Windows 7

[TromboneAl]

My computer has gotten very slow recently, despite doing a lot of "speed up your computer" procedures.

It's been three years since XP was installed on it, so it's time to reinstall from scratch. I'm wondering if this might be a good time to upgrade to Windows 7, which gets good reviews.

Anyone taken the plunge?

 

[Bimmerbill]

I did. I was running RC1 of WIN7 for several months. Just bought a retail version and installed it.

WIN7 is slower than XP tho, so if your PC is older you may need to bump up the RAM.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

I have noticed that Windows 7 reviews are good compared to Vista (a very low bar to clear) moreso than compared to XP. My computers are all XP, and I will not be upgrading. Adding new memory is cheaper and much easier (for better speed) than the 'upgrade' procedures I have read. When my friends complain of increasing slowness on their computers, I usually find a bunch of applications loading at startup are creating the problem. On my computer the only app loaded at startup is the zonealarm firewall, and many of the 'services' listed in msconfig are also unchecked.

 

[ziggy29]

So far so good. I like it. Vista was junk but 7 is what Vista should have been -- if Vista weren't a slow, buggy, incompatible piece of junk that broke a lot of apps that ran under XP. I have the retail version of 7 installed on my netbook -- dual boot with XP on one partition and 7 on another. The speed is comparable on both (2 GB of RAM) but XP has better battery life (about 8 hours versus 6 on Win7 for my typical usage). But I do like the user experience in 7, and that's saying a lot because I've been a Machead since 1996.

 

[kumquat]

Depending on the version and upgrade status, you guys are paying between $100 and $300 (Amazon pricing). What happened to LYBM? Why would you pay for 7 when you own XP already?

 

[ziggy29]

Depending on the version and upgrade status, you guys are paying between $100 and $300 (Amazon pricing). What happened to LYBM? Why would you pay for 7 when you own XP already?

I paid $49 for it from Amazon. There was special upgrade pricing for preorders a couple of months in advance of the release.

And "LBYM" does not have to mean "LAFAPBYM" (Living As Far As Possible Below Your Means). I would personally consider LAFAPBYM to be a painful, obsessive, miserable way to live, but to each their own.

 

[RonBoyd]

I have upgraded two of our Vista machines to Windows 7 -- the other one needs a larger "C" drive first.

I, actually, never had a complaint with Vista except for their Version silliness -- Home/Premium/Ultimate -- it ran with nary a problem for over two years. Windows 7 has some enhancements that I like, however -- Networking and Backup for instance.

I still have an XP machine in daily use -- I don't intend to upgrade it.

 

[steve88]

windows 7 is similar to vista with sp2. i wouldn't recommend vista or windows 7 on systems that doesn't have or at least double to 2 ghz cpu, 2 gb memory (more for 64 bit), 40 gb free on a "newish" hard drive (e.g. not a first gen 40 gb ide drive).

 

[ziggy29]

By the way, another reason to upgrade is that as XP support goes away, system updates and service packs that protect users from new and evolving malware and other junk may no longer be pushed to XP users.

XP support will be continuing primarily for corporate users (not normally known as early adopters) who are willing to pay for it, though.

 

[heyduke]

# year old computer may not be upgradable to Win 7.. check online to see if you have one that can be - you may need to upgrade the BIOS and you really need 3-4 GB of RAM (2 will do though)... best of luck

 

[RonBoyd]

# year old computer may not be upgradable to Win 7.. check online to see if you have one that can be - you may need to upgrade the BIOS and you really need 3-4 GB of RAM (2 will do though)... best of luck

Yeah, definitely do not do anything until after you run the Upgrade Advisor. If you then decide to proceed, be sure to follow the instructions (from the "advisor") to the letter.

 

[samclem]

By the way, another reason to upgrade is that as XP support goes away, system updates and service packs that protect users from new and evolving malware and other junk may no longer be pushed to XP users.

Microsoft was offering support to its customers? Gee, I wish they'd told us. Every bit of "support" I ever got for their products came from free voluntary user groups. I don't know if I'd classify the updates and service packs as support--more like recalls and begrudging corrections to a defective product.

Just another happy MSFT user . . .

 

[HFWR]

Had few problems with XP or Vista, except the wait Vista drivers for video/audio capture hardware. Will not "upgrade" from Vista until one of my computers craps out.

 

[easysurfer]

I like Windows XP. Have seen Vista and really don't like the interface and hear that 7 is very similar to Vista. I'm hanging on to XP. So, I'm doing a Charlton Heston. They have to take XP from my "cold dead hands"

 

[smileydog]

I also skipped the whole Vista thing. I created a new partition and added windows 7 as a dual boot option. So far I'm about ready to delete the XP. The Win7 is working well for me. I have a medium pc about 3+ years old w/ 3ghz proc and 3 gig ram. I bought a family pack with my bro and so cost about $40 a license. I had a time getting the proper drivers from my SATA hard drive controller but other than that - no problems. Laptop is next to convert...

 

[samclem]

I definitely won't be upgrading to Windows 7 until I get a new machine. I don't see anything it offers that I need, I'd have to buy more RAM just to get the same sluggish startup I get now with XP, and my 4 YO laptop would probably die a few days after I suffered for days doing the migration of all my settings (which Microsoft has done very little to address). Nope--when 'Ol Betsy finally dies I'll confront the issue, but I don't see much reason to seek out greater expense and pain right now.

They could be selling a lot of this software to the non OEM market if it:
-- Did something useful that XP doesn't do
-- Was less bloated so it ran faster with fewer resources than XP
-- Was easy to migrate everything from XP to Windows 7.

But, if did all those things, it wouldn't be a Microsoft product.

 

[FinanceDude]

I have noticed that Windows 7 reviews are good compared to Vista (a very low bar to clear) moreso than compared to XP. My computers are all XP, and I will not be upgrading. Adding new memory is cheaper and much easier (for better speed) than the 'upgrade' procedures I have read. When my friends complain of increasing slowness on their computers, I usually find a bunch of applications loading at startup are creating the problem. On my computer the only app loaded at startup is the zonealarm firewall, and many of the 'services' listed in msconfig are also unchecked.

I thought one of the advantages of Windows 7 is it doesn't preload all that crap that previous Windows versions did,so it runs smoother and faster.

My BIL is member of a computer club. One of the guys that belongs there is a beta tester for Microsoft, and got to test Windows 7. He said in his opinion, its not much better than Vista. However, that is ONE person's opinion..........

 

[ls99]

Upgrade? Maybe in a few years if I get around to it. Running Win2K Pro. on 3 different machines. So far everything I want to do works well with Windows 2000.

 

[freebird5825]

My faithful Dell Inspiron B130 shall remain an XP machine. I only use it for email, surfing, and simple correspondence. No requirement to upgrade yet.
dh2b, on the other hand, just ordered a 3 license Windows 7 package from Amazon. His boss is going to pay for 1 of the licenses, the other two will go on his souped up desktop and laptop.
I snickered at the shrink-wrapped-betaware called Vista until the bandaids and paper clip fixes came out after the initial release.
I wonder how many chuckles I'll get out of Window 7.
All kidding aside, the reviews look good so far, per dh2b researching articles. And he knows this stuff backwards and forwards. I have my own personal Help Desk in residence.

 

[easysurfer]

My computer has gotten very slow recently, despite doing a lot of "speed up your computer" procedures.

It's been three years since XP was installed on it, so it's time to reinstall from scratch. I'm wondering if this might be a good time to upgrade to Windows 7, which gets good reviews.

Anyone taken the plunge?

If you find that you'll have to reinstall from scratch time and time again, during this install, you may want to use cloning software to clone a Pristine copy (do the clone after installing your drivers, SP3, and other applications you know you'll need). That way in the future, instead of having to install totally from scratch, just restore from the image copy to the Pristine version and go from there.

 

[kumquat]

I paid $49 for it from Amazon. There was special upgrade pricing for preorders a couple of months in advance of the release.

And "LBYM" does not have to mean "LAFAPBYM" (Living As Far As Possible Below Your Means). I would personally consider LAFAPBYM to be a painful, obsessive, miserable way to live, but to each their own.

The post was intended to be partly tongue-in-cheek especially after your reading your signature line.

[FONT=arial,helvetica]"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" [/FONT] -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)

You're free to spend your money any way you wish, even on "[FONT=arial,helvetica]more crap".[/FONT]

By the way, another reason to upgrade is that as XP support goes away, system updates and service packs that protect users from new and evolving malware and other junk may no longer be pushed to XP users.

XP support will be continuing primarily for corporate users (not normally known as early adopters) who are willing to pay for it, though.

System updates and service packs don't do much to protect users. The code is fixed after some one exploits the bug, not before. It's a case of closing the barn door after [-]the lambs are sacrificed and the cattle raped[/-] the horse is gone.

 

[Rustic23]

I run 2 computers with Vista, (use to run 1 vista 1 ubuntu) and a net book on XP. My main complaint with Vista is the interface. I had the same problem when I moved to XP. Why Microsoft thinks it is necessary to change where things are found I will never know.

On the other end, I don't think I have ever upgraded the operating system on one of my computers. Rather than pay a couple of hundred dollars for an upgrade, I usually just purchase a new machine. As I don't see any need for a new machine, and unless something breaks, I don't see a new machine anytime in the near future, so it may be Window 8 or 9 or what ever before I upgrade.

 

[Zathras]

I have upgraded to Windows 7 on two computers.
Love it on both.
Nice improvements. Nothing huge, but none the less nice. And the networking seems improved.
Personally, I saw Vista as a huge improvement over XP as the single thing that annoyed the heck out of me was when a program caused a general fault and you needed to reboot the whole machine.
When the same thing happened on Vista (which was less often) it would simply crash the program.
However, I didn't try running Vista with any older software or peripherals (other than a printer which worked fine). So I certainly understand that a lot of people had serious issues with it.

 

[kyounge1956]

(snip) Why Microsoft thinks it is necessary to change where things are found I will never know. (snip)

Me either. We have recently been "upgraded" to Office 2007 at work, and switched from a non-Microsoft product to Outlook for our email. The so-called upgrades are one and all more confusing to use (because they moved the menus around) and I think run more slowly than the programs they replace. They don't play nicely together. I use a Mac at home and wish I had one at work, although come to think of it, even if I could, we'd most likely have to use the Mac versions of Office and the menus are probably all rearranged there too.

 

[harley]

I've got numerous OSs running, even an old 98 version, although I don't boot that one up very often anymore. I've had a lot of problems with Vista, and since I'm not in the biz anymore, I think I'm going to quit being an early adopter. I have to admit I enjoyed the new Mac ad.

YouTube - Mac vs. PC Windows 7 vs. Mac Ad: Broken Promises