386-1001\Volatile Environment]

Edit. Ok go into windows explorer, right click on the My Documents folder directly under your username & go into properties & this will give you 6 tabs & one has the location you can set it for, sorted.

I've been using the RTM for several months and love it personally....

Definately less buggy, and smoother than Vista. A lot less system resource hungry.

This may be of interest to anyone considering upgrading: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/10/30/238364/window-7-users-struggle-to-boot-up.htm

A couple more things now I've had a little more time with it.

A dislike:

Libraries. Hate it. Illogical. I guess there may be some that find it useful but I have within my user folder all the folders I need and they're organised properly already. Libraries is unnecessary and for some reason it takes away a few of the normal explorer features and tools. I've disabled it now though.

A like:

Just been copying a video onto my PMP and the taskbar button turns into a copy progress bar:



Very handy

Originally Posted by NHN

Just hunting registry for a setting to swap this over to my NAS mapped drive, found something under a SID that I thinks my username, has some homefile & default location settings in there, will play around more & change some to see if this affects my docs default location, also will check rest of registry for what I did in vista.

Obviously you have a different id on your machine than mine below, but shows the branches to look in as an example.

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1509316327-2552989869-544126386-1001\Volatile Environment]

Edit. Ok go into windows explorer, right click on the My Documents folder directly under your username & go into properties & this will give you 6 tabs & one has the location you can set it for, sorted.

Yeh Im aware of that. Thinking about it, its probbaly only a problem if your running a domain and doing a redirect to your server.

Nevermind, Im being lazy and not going over 7 too much. I should really seeing as Im meant to support it.

Ive been using it for a while and I really like it tbh, all apart from the libraries... I've been saving pictures and then end up saving them in the wrong location!

Whats Aero Peek and Snap? I've searched but I have no such thing!

To get full aero compatibility you need to do a system evaluation check, go into control panel & then performance information & tools & right side near bottom click run assessment again, this will analyse the cpu, memory, graphics etc to see if system can support aero fully

I got 5.3!

been running the RTM copy for a while without issue. Just been informed I can expect gratis Professional edition next week . My friends son is MS certified and can get me it from work - never owned a version of windows that came in a box LOL

My question is 64bit or 32bit. I only have 4gig at moment but my main uses are after effects, 3ds max & Premier Pro. I'm guessing 64 bit drivers are bit better since my early XP days when it was a pain in the butt with nothing working.

How about 86-bit

eh? Lost me LOL. Wouldn't 128 bit be next LOL

Originally Posted by Khufu

been running the RTM copy for a while without issue. Just been informed I can expect gratis Professional edition next week . My friends son is MS certified and can get me it from work - never owned a version of windows that came in a box LOL

My question is 64bit or 32bit. I only have 4gig at moment but my main uses are after effects, 3ds max & Premier Pro. I'm guessing 64 bit drivers are bit better since my early XP days when it was a pain in the butt with nothing working.

What processor do you have? Is it 32 or 64 Bit? If its a 32Bit processor then you will need the 32Bit edition. If you have a 64 Bit processor then you have the choice.

its a core 2 Quad Q9550 so it will handle 64bit no problems, its just the reliability and compatibility issues I have plus need to swap to 64 bit of software I have LOL

Originally Posted by jb0o

Ive been using it for a while and I really like it tbh, all apart from the libraries... I've been saving pictures and then end up saving them in the wrong location!

Whats Aero Peek and Snap? I've searched but I have no such thing!

Aero Peek is when you put the curspr over the desktop button and it makes the window all seethrough so you can see the desktop.

Aero Snap is the thing where you drag a window to the edge of the screen and it Snaps it to the edge of the screen and it takes up 50% of the width. Very useful for comparing two windows.

It seems others are not liking libraries: http://www.windows7taskforce.com/view/3356

Originally Posted by Khufu

eh? Lost me LOL. Wouldn't 128 bit be next LOL

My bad. I assumed x84 was 84 bit whereas x64 is 64 bit..

Originally Posted by MintyS3

Yeh Im aware of that. Thinking about it, its probbaly only a problem if your running a domain and doing a redirect to your server.

Ah well domain controller will handle that then dependent on rights, although TweakUI was a good tool for xp, just map a drive & change location with that app.

Originally Posted by Khufu

Just been informed I can expect gratis Professional edition next week . My friends son is MS certified and can get me it from work - never owned a version of windows that came in a box LOL

Uh, huh hurrrm fancy getting me a copy to, lol, seriously.

Originally Posted by Khufu

Wouldn't 128 bit be next LOL

Yeah has been discussed recently about windows 8 tbh, but thats a huge step & I dont even think 64bit is that reliable atm

Originally Posted by Khufu

its a core 2 Quad Q9550 so it will handle 64bit no problems, its just the reliability and compatibility issues I have plus need to swap to 64 bit of software I have LOL

Huh why, you can run 32bit apps mate with 64bit OS

Id be happy to sell off some Serial keys for Windows 7 Professional, x64 and x86 -- £10 each.

Legit keys, got through my uni MSDN account. Obviously not suppoed to distribute, but meh.

Originally Posted by NHN

Ah well domain controller will handle that then dependent on rights, although TweakUI was a good tool for xp, just map a drive & change location with that app.



Uh, huh hurrrm fancy getting me a copy to, lol, seriously.



Yeah has been discussed recently about windows 8 tbh, but thats a huge step & I dont even think 64bit is that reliable atm



Huh why, you can run 32bit apps mate with 64bit OS

sure can, i just had options of getting the 64 bit versions of software I have already but opted for 32 bit. Native 64 bit would be better.

I will see what I can do RE official DVD of Win7 for you but I think I'm lucky to get one for myself

Getting a little fed up with 7 now.

Ok the slideshow gadget won't let me select a folder other than 'My Pictures' and in that it can't find anything anyway.

The desktop background won't let me select a folder either.

I keep getting a freeze on the mouse. Every 20 seconds with my external mouse and every minute or so using the mousepad.

I genuinely had no problems like this with Vista

something is def amiss with the mouse situation. I guess it could be some conflict with the mouse drivers or the USB drivers. Sorry I cant be of any help.

A bit more investigating and I found that the device manager list was refreshing every 20 seconds in time with the external mouse problem. The other freezing on the mousepad was actually effecting the whole system though.

Just found that with the wireless button turned off all problems seem to go away....

Ive been runnign it for 2 weeks now, still getting to grips. Youve just helped me fix the msn annoying issue !!

How have you got quicklaunch back though? Its doing my head in not having that.

2 things I really don't like are Dont like this new "pin" / "unpin" from the taskbar and the fact windows media player toolbar has disappeared !!

I don't use the task bar pin thing whatsoever. It' s a bit of a mac copy thing I think and not something I am into.

To create the quick launch right click on the taskbar - toolbars - create new toolbar - call it quick launch (if you want!) - pick a folder in my documents - then start dropping links into it. Right click on it and deselect show text and the other one. It's exactly the same as the quick lunch was now.

You can probably create a WMP toolbar too.

But the pin etc option is the same as the quick launch anyway, you can just drag items to the taskbar aswell, I dont see any difference in operation overall.

You can do a few things really with wmp, the most well recognised is to downgrade it from 12 to 11 which brings back the toolbar, also hovering over the taskbar wmp quick launch button will popup a small window with play/pause & fwd/back controls when wmp is open of course when aero is fully working when you do a hardware assessment.

Just do online search & you will find various ways to do things to get some functions back to previous.

But the pin takes up more room and I have about 20 things in my quick launch so it'd be impossible to do that for everything.

I just like quick launch links and taskbar buttons to be separate. I'm used to that and it makes sense to me.

I'll give you that, tis true, they do seem to take up to much room, but I bet there's a reg hack to make the spacing smaller, infact without a doubt there must be.

Yeah probably is but it's just as easy to make a quick launch and it's just how I like it and it means that I then also have normal sized buttons that work as they always have done:

Well I upgraded my vista to 7 at home. Not as quick loading as vista but I might just format the drive and do a clean install of 7. Ive allready got 42 updates to do and 7 hasnt been long out.

Got a performance score on 5.5. Thought I would see more with my spec but I defenately still need more ram. 7 is still resource hungry.

Chaps! Bludy brilliant advice. Just got my Quick Launch back, brilliant stuff.

I just couldn't get used to the Pin/Unpin so it had to go! It's So much cleaner now.
I quite like the way you can revert back to old taskbar style it's just knowing how to do it. Nice to have the option!

As for windows media player i think i will try to downgrade back to 11. Honestly see no advantage of 12 at all.

Hey lads! I've been beta testing w7 since it came release for testing. It's a darn sight better than vista. It doesn't run on the same kernel as vista, its a tweeked version on xp's kernel which is why its soo much more faster! Any questions and i'll try and answer them with what i know!

Leon, what is your desktop pic

lol, perv

Olay...

Ive not found 7 to be any faster on my own uber pc but it is defenately faster on this crappy pc I installed it on in work.

Originally Posted by Staz

But the pin takes up more room and I have about 20 things in my quick launch so it'd be impossible to do that for everything.

I just like quick launch links and taskbar buttons to be separate. I'm used to that and it makes sense to me.

I currently still use the Office 2000 shortcut bar. I have it parked on the left hand side of my screen and set to 'always on top' and on my 1440x900 resolution I can have around 25 icons visable at all times.

I have a new Dell 960 desktop pc which was purchased with Vista but downgraded to XP and a free upgrade to Windows 7. I had W7 Release Candidate loaded in a separate partition on my previous desktop and it ran well and quicker than Vista but not quite as quick as XP. I also have XP loaded on my Sony laptop and my wife has XP on her desktop. Etka and Elsawin will not run under Vista or W7 at the moment so I may stay with XP for a while but have a W7 partition and dual-boot. I also have a Windows Home Server machine which automatically backs up our pc's each night (a discipline let over from my network manager days) and I don't think the current version likes W7 partitions.

Strange, etka & elsa works fine for me under vista, win 7 will test later tbh.

Im sure I had both running on Win 7 Beta ok, Etka does work for sure, i'm still using it with win 7 RC.

I shall to try them. It's just during the installation of Elsawin it says it will not work on Vista. When I get my free copy of W7 from Dell I will load it into a separate partition and try installing both.

Was yours already installed and then you upgraded to W7 or did your do a clean install of W7 and then install Etka and Elsawin. It's possible that the programs will run OK but the installation routines will not work properly.

cant remember about ElsaWin but ETKA was installed on a spare drive under XP and just happened to still work when I changed to Win 7.

Still not as good as snow leopard in my opinion. I work as a AV/IT engineer and have used both for a little while now. To be honest I find leopard smoother, faster and generally a much more polished operating system. I had all sorts of problems installing windows 7 from my previous XP install. It wanted a fresh install then claimed I needed a valid vista install to upgrade from! I know a lot of other people have had this problem too! Theres still a lot of clutter bundled with windows and its takes quite a while to set it up how you want it. It also seems to be slowing down over the last few weeks, a problem XP and Vista both suffered from. I've also had a fair few crashes, especially when installing drivers etc. Windows 7 is definitely a worth while upgrade from Vista as it was literally useless. I still think Microsoft will struggle to persuade businesses, university's etc to upgrade from XP though! As for upgrading Leopard to Snow Leopard, you put the disc in, literally click a few buttons and its done! It boots very fast and the os is very quick and smooth! Having said that I have had two crashes, double what I had while using Leopard last year!

ETKA works fine for me too. Did on Vista also.

Originally Posted by nilz18t

Leon, what is your desktop pic

It's from the front cover of this months Front magazine:

http://www.frontarmy.co.uk/downloads...-your-desktop/

Originally Posted by Staz

ETKA works fine for me too. Did on Vista also.

But did you install Etka on a clean install of Windows 7 or just upgrade your current OS to Windows 7. I think it may be the installation routine that does not work yet with W7.

I will try it soon. I have just received an email from Dell telling me my free W7 upgrade has been dispatched. I will do a clean install of W7 (assuming from copy from Dell will allow me to do that) to a separate partition and try and install Etka 7.2 and Elsawin 7.62 and see what happens. My new desktop has a 1TB hard disk so I have plenty of room to play.

Both worked fine for me on vista clean installs every time on laptops & desktops, several different ones infact.

Installed on Vista then upgraded to 7.

Interesting because the installation instructions I have for Elsawin 3.70 (2009) say...

"Minimum requirements - PC with at least Windows NT4.0 - NOT compatible with Windows Vista"

It will be interesting to try a new install on a clean install of Windows 7 and see what happens. I'll take an image of the Windows 7 clean install beforehand just in case it screws it up.

It will be like old times. For the my last 8 years working full time one of the parts of my job was to install the latest revision of the companies software into the various operating system, to make sure they installed correctly and worked when they were installed before it went out to the customers.

Very strange as elsawin even previous versions has worked on vista no worries.