WINDOWS 7 PROS & CONS

[smithster]

As gav said, would be a good idea to maybe get some peoples input on how they are fairing with windows 7 if they have it installed. I say add ya post if ya want and then just edit it as you come across new things so in other words try not to repeat what other people write.

So to quickly start me off.

first of all you should check if all your drivers are supported by windows 7 yet. i know nvidia and crreative labs are. ive have the gtx 280 and xfi xtreme gamer and they both work fine. all the other drivers i think windows 7 will have pre loaded.

PRO's

installation:
Formatted my disk, installed windows 7 and and all my drivers and was back playing css in 45 mins. (actuall install time was around 30 mins)
Had no issues when installing. I have to put my sata drivers on to usb stick and load them before installing the os. Windows 7 gives this option and found and installed drivers first time with no probs.
Lots of pre loaded drivers. i only had to install the creative labs xfi driver and that was it. but i did install the gtx 280 nvidia drivers because i wanted to make sure the physics driver was installed and the control panel etc.

General:
Nothing has annoyed me so far. Everything ive wanted to do/change i have been able to do easily. such as the UAC that was such a pain in vista.
The taskbar tidyness is very nice indeed. the notification manager is very cool, just tell it what u want and how u want it to display each and everything on your taskbar.
seems pretty quick so far but you'd need to wait a while to see if build up of crap slows it down badly or not.
Can install all my usual applications, got steam, css, l4d installed all fine (which is obviously the nmost important)
The search function in the start menu, similar to vista but so much better. I hadent even been on it for that long and its finding everything i search for everywhere it could be witin seconds, no faffing thorugh your programs just hit firstfew letters and youu'll be shown the folders files programs options , everything to do with it.

CONS

Some apps such as adobe reader when downloading it asks what os u have, windows 7 is not listed so i just clicked vista and it was fine so i dont know if its really a con, just something that maybe adobe need to update.


more will come as i come across things

edit added more

[JohnMcClane]

Pros:
ATI support Windows7 as do AMD
Preloaded drivers took care of most of my stuff apart from the sound card (audigy2)
Having used this for around 5 months i'm very used to the way Win7 works, having said that it only took me a few hours the first time round, it's so logical.

seems pretty quick so far but you'd need to wait a while to see if build up of crap slows it down badly or not.

Using Beta 7048 for 3 months + a shit load of crap didn't slow mine down noticably.
All my usuall apps are up and working, Photoshop CS4, HLSW, FileZilla Steam, Opera, TF2, CSS, UT2004, Xfire

Cons:
PunkBuster STILL, even though this is the release candidate, aren't releasing support for their games (CoD, BF etc)
WinAMP said during installation that ripping/burning may not work properly, although I've not tested this yet

[Gavac220]

Good start Smithster and McClane. Thank you. With money now being tight for many of our members in the current climate, reviews like this really help people know first hand, if it is worth investing in the new software. Anyone else using windows 7, please feel free to contribute.

Any good deals on the software may be worth posting too, again, for the reasons mentioned above .

I for one will watch this space closely, and ask questions if they occur.

[Legato]

Idd any idea on how much the final version is gonna cost?

I'd like to install this Free beta that Mclane was talking about a while ago.. but if at the end its gonna cost me upwards of $400 to activate it, or have to re-format/re-install to get back to windows XP then i'll unfotunatly have to give it a miss

plus

do old machines even run windows7? i mean mines almost 6 years old now.. no dual core compat... never thought about vista so didnt check

[JohnMcClane]

I'd imagine it'll be around what Vista was when it first came out (£150?). Or you **CR@K** it and it won't expire ever.
As for specs, I wouldn't recomend running the 32 bit on under a gig of ram, I tend to be very application heavy running Opera, HLSW, Steam and WinAMP pretty much always + photoshop/games you get the idea...
Windows are releasing a version to go on those tiny little net book things (the eee PC and stuff like that) those things use an Atom processor + 512meg/1gig of ram.
To quote someone on another forum:

I'd say windows 7 is as lightweight as xp, I got old rig with 1.2ghz processor with only graphics chip integrated to mobo and 1gb ram, and xp ran pretty much as fast as windows 7 currently.

The only thing I would recommend is upgrading the ram to at least 1 GB if possible. In my experience 7 runs at least as well as XP on old computers if they have 1GB of ram or more

It's up to you mate, I would reccomend getting it, especially if you're considering a hardware upgrade.
Oh, PS - you won't be able to "upgrade" from XP and keep your files/settings, so make sure you back them all up

[smithster]

good input there bullet, some really usefull information you've given there, thanks for that.

oh and windows 7 has been designed to work on PC's with a much lower spec than vista.

1ghz cpu, 1gb ram 16 gb hard drive

[Legato]

good input there bullet, some really usefull information you've given there, thanks for that.

Idd

sorry to be so blunt but you hate microsoft and windows... why even come into a thread discussing the OS..............

seems rather... backwards to me



anyway..

Ontopic

im currently backing up my PC lol 80 gig of shit to back up ready for my windows7 installation which i should hopefully get underway late tonight lol

[MudShark]

Hehe - what do you expect - you're discussing the great satan like hes a good guy!

This thread is sure to attract a whole arch of Trolls (is that the collective name for trolls?)

Anyway - back on thread - I'm interested in reading your opinions as at some point my work will have to take a leap into this "shite" that is the Microsoft eternal wheel of ugrade hell. At home I think I'll be hanging on to XP like grim death. (from my cold dead hands)

There - you see, trolling can be constructive too!

If anyone is doing development on 7 then I would be interested in news of that too. Currently we have the problem of storing dlls and such like in windows\system and they are put there by an auto installer that we pay for. However you can have great fun trying to get round Vista's insistance that you can't save things to said directory. For this reason we are all XP still at work.

[Stueh]

If anyone is doing development on 7 then I would be interested in news of that too. Currently we have the problem of storing dlls and such like in windows\system and they are put there by an auto installer that we pay for. However you can have great fun trying to get round Vista's insistance that you can't save things to said directory. For this reason we are all XP still at work.

What kind of development and I may be able to help??

[Legato]

Ok well thats me on windows7

and my.. its pretty.. not got anything installed yet.. but first impressions are good.

Ive got a shit rig.

Single core, really low end gfx, and only 2gig of RAM and ive encountered no problems setting up, so seems my rig is ok for it gonna get steam installed then copy my Steamapps folder back across lol see how games perform..

looks SEXY tho

[recruit]

Some apps such as adobe reader when downloading it asks what os u have, windows 7 is not listed so i just clicked vista and it was fine so i dont know if its really a con, just something that maybe adobe need to update.

Hey Smithy, the reason for this is that Windows 7 under all the marketing and additional new components is quite literally in every sense Windows Vista.
There has not been one slight change to the core operating system whatsoever. They have streamlined the gui and memory management but in the end its a new name for vista so businesses will move from xp.

[Gavac220]

My interest continues! Excellent thread guys. Keep up the good work.

[JohnMcClane]

It wont allow people to open more than 3 - 4 applications at a time, which could be fun when you try and get lots of programs and drivers running at startup.

Catalyst Control Center
Steam
Xfire
Teamspeak
HLSW
Dropbox
Sound Drivers
Linksys Wireless Drivers
Nero Tray thing
+ Desktop Gadgets

[Legato]

Indeed i was about to say, I have Hammer, Itunes, Xfire, Steam, IE8, and photoshop for textures open atm ... why you would need more i have no idea lol 19 webpages of porn? i dunno?

but i suppose a con is a con, if its not for you its not for you

however critism has many forms, and your last post yes, had constructive in it, but coming in and bashing windows and microsoft doesnt help anyone really, i think people have come in looking at the pros and cons of using windows7

- It is sure to make MS more cash than Vista EVER could.

but stuff like this is just MS bashing

You have to pay to upgrade, with lots of different versions that will cause tech support nightmares, and lots of annoyance for new users.

I've never installed an OS in 6 years, ive always used my reboot disk that came with my Dell.

After a 4 hours download, half hour burn to disk, and half hour install, windows7 was on my PC... so that proves even a totaly tech noob can do it

Having to learn how to use a new OS... AGAIN !.

again not really a con, its more or less the same as XP ive found, but it just looks and seem, at the moment, to run smoother so yeah, its not that whople new... i had bigger rpoblems at university when they made me use Macs.. that was a nightmare



I'm not bashing you bullet, not at all mate, im just simply responding to your posts with my own opinions and experiences so far with the OS

[recruit]

At home I think I'll be hanging on to XP like grim death. (from my cold dead hands)

Cons
- It refuses to work with linux.

What does this mean?