Few questions and notes.....
Need for Speed Most wanted runs at 3 frames per second, when I was getting 60 fps in Vista.
Did you upgrade the video card drivers to the latest from your manufacturer?
Disable Aero.
Patch Need for speed
Use the Games explorer
Good article on game compatibility in Windows 7
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2339538,00.aspSupport Doc on game performance....
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/815069I can't mount ISO's with Alcohol 52%.
This doesn't fix Alcohol but Windows 7 can mount ISOs built in now.
My burning software doesn't see my burner.
Burning software has typically needed to be upgraded every time a major OS update comes out. Either look for the latest patch level or buy the upgrade. I had to do this with Nero when moving from Windows XP to Windows 7.
PCTools tune up doesn't work.
Did this pass the software compatibility check? Most of the time system tools need to be patched or upgraded when you move from OS to OS. I don't see PCTools tune up on their site.
Worst of all My TV tuner crashes MediaCentre, so I still do not have a fully working Mediacentre installation.
What TV Tuner are you using? Were you able to locate a newer driver for it. I don't use MEdiaCenter, I'm running SageTV but I see lots of sites talking about my TV tuner crashing Windows media center. Both under Vista and Windows 7, Vista with the new media center, it seems like a common problem.
Be sure you have the latest chipset drivers and video card drivers as well.
These codecs have been known to help Media Center from posts I've read...
K-Lite Codec Pack
FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder
maybe I'll find workarounds for software and hardware that doesn't work, but I've spent the best part of 20 hours and I'm worse off than i was in Vista!!
I hope it all goes well for you, other than upgrading my burning software from a very old version to the latest, driver updates and reinstalling two applications my Windows 7 upgrade went really smoothly. Ever case is different though, perhaps, a dual boot with Windows XP so that you can play your old games would be helpful?
All in all, Win 7 is little more than a Vista SP3. I have no doubt that it would have been Vista SP3 if Vista wasn't so badly received and MS felt that it had get the bad taste out of people's mouths by renaming it. No way does Win 7 deserve to be called a new OS. IMO Vista was actually quite good by the end. If you have it, don't bother paying for a copy of Win 7.
Windows Vista got better as the patched it. However, Windows 7 has had quite a bit of code refreshed much more than what I'd call a service pack. This is the first OS that I've considered a reasonable upgrade from Windows XP. Vista was functional for me but there was just something clunky about it. Windows 7 gets out of my way, while still adding the visual elements. Next I'd like to try it with a touch interface.
Hopefully, some of that helps.
-Nyle
