So I upgraded Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate

[stefcep2]

After all the hype about Windows 7, I took the plunge and upgraded.  I was actually happy with Vista-I had it tweaked so boot time was reasonable, all the hardware worked, all my old games worked, all my apps that I had from Win 98 days worked, and it had become quite responsive  But I was bitten by the "grass is greener.." syndrome.  Most of all I had borked my media centre installation with TV upgrade (from MS, no less), that could not be uninstalled, rolled back, without an OS re-install.

People were saying how quickly Win 7 installs.  Maybe if you do a clean install.  My upgrade took 3 hours and 43 minutes.  This is on a c2d 2.4 ghz and 4 gig ram with a 7200 rpm hd.

Boot time is faster, if you count up to when you can launch from the start menu, but the HD is still going like crazy for just as long as Vista.  I guess they've just upped the priorities for user input in the scheduler, and maybe loaded less services at boot time.

Its not as obvious to find how to disable some of the theme effects as in Vista. It seems they've decided to "dumb" this down.

Need for Speed Most wanted runs at 3 frames per second, when I was getting 60 fps in Vista.

I can't mount ISO's with Alcohol 52%.

My burning software doesn't see my burner.

PCTools tune up doesn't work.

Battery times are the same.

IMO the task bar looks worse.

Worst of all My TV tuner crashes MediaCentre, so I still do not have a fully working Mediacentre installation.

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!!

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.

[save2600]

Sorry man! I'm sure a lot of people are going to chime in with all sorts of savvy advice - but there is a lesson to be learned here about the grass being greener. These days, I cringe whenever the thought of upgrading *anything* on the computer turns into a plunge scenario. You absolutely have to make back ups of all your important things and even make sure you're prepared to go back to your previous OS if need be.

iTunes OSX for instance, is getting worse and worse (efficiency wise) with each and every new "upgrade". I'm really beginning to resent how Apple has been engineering their customers lately. I should not have needed to upgrade iTunes in order to see a certain video or download a higher bit rate AAC. The iTunes experience is now a sluggish POS and their store is almost completely unbearable to browse - but hey, I have a few more "features" I'll probably never give a hoot about    yay

Out of curiosity, with Windows 7, did you perform a totally fresh install on a blank partition or did you simply choose to upgrade your previous installation? I remember when I had Windows products, how you installed was the most important aspect of the upgrade.

[haywirepc]

I run vista and have not upgraded because of the same kind of stories I have heard from many people. It took me ages to get vista working as good as my old win2k or xp computer.
 
I really think windows just gets worse and worse with each renaming.
 
Vista runs like shit on my quad core computer, programs crash all the time, then it annoys me asking about reporting it to microsoft...It came with my pc, so I stuck with it. Someday when I have time, I'm going to wipe out vista and install windows 2000 server.
 
Yes I'd rather run a 10 year old os if that means more stability, less interference from microsoft, less eye candy, less of everything that annoys me about windows. Unfortunately, many of us still need to deal with the nightmare called windows for work...
 
I feel your pain... My best advice? Rollback to xp or win2k server.
 
Steven

[Tension]

I run vista and have not upgraded because of the same kind of stories I have heard from many people. It took me ages to get vista working as good as my old win2k or xp computer.
 
I really think windows just gets worse and worse with each renaming.
 
Vista runs like shit on my quad core computer, programs crash all the time, then it annoys me asking about reporting it to microsoft...It came with my pc, so I stuck with it. Someday when I have time, I'm going to wipe out vista and install windows 2000 server.
 
Yes I'd rather run a 10 year old os if that means more stability, less interference from microsoft, less eye candy, less of everything that annoys me about windows. Unfortunately, many of us still need to deal with the nightmare called windows for work...
 
I feel your pain... My best advice? Rollback to xp or win2k server.
 
Steven

I'll be staying with XP for the foreseeable future.

[Jose]

what made you shif to Vista in the 1st place ? XP does everything I ever wanted on my Phenom2 X3. Except for the few exclusive games if you're into gaming, I don't think it's worth it.
2K on the other hand doesn't have security updates anymore, and there's various more recent apps that don't run on it...

[Nlandas]

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.asp

Support Doc on game performance....
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/815069

I 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

[tone007]

I was enjoying the prerelease of Win7 Ultimate on my laptop for some time but it's finally expired.  One of these days I'll log into MSDN and download the full version, for now booting into Ubuntu is fine.

[haywirepc]

I did not upgrade, vista came with this pc. I have a friend who's a video editor, he's always upgrading to the latest and greatest pc, so he sold me this quad core pc cheap and it came with vista.
 
Xp or win2k would have been my choice. I haven't run into any programs win2k won't run yet, but I'm sure your right, and there are many third party add ons for xp that make it have as much eye candy as vista if thats what you want...
 
As far as xp/vista I just can't stand the interference from microsoft, like reporting errors, downloading updates and all that nonsense. I don't want it, don't need it and it just gets on my nerves.
 
Most of the time, I run my linux pc, which also runs virtualbox with a windows xp installaion... Its been modded alot, running compiz, amigaos full install and its my favorite computer that I ever had...
 
This is older, now my amiga os is modded and got alot more
programs installed...But
 
Screenshot! - http://www.subcultureproductions.com/files/screenshot.png
 
Steven

[Argo]

I've used Windows 7 since the first Beta with out a problem. Now Vista, that was a disaster. Manufacturers didn't even have compatable drivers ready by launch.  
I'd have don't a clean install. It only takes about an hour.  I've read of issues like your's from upgrade installs. Even Vista had those issues. Mainly what is causing the problems is various small parts of Vista being held over into the Windows 7 installation. Really, a clean install, installing all your programs, and copying over setting is the way to go.
I'm currently doing this, going from Windows 7 RC2 to Windows 7 Pro. Held off till the end as I had everything setup the way I wanted. Now I have to redo all of that. But it has to be done. Good way to force all my drivers to be up to date.
Oh, just wanted to point out that an old webcam I could not get working under Vista, worked fine with XP, mainly as there were apparently no Vista drivers for it. Windows 7 recognized the webcam when I plugged it in and got the drivers. Works great under Windows 7.

[Argo]

Update Alcohol, I've had not problems using it.
Update your other software as well.

What tuner card are you using?  I've have a Haupauge 1600 and not a problem, even since Win 7 beta 1.

[Dmaster]

Weird.  I have windows 7 home premium 64-bit and so far it works great for me.  I also have Windows 7 Ultimate and a clean install is pretty fast.

[stefcep2]

Thanks for the tips folks.

Vista never felt as snappy as Win 7 does but the backwards compatiblity seems less with Win 7.  BTW has anyone run XP Mode in Win 7, for games?  I think its a virtual machine, rather than a compatibility layer.

I did do an upgrade over Vista, becasue I had heard people say that with Win 7 it was the first time that it worked for them.  So i thought I'd give ii a go. I didn't want to do a full install because I'd reckon it would take me about 20 hours to re-install everything and configure it, which ofcourse it has anyway LOL.

Yep I have the latest video drivers.  Things is on the HP site the driver is slightly older, but double the size of what's available on nvidia's site.  Not sure if that mattered.  I'll check out those games sites, thanks.

The TV tuner is a Pinnacle 73e usb tuner.  It works with its own software, under xp and vista, plus with HP's version of mediacentre "Quickplay".  But Win 7 Mediacentre crashes. I'm starting to think that whatever stopped Vista Mediacentre working is still there lurking somewhere and crashing Win 7 Mediacentre.  I fear a full clean install is coming.

Yep my PCtools is not Win 7 compatible, so more money there...

I found an update for my burner software, seems to work.

Thanks for the tips again.

[Opus]

I'm running XP, installed Windoze 7 ultimate on another partition and for some reason, windoze 7 keeps locking up, checked drivers and all that good stuff to no avail, so I'm back to XP.

[stefcep2]

How wierd is this: I just launched Need for Speed Most wanted and its now running fine 60 frames per secon=.  Played for half an hour , fine.  Exited.  Ran it again.  BAck to 3 frames per second.  WTF?
Edit.

Well after stuffin' around with it I got NFSMW to run properly.

I had run it compatibility mode: WinXp SP3, 256 colors, 640x480, disable visual themes, administrator privelage level.  But that only starts the game. You still get 3 fps!

Now in the in-game options there is a video menu, where I had to set level of detail to the lowest, and resolution to 640x480.  Exit and start again.  Yay 60 fps.  Go to Options->Video, set level of detail to highest, set resolution to highest, still runs at 60 fps.  Before exiting I've got a set the in
game video settings to the lowest, otherwise next time I launch its back to 3 fps.

Might help anyone else having problems getting an old game to run.

[Nlandas]

Thanks for the tips folks.
Yep I have the latest video drivers.  Things is on the HP site the driver is slightly older, but double the size of what's available on nvidia's site.  Not sure if that mattered.  I'll check out those games sites, thanks.

Don't take this too harshly but next time skip HPAQ.  ;^) You'll thank me. Sometimes the cards that OEMs use don't work with the drivers from the manufacturers. NVidias usually good about this but you never know.

The TV tuner is a Pinnacle 73e usb tuner.  It works with its own software, under xp and vista, plus with HP's version of mediacentre "Quickplay".  But Win 7 Mediacentre crashes. I'm starting to think that whatever stopped Vista Mediacentre working is still there lurking somewhere and crashing Win 7 Mediacentre.  I fear a full clean install is coming.

I see that Pinnacle being purchased by Avid then Avid sold the tuner division to Hauppauge. So, if you haven't already get the Win7 driver for the 73e from here...

http://www.pctvsystems.com/tabid/62/default.aspx/Downloads/Driver/tabid/123/language/en-US/Default.aspx

 my PCtools is not Win 7 compatible, so more money there...

Common on all platforms when core OS stuff changes.


I hope it goes better for you. I'm not a big MS fan but Windows 7 is finally a worthy successor to XP.