Windows 7. Do We Give It A Thumbs Up?

[BONGO]

So with the forum being the best place for no offence geeks (lol), what do people think of Windows 7...

I'm picking up a laptop tonight with it on, all going well. Is it going to be another Vista??

I've always been happy with XP, and have home edition here on disc.

Are people enjoying 7? Is it good?

Bongo (It wouldn't let me search for it, hence the post)

[Luke Rainbird]

Much better than Vista - I'll be upgrading this laptop to it in the next 48 hours (picked it up yesterday and already sick of being back on Vista!)

Considering I had no proper issues with Vista, 7 makes it seem positively turdridden

[JD™]

[anzo]

I've not heard anything bad about it - suprisingly.

I was going to put it off for a while, I like to let things settle down and let the bugs be ironed out before I install anything. However, the few people I know that have installed it say it was a breeze. Instantly recognised all the drivers, installed them no problem.

The only problem I've heard of was a guy running Nero 8 and Windows 7 didn't like it one little bit, so he updated to Nero 9 and has had no problems.

So overall it seems stable and good, but you may encounter one or two problems with software compatibility more than anything else.

[BONGO]

The only thing i'm worried about is that i NEED a bluetooth dongle in it, and i called digitalpromo.co.uk, which is local to me, and they said that there pretty much isn't anything that is "compatible with Windows 7" in their descriptions, so it's trial and error apparently.

Do people know if XP compatible software tends to work on 7???

[Greetings]

I've been running the 7100 build for quite some time now and have had almost no problems with it at all - and those that came up are probably due to the early build.

I'm definitely going to buy it soon, it will actually be the first legal OS I've ever owned.

BONGO: I'm pretty sure you can run a compatibility test on your system to see if there will be any issues with 7. These checks are pretty thorough, if it says you'll have a problem with something then you definitely will. Personally I haven't had any software problems on 7 apart from Zone Alarm. The best thing about this system is the time it takes to come out of hibernation - my laptop starts in like 10 seconds while normal startup takes about 2 minutes

Edited November 4, 2009 by Greetings

[weirdoku]

The only problem I've heard of was a guy running Nero 8 and Windows 7 didn't like it one little bit, so he updated to Nero 9 and has had no problems.

My W7 has been running great since I've installed it, had no troubles at all so far.

My Nero 8 works fine too.

[BONGO]

Apparently Pete Wright is testing Windows 8. I'm wondering why they're doing a Windows 8 now, when 7 is new...

[JD™]

Topical Joke:

Arnold Schwarzenegger was asked if he wanted to upgrade to Windows 7. He replied "I still love Vista, baby".

Bongo, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they have started working on 8 already, although I doubt it's at a testing phase or even started writing. And the chances of Pete Wright having anything to do with it are, let's face it, pretty slim!

[Adam-Griffin]

Topical Joke:

Arnold Schwarzenegger was asked if he wanted to upgrade to Windows 7. He replied "I still love Vista, baby".

Bongo, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they have started working on 8 already, although I doubt it's at a testing phase or even started writing. And the chances of Pete Wright having anything to do with it are, let's face it, pretty slim!

b*****d I came in here purely to post that haha

I plan on sticking it on mine soon, heard only few bad things about it...

Edited November 4, 2009 by Adam-Griffin

[MadManMike]

Pete Wright's uncle runs Microsoft, so he probably is testing Windows 11.

Pete wouldn't lie anyway!

[weirdoku]

I plan on sticking it on mine soon, heard only few bad things about it...

We heard bad things about Vista yet a lot of people still upgraded to it, I took the plunge and never really had much problems with Vista and now I much prefer 7 over Vista.

[Adam-Griffin]

We heard bad things about Vista yet a lot of people still upgraded to it, I took the plunge and never really had much problems with Vista and now I much prefer 7 over Vista.

Thats what i was getting it, I've only heard a few bad things about it, not enough to outweigh the Good points.

I'm still using xp right now so should be an improvement...

[MadManMike]

I've used Vista on 4 or 5 machines and it just seems incomplete and clunky - for example if it asks you a question it pops up with about 8 screens all making an annoying bleeping noise. Requesting Admin right and all that shite. I'm sure you can turn it off, but it shouldn't be there in the first place.

Also with older software / hardware, Vista just shits the bed.

I went back to XP Pro when I built my current PC, it's just so much smoother.

If Windows 7 is as good as XP Pro I'll upgrade, but all the time people compare it to Vista there's no chance!

[weirdoku]

I've used Vista on 4 or 5 machines and it just seems incomplete and clunky - for example if it asks you a question it pops up with about 8 screens all making an annoying bleeping noise. Requesting Admin right and all that shite. I'm sure you can turn it off, but it shouldn't be there in the first place.

Also with older software / hardware, Vista just shits the bed.

I went back to XP Pro when I built my current PC, it's just so much smoother.

If Windows 7 is as good as XP Pro I'll upgrade, but all the time people compare it to Vista there's no chance!

I've come from ME to XP to Vista to 7, I never had to go back once to be honest. Everything just worked out eventually

And that requesting admin right thing, its called UAC, you can turn it off in control panel under User Accounts. I agree though, I find it absolutely pointless.

[anzo]

I'm still using xp right now so should be an improvement...

Unlikely. I'll advise XP over most other OS. Simple, easy to install/troubleshoot and is still compatible with everything.

Its a reliable system, if you're unsure, stick with XP. Windows 7 is apparently good, but don't fix what isn't broken. I won't be updating for sometime, perhaps until XP becomes unusable with certain software applications.

-------

On a similar note; I still can't see Windows 7 taking off - although its better than Vista, it's still all pretty colours and rainbows.

A massive share of Microsoft sales is corperate users. I see they're trying to convince IT managers it's worth the upgrade...how? A VERY high percentage of businesses in the world run on XP and Linux systems.

XP run fine on almost any machine, we have it running on machines with as little as half a gig ram, if we updated to Windows 7; we're looking at hundreds, if not thousands of pounds spend on RAM alone.

Then there is server compatibility, most companies run 5 years behind, meaning most are on Server 2003 - although I don't know the ins and outs, its probably not compatible for things like deployment installations - so another couple of thousand pounds updating the server.

Then there is an issue with backward compatibility, which is a common problem with Microsoft (Office 2003 - Office 2007) which is a f**king nightmare.

Testing tailored software applications for compatibility.

And finally, retraining all your XP familiar staff with Windows 7 training.

Summed up in three words: NOT WORTH IT (for business users at least)

[BONGO]

so in idiots guide style, what's some of the simpler differences to XP then?? I've had a look on wiki etc, but i don't understand much of computer jargon lol.

Just had a look on youtube actually and fond a demo video of a few features.

[totaltrials]

I've got it, upgraded from Windows XP.

Not had a single problem. Everything has worked perfectly fine on Windows 7.

Anzo, it's perfect for businesses to use. It's not like Vista. Plus it's likely big businesses will buy the professional version which has a XP emulator type gizmo. So it's not possible for nothing to work on it. They don't need to wait 3/5 years to get Windows 7. It's been tested very thoroughly and is nothing like Vista was. I've not read a bad thing about it.

I read somewhere it was tested in a few schools in a certain area. It was put onto hundreds of old crummy laptops and only 1 failed to work. It's seems faster than XP to me, I've gone straight from XP to Windows 7. It's still fundamentally the same thing. The way you find files, get programs etc, even the computer retarded could transfer their knowledge from XP straight to Windows 7 and pick it up very quickly.

I highly rate it. My computer is noticeably faster now and it was very quick and easy to install. All my past drivers have worked and it's even automatically downloaded and installed them if I plug something in.

Edited November 4, 2009 by totaltrials

[Muel]

I've not heard anything bad about it - suprisingly.

I was going to put it off for a while, I like to let things settle down and let the bugs be ironed out before I install anything. However, the few people I know that have installed it say it was a breeze. Instantly recognised all the drivers, installed them no problem.

It is an immense OS, it just ticks all the boxes, has no bugs, and never fails.

Definate thumbs up, and most tests I've read up on say it's faster than XP for loading times and file transfers. If you're a gamer though, XP 64 bit edges it out slightly, but XP 64bit is very buggy from what I understand.

Basically Windows 7 is so good I've been thinking of putting the 32bit version on my Netbook. I can get it free through uni, it's faster loading than XP and a lot of people have done it, so finding drivers isn't impossible.

There are only a couple of things I don't like about it. The network connections thing is over-complicated, I liked the simplistic one in XP.

The rest is amazing though, the sounds for instance are all really good, I didn't realise how annoying the ones in XP are.

It loads faster.

File transfers are stupidly fast, especially between internal hard drives.

In short, it's so good that it's worth buying! I can get it through uni for free though, which is nice of them but if I couldn't, I'd buy it.

[JD™]

so in idiots guide style, what's some of the simpler differences to XP then?? I've had a look on wiki etc, but i don't understand much of computer jargon lol.

Just had a look on youtube actually and fond a demo video of a few features.

Ultimately Bongo, if the laptop comes with it would it not be easier to just try it out? If it's not for you, then it's no problem to get a copy of XP picked up and installed.

Same thing to Anzo really - he's not upgrading from one to the other, he's just buying a new laptop. Hardly any new laptops will be sold with XP on now (if at all) so it's not really a choice that needs making. The choice that comes is whether to downgrade surely?

[eskimo]

I just got a new desktop with Vista, but it had a free upgrade to Windows 7 as soon as it was released. The upgrade disk isn't here yet but from what i've read it should suit me fine. It's more media friendly, has the XP compatibility mode and uses less system resources, so i'm in, especially seeing as it's free. But from what i remember, it's not exactly expensive compared to however much i remember MS OSs costing years back.

[anzo]

Same thing to Anzo really - he's not upgrading from one to the other, he's just buying a new laptop. Hardly any new laptops will be sold with XP on now (if at all) so it's not really a choice that needs making. The choice that comes is whether to downgrade surely?

Aye, but he has the choice of, ultimately, Windows 7 or XP as its clear Vista (which is what it will come with as standard) is pretty shockingl; in which case I'd suggest XP as a personal preference.

But as you said, why not give Windows 7 a shot - if he doesn't like it then its no big issue to downgrade

[Al_Fel]

You feel froggy, jump!

[club_card]

You should definatly get it because i´m a pc and windows 7 was my idea.

[Krisboats]

It's pretty nice, i have the ultimate 64 version and it's all sailing through fairly well. It was a little slow at first but then i'd got vista pretty nicely configured and everything was settled in the vista superfetch. Once windows 7 had been going for about 2 days everything flies into action as soon as i click it and generally overall it seems a lot sturdier and more reliable.

Winamp seems to load a tonne faster in windows 7 where as before in vista it would pause for a minute while it loaded up the several thousand flac files i have running in it. Seems not to be an issue for w7.

The UAC thing is a lot more sensible in w7. I had to disable it while running vista as it would pop up for every little thing and would bug the hell out of me. In w7 it seems to only come up at the correct times and as such i've left it running as it's theoretically a lot safer than switching it off.

W7 is also the first windows operating system to feature a moving windows logo on the start up screen if memory serves me correctly

Also in a folder window the navigation bar on the left hand side seems a lot nicer and easier to read through than it has been in other operating systems. It's no longer clumped together with scroll wheels everywhere and it seemed like i noticed it for the first time when i started using w7.

The start menu also seems a lot more refined with web browsing history been shown as a hover-over feature with the messaging/web browser programs that are nailed to the start menu.

I like it more