Windows 7... Anyone else tried it?

[Ben...]

Yesterday I found out Microsoft released a new version of Windows 7 for people to try out. Suffice to say, it's great. It's noticeably faster than Vista for some things and it uses less RAM. The Windows 7 Ultimate RC (Release Candidate) is out right now and it's free. I recommend it. It was easy to install and I already like it way more than Vista. At first it seems the same but I noticed lots of little things that I like way more like the redone task bar and that they enabled transparency on more things that looks slick. It has a way better compatibility mode in the works and the one they included is better than Vista's. It auto-senses what version of Windows the program needs to be compatible with and sets it up for you ( I don't think Vista did that). I didn't have any compatibility issues other than Daemon Tools but I haven't updated it in a while. Anyway, it's free till next June (2010) though it starts asking for a code in March.

Here's the link:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

It upgrades for Vista but you can dual boot it if you don't want to upgrade. For XP you have to either back up and format or dual boot. Make sure you have recovery disks for Vista and all that. I didn't have to back anything up because all of my personal files are on a different drive.

I'll post screenshots in a bit.

[rjohnstone]

I've been using the beta since it was released on MSDN.
Very slick and much faster than Vista.
Downloading the RC now.

[DonP]

Why do I need it? I'm just recently upgrading from W2K to WinXP. If my apps run fine, I don't see the need to buy an O/S just for the fun of it.

[Ben...]

Why do I need it? I'm just recently upgrading from W2K to WinXP. If my apps run fine, I don't see the need to buy an O/S just for the fun of it.

Yeah I can see your point. I still have XP on my old computer. It's a lot more efficient than Vista and about equal with 7. I have (had) Vista on my laptop and it was not nearly as pleasant to use as either XP or 7.

[rjohnstone]

There ya go Don. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Reality is, I have a PC with Vista on it and I hate how slow it has become since upgrading from XP. Sad part is, this PC is only a year old, quad core with 3GB of ram.
It should scream.
Anyway, I'm not going back to XP and Windows 7 appears to be the answer to my Vista slowness.
Don't get me wrong, I like Vista, it's just painfully slow.

[Sinistas]

I've been using Win 7 for a week and a half, and I really like the UI improvements over Vista (the taskbar is a huge upgrade). Plus it's been running faster, which is always nice.

[Axewielder]

I don't know that I can keep Vista running long enough to download the Win7 RC...

[thebigz]

What do you use for drivers?

[Ben...]

What do you use for drivers?

Same ones. I had 99% compatibility.

I agree on the task bar upgrade. I like the "Pinned" stuff and how it gets those little ticks if multiple versions of it are opened.

[sixx_ gunner]

Been using 7 for awhile now, I do alot of video editing/encoding & creating along with Office, Adobe Elements photo tweaking, nothing has had a problem with this latest Beta version. It runs very smooth and is resource heavy like Vista.

The only thing I had had a problem with is getting all my computers to see this one running Windows 7. It has its own networking setup, yet when I setup my Lexmark printer on this computer, I can't get the other computers to "see" this one and network to that printer. I have two other printers on other systems, but I need that Lexmark to print photos.

Any clues on how to fix that?

[LouSiffer]

I use multiple OS's ( Vista Ultimate64, Xp 64, XP32, Linux and Windows 7 ).

7 is nice. Its pretty much Vista without all the crap, which helps smooth it out, but, since the newer patches for Vista, I can't complain. -Lou

[Spivonious]

Been using 7 for awhile now, I do alot of video editing/encoding & creating along with Office, Adobe Elements photo tweaking, nothing has had a problem with this latest Beta version. It runs very smooth and is resource heavy like Vista.

The only thing I had had a problem with is getting all my computers to see this one running Windows 7. It has its own networking setup, yet when I setup my Lexmark printer on this computer, I can't get the other computers to "see" this one and network to that printer. I have two other printers on other systems, but I need that Lexmark to print photos.

Any clues on how to fix that?

By default, 7 uses "Homegroups" to share things on your LAN. Only Windows 7 can see Homegroups, so you'll have to go into the sharing settings and choose to use the old way of doing things. If you're still having problems, let me know.

As far as saying the XP is more "efficient" than Vista, I have to disagree. Vista will use as much memory as you have for pre-caching programs that you run frequently. Just because you appear to have no free memory doesn't mean that Vista is hogging it all for itself. It gladly releases that memory should an application need it.

With that said, 7 is definitely a step up from Vista. It is much more polished than Vista was at launch, and is definitely more stable at this stage in the game. I'm still getting used to the new taskbar, but I can see where it will be helpful when I'm running a lot of apps at once. The whole pinning thing is not new to me, since I've always been a big user of the Quick Launch toolbar.

[Ben...]

As far as saying the XP is more "efficient" than Vista, I have to disagree. Vista will use as much memory as you have for pre-caching programs that you run frequently. Just because you appear to have no free memory doesn't mean that Vista is hogging it all for itself. It gladly releases that memory should an application need it.

The RAM ticker always dropped when I started up a game before jumping once the game fully fired up.

[Carbuff]

Yeah, Ive had 7 on my old harddrive since the original beta. It was very vistaish. Its ok but xp is working fine for me at this point. Its fun to boot into now and then to play around with but for now I'll stick with xp.

[OnlineStageGear]

As far as saying the XP is more "efficient" than Vista, I have to disagree. Vista will use as much memory as you have for pre-caching programs that you run frequently. Just because you appear to have no free memory doesn't mean that Vista is hogging it all for itself. It gladly releases that memory should an application need it.

With that said, 7 is definitely a step up from Vista. It is much more polished than Vista was at launch, and is definitely more stable at this stage in the game. I'm still getting used to the new taskbar, but I can see where it will be helpful when I'm running a lot of apps at once. The whole pinning thing is not new to me, since I've always been a big user of the Quick Launch toolbar.

XP is by far more efficient than Vista. XP can get by with using less than 200 megs of memory, depending on what applications you have booting up. Vista is lucky to go below 800.

I still like Vista though but networking with it is a pain in the ass. I ran 7 for a while but it has a compatibilty issue with watching TV online. The players keep telling me I have the wrong browser, but I have the same browser with Vista and XP and they work fine. The superfetch seems to have made a vast improvement because IE8 loads up wicked quick.

Matt