Windows 7

[CopperBrompton]

I've been using Win7 Pro 64-bit for six months now, having switched direct from XP Pro (I skipped Vista altogether). Speedwise, the 64-bit version leaves XP for dead. Apps like Lightroom are unbelievably fast. I haven't found a single app that doesn't work, including several 32-bit apps that get automatically installed in 32-bit mode. Win7 is what Vista was supposed to be but never was.

Gerry, thanks a lot for the GodMode tip - thar's fantastic!

 

[HJ]

Definetly no geek,by the way whats a VM? sounds like a good idea though

A VM is a Virtual machine, the most common one for Ubuntu is VirtualBox although there are plenty of others. Want to give it a go?

 

[2Loose]

Important question here,is the Win 7 firewall good enough to protect me as a firewall should protect?

Yes it will...but it is a bit 'hidden' if you want to configure any settings. I find third party ones a lot more obvious and 'in your face' about what they are doing, so suggest PC Tools firewall as a great freebie. Here

 

[Bird Brain]

Thanks!

 

[andyoxon]

Me too, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it

This was my line too - XP to the end (never touched Vista); until the laptop 100 Gb disk was full most of the time. I bought a new 500 Gb internal disk, and did a clean install of W7. It's great IMO; and even though the PC is a 2006 vintage, it has no probs running W7, I guess because of Core2Duo, 2GB RAM and separate graphics card. I've managed to get everything working with driver updates, including the graphics card, thanks to the Dell website and the fact that many Vista drivers seem to be W7 compatible... I've noticed the battery lasts longer (power management), hibernation etc quicker, and also that the general response time is good (though the HDD is faster too). So thumbs up so far.

The only thing that doesn't work, as mini ao has found out, is Windows Live Messenger 2011, as there is some known bug related to an Adobe product. I can live without this... but at some point no doubt I will come under some pressure to get it sorted...

 

[Bird Brain]

Im using readyboost as well with two 4 gig drives and im quite happy with the operating system....

I have virtual pc if I want to run XP for the odd program which doesn't work on 7.

Readyboost is good and the operating system is still running smoothly.

I have XP. It works fine.

I wouldn't change it but I had so many problems in the end I had to dig out the old XC Cube machine.So I thought I would try 7.

 

[MossCommuter]

Type 'ver' into the command line - seems Windows 7 is actually version 6.1

Microsoft did that to get the widest possible compatibility; many programs will check the operating system version to determine whether it's compatible. Since Microsoft believe almost all Windows 6 (Vista) applications will work with Windows 7 it is internally coded as 6.1 (the installers will ignore the stuff after the dot).

Windows 7 also has a virtual machine to emulate XP so if you experience problems running XP applications in Windows 7, give it a try (it's free but only for Windows 7 Ultimate or Windows 7 Professional).

 

[redddraggon]

I run Windows 7 on two desktops and two laptops. There's nout wrong with it, far better than XP.

And there was nothing really wrong with Vista anyway, all the bugs were fixed pretty rapidly. Vista actually holds my record of "OS installation life" of 2.5 years before it needed a reinstall, XP installations never got much past 1 yr old.

 

[Bird Brain]

Thanks MossCommuter.

I have overcome most problems with older programs apart from the old favorite Championship Hearts.

The company who did it have done a new version which I tried last night and didn't like a lot as it was far too slow as opposed to the old version.Also a couple of my removeable hard drives aren't showing the ghard drive icon and im trying to find out how to restore it.

Readyboost im using two removeable drives,one a 4gb and the other an 8gb sdhc but it is only showing the sdhc under readyboost as 4gb is this normal or is this because the other drive is 4gb?

 

[redddraggon]

Readyboost im using two removeable drives,one a 4gb and the other an 8gb sdhc but it is only showing the sdhc under readyboost as 4gb is this normal or is this because the other drive is 4gb?

Is the USB stick "fast enough"? A 8GB card is easily enough anyway. IME Readyboost doesn't do all that much anyway.

 

[Bird Brain]

Is the USB stick "fast enough"? A 8GB card is easily enough anyway. IME Readyboost doesn't do all that much anyway.

I tried some and in the menu it says some aren't suitable for readyboost but the Lexar Jumpdrive 4gb seems fine.

This is better than XP anyway don't have to wait a week for something to open and this system only has 2GB of RAM anyway.

 

[2Loose]

I tried some and in the menu it says some aren't suitable for readyboost ...

...has 2GB of RAM anyway.

If you had 256mb and used Readyboost, I could understand. But with more than 512mb you aren't getting any benifit, so I would find another use for those ram cards if I were you. See here.

 

[Bird Brain]

Does that apply though as it says Vista....or I take it Windows 7 is Vista repackaged.

 

[Bird Brain]

Ho ho ho,there was always going to be problems.

I can't install my printer yet.Also another thing is I can't run multiple operating systems.

Well apart from Virtual PC.