Windows 7, what works and what doesn't

I could have sworn Microsoft released a document stating that only Skype 4 beta worked on Windows 7, not 3.x.
 
juventuscadillac said:
what driver are you guys using for ati cards? the win7 beta, latest vista drivers or default( windows update) ?
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I'm using latest 64bit 8.12 hotfix drivers. Microsoft did want me to send some ATI .dll file to them for some reason so sent it but I have had no issues yet but then I haven't installed any games yet either.
 
See rig in sig.... System is actually seeming to work better than my full Vista x64 Ultimate install. Win 7 seems much snappier with less mem and cpu usage.

What works:
XFX 7600GS
Nero 7
IMGBurn
Realtek AC'97
ASRock 939Dual-SataII
AMD 3500+
Lite-On 20x DVD-RW
Westinghouse L2210NW (actually recognized on initial boot, Vista didn't)
PCI Firewire card
Microsoft Natural Ergonomics 4000 keyboard (Vista required special drives)
Logitech MX518
Epson Stylus RX680 printer

What doesn't work:
Same "Unknown Device" as Vista (still don't know what it is)
ULi Onboard NIC (required getting initial driver disk and installing in XP SP2 compatibility mode)

Seems like a good general "cure-all" for driver issues is to get the drivers and install them in XP SP2 compatibility mode. Currently installing WAR to see how it plays but even the internet seems a bit snappier than on the Vista install.
 
Anyone had any trouble installing Cod4 or BF2?

For me, cod4 stops before even getting as far as the installer starting.

BF2 gets about 3 pixels into the installer bar and stops (though I imagine it'll finish in the fullness of time*, I had the same with something else)

Tried running as admin/compat modes on both to no avail.

Edit: Yup, took about 20 minutes to get started.
 
Just installed and ran COD4 fine. Try installing to a different folder instead of x:\programfiles(x86).
 
Oddly, after about 15 minutes the cod4 installer sprang into life and worked as it should.

Seems a bit weird as I've had the same slowness installing from hdds (on another controller) as from dvds.
 
kemathon said:
just curious. Does most games run on this new Beta version of Window yet?
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Absolutely. The question is what games run faster? Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance runs better than on Vista. So does Crysis Wars. Punkbuster does not work.

I did not notice any improvement with Half-Life 2: Episode 2 but the engine is old and it seems to mostly only tap into one of my CPU cores. Team Fortress runs flawlessly if not better. Left4Dead is perfect.

I will test GTA4 tomorrow.
 
Klob said:
Did you guys run dxwebsetup.exe to update directx? Might have some issues with some older games until you do that. Win7 comes with some missing directx9 runtime files just like Vista. Don't know why Microsoft does it that way because it causes a lot of people grief trying to run older games that don't know you need to update directx to get some needed dx9 files.
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Why the hell is this? My buddy and I noticed this one day, and it perplexes the crap out of me. Why would they leave off vital and un-updated DX9 files?
 
Because... they're human after all and not MicroBorgs? :D

Mistakes happen... that's why it's a BETA :)
 
Far Cry 2 @ 2048 x 1152 all high settings, no AA runs between 40 - 60fps on Win 7 for me. Frankly even at that high resolution, it feels smoother than it did on Vista x64 with a 22" lcd running at 1680x1050.
 
I'm still trying to get Win7 up and running fully on my Dell D600. The biggest holdup is my WLan driver. It's an Intel 2200bg driver.

I installed the Vista Driver last night and that didn't work. After some digging today, I found some people saying that it would install if you used the XP drivers. I'm going to give that a shot tonight and see if I can get it to work. I wanted to drop a blurb in this thread just in case someone else comes looking for Intel 2200 bg information.
 
I got an HP nc8230 "Business Class" laptop sitting here, just installed Win7 on it, has an Intel 2200BG (as do 4 other laptops I have with Win7 on 'em) and the 2200BG is natively supported; it will grab an even more updated driver off Windows Update afterwards, but so far, in every laptop that I've installed Win7 on (even older builds like M1 and 6801, 6956 also) the 2200BG is natively supported.

I know this will sound really stupid and I'm not meaning to be insulting but...

Have you checked to make sure the Wi-Fi is turned on on that D600?

I have two D600s and a 600m here with me (same laptops really), and each has a 2200BG in it (standard Centrino Wi-Fi card, obviously) and they all work, from the installation, without issues. It's a rookie error to miss turning on the Wi-Fi or enabling it, I've done it myself, but I cannot see why it wouldn't be "working" on your D600 unless... the Wi-Fi isn't enabled...
 
Blackstone said:
Absolutely. The question is what games run faster? Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance runs better than on Vista. So does Crysis Wars. Punkbuster does not work.

I did not notice any improvement with Half-Life 2: Episode 2 but the engine is old and it seems to mostly only tap into one of my CPU cores. Team Fortress runs flawlessly if not better. Left4Dead is perfect.

I will test GTA4 tomorrow.
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Yeah, PunkBuster goes through the motions but doesn't work in the end. Crysis and L4D run great for me too. Audiosurf's audio is kinda screwy, I have to disable sound effects, but I think that might be a Creative driver issue.

Let us know if you got GTA4 to work, I couldn't. Got it installed and can get the social club to run, but when I hit Play, I get a SecuLauncher error. Anyone able to get SecuROM (blech) titles to work?

EDIT: I also had to run the installer and set the GTAIV.exe to WinXP in compatibility mode to run. Vista wouldn't work for me. Win7x64 here.
 
I canNOT get Acronis 2009 (latest build) to install; it halts halfway through and tells me the installation has terminated and to restart the installer. Never works. I've tried all the suggestions I've found online, and no dice. This is on a fresh, clean install of the beta. Versions 11 and prior, however, installs without issue. EDIT: I've also checked to make sure the installer is not corrupted and does not seem to be.

It's the only program I've had problems with on the beta.
 
Torquemada XP said:
I canNOT get Acronis 2009 (latest build) to install; it halts halfway through and tells me the installation has terminated and to restart the installer. Never works. I've tried all the suggestions I've found online, and no dice. This is on a fresh, clean install of the beta. Versions 11 and prior, however, installs without issue. EDIT: I've also checked to make sure the installer is not corrupted and does not seem to be.

It's the only program I've had problems with on the beta.
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I can verify that one, and I think it's because of how Windows 7 creates a "hidden" (because it doesn't have a drive letter) recovery environment partition about 200MB in size on a clean hard drive installation which is the only type I do, no dual boots here.

I never use the Windows version of True Image anyway; I install it in a VM if a new version comes out, use it only to make the bootable recovery CD, and then get rid of it. Imaging from inside Windows might be safe, but I still prefer the old school method: boot off a CD and get it done... ;)

I'm sure as the RTM of Win7 gets closer, Acronis will issue some sort of patch to address the issue(s), they're probably working on it right now.
 
Joe Average said:
Have you checked to make sure the Wi-Fi is turned on on that D600?

I have two D600s and a 600m here with me (same laptops really), and each has a 2200BG in it (standard Centrino Wi-Fi card, obviously) and they all work, from the installation, without issues. It's a rookie error to miss turning on the Wi-Fi or enabling it, I've done it myself, but I cannot see why it wouldn't be "working" on your D600 unless... the Wi-Fi isn't enabled...
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Yeah, it is enabled.

I found an article on the Win7 "offical" forums. A mod over there indicated that the driver didn't make it into this build, but anyone who upgraded with a working driver should be fine.
 
Jon55 said:
Why the hell is this? My buddy and I noticed this one day, and it perplexes the crap out of me. Why would they leave off vital and un-updated DX9 files?
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No shit. I did that install and all of a sudden my games magically started working again. I couldn't get Company of Heroes to run at all since I had it under DX9 mode in Vista.

However, I can happily report that it runs awesome in DX10 mode at 1920x1200 under 7 on my 8800GT! (avg 45-50 fps, according to performance test). It didn't run nearly that well on Vista under DX10, so I consider that an improvement.
 
Demon10000 said:
Yeah, it is enabled.

I found an article on the Win7 "offical" forums. A mod over there indicated that the driver didn't make it into this build, but anyone who upgraded with a working driver should be fine.
Click to expand...

It is in Windows 7 Beta 1 Build 7000, that's my point. I have 7 laptops here with me (a room full of damned computers, ugh) and all of them have Intel 2200BG wireless cards in them, all are Centrino platform machines (CPU/Wifi/etc match), and all of them are running Windows 7 Beta 1 Build 7000, 5 are 32 bit, 2 are 64 bit, and they all have working wireless at this moment in time. Not one of those installs was an upgrade, they were all done cleanly by wiping all partitions and then letting Windows 7 have it all.

I don't know what forum you visited, or what mod was talking what, but I do know the Intel 2200BG is arguably the single most popular Wi-Fi card ever manufactured and it is natively supported in Windows 7 Beta 1 Build 7000...

Hence the other suggestions. :D The only "official" Windows 7 forum is... well... there is no such place, because the only "official" Microsoft supported place would be the Microsoft sponsored newsgroups.

But good luck anyway... weird.
 
Here's the link to the "Official" Windows 7 forums. They linked it in their FAQ page on the beta download site.

Windows recognizes the network card but refuses to install a driver for it. Maybe I've got a different revision or something, but I do agree -- it's probably the most common driver out there!

Unless something in the OS is turning the card off, it's definitely on. I can boot into vista on the same machine and it works fine. In fact, I downloaded the Win7 install from the same machine...
 
Ok, didn't realize you meant those forums, not too many people that aren't TechNet members even know about 'em... :)

Wish I could offer more input, I just it nearly unbelievable that 2200BG isn't being picked up natively... it's just so weird I can't figure it out. I've actually got 9 of the damned things here in a box (2200BG mini-PCI wireless cards) from system pulls where customers wanted to upgrade to something better like a Broadcom or Atheros-based mini-PCI card and just told me to keep the Intel cards...

They ain't the greatest cards ever made but they do function, at least for most of us. :D
 
Demon10000 said:
Here's the link to the "Official" Windows 7 forums. They linked it in their FAQ page on the beta download site.

Windows recognizes the network card but refuses to install a driver for it. Maybe I've got a different revision or something, but I do agree -- it's probably the most common driver out there!

Unless something in the OS is turning the card off, it's definitely on. I can boot into vista on the same machine and it works fine. In fact, I downloaded the Win7 install from the same machine...
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I have a Vaio VGN-T150 which has this wireless chipset. I will try installing Win7 on it, and report back.
 
System below all works, including the HTOMEGA 7.1 striker drivers.

Works:
World of warcraft.
Ventrilo
mIRC
Avira
Crysis Warhead
Fallout 3.
Call of Duty 4 Single Player
CCCP codec pack
Fraps

Dont work:
PC Probe 2 (asus Mobo program)
Punkbuster (COD4 MP Basically)

So far its so much faster then Vista 64...loving it :)
 
Joe Average said:
Wish I could offer more input, I just it nearly unbelievable that 2200BG isn't being picked up natively... it's just so weird I can't figure it out. I've actually got 9 of the damned things here in a box (2200BG mini-PCI wireless cards) from system pulls where customers wanted to upgrade to something better like a Broadcom or Atheros-based mini-PCI card and just told me to keep the Intel cards...
Click to expand...

So I've got an update. After our conversation I was second guessing myself -- was it really enabled? Well, I was right -- it was enabled.

However, I was able to get it working by installing the XP driver. The Vista one wouldn't work, nor would installing the full intel suite.

If anyone else is having problems getting Intel 2200bg Wireless card working, do this:
1. Go to intel.com and download the drivers and extract them somewhere.
2. open device manager (right click my computer, manage, click device manager)
3. You should see an network device in the unknown devices. Right click on it and choose properties.
4. Choose update driver
5. Choose let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.
6. Click Have Disk
7. Browse to where you extracted the install files to. Under the "main" directory, choose XP\32\Drivers and open Netw532.
8. You'll be prompted to install drivers for the Intel 2200bg card. Finish up the wizard and you'll be online shortly.


I'd be happy to answer any questions in PMs if anyone needs a hand, but the above should be pretty explanatory. Since there is a work around to get the card working for pepole who need it, lets get this thread back on track...

Dell D600 with an Intel 2200bg card... 100% functinoal and running pretty good.
 
Few more.

Works:
Coretemp
CPU-Z
Everest
HijackThis
7zip
Quickpar
Orthos
Process Explorer
OCCT
Project Torque

Doesn't:
Speedfan - installs fine, freezes and doesn't go away on startup (just after smart checking)
 
Kodak Easy Share 5300 printer wont work. When I try to print, Explorer.exe crashes.
When I try to upgrade the drivers it hangs during install even when the .exe is put in compatibility mode.

Oddly enough Window Live Photo keeps crashing. I think it was specifically designed for Windows 7. Maybe just some thing with my set up. I haven't seen anybody else with this issue. I'm using a UNC for my folder in the gallery.

Windows 7 64
 
Tried searching he thread and didn't see anything, so sorry ahead of time if this has been covered already. I let Windows Update download and install the driver for my 8800GTS G92, and it seems to be alright, but I can't seem to get into the nVidia Control Panel. Is this normal? It shows it in the Control Panel, but when I click it, it doesn't do anything. Thanks in advance.
 
The Windows Update drivers don't come with all the goodies; go get the 181.20 WHQL drivers from Nvidia.com to get all the features.
 
Ah, alright. Thanks.

EDIT: Also, should I go through the same method as I did on XP, and boot into Safe Mode, and use Driver Cleaner to remove the old drivers, or is there a different/better method I should know about for Windows 7? Thanks again.
 
CLock3 said:
Ah, alright. Thanks.

EDIT: Also, should I go through the same method as I did on XP, and boot into Safe Mode, and use Driver Cleaner to remove the old drivers, or is there a different/better method I should know about for Windows 7? Thanks again.
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I just installed the new drivers on top of what the Win7 installer used and haven't had an issue. Didn't want to try Driver Cleaner and said what the hell...
 
Alright thanks. One other thing I was going to ask. Has anyone got the Logitech SetPoint software to work? I've got a G5, and all of the buttons work, but I can't adjust any settings or anything like I could with the SetPoint software. Thanks again.
 
Klob said:
Did you guys run dxwebsetup.exe to update directx? Might have some issues with some older games until you do that. Win7 comes with some missing directx9 runtime files just like Vista. Don't know why Microsoft does it that way because it causes a lot of people grief trying to run older games that don't know you need to update directx to get some needed dx9 files.
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:eek: wow you weren't kidding. I just installed Flat Out: Ultimate Carnage and dxsetup had to download 55MB, spanning 4 years worth of SDK updates. Wow!

back on topic, FO:UC works (duh) and so does the Logitech Rumblepad.
 
Been playing with it on my Acer Aspire One for a few hours now, some things to mention. If I put the machine to sleep, when it wakes up my wireless card (Atheros) gets apparently "forgotten" by the OS. Interesting little quirk. It will completely disappear from Device Manager. A reboot helps each time so far...

Also, the WiFi activity light doesn't work. So pretty much my only issues as of yet are WiFi related. Apart from that I'm loving it.
 
leezard said:
Figured we might as well get a list going of what doesnt
what isnt working
ultramon 3.0.3 sort of works throws an error and says it crashed but the task bar on 2nd monitor is still there
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The fact that we still need Ultramon in Win 7 is a pretty good indicator of what's still not working in Windows :(
 
Sabrewulf165 said:
The fact that we still need Ultramon in Win 7 is a pretty good indicator of what's still not working in Windows :(
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QFMFT!!!!

Its not like MS cant do it, or people dont want a feature like this. I was doing some googleing last night about it since it has been mentioned in previous windows 7 talks. Does this make any sense


The key thing to recognize is that the problem is not necessarily that the taskbar doesn’t span, but that more room is required to show more information about windows. So, it stands to reason that we should come up with the best solution to this problem, independent of how many displays the customer has. We thought it would be good to just offer a brief discussion on the specifics of solving this design problem as it is one we have spent considerable time on. One of the approaches in general we are working to do more of, is to change things when we know it will be a substantial improvement and not also introduce complexities that outweigh the benefits we are trying to achieve.
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Ultramon has it figured out, what is so hard about it? provide a task bar for multiple monitors by default, give users the choice of how that taskbar works
 
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