Windows 7

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  • weirdlookinguy
    Badcaps Legend
    • Sep 2007
    • 1638

    #1

    Windows 7

    We haven't really talked much about the new Windows here... who's tried Windows 7? What did you think of it?

    I'm running the final RTM version on my new C2D machine, and it has been nothing short of perfect for me. It rocked my face and made me cry. It was not missing one single device driver - everything worked after the install with no action on my part, even my old ass HP printer. I enabled AHCI before installing and hotplugging drives with the eSATA/molex bracket that came with my ep45-ud3p is absolutely flawless. The thing has been rock solid and FAST. The newly designed taskbar is much, MUCH better than what we had before. It takes some getting used to, but it makes things look SO much less cluttered and hectic. The little multiple-window preview thing when you hold your mouse over the taskbar icon is hella useful. All the stupid little Vista annoyances are gone for me, like the shut down button actually being a sleep button... in 7 it went back to actually being a shut down button. Disabling UAC was an option in the start menu on first boot - I didn't even have to go into MSCONFIG. The "action center" security thing is very unintrusive, even more than XP's security center bullshit. And the best part? This thing FLIES on my C2D and it runs as well as XP did on my brother's P4 machine.

    So has anybody else given 7 a try? PLEASE no Linux/Mac/etc plugs, just what you think of Windows 7. If you haven't tried it yet, I highly suggest tracking down a torrent of the RTM and popping it on a spare machine.
  • 370forlife
    Large Marge
    • Aug 2008
    • 3112
    • United States

    #2
    Re: Windows 7

    I have it running on a dual 3.06 xeon computer for my brother's synthesizers. It runs really good, even on just a spare 20gb maxtor 5200rpm drive I had laying around.

    Comment

    • acstech
      GrumpyModerator
      • Jul 2007
      • 1432
      • USA

      #3
      Re: Windows 7

      I tried it on an old AMD Sempron test system I've got. It flew. One of these days I'll try it on my netbook.

      I think we have a new winner here, one that will finally replace XP.
      A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.

      Comment

      • kikkoman
        Badcaps Veteran
        • Jul 2007
        • 691

        #4
        Re: Windows 7

        i'm currently running win7 32bit professional (thank you, msdnaa!), and so far i'm happy.
        it's too early to say if i'm impressed or not, but it's a huge improvement from vista (and xp, of course).
        the new task bar really is a great feature. i never liked the 'auto group' feature in xp, but this time it's different.

        a few notes:
        --file search function. in xp, if you entered a search term, it automatically included files with the term as a part of the name. in 7, you have to use asterisks.
        the indexing feature seems okay, though. btw, do you have to re-index drives manually?

        -- drivers: two things that don't work so far:
        -my NVIDIA graphics card's VIVO's video-in in. it's a 7900GT and i think NVIDIA didn't make any VIVO cards (or VIVO drivers) after that generation. i suppose most people didn't use it. it reportedly did't work under Vista either. Video-out seems to work.
        -my Agfa scanner. it's pretty old and the last drivers Agfa released are for xp (twain),
        so a VM (e.g. virtualbox with filter driver) is the way to go.

        --XP mode: Virtual PC says my CPU's virtualization is disabled. so does AMD's diagnostic tool. according to the bios it's enabled, but Virtual PC just refuses to run.
        i only need a XP VM for scanning, so it's not a big deal (although the desktop integration would be nice. still, no real need for it.)

        surprisingly, Cleartype (which is enabled by default) doesn't annoy me. there are options to adjust it.

        the control center is a bit confusing at first.

        the 'new' solitaire sucks. (it's the same one as in vista.)

        overall impression: pretty solid. no noticeable difference in speed compared to xp.
        time will tell if it's better (read: if it doesn't get as buggy as xp after a while.)

        hardware:
        AMD X2 5400+ (2.8ghz)
        4gb ram (i'm going to use 1 of it as a ram disk for temp files)
        geforce 7900gt
        320/250/80gb hdd

        oh, and the best part: i didn't pay for the license.
        two licenses, that is.
        "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken

        Comment

        • Topcat
          The Boss Stooge
          • Oct 2003
          • 16956
          • United States

          #5
          Re: Windows 7

          I tinkered around with a release candidate of win7, wasn't dazzled with it. Too reminiscent of vista. Its memory usage was better, I will say that, but it wasn't quite there yet. I'm sure it being a RC, it obviously was still full of bugs, so I'll wait and pass judgement after I play around with the release.

          FWIW, win7 and vista on a test system here (P4 3.2GHz 2GB RAM, nvidia quaddro video, ac97 sound, 160gb 7200rpm HDD)

          vista idling with no progs up and nothing running in the background that wasnt essential, it was idling at 980mb of its 2gb RAM. That's just plain ridiculous!!

          win7rc1 idling in the same condition as vista on the same system, it was using 670mb of RAM. Still a little high for OS overhead, but certainly an improvement.
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          Comment

          • gg1978
            Badcaps Veteran
            • Dec 2004
            • 431
            • USA

            #6
            Re: Windows 7

            I haven't tried it out yet, RC or beta, but i did get the $50 preorder at newegg, so i'll definatly be using it.. I play PC games, so hopefully performance under 7 won't regress too much compared to XP.. I'll have 8G of RAM for it, so i can tolerate it if it uses a bit more memory than XP does..

            Comment

            • kc8adu
              Super Moderator
              • Nov 2003
              • 8832
              • U.S.A!

              #7
              Re: Windows 7

              i have the rtm too.tc pm me if you want it.
              we put it on get this....a p3 933 fujitsu tablet pc with 256 m ram.
              it runs decent.actualy better than xp.this is the 32 bit ultimate.

              Comment

              • washu
                Badcaps Veteran
                • Jul 2009
                • 310

                #8
                Re: Windows 7

                I've been running it since the betas (now on RTM) and have been very happy. Runs very well on everything I've tried it on. Only "problem" thus far was that the RTM doesn't have the beta background and my daughter wanted it back :-)

                Even on a 1.2 P3 it ran reasonably well. Only put XP back on because the crappy onboard video had no driver. Can't really blame 7 for that.

                weirdlookinguy: You can change the default power button action in the task bar properties.

                kikkoman: What CPU do you have exactly? You need both CPU and BIOS support to use XP mode. If you don't have it Virtual box is probably your best bet.

                Topcat: One big improvement over Vista is that all the window composting will be done totally in video RAM if possible. In Vista it buffered everything to system RAM first which used more memory. A good chunk of the rest is superfetch, so you can turn that off if you like. However, superfetch will give back memory to your apps if they really need it. Seeing 670 MB isn't that abnormal on a 2 GB system if nothing else needs the RAM. If you fire up a bunch of big apps you'll have more than 1378 MB (2048 - 670) to work with as superfetch will give some back.

                Comment

                • weirdlookinguy
                  Badcaps Legend
                  • Sep 2007
                  • 1638

                  #9
                  Re: Windows 7

                  gg1978, I can't speak on whether or not game performance will differ, but there will be one difference: Windows 7 has DirectX 10, XP doesn't.

                  So is everybody running the 32 bit version? I'm running the 64 bit version and it has been FLAWLESS. Absolutely NONE of the problems that 64-bit OSes are supposed to have (driver and app support, etc.).

                  Comment

                  • ratdude747
                    Black Sheep
                    • Nov 2008
                    • 17136
                    • USA

                    #10
                    Re: Windows 7

                    im staying clear of 7. even though it would run great on my p4 630, i am already running ubuntu 9.20 alpha 5 64 on it. besides, when it becomes non-free, i'd be screwed.

                    still, it sounds better than vista hell edition.
                    sigpic

                    (Insert witty quote here)

                    Comment

                    • Topcat
                      The Boss Stooge
                      • Oct 2003
                      • 16956
                      • United States

                      #11
                      Re: Windows 7

                      Originally posted by kc8adu
                      i have the rtm too.tc pm me if you want it.
                      we put it on get this....a p3 933 fujitsu tablet pc with 256 m ram.
                      it runs decent.actualy better than xp.this is the 32 bit ultimate.
                      Definitely interested. Anyone have the 64 bit version? I have a dual socket 940 Opteron board here with a pair of dualcore 285's @ 2.6GHz (4 core total) system here with 8gb RAM in it, I'd love to give it a whirl on that, should be a great guinea pig...as a matter of fact I'm typing this post from that system with XP X64 on it, and its a nice setup. I'll shoot you a PM shortly.
                      <--- Badcaps.net Founder

                      Badcaps.net Services:

                      Motherboard Repair Services

                      ----------------------------------------------
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                      http://folding.stanford.edu/
                      Team : 49813
                      Join in!!
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                      Comment

                      • kikkoman
                        Badcaps Veteran
                        • Jul 2007
                        • 691

                        #12
                        Re: Windows 7

                        @washu: it's a G2 stepping (Brisbane) that definitely supports AMD-V.
                        maybe new chipset drivers will fix this.

                        another nice feature: flawless integration of mp3 players. my Zen doesn't even need drivers. although it runs in MTP mode, i have full access from the explorer now (needed Creative software in xp).
                        "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken

                        Comment

                        • washu
                          Badcaps Veteran
                          • Jul 2009
                          • 310

                          #13
                          Re: Windows 7

                          weirdlookinguy: I'm running 64 bit on all my machines that support it. It's been flawless for me too.

                          kikkoman: A BIOS update is more likely to fix it then chipset drivers. I've used XP mode but I've yet to find something that really needs it.

                          Comment

                          • i4004
                            Badcaps Legend
                            • Oct 2006
                            • 2029

                            #14
                            Re: Windows 7

                            >vista idling with no progs up and nothing running in the background that wasnt essential, it was idling at 980mb of its 2gb RAM. That's just plain ridiculous!!
                            win7rc1 idling in the same condition as vista on the same system, it was using 670mb of RAM. Still a little high for OS overhead, but certainly an improvement.

                            seems they dropped that silly strategy to "load everything this user might need".

                            pcs are best when they don't pretend to be smart.

                            Comment

                            • Per Hansson
                              Super Moderator
                              • Jul 2005
                              • 5895
                              • Sweden

                              #15
                              Re: Windows 7

                              Originally posted by weirdlookinguy
                              We haven't really talked much about the new Windows here... who's tried Windows 7? What did you think of it?
                              We did have an old thread on the Release Candidate, if you want to read that
                              https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=6388

                              I've been running it quite allot, have not really run into any issues per-se.
                              I only use the 64bit version, IMO no reason for 32bit version to even exist, only creates confusion and hinders driver development since two codepaths must be maintained

                              On a friends computer I have already installed Win7, he had Vista before which he hated and he is really liking Win7...
                              Another friend borrowed the disc from me, have not really asked him how it worked out yet tho

                              I have been meaning to upgrade my brothers computer from Vista to Win7 aswell, will see when I feel I have the time for that

                              Here are MD5 & SHA1 hashes, search for these on sites you want to download from, download and confirm the SHA1 or MD5, if they match you know it's the genuine release...

                              Windows 7 RTM Build 7600.16385 x64 Details:

                              Name: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso
                              CRC: 1F1257CA
                              SHA-1: 0x326327CC2FF9F05379F5058C41BE6BC5E004BAA7
                              MD5: F43D22E4FB07BF617D573ACD8785C028

                              Source: http://blogs.technet.com/dmelanchtho...ows-7-rtm.aspx
                              "The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it."

                              Comment

                              • weirdlookinguy
                                Badcaps Legend
                                • Sep 2007
                                • 1638

                                #16
                                Re: Windows 7

                                TC, I have the linky to a torrent of the 64-bit RTM that I've verified is clean (it's the one running on my machine). Shoot me a PM if you're interested.

                                Comment

                                • washu
                                  Badcaps Veteran
                                  • Jul 2009
                                  • 310

                                  #17
                                  Re: Windows 7

                                  Per Hansson: In a perfect world you would be right about not needing 32 bit. I run 64 bit on every computer I have that supports it. However, there are lots of good machines that are still 32 bit only. My Core (not Core 2) laptop runs 32 bit 7 very well. It's still quite fast. Lots of netbooks are only the 32 bit version of the Atom chip. Also, a fast 32 bit P4 or a fast pre-64 Athlon run the 32 bit version of 7 very well. Maybe the next version of windows will be the right time to go 64 bit only, but now there are still lots of useful 32 bit systems left.
                                  Last edited by washu; 09-15-2009, 07:01 PM.

                                  Comment

                                  • i4004
                                    Badcaps Legend
                                    • Oct 2006
                                    • 2029

                                    #18
                                    Re: Windows 7

                                    weird...i see no reason for 64bit to exist.

                                    can anyone bring me up to speed?
                                    is 64bit faster?
                                    and in what apps?
                                    (will anybody now say "cryptography" and expect no laughs from me...)
                                    heh

                                    Comment

                                    • weirdlookinguy
                                      Badcaps Legend
                                      • Sep 2007
                                      • 1638

                                      #19
                                      Re: Windows 7

                                      64 bit...

                                      -Support for more than 4GB of RAM
                                      -Faster in heavy-duty CPU stuff like encoding video, etc,

                                      Comment

                                      • ratdude747
                                        Black Sheep
                                        • Nov 2008
                                        • 17136
                                        • USA

                                        #20
                                        Re: Windows 7

                                        we have only 1 64 bit machine in the house. my p4 630. sounds like it would run 7 well, but im anti-windows.

                                        still, my p2 333 anint running too awful bad... WITH XUBUNTU!!!
                                        sigpic

                                        (Insert witty quote here)

                                        Comment

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