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Lofty

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It's looking very much as if Vista may very well go the same way as Windows Millenium, the differences being that Vista was more expensive, heavier on resources, less necessary and an even bigger all round waste of time, space and money. Hence the fact that XP is still being supported long after the date initially set by Microsoft to end support for XP and concentrate solely on Vista.

Beta versions of Windows 7 are already available, and I've heard of people using these betas as their main OS in preference to Vista. Personally I've stuck with XP. But the question is, has anyone here tried (or are you planning to try) Windows 7, and if so what do you think of it?

 
not used it yet but ive downloaded the beta and will be having a go soon. as you say, its pretty much what vista should have been. vista has so many processes running its a joke, so hopefully w7 will sort this. i do think microsoft are ripping people off though and should allow anyone who has vista to buy w7 cheaply. but they wont, the robbing gets.

 
How did you get on?

I downloaded Windows 7 the other day, and installed it this afternoon. Installation was a breeze; had no trouble at all getting it set up to dual boot with XP. The only bit of hardware that didn't initially work was the modem, but a Vista driver solved that one. Again no problem.

The first thing that threw me was when I tried to save to a non-designated area of my computer, I was denied access. So I did some research and found I had to set permissions. The look and feel is very different from XP, but would probably be less strange if I'd spent any time at all getting to know Vista, which I haven't, I'm glad to say. So first impressions? Surprisingly stable for a Beta release, also boots and runs fast. Hasn't crashed yet, and seems fairly straightforward considering the number of changes since XP.

I'm not quite ready to start using it as my OS of choice just yet, but I might well be once I've found my way round the system.

 
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installed it as a dual boot with vista and like you had no problems at all. not really had much chance to play with it but its seems quicker than vista and looks to be more intuitive. i think its a cheek that its come out so soon after vista and also that it seems to be what vista should have been. i wont be changing if its a big price but might if and upgrade from vista is relatively cheap.

 
One thing I don't like is the way it handles network connections. It's IMPOSSIBLE to create a normal PPPoA connection, as required by my ISP. Apparently Vista is the same. There are obvious drawbacks here; you can't create multiple connections; if the existing connection screws up, you need to uninstall and reinstall the drivers - and with a reboot required for each uninstall and reinstall, this is a complete bloody pain. Neither can you simply place a shortcut to the connection on the desktop or the toolbar - this Network and Sharing folder is messy and awkward.

The other, more obvious problem is the plethora of new, and to me still unknown Services. I know exactly where I am with XP. Set up the system up, disable unnecessary services, plug security holes - no problem. But there's all this new crap, most of which I suspect is entirely unnecessary that means sweet f.a. to me.

I actually like Outlook Express. I think it's a cracking email client. So would do MS do? Scrap it and replace it with Windows Live Mail. Silly things like renaming Send and Receive "Sync".

It did crash a couple of times last night, for no apparent reason. Once when I attempted to change the options in Windows Live Mail, the damn thing died on me, But then it's a beta so these things have to be expected.

 
I've got windows 7. That's windows 3 at the front of the house and windows 4 at the back of the house. Of course if this winds Lofty up then I'll have no windows.

 
1zgwaaf.jpg


One for the Caption Competion

 
Lofty said:
One thing I don't like is the way it handles network connections. It's IMPOSSIBLE to create a normal PPPoA connection, as required by my ISP. Apparently Vista is the same. There are obvious drawbacks here; you can't create multiple connections; if the existing connection screws up, you need to uninstall and reinstall the drivers - and with a reboot required for each uninstall and reinstall, this is a complete bloody pain. Neither can you simply place a shortcut to the connection on the desktop or the toolbar - this Network and Sharing folder is messy and awkward. The other, more obvious problem is the plethora of new, and to me still unknown Services. I know exactly where I am with XP. Set up the system up, disable unnecessary services, plug security holes - no problem. But there's all this new crap, most of which I suspect is entirely unnecessary that means sweet f.a. to me.

I actually like Outlook Express. I think it's a cracking email client. So would do MS do? Scrap it and replace it with Windows Live Mail. Silly things like renaming Send and Receive "Sync".

It did crash a couple of times last night, for no apparent reason. Once when I attempted to change the options in Windows Live Mail, the damn thing died on me, But then it's a beta so these things have to be expected.
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yes vistas exactly the same and its bloody annoying. the services thing mystifies me, the amount of services running is incredible cmpared to xp. i never use outlook anyway so wont be bothered by live mail, though it does look very arsey. but by far the most annoying thing on vista and 7 is the amount of times it asks you if your sure you want to do this, and the amount of admin acceptances you have to do. YES I WANT TO DO IT, IF I DIDNT I WOULDNT BE f**kING ASKING You TO DO IT, WOULD I!!!!!!

my shot at the caption comp would be "cracking bird"

 
my shot at the caption comp would be "cracking bird"
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BOOM BOOM!!

Anyway. You can disable the Run File warnings; I've also disabled Windows Firewall and the Security Center but haven't yet found a way to get rid of the "Activity Center" - what a f**king waste of space that is. Comodo doesn't work so I've installed the free PC Tools firewall, which seems pretty good. Rule creation is much the same as for Outpost, which means you can get the info you need directly from the Oupost Users Forum. I did finally find the way to rename and copy Network connections - from an insignificant looking link hidden away in that idiotic Network and Sharing folder. Typical Micosoft, they've added all kinds of unncessary Bells & Whistles, the prime purpose of which is to justify the release of a new OS, and to provide business for software and hardware manufacturers, who's existing kit is (naturally) non-compatible with the shiny new OS.

Other irritations include Hibernation - which is only really of use to laptop users, which I currently ain't - disabling this doesn't get rid of hiberfile.sys, which is currently taking up (wasting) 1.45Gb of hard drive space. This permission thing seriously needs sorting out. I thought I'd got it sussed, but then got the same "You do not have permission" bollox when I tried to download a file with Safari. Strange thing is there was no warning when I downloaded the exact same file to the exact same location using Internet Explorer.

Bonus points: Microsoft have added a chess game. Having not played chess for donkey's years, I set it to Beginners level and beat the bar steward.

 
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Lofty said:
BOOM BOOM!!Anyway. You can disable the Run File warnings; I've also disabled Windows Firewall and the Security Center but haven't yet found a way to get rid of the "Activity Center" - what a f**king waste of space that is. Comodo doesn't work so I've installed the free PC Tools firewall, which seems pretty good. Rule creation is much the same as for Outpost, which means you can get the info you need directly from the Oupost Users Forum. I did finally find the way to rename and copy Network connections - from an insignificant looking link hidden away in that idiotic Network and Sharing folder. Typical Micosoft, they've added all kinds of unncessary Bells & Whistles, the prime purpose of which is to justify the release of a new OS, and to provide business for software and hardware manufacturers, who's existing kit is (naturally) non-compatible with the shiny new OS.

Other irritations include Hibernation - which is only really of use to laptop users, which I currently ain't - disabling this doesn't get rid of hiberfile.sys, which is currently taking up (wasting) 1.45Gb of hard drive space. This permission thing seriously needs sorting out. I thought I'd got it sussed, but then got the same "You do not have permission" bollox when I tried to download a file with Safari. Strange thing is there was no warning when I downloaded the exact same file to the exact same location using Internet Explorer.

Bonus points: Microsoft have added a chess game. Having not played chess for donkey's years, I set it to Beginners level and beat the bar steward.
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cheers mate, ill be doing that as it winds me right up. ive got a laptop so find the hibernation thing pretty useful, its certainly better than xp`s version.

 
Lofty said:
It's looking very much as if Vista may very well go the same way as Windows Millenium, the differences being that Vista was more expensive, heavier on resources, less necessary and an even bigger all round waste of time, space and money. Hence the fact that XP is still being supported long after the date initially set by Microsoft to end support for XP and concentrate solely on Vista.Beta versions of Windows 7 are already available, and I've heard of people using these betas as their main OS in preference to Vista. Personally I've stuck with XP. But the question is, has anyone here tried (or are you planning to try) Windows 7, and if so what do you think of it?
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I was sceptical at first but its actualy pretty good. The only thing I did struggle with was installing drivers etc/

 
Hello forum, long time between posts from me.

I've been running Windows 7 RC1 for about 2 months now. My old hard drive was clicking and on the verge of a major failure, so I quick ordered a new motherboard, Intel E8400 dual core CPU, 4 gigs of RAM, and a pair of 1 TB hard drives to run in a RAID mirror. Several of my friends were already running Windows 7 64-bit, so I hopped on the bandwagon.

It's been great so far--I'll never go back to XP. I didn't have a lot of experience using Vista (it's on my father-in-law's laptop, that's it) but making the transition has been a breeze. I have had a couple of BSODs in the last couple weeks that have something to do with power or hibernation--it's only happened when I've left the PC on overnight (something I don't normally do).

Installation was impossibly easy--I didn't need to add a single driver, although I did go get newer ones from Nvidia for my video card. I won't miss the days of having to slipstream a driver into a Win XP install disc and re-burn it to be able to install XP to a SATA hard drive.

Windows 7 = recommended

 
Welcome back Joel, I am keeping an eye on it. Vista owners can upgrade (at a small cost) later in the year to windows 7 so thinking about doing it. What is the minimum system requirements? Is it 2GB?

 
Mod said:
Welcome back Joel, I am keeping an eye on it. Vista owners can upgrade (at a small cost) later in the year to windows 7 so thinking about doing it. What is the minimum system requirements? Is it 2GB?
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I think it's around the same as Vista, maybe a little less than the top end versions. The last RC release will run til next year, I think May or June, so you've got plenty of time to get to know the OS.

Installation was impossibly easy--I didn't need to add a single driver, although I did go get newer ones from Nvidia for my video card. I won't miss the days of having to slipstream a driver into a Win XP install disc and re-burn it to be able to install XP to a SATA hard drive.
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That's strange. I've installed original versions of XP Home and Pro onto a 250Gb SATA HD in this machine. Mind you, this is with common or garden 32 bit, I've yet to try out any kind of 64 bit OS.

 
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