Windows "7"

[kd7ota]

Windows 7 have been great to me. I have no complaints so far.  From the old Med SoundStudio program that I had back in like 2000 or so works great lol.  But it does its purpose..... Do my school work and play music hah.

[adolescent]

No complaints here either.  Although I did have to lose some 16 bit apps I had from the early 90s (due to the switch to 64 bit).  I can still run those on my old XP laptop if needed.

[B00tDisk]

Have it; love it.  The install was utterly painless (despite the best efforts of Digital River - you can google up that little disaster...but I digress), everything runs just fine on it, about the only thing I couldn't get working was my 12 year old USB camera (and come on, how long was that going to be usable - 800k pix, USB 1.1...time to upgrade).

WinUAE works just swimmingly! (there!  On-topic! )

[pan1k]

My first experience with Windows 7 was horrible. I'm a techie, and someone asked me to install a driver for a printer, the old winxp driver wouldn't load... downloaded the 230MB installer, which crashed... ugh terrible and it's so sluggish too!

Thank goodness for Amigas and Macs!

[Matt_H]

No argument here about that. I have been saying since the beta, that windows 7 is just Vista version 2.0 or "Vista Reloaded" (ME 3.0)

I'll probably be thinking of it as Vista SP2 for some time to come

[swift240]

I haver Windows 7 pro, jeeez what a load of rubbish. My TV card dont work with, yes I installed the proper drivers for it even tried compability modes and nothing. Tried my Webcam proper drivers, no wont work with it, tried Amikit no good I had tor download .dll files for it to work.Tried my USB DVBT dongle for Freeview, no dont work, yes proper drivers for it. I tried all modes of compatability and still dont work on all things.
I felt proper let down by this, come on MS you can do better than this cant you? My opinion is I went back to XP no problems every thing works fine. BTW, I tried both 32bit and 64bit as I have a dual core 64bit CPU, the 64bit version seems worse. Both Win 7 are legal before any one says ahhhh they must be pirated.
My system BTW is:-
AMD Athlon Dualcore 64 bit 4600+ at 2.4ghz, Nvidia 8400 PCI-E, 4bg DDR2 ram at 800mhz.

Mike.

[Matt_H]

@ swift240

Seen this before?

[mdv2000]

hah, remember Microsoft can do no wrong(so if the 20th iteration of their OS is called 7) then it is cause we can't count like they do! LMAO

Overall, due to the rise in popularity of Linux (more so than Mac even if apple wants to take the credit) Microsoft has gotten better at what they do.

The main problem is cause MS does bend over backwards to stay backwards compatible - they will actually write code to be app specific compatible - they ultimately hurt what they can do.

I wish they'd release a new OS not compatible but with awesome features and just sell it cheap for x86 architecture and let it grow while just being status quo with current stuff - oh but wait - thats linux...

nevermind,

[DonnyEMU]

Pan1k: There is no difference in drivers between Vista and Windows 7.. The installer program these drivers get installed with (from your printer maker not Microsoft) is probably the thing at issue. If you right click on all the executable install files in the installer package and select properties and select properties and then hit the compatibility tab and select windows XP or Vista (check out which the lowest common denominator that the driver selects) you should be able to get it working...  I had this problem with HP myself until I ran the installer in "Vista" mode..  

The problem  you are no doubt having here is some files expecting certain version numbers. If you still have issues you can send me an email here and I'd be glad to help you get this all installed and working..

swift240: I think I can tell you what the problem is with your TV card driver right now.. You bought the wrong version Windows 7 for your upgrade.

XP Pro for instance was like Vista Business and Windows 7 pro..

XP Media Center/XPHome = Vista Home Premium with Media Center  = Windows 7 Home Premium

The reason your TV card is not working is that while Vista Business and Win 7 pro are the "business" versions they don't contain Media Center editions which have the right CODECs installed to support your TV Card (Specifically MPEG-2).. Nor does the "business" editions include media center for obvious reasons either..

There are several ways around this.. 1) Your TV card manufacturer pays the fee to the org that controls MPEG (it's not a public standard) or you buy Vista Ultimate which contains the codec (because that edition they paid the fee for) 2) You downgrade (LOL) to Windows 7 Home Premium or any edition with Media Center that gives you that CODEC..

A driver isn't the same as a codec.. You could also download the free open source Shark007 codecs for windows 7 and see if that works for you..

XP Pro didn't include DVD or MPEG support.. Only XP media center edition did..

So why is there a Windows 7 Pro version anyway? The difference between home and pro is you can connect to a "Microsoft server network" and be part of that network as a client (not just through FTP).. Home users normally don't need this capability. It's mostly people who "telecommute" or VPN..

I would also just comment to the Mac folks here (yes I have a mac mini x86 and love the Mac. I have some exceptions with Snow Leopard though and consider it their "Vista Release"..

Something to know too if you buy retail Windows 7 or with a machine, all major printer makers are supporting the OS on day one unlike the Vista release where it took some manufacturers over a year..

If you are curious about support for all the devices windows seven has drivers for directly in the box (and online via windows update)..

Check out this website.. It will let you search for a driver..

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7/en-us/Default.aspx?type=Hardware

They now list everything Windows 7 is compatible with both hardware and software (tested) and what drivers attained certification etc.

So you never have to wonder if your 3rd party is providing or going to provide support anymore you just look on the list..

[adolescent]

My first experience with Windows 7 was horrible. I'm a techie, and someone asked me to install a driver for a printer, the old winxp driver wouldn't load... downloaded the 230MB installer, which crashed... ugh terrible and it's so sluggish too!

Thank goodness for Amigas and Macs!

Snow Leopard driver for my old Canon was 246MB (latest update is now 275MB!!!)!  Indeed, thank goodness for Macs.  :roflmao:

[InTheSand]

I wish they'd release a new OS not compatible but with awesome features

They missed a huge opportunity going 64-bit. IMHO the 64-bit OS should have been new and lean, with all the old 32-bit (and 16-bit!) compatibility baggage relegated to tasks running as seamless virtual machines, e.g. "XP mode" as standard on all versions of Win7 and this being the only way to run 32-bit or earlier apps.

Anyway, at least Win7 is leaner than Vista. Still bloated though - after a clean start up with only a few desktop gadgets loaded, it's still using just over 1Gb RAM to do nothing!!

 - Ali

[Amiga_Nut]

I found that sometimes just manually pointing to the XP driver's .inf file is all it takes if the installer b0rks under w7 or Vista.

Graphics drivers being the main exception.

Still wouldn't pay for it and at least Vista was pretty.....win7 is like an annoyingly dumb AND ugly person to date!! lol

Funny thing is for low end hardware XP wipes the floor with both....and does 99.9999% of what people do on their PCs

[tone007]

after a clean start up with only a few desktop gadgets loaded, it's still using just over 1Gb RAM to do nothing!!

I've got a machine here with 1.5gb of RAM running Windows 7, after a bootup it shows only 36% or so of RAM in use.  I'm running the Enterprise edition, maybe there's a difference?

[new2amga]

I don't think enterprise has anything to do with it.  Windows 7 like Vista before it is a very Memory hungry OS.  The more memory you have the more it uses.  You can reduce this footprinte by disabling all of the services that you don't plan on using.  I think someone said somewhere you can get it down to about 750MB of memory usage if you really hack and slash your services.  I cannot complain though as I have Win 7 Home Prem 64-bit and I haven't had any problems aside from an old USB scanner from 1998 or so.  Even then I can attempt to install the xp drivers and go from there.  Also the claims that the OS is slow or sluggish, that is easily remedied.  All you have to do is disable some of the visual effects, such as window fade in and out and suddenly it will seem that much faster.  Performance wise, it seems to run on par with my WinXP partition (although that needs to be reformatted and reinstalled in it's defense.)  All in all, after the Vista fiasco Win7 is like a dream to use and work on.  Oh, and from what I remember the version numbers you are all quoting and asking as to why it's called Windows 7 with a version number of 6.1 or whatnot.  That version number from what I remember reading is based off of the revision of the NT Kernel.  XP (and Win2000 as well) was based off of the NT5 kernel and Vista was NT Kernel version 6.  Windows 7 is not a new revision of the kernel.  It is an upgrade to the kernel in Windows 7 and Server 2008 or whatnot.  Not much else to it.  I will look and see if I can find those articles that talked about the OS Version and I will post links when I find them.

[persia]

RAM is cheap, you can get 4 gigs for well under US$100, what's the point of worrying about it?  1 TB hard disks are standard.  I can go out and by a machine than will happily run WIndows 7 for less than half the price of a SAM...

[amigakid]

Actually I like 7 a lot. Been using it since May and have had no issues.  Don't get me wrong nothing will ever take the place of my miggy(s) and her OS but since I can't stand Mac fanboys and the prices are outrageous for outdated H/W and the fact i have to work on windows for a living anyways i am glad they made a version more stable and able to utilize h/w better than Vista.  Just my 2 cents.