Windows 7
Joined: Oct 2000
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From: Sunny Sussex
Joined: Jun 2006
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From: BRISTOL!
Cant add much to this really, i have used Windows 7 only in VMWare for around 18 months now as i got it via MSDN, and have had several builds either via MSDN or via Uni.
I can say that in VMWare it runs better than Vista and Vista SP1 (Business), but not as good as server 2008.
I dont expect anything to run well in a virtual machine, but its good to compare, and use a few benchmark tools.
XP is still a clear winner as i dont give stuff about the visual design, if i did i would get a MAC for sure.
Vista is a little more security aware, but nothing you cant add to XP with a few bits of light software.
I have only used X86 or 32Bit one, so maybe the 64Bit version is just amazing and super quick.
If so, i can feel a notebook upgrade coming, even though i swore my next notebook would be a MacPro15"
I can say that in VMWare it runs better than Vista and Vista SP1 (Business), but not as good as server 2008.
I dont expect anything to run well in a virtual machine, but its good to compare, and use a few benchmark tools.
XP is still a clear winner as i dont give stuff about the visual design, if i did i would get a MAC for sure.
Vista is a little more security aware, but nothing you cant add to XP with a few bits of light software.
I have only used X86 or 32Bit one, so maybe the 64Bit version is just amazing and super quick.
If so, i can feel a notebook upgrade coming, even though i swore my next notebook would be a MacPro15"
Official PPRuNe Chaplain
Joined: Apr 2001
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From: Witnesham, Suffolk
I've sorted those two niggles. "Advanced System Settings" fixed both in about a minute. I'd not looked there before. Easy!
The "boot"option via ASS is far easier than messing with BCDEDIT.
The next test is to time this and XP - I doubt there will be much in it.
The "boot"option via ASS is far easier than messing with BCDEDIT.
The next test is to time this and XP - I doubt there will be much in it.
More bang for your buck
Joined: Nov 2005
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From: land of the clanger
Re networking, mine works but only after I told it that it was a work network, the problem I now have is that none of the short cuts on my wife's m/c for doc sharing work any more as the drive partitions are different and if you start talking about drive letters her eyes glaze over. 
More bang for your buck
Joined: Nov 2005
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From: land of the clanger
Having spent the last couple of days exclusively using 7 the following comments seem to be in order:
1) It seems to be faster thab XP, but that might be the way XP is set up.
2) I'm a webcam freak and there seems to be a problem when viewing some sites although I have the same add-ons/plugings etc. Some will only work if I switch to the IE tab some tell me access is denied which ever browser I use.
3) Double clicking on a desk top icon doesn't alllways open a program, you have to either right click and tell it to open, or refresh the desk top then double click.
4) Both browsers lock up completely on certain sites, but the OS reconises it and after trying to sort it out shuts the program down and compiles a report to send of to MS if you wish.
5) once you've got used to the admin stuff and the CP using slightly different names for things they seem to work better than in XP and much, much better than in Vista.
6) Colours are more vibrant than in XP which is nice for pictures (although setting up the monitor profile without a colourimeter may be a bit of a problem) but not so good on here as the colours are a bit "in your face" if you see what I mean. (no I haven't tried playing with settings) And monitor geometry is different so it needs setting up again.
Over all, a vast improvement over Vista and, with it's self repairing facility, an improvement over XP. will probably spend today tweeking it and seeing if I can get things a bit more 'normal' what ever that means. Time will tell
1) It seems to be faster thab XP, but that might be the way XP is set up.
2) I'm a webcam freak and there seems to be a problem when viewing some sites although I have the same add-ons/plugings etc. Some will only work if I switch to the IE tab some tell me access is denied which ever browser I use.
3) Double clicking on a desk top icon doesn't alllways open a program, you have to either right click and tell it to open, or refresh the desk top then double click.
4) Both browsers lock up completely on certain sites, but the OS reconises it and after trying to sort it out shuts the program down and compiles a report to send of to MS if you wish.
5) once you've got used to the admin stuff and the CP using slightly different names for things they seem to work better than in XP and much, much better than in Vista.
6) Colours are more vibrant than in XP which is nice for pictures (although setting up the monitor profile without a colourimeter may be a bit of a problem) but not so good on here as the colours are a bit "in your face" if you see what I mean. (no I haven't tried playing with settings) And monitor geometry is different so it needs setting up again.
Over all, a vast improvement over Vista and, with it's self repairing facility, an improvement over XP. will probably spend today tweeking it and seeing if I can get things a bit more 'normal' what ever that means. Time will tell
Joined: Oct 2000
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From: Sunny Sussex
Just a footnote to this, I've found internet browsing to be a pain in win 7. My router is super busy, as though the system were conducting an enormous download I could neither see nor control. Thus, it would take minutes to open a webpage as something is munching all the bandwidth.
Anyway, in the course of a disk cleanup, I noticed something like 40gb of error reports, ran tcp view and sure enough, windows is generating, saving & uploading error reports constantly. I disbaled error reporting & hey presto, back to normal.
A quick google around the place & it's cropping up a lot. MS are aware it seems & I don't think I'm the only one to see the irony in error reporting causing errors!
Anyway, in the course of a disk cleanup, I noticed something like 40gb of error reports, ran tcp view and sure enough, windows is generating, saving & uploading error reports constantly. I disbaled error reporting & hey presto, back to normal.
A quick google around the place & it's cropping up a lot. MS are aware it seems & I don't think I'm the only one to see the irony in error reporting causing errors!
Official PPRuNe Chaplain
Joined: Apr 2001
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From: Witnesham, Suffolk
Well, I'm a week into using it on the "home" machine and I'm impressed. It's better than XP, and way better than Vista.
I did a bunch of speed tests - boot-up, start various hefty software packages and the like - and it's a lot faster than XP Pro. I've fixed most of the "bugs" that bothered me at first. Some things that didn't work started to do so, all by themselves. I guess that's drivers and patches arriving automatically from MS.
The first few days seemed to have a memory leak, and I had to restart it every day or so when it froze. It's not done that lately, and has been on permanently for several days.
I've left it running on the Essex machine while I'm up in Norfolk for the weekend, and the VPN and remote desktop work just fine ( so far). If all else fails, I can phone home for a quick press on the reset button, which will bring it back up in XP.
I can see me using it all the time, rather than XP, till the test runs out.
The Windows 7 Forum is an excellent resource for bugfixes, hints, and tips on how to sort stuff. It's far friendlier than any other "tech" forum I've visited. Folks there have had the answer to all but a couple of minor questions I've had.
Software that won't run on it:
Nero, Jeppesen Datacard Writer, ZoneAlarm.
Software that complains but works:
Skype
Hardware that has a problem:
LSILogic SCSI card (and thus SCSI scanner and DVDROM), cheap Chinese webcam.
A friend also running it found that it wouldn't recognise his graphics card, but it loaded generic drivers that work reasonably well. He runs Vista on his main machine, and reckons this beats it hands-down.
I did a bunch of speed tests - boot-up, start various hefty software packages and the like - and it's a lot faster than XP Pro. I've fixed most of the "bugs" that bothered me at first. Some things that didn't work started to do so, all by themselves. I guess that's drivers and patches arriving automatically from MS.
The first few days seemed to have a memory leak, and I had to restart it every day or so when it froze. It's not done that lately, and has been on permanently for several days.
I've left it running on the Essex machine while I'm up in Norfolk for the weekend, and the VPN and remote desktop work just fine ( so far). If all else fails, I can phone home for a quick press on the reset button, which will bring it back up in XP.
I can see me using it all the time, rather than XP, till the test runs out.
The Windows 7 Forum is an excellent resource for bugfixes, hints, and tips on how to sort stuff. It's far friendlier than any other "tech" forum I've visited. Folks there have had the answer to all but a couple of minor questions I've had.
Software that won't run on it:
Nero, Jeppesen Datacard Writer, ZoneAlarm.
Software that complains but works:
Skype
Hardware that has a problem:
LSILogic SCSI card (and thus SCSI scanner and DVDROM), cheap Chinese webcam.
A friend also running it found that it wouldn't recognise his graphics card, but it loaded generic drivers that work reasonably well. He runs Vista on his main machine, and reckons this beats it hands-down.
More bang for your buck
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 3,513
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From: land of the clanger
I've just plashed out for a 24" monitor to replace my 19" crt one, Running at it's native res of 1900*1200 using XP it's a case of squinting to read things on the desk top and in apps, constantly having tp use the mouse wheel. In windows 7, with the text size set to 125%, it's brilliant and everything resizes it's self for "best fit".
Must explore those foums as I'm having troubles with Firefox and IE crashing especially when switching to the IE tab in FF, but only on some sites.
Over all I too am impressed, lets hope that the shrinkwrapped version isn't too tarted up.
Must explore those foums as I'm having troubles with Firefox and IE crashing especially when switching to the IE tab in FF, but only on some sites.
Over all I too am impressed, lets hope that the shrinkwrapped version isn't too tarted up.
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 474
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From: UK
Comprehensive insight- and comments
What You Should Expect from the Windows 7 Beta :: the How-To Geek
What You Should Expect from the Windows 7 Beta :: the How-To Geek
Psychophysiological entity
Joined: Jun 2001
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
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From: Walton on the Naze Essex.
I can see me using it all the time, rather than XP, till the test runs out.
Joined: Oct 2000
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From: Sunny Sussex
Yeeeess...but there are ways around that & google will point you in the wrongun direction. Mine is activated and staying that way but I am not necessarily on the right side of the rules as it were.
However, it would be sage to bear in mind that 7 is only a beta & the public availability is intended to be used to gather information so that ms can deliver a more polished and stable version.
However, it would be sage to bear in mind that 7 is only a beta & the public availability is intended to be used to gather information so that ms can deliver a more polished and stable version.
Official PPRuNe Chaplain
Joined: Apr 2001
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From: Witnesham, Suffolk
End-July is what I understood. If there's a new Beta then, I'll install that and continue. If they launch the full version, it'll be a price decision. XP Pro does the job, but Win7 is a lot faster and a lot nicer. It's almost weaned me off Linux!
More bang for your buck
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 3,513
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From: land of the clanger
It's almost weaned me off Linux!
But I agree it's much the best version to date, and fast is the word.
I suspect that the August cut-off date for the Beta is that it is intended to launch the shrink-wrapped version around then.
Psychophysiological entity
Joined: Jun 2001
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From: Walton on the Naze Essex.
My PC has a modest 1gig of memory...okay-ish for XP, but what's the minimum memory for Win 7 ?
I've gathered that 2gigs is about minimum for Vista, so went out to buy an upgrade for my PC in anticipation of installing Win 7. Sadly, I've got two half gigs as memory, so it means throwing that investment away I suppose.
When I got to the store, the nice lass said my PC 2700 DDR SDRAM was the old type and this means that two gigs was going to cost me twice as much as modern (faster) memory. That's annoying. But is it true? I know that I can't use memory that's too slow, but why can't I use faster memory - or is it a case of the slot not being appropriate?
HP AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (2.2GHz) 1200MHz System bus.
I've gathered that 2gigs is about minimum for Vista, so went out to buy an upgrade for my PC in anticipation of installing Win 7. Sadly, I've got two half gigs as memory, so it means throwing that investment away I suppose.
When I got to the store, the nice lass said my PC 2700 DDR SDRAM was the old type and this means that two gigs was going to cost me twice as much as modern (faster) memory. That's annoying. But is it true? I know that I can't use memory that's too slow, but why can't I use faster memory - or is it a case of the slot not being appropriate?
HP AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (2.2GHz) 1200MHz System bus.
Joined: Apr 2008
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From: Passed away on Sept 6th
Moore's law again?
I guess it's due to the fact that the mighty chip companies are now concentrating on producing DDR2 chips, leaving us DDR users bobbing about making use of obsolete memory. The economies of scale are - understandably, I guess, being found with the memory which is in most demand by the Dells of this world. They probably are still producing DDR stuff, but, being old hat, aren't trying too hard to reduce the cost: the volume's not there any longer.
Make sense?
Make sense?
