Win7 is here!!

[Canuck935]

Win7 is here!!! Hooray!!!

I'm downloading my 32bit copy for my old laptop right now. My 64bit copy for the desktop should be waiting at my doorstep when I get home today. I am so very excited if you can't tell. I've already been using Win7 at work for a long time now, and it didn't take long to fall in love with it. It's definitely better than Vista, and XP can finally be laid to rest for good.

Happy Win7 Day!!

[Franglais]

What features do you like more about Win7 than Vista?

It would be nice to get businesses to move on from XP but we need to show there's some real advantage.

[Frog]

I read an article that one can't just update from XP . http://www.betanews.com/article/Wind...ble/1235440384

Have to do more reading to know if its really that hard.

[mwfanelli2]

I read an article that one can't just update from XP . http://www.betanews.com/article/Wind...ble/1235440384

Have to do more reading to know if its really that hard.

Microsoft super-strongly recommends a clean install for XP machines. Clean installs are recommended but not critical for Vista machines. Some upgraders from Vista have run into problems.

Backups before any new install of any OS are highly recommended!

[Canuck935]

I am personally formatting my drives and starting with a clean install, and I have already backed up my photos, lightroom catalog, and other important documents on an external portable hard drive.

If you are using XP you won't be able to just upgrade. Win7 will save all your XP stuff into a folder that you can access to retrieve documents and other files from, but you will have to reinstall all your programs on Win7.

If you are using Vista, you can just upgrade and it will keep all your installed programs and settings in tact. The catch is you can only upgrade from 32bit to 32bit or 64bit to 64bit. So if you are going from 32bit to 64bit or 64bit to 32bit, a custom install is your only choice. If you do a custom install instead of upgrade, it will do the same thing as it does with XP and save all your Vista stuff in a separate folder, so long as you don't format your drive in the process.

Whichever way you go, it is a good idea to back up your files first.

[dl4449]

Up graded last night from Vista 64 piece of cake. 7 does not have outlook express or movie maker included but can be downloaded for free.
So far no problems I will do a clean install later
Troy

[Canuck935]

So I tried to do a clean install. My primary drives are two WD Raptors in RAID 0. Win 7 loaded the driver fine, but gave me error messages that it could not install to that drive.

Instead of spending my time trouble shooting, I clean installed Vista 64 then did an upgrade to Win7 64. Worked great. I just had to clean up the Vista stuff it saved.

Win7 recognized and loaded appropriate drivers for all my hardware (even my USB TV tuner), except for my huey device (which I just downloaded the Vista version of their SW - works fine).

I think right now my favorite Win7 feature has to be Media Center. It is brilliant. Like I mentioned before Win7 recognized and installed my usb tv tuner, and Media Center can use it. In Vista, I had to use the manufacturers TV application which was buggy. The Win7 MC guide is great, and it also offers plenty of on-demand content from some of the major broadcast companies. Netflix integration is still there too.

I didn't think much of it at first, but the Win7 home group network feature is great. It makes file sharing way faster and easier. My favorite thing is that home group sharing will only share with other Win7 machines that connect to the home group via a password. This is great for me since I have other people on my network (roommates) that I don't want to allow access to my files. It's easy with home group - no more fussing around setting permissions.

Yo XP and Vista. I'm real happy for you, and I'm-a let you finish, but Win7 is the best Windows OS of all time. OF ALL TIME!!

[flyinion]

Yep I'm so looking forward to getting Win7. Might be a couple months though since my bank account got raided by the vacation I just got back from. Planning on the 149 triple license pack for Home Premium so I can do both the laptop and the desktop for a decent price (normally 119 for a single license copy). As far as business use, I think Win7 would be the one to get businesses away from XP. Professional and above have an emulated XP mode for applications that just refuse to run on Win 7. It's only good for business apps though. It emulates a generic system with no video support other than a basic video card, so it would not be suitable for something like games that need DirectX or OpenGL.

[GB1]

Let us know of your impressions on 7.

Specifically, how does it offer improvement over Vista?

I have been using Vista for a little less than a year, and am not impressed. It seems like it doesn't retain my settings/preferences, it often loses connection to the internet requiring a reboot (I think it is downloading system updates and not caching them for the next reboot, but installing them immediately which hoses up your connection ...), and pops up all sorts of annoying messages, many of which are incorrect like telling me I have no firewall running when indeed I do, TWO of them actually (!)

[Canuck935]

I used Vista since SP1. I haven't had any issues similar to yours, but I will tell you that Win7 is light years ahead of Vista. Because of the issues you've been having, I would probably recommend that (if you decide to upgrade) you back up your important stuff then format and clean install Win7.

The annoying messages can either be turned on or off in Vista, but Win7 allows a few different levels of UAC so you can tweak it to your preference. Your other problems I'm not sure about without further investigation.

I've even put a copy of Win7 on my six year old laptop. It was running XP before, and with Win7 it's like a brand new machine. It can't handle the aero theme, but otherwise it is much speedier and responsive. The only issue I ran into with the laptop was Win7 couldn't find a display driver. However, I installed the XP driver off the driver disc that came with the laptop and it works just fine.

Installing hardware on Win7 is mostly cake as I mentioned in a previous post. Just sit back and let it do the work for you. I used to have to spend a lot of time downloading and installing drivers for all of my hardware. Win7 does that for you. Even my network printer was easy. I went to Devices and Printers in Control Panel, clicked add a device, selected network, and it found my printer, installed drivers, and I was done. Between my desktop and laptop I only had to find a total of 2 device drivers on my own.

What makes Win7 really shine though is all the little tweaks to the UI's and usability. The superbar takes some getting used to, but it is brilliant. Pin any program to the superbar, right click to access specific tasks and recent items for that program. The windows snap feature is simple but oh so useful. Gone is the Vista sidebar (and let's hope it never comes back), but gadgets are still available to place anywhere on the desktop.

Personally, I think the upgrade to Win7 from either XP or Vista is a total no-brainer. I'm never touching XP or Vista again (except when I'm at work)..

[ken1953]

I just ordered my free upgrade so not sure when it will be here. I'll be going from V-64 to w7-64.

[embertin]

Hi all,
How is Windows 7 different from Vista or XP?
Generally:
Faster, less requirements to run, new features.

Features: "Compare" Slide one window all the way to the side and it will cover the screen. Same for another window. Good for comparing and swapping files.

Different interface with different task-bar.

A few more control panel options.
Overall, it's really just a major update of Vista. Such as Mac OS X Snow Leopard vs. Snow Leopard.

[BlueRob]

Well, I just got my 7 copy and ready to perform a clean install...if you ask me it is the only way, I´m haven't been happy with any updates, clean install with a full reformat has always been the trouble free way for me. Look at it as cleaning your socks drawer, is not just a matter of arraigning the sucks, you have to get rid of the old ones you don´t use any more.

XP was great for me many many years, Vista has been Ok for a month, with a lot of fine tunning became easy to use, but I have to admit I had to disable some of its "features" to avoid warning messages and its "predictive software feature" which just messes up things.
Lets see how 7 performs...TBH I dont care do some tweaking or adapting to a "new" interface...what really matter for me is stability no more no less, XP was great, Vista was poor...7 I´ll tell you after some stress tests.