Are You Upgrading To Windows 7?

[Guest Robin Winter]

My wife and I have 6 machines at our house....all with Windows 2000 Pro...

I never went above that version as the later versions all try to do things for you whether you want them to or not. I like to root around down in the files and make changes and later Windows versions all seem restrictive..

I'm sure that the 7 version has a lot of built in drivers, etc...

Windows 7 for me would be further down the line after I see how it does....

Remember....Windows Millenum Edition (ME)? Sorry Mary Ellen....

Donna Jean

OMG, I loved 2000pro, I still have my copy, but I stopped using it when they stopped really supporting it. Now I'm using XP. I refused to go to vista, and now I'm refusing to go 7, at least until it has a proven track record.

I'm pretty much waiting for them to work the bugs out of Ubuntu, then I'm going penguin again.

[Guest Hood]

For real work, I use Linux, which is in my opinion, a far more superior operating system any MS OS could ever be.

Yeah, but Microsoft's windowing system is so superior to X. If a display driver fails and has to be restarted, you don't lose all your work.

No, but I would assume that there are no real changes. Gates is the master of hype. Windows 7 is hype. All Windows OS's these days work from the same kernel that was developed for Windows NT back in the mid 90's.

Windows 7 isn't just hype, and the kernels haven't just stayed the same - that would be akin to saying Linux runs on the same kernel that Linus developed in '91 at the age of 21. I've always thought random bashing of operating systems to be sort of silly though. It figures though; I have Win7, Linux, and Snow Leopard running on three different towers side by side.

Vista does use more ram to run things then XP.

Yes and no, Vista uses ram as a high speed cache (a low priority process fills it with things it thinks might be used), just like any sensible operating system should. It was misleading (and overall a mistake) the MS counted this in the physical ram usage. It inflates that number a lot. I think Windows 7 might still count it, I can't remember. As for things like finding files, it's personal preference honestly. In my experience, with a sufficiently large hard drive the indexing system seems to find things faster. I guess I never got as attached to XP as everyone else.

[Guest Robin Winter]

Yeah, but Microsoft's windowing system is so superior to X. If a display driver fails and has to be restarted, you don't lose all your work.

Windows 7 isn't just hype, and the kernels haven't just stayed the same - that would be akin to saying Linux runs on the same kernel that Linus developed in '91 at the age of 21. I've always thought random bashing of operating systems to be sort of silly though. It figures though; I have Win7, Linux, and Snow Leopard running on three different towers side by side.

Yes and no, Vista uses ram as a high speed cache (a low priority process fills it with things it thinks might be used), just like any sensible operating system should. It was misleading (and overall a mistake) the MS counted this in the physical ram usage. It inflates that number a lot. I think Windows 7 might still count it, I can't remember. As for things like finding files, it's personal preference honestly. In my experience, with a sufficiently large hard drive the indexing system seems to find things faster. I guess I never got as attached to XP as everyone else.

I never got attached to XP, it's just the lesser of evils for my needs at the moment.

[Guest Zandra]

There are some of us (MSDN or TechNet subscribers) who got Windows 7 back in August. It's good.

As for Vista "problems" -

1. Hardware incompatibility - This one? Not Microsoft's fault! Microsoft gave driver specs to manufacturers with plenty of time for them to create Vista drivers. The hardware manufacturers were just lazy. This won't be a problem with 7, since the driver model is the same.

2. "Memory Hog" - This gets tossed around all the time. "Vista is a memory hog, 50% usage idling, XP idles at 10%." Although it probably wasn't pulled off in the best manner, there was a very good idea behind this. In a computer you've got three types of storage. There's the cache on board the CPU (really small, really fast), there's the ram (bigger than the cache, fast), and hard drives (very big, slow). The idea is that the more often something is used, the faster the spot it should be stored in is. When you think about this, it makes no sense to have 90% of your ram sitting doing nothing. Vista has a low-priority background process that grabs things it thinks will likely be used and puts them in the open memory. This way if you open an application, and the stuff you need is already in memory, it'll go a lot faster, otherwise it has to load it just the same as always. Windows 7 perfected the idea (at least in my experience).

3. UAC - It's annoying for some people, but it really protects a lot of people from themselves. Don't like it? It's pretty easy to turn off.

As for programs that run fine on XP but not Vista, they may run on Win 7 fine, they might not. The professional version has a very nice thing called XP-Mode. It's essentially an emulated copy of XP that is then integrated into 7, it's a pretty neat idea.

It's definitely worth the upgrade - I've upgraded many computers, on a lot of computers it has actually run faster than XP. For instance, I did a fresh install of XP on a computer with an Athlon XP and 128 megs of ram. Then I did a fresh Win 7 install on the same computer. 7 both installed and performed faster - on a computer with specs lower than even the cheapest computers on the market today.

Also anyone who is in college, check out the "win741" promotion. As long as you've got a valid .edu email address you can get an upgrade copy of Win 7 (home premium or professional) for $30. One copy, and the promotion lasts until the new year.

Quoting for Truth. Also, I've been running the Release candidate for a few months, now, and it's been just amazing. Windows 7 has had plenty of time in the field already and launched with a very positive track record; it's a solid OS. Those that think it's all "hype" have just fallen for a different kind.

Also, for those of us not currently in college, places like Newegg.com sell OEM versions of Windows 7 starting at about $100. It's the exact same thing, just no fancy box or anything, and meant for system builders.

[Guest toro]

I currently just finished modifying a tower I bought straight off the market the day W7 came out. It's running on an AMD II Phenom Quad Core with 12GB DDR3 ram and a Terabyte HD. I must say, only run W7 if you have 4 or more gigs of RAM. However, it looks great for people like me (Photoshop, Vegas, Adobe After Effects user) and for music composition. I also picked up two 20" LCDs on the way. Looks quite amazing

[Bulldog1948]

I have a new Dell Laptop with Vista on it and I'm not a happy camper.

Question: How do I remove Vista and install Windows 98 [ I've got the desk from this putor I'm typing on Dimensions 4700].

I'm not a geek so please explain slowly and and make it as painless as possible.

Mike

[Guest toro]

I have a new Dell Laptop with Vista on it and I'm not a happy camper.

Question: How do I remove Vista and install Windows 98 [ I've got the desk from this putor I'm typing on Dimensions 4700].

I'm not a geek so please explain slowly and and make it as painless as possible.

Mike

Probably reformatting with the 98 OS would be easiest and painless although the beginning steps will be hard when you get to the part where it loads the % bar all you need to do is wait and follow steps. However some recovery disks don't come with drivers so I would have to say allow someone with experience to show you if you have problems. Also, XP seems a bit better because it's what I see as the bare necessities for an MSOS user. Otherwise, Linux for the win!

[Guest Zandra]

I currently just finished modifying a tower I bought straight off the market the day W7 came out. It's running on an AMD II Phenom Quad Core with 12GB DDR3 ram and a Terabyte HD. I must say, only run W7 if you have 4 or more gigs of RAM. However, it looks great for people like me (Photoshop, Vegas, Adobe After Effects user) and for music composition. I also picked up two 20" LCDs on the way. Looks quite amazing

*drooooool* I WANT!!! D: And I'm running Win7 just dandy with 2 gigs of RAM. Not the best, I know, but it performs well within satisfaction levels (for me at least). Granted I wish I had a multicore processor to go with the RAM, lol...

I have a new Dell Laptop with Vista on it and I'm not a happy camper.

Question: How do I remove Vista and install Windows 98 [ I've got the desk from this putor I'm typing on Dimensions 4700].

I'm not a geek so please explain slowly and and make it as painless as possible.

Mike

You don't wanna do that. Go XP at the very least, because it's still supported with security updates.

[TassieTiff]

Speaking as a NON Geek.... I was sorry I can't run windows 98... It was simple and did everything I wanted.... Currently on XP Professional And will have to be dragged Kicking and screaming into a new O/S....

If it aint broke... Don't FIX IT.

[Guest Joanna Phipps]

Probably reformatting with the 98 OS would be easiest and painless although the beginning steps will be hard when you get to the part where it loads the % bar all you need to do is wait and follow steps. However some recovery disks don't come with drivers so I would have to say allow someone with experience to show you if you have problems. Also, XP seems a bit better because it's what I see as the bare necessities for an MSOS user. Otherwise, Linux for the win!

that depends on how much ram and hard drive you have, its been my experience that win 9.x barfs big time on anything more then 256 Mb of ram and wont see anything over 512mb of drive. Most Vista boxes are in the gigabytes for ram so that may stop you cold

[Guest NatalieRene]

Quoting for Truth. Also, I've been running the Release candidate for a few months, now, and it's been just amazing. Windows 7 has had plenty of time in the field already and launched with a very positive track record; it's a solid OS. Those that think it's all "hype" have just fallen for a different kind.

Also, for those of us not currently in college, places like Newegg.com sell OEM versions of Windows 7 starting at about $100. It's the exact same thing, just no fancy box or anything, and meant for system builders.

OEM also is not allowed by Microsoft to be transferred to any new machines once installed on a machine. So if you upgrade to a new machine you have to buy another license. If you go OEM don't put it on your current machine if you are planing on upgrading your computer soon.

[Guest NatalieRene]

that depends on how much ram and hard drive you have, its been my experience that win 9.x barfs big time on anything more then 256 Mb of ram and wont see anything over 512mb of drive. Most Vista boxes are in the gigabytes for ram so that may stop you cold

Yes and no. I think windows 98 would see around 4gb max for a hard drive if I recall. THe way around that would be just to take one large physical hard drive and make a army of partitions on it so that you can use all the hard drive space. Be prepared for the fact that you might hit a limit for maximum number of partitions that windows 98 can handle trying to get all the hard drive accessible on windows 98.

[Guest Joanna Phipps]

Yes and no. I think windows 98 would see around 4gb max for a hard drive if I recall. THe way around that would be just to take one large physical hard drive and make a army of partitions on it so that you can use all the hard drive space. Be prepared for the fact that you might hit a limit for maximum number of partitions that windows 98 can handle trying to get all the hard drive accessible on windows 98.

Natalie thats might be a solution for big drives but there isnt much you can do for ram; i think that is going to be more of a stopper than drive space.

[Guest Joanna Phipps]

I have been thinking of pulling down the demo and giving it a go on my laptop. If it dies then I just reload to Vista ultimate

[Guest NatalieRene]

Natalie thats might be a solution for big drives but there isnt much you can do for ram; i think that is going to be more of a stopper than drive space.

I don't think there is anything you can about ram. Thats just the way it is. If you load windows 98 onto a new machine much of the ram will be idle and wasted.

[Guest Elizabeth K]

I have Vista SUX on two computers at home and one at the office - one word: TERRIBLE

I just changed my office computer to 7 - fantastic! Vista wasn't compatable with my AutoCad - and not much else either - but 7? So far so good - I am recommending it to the rest of the office.

Lizzy

[Guest Robin Winter]

Yes and no. I think windows 98 would see around 4gb max for a hard drive if I recall. THe way around that would be just to take one large physical hard drive and make a army of partitions on it so that you can use all the hard drive space. Be prepared for the fact that you might hit a limit for maximum number of partitions that windows 98 can handle trying to get all the hard drive accessible on windows 98.

Windows 98SE had large disk support, certainly not for drives as large as are on the market today, but at least you could get much larger partitions.

Anyone thinking of downgrading to any windows OS prior to XP should be aware that microsoft no longer supports them, so you're on your own. You can probably still get archived updates, but no new issues will be addressed. This would be unwise if you do anything that requires a measure of security, such as internet banking.

[Sally]

OK, everybody, I am going to give you the straight facts (?, OK opinions) from a non-geek mindset.

ALL Operating Systems are flawed!

You learn to adapt to a new system and work around its flaws - we area adaptive and try as hard as they may we are not yet ready for a reasoning computer system an if it will turn out like HAL form 2001 or Colossus, the Forbin Project then I hope we do not make it.

I have currently 4 computers in my studio with two lap tops (one dinosaur that is beyond repair), they are on Windows 98, Millenium Edition, Windows 2000 on the broken laptop, XP home (on the laptop also) and one XP Pro.

Along with that I use computers at work that are all on NT with a super slow Intranet set up.

I have no trouble with any of them as long as I remember which one I am on.

I do a lot of Photoshop work and it is very memory hungry - the program alone taxes my old computers with limited RAM - In all of the programs except XP, I have to limit how many layer I have going in one file - I once made an image that reached nearly a gig and it locked up my computer when I tried to save it - lost all of that pretty work, so on that computer, I flatten layers and reopen it and I also periodically close Photoshop and reopen it because it keeps everything from a session on your scratch drive - on my new computer I have a 180 Gig scratch drive so I have only overloaded it twice!

The drawback to ME and to Vista was just program compatibility - I am a professional Photographer (when I can get work) and too many of my friends were having so much trouble trying to communicate with the labs - Vista was supposed to be the virus proof operating system (a great idea because Internet Explorer is a virus magnet!) so its protocols for accepting information from outside sources made two way file sharing a lot more difficult.

A lot of the stuff you hear about Macs not getting viruses is true for the simple reason that hackers like to cause huge problems and the number of PCs versus Macs is astronomical - and Windows, IE and any other Microsoft applications will be the targets - after all if you are out to make the world notice that you are her would you run into a cave and shout "I am!" or make that same statement in a crowded Shopping Mall?

That is the non-geek way of looking at things - any operating system that will stay up and leave enough memory for your work is a good one.

So I will not be upgrading until I have to replace a computer - it is just easier to work with the ones that you know.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest]

I have Vista SUX on two computers at home and one at the office - one word: TERRIBLE

I just changed my office computer to 7 - fantastic! Vista wasn't compatable with my AutoCad - and not much else either - but 7? So far so good - I am recommending it to the rest of the office.

Lizzy

Did you have to re-install any programs? Did you loose your old email?

Laura

[Guest NatalieRene]

I have Vista SUX on two computers at home and one at the office - one word: TERRIBLE

I just changed my office computer to 7 - fantastic! Vista wasn't compatable with my AutoCad - and not much else either - but 7? So far so good - I am recommending it to the rest of the office.

Lizzy

What version of AutoCAD are you running? My copy of AutoCAD 2008 LT works on Vista just fine. So does 3D Studio Max and Maya.

[Guest Hood]

If it aint broke... Don't FIX IT.

So lets not make our computers faster and better? There's technical reasons for upgrading that have nothing to do with the interface. I mean why go to 64-bit operating systems?

Besides the ability to use more ram, there's another very good reason that the industry is making the move now: Tue, 19 Jan 2038 03:14:07 GMT. At that time a signed integer (32-bits) can no longer hold unix time values (seconds since Jan 1, 1970). It's essentially unfixable for current 32-bit operating systems. So anyone who is crazy enough to continue using XP (I'm not counting the short-live bug prone x64 version) that long will have to upgrade.

Downgrading new computers to anything farther back than XP is a really big mistake. You'll be making whatever money you spent on your computer a waste. You might as well just run Win98 on a machine from back then - it'd be a lot cheaper, that's for sure. Besides, if you bought it recently, you should be eligible for a free upgrade to 7, which is well worth it.

[Guest Synyster]

Ive been using Win7 build 7100 since microsoft made it available and to be honest I prefer it to Vista. I plan full upgrade to win7 as its a great os for netbooks.

[Guest Melanieshaman]

yes! My friend has been using 7 beta for months and loves it, basically it's as sturdy and reliable as Xp Pro (which i currently run) and has the "feel" of Vista. It's probably MS' best OS effort, and I will (when i can afford it) upgrade.

Mel

[Bulldog1948]

*drooooool* I WANT!!! D: And I'm running Win7 just dandy with 2 gigs of RAM. Not the best, I know, but it performs well within satisfaction levels (for me at least). Granted I wish I had a multicore processor to go with the RAM, lol...

You don't wanna do that. Go XP at the very least, because it's still supported with security updates.

Geesh, I was having a major brain cramp guys. I have the disk to Windows XP, not installing Win 98. Dumb stupid ole man LOL....

[Guest NatalieRene]

I looked up the upgrade price of Windows 7 Ultimate. It's $213! No thanks pass. I'm happy with Vista and I really don't think the changes are that drastic to warrant me parting with that much cash at the moment, especially if Microsoft is going to just churn out another os a few years from now again. Maybe I'll buy windows 8 when I'm not dealing with so many more important things in my life that are super expensive all on their own.