Question for those who went from Vista to Windows 7

I switched from Vista to Win7 RC in June, then to Win7 RTM about a month ago.
The new task bar is aswesome, I did not like the new start menu at first, but then I realized that it actually helps me instead of being a PITA like XP or Vista non-classic version was. Now I can actually control what I want to see in the notification area.
It seems that MS had finally decided to make UI a priority - it looks smooth and polished, even a simple calculator app.

I'm happy.
 
Yes, I am planning to upgrade to Windows 7 on the first day of retail release, the same I did with Vista and XP. I have been testing RC1 now since it was release and on my build it is definately faster.

One of the reasons it is faster, to my understanding of course, is the MS Windows team change the way the OS loads programs instead of having each load individually, which I say took pretty damn "forever" on my Vista! Windows 7 loads them concurrently! Unfortunately, since most of them are game programs, Steam, Rockstar, EA, etc. I didn't want to install the games on Windows 7 due to activation and reinstall on Retail and acitvate them again.

There are alot of "under the hood" changes, which warrants a 7 and not a SP3 like some pundents who think 7 is exactly the same as Vista. There was a list listed somewhere on the web I wonder if I can find it....

One of my favorites is this one:

http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/ Very useful information. And here's another site: http://windowsteamblog.com/ Of course some cynics may say these are from MS so they are glossy and are half-truths. I find the discussion insightful to what Windows 7 can do.

Personally, I am enjoying Libraries, since I am prepareing to use a SSD as the main OS, I am going to need an additional hard drive for my music, videos, documents, etc.! The only thing I am worried is game saves that Vista originally put in the User folder, I trying to see if it can be put onto another hard drive.

I have a HP mediasmart server using MS Home Server software, which I understand can be upgraded to Power Pack 3 which will work more seamlessly with Windows 7. I can't wait for that one.

Also, Windows Media Center works really well with playing my rip cd music, and Total Media Player is integrated so I can use that to watch my blu-ray movies.

Right now, the only real problem I am having is sometimes I can't boot into Windows 7 on the first try, I am not sure if that is hardware related or what, Windows 7 recognizes some error but I really can't tell what the cause. Also, my sound is not perfect and I think that is just from Asus. Hopefully, unlike Creative Labs when Vista came out, Asus will provide better support software for my sound card.

Okay, I'm getting long winded, so final thoughts. I am enjoying Windows 7, and looking forward to October 22. I wish it was sooner though. :D
 
GreenMonkey said:
But BD? Doesn't make fiscal sense.
Click to expand...

That's what they said about XP and DVD codecs. It ended up being a huge pain in the ass for end users.

Considering the huge number of Windows licenses Microsoft sells I imagine they would get a pretty steep volume discount. Its good for the Blu Ray people because they would get paid for every Windows machine in the world, regardless of whether or not the end users circumvent the copy protection and use other means of playback (ripping to an unprotected container).

Plus it would be a huge selling point. "Microsoft Windows lets you play Blu Ray content right out of the box, Apple OSX doesn't. Thankfully they have a patch: install Windows." :D
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Plus it would be a huge selling point. "Microsoft Windows lets you play Blu Ray content right out of the box, Apple OSX doesn't. Thankfully they have a patch: install Windows." :D
Click to expand...

there is a reason you dont see a blueray xbox360 though- and you wont see bluray native in windows. microsoft hates bluray. thats about it, long story short. fine by me to be honest though, all it means is ms is forced to fast-track their HD streaming services. bluray is a crappy format imo anyway. too proprietary and too 'molested'. i welcome the freedom of streaming services and the possibility of eliminating all optical drives from pc's in the future.
 
I switched when the RC became avaliable. I haven't been able to stand using Vista since. The media player and interface alone make it worth it to me, not to mention it's just more fluid and runs better, imo.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
That's what they said about XP and DVD codecs. It ended up being a huge pain in the ass for end users.

Considering the huge number of Windows licenses Microsoft sells I imagine they would get a pretty steep volume discount. Its good for the Blu Ray people because they would get paid for every Windows machine in the world, regardless of whether or not the end users circumvent the copy protection and use other means of playback (ripping to an unprotected container).

Plus it would be a huge selling point. "Microsoft Windows lets you play Blu Ray content right out of the box, Apple OSX doesn't. Thankfully they have a patch: install Windows." :D
Click to expand...

Blu-ray market penetration sucks. And even less people have blu-ray equipped computers. And blu-ray isn't replacing DVD any time soon. You'll see windows 8 or windows 9 first. Why would MS want to pay $5-$10 or whatever to the BDA for millions of Win7 users, just for the 1% of them that would use it? Doesn't make any sense.

This coming from a guy with Blu-ray, HD-DVD, and a 100" projection screen. I haven't seen the point of spending $50-$100 or so to add BD to any of our computers plus the software costs.
 
GreenMonkey said:
Blu-ray market penetration sucks. And even less people have blu-ray equipped computers. And blu-ray isn't replacing DVD any time soon. You'll see windows 8 or windows 9 first. Why would MS want to pay $5-$10 or whatever to the BDA for millions of Win7 users, just for the 1% of them that would use it? Doesn't make any sense.

This coming from a guy with Blu-ray, HD-DVD, and a 100" projection screen. I haven't seen the point of spending $50-$100 or so to add BD to any of our computers plus the software costs.
Click to expand...

For movies that actually bother to actually take advantage of Blu Ray, it rocks. Now is it worth the added cost? Not really but I'm renting most of my BD content but I'll buy certain things. Plus BD is a decent backup solution at 25GB per disc, its close to the cost of DVD DL per gigabyte.
 
I just went from Vista Pro x64 to Win 7 Pro x64 RTM last night, Its great! I already had tried beta 7000 and it was good as well. Since RTM is on I noticed faster startup, more fluid working. Another thing I noticed was in Vista, I was impressed to peak at 1.4Mbs on a download once or twice, Just getting drivers and such on Windows 7 and the newest Firefox I peaked at 2.1Mbs, totally worth upgrading.
 
GreenMonkey said:
Blu-ray market penetration sucks.
Click to expand...
Same with multi-touch.

I can't imagine it would cost more than a couple bucks to include considering how many licenses they'd be purchasing. At the very least it would make a nifty Ultimate Extra (if they hadn't decided to discontinue them).

There really aren't a whole lot of totally new features in 7 compared to Vista. Something like built-in Blu Ray support would be nice.
 
another happy Windows 7 user here, only issue is the Game explorer.

-had to become familiar with locations like
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\GameExplorer
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\GameExplorer
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\GameUX\to edit/fix games icons before I knew about tools like Game Explorer Editor/Game Explorer Builder

-CPU works fine until I open the Game Explorer, then the usage gets stuck at 25-30% even if I closed it, the only way to turn it down is to log off.
I currently fixed this by turning off automatic updates and news option.
 
I find it rather funny that Win7 Pro has no games to begin with, however...
When else do people play solitaire and hearts than at work?!?!
 
Modred189 said:
I find it rather funny that Win7 Pro has no games to begin with, however...
When else do people play solitaire and hearts than at work?!?!
Click to expand...

Gotta go to Programs and Features, Turn Windows features on or off, then enable games. It is unchecked by default.

programsandf.jpg
 
ScretHate said:
Seriously?

So when you need to write an essay you use notepad?
When you need to manipulate some images you use paint?
And when you watch to watch a blu ray you use windows media player?
When you need to do math you use calculator?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that most people don't use these apps for serious work. They'd rather use Word, Photoshop, PowerDVD, and Mathematica, respectively.

Just imagine someone making an OS that came bundled with all four of these. It would be the best operating system ever.
Click to expand...

Yes, seriously!


Of course I install (and use) serious apps for serious work! But I'm not the sort of person who uses an excavator to dig a hole to plant petunias in either! I don't fire up Word just to type up a brief note to myself. I don't fire up Photoshop just to resave an image in a different file format. Blah, blah, blah....



There are a million and one 'simple' tasks which are nowadays pretty much basic elements of 'computer' operation. An OS which can't attend to those simple tasks, in itself and out of the box, is lacking.
 
Catweazle said:
Yes, seriously!


Of course I install (and use) serious apps for serious work! But I'm not the sort of person who uses an excavator to dig a hole to plant petunias in either! I don't fire up Word just to type up a brief note to myself. I don't fire up Photoshop just to resave an image in a different file format. Blah, blah, blah....



There are a million and one 'simple' tasks which are nowadays pretty much basic elements of 'computer' operation. An OS which can't attend to those simple tasks, in itself and out of the box, is lacking.
Click to expand...
Then Ubuntu is the better OS, as it is bundled with Firefox, GIMP and Open Office.
 
ScretHate said:
..GIMP and Open Office.
Click to expand...

Excuse me for saying so, but when I choose 'serious' software I kinda like it to make me feel like I'm a part of 2012, not a part of 2001!

Anyways, I guess I might better go load up a Ubuntu install. Haven't checked out a new Linux distro for a while, and I was kinda under the impression that stuff like those were software 'choices' which you had to explicitly add to your system after you loaded up the OS. They get installed for you in a default install of the OS itself nowadays, do they?
 
use the right tool for the right job.

wordpad can do most things that most people need to do
notepad is good for quick notes
wmp works with most media
calculator is excellent for basic math

of course you can use word to write a quick note, wmc to play a flash video, and excel for basic math, but you really don't need to.

That, and I wouldn't say gimp and openoffice is good for anything.
 
heatlesssun said:
Why does that matter? You can install all three on a Windows machine in about 20 minutes, 5 if you leave out OpenOffice.
Click to expand...
Because apparently bundled software is the deciding factor when choosing an OS. This is not my argument.
 
tronmaster said:
Personally, I am enjoying Libraries, since I am prepareing to use a SSD as the main OS, I am going to need an additional hard drive for my music, videos, documents, etc.! The only thing I am worried is game saves that Vista originally put in the User folder, I trying to see if it can be put onto another hard drive.
Click to expand...

I keep my save games on a different hard drive too. To do this, copy the "c:\users\%username%\documents\my games" directory to another hard drive, delete the original directory, open up an elevated cmd.exe window, and type:

mklink /d "c:\users\%username%\documents\My Games" "d:\My Games"

Substituting "d:\my games" for where-ever you copied it to. I do this to keep it backed up, since my D: and F: drives have backups, but my C: does not. It's easier to manage for me, basically.
 
ScretHate said:
..bundled software ...
Click to expand...

... is not what's being referred to here. Integrated OS functionality is what's being referred to, Sure, some of that is provided by included applets which are default installed along with the OS. But that's a different thing to a bunch of applications included in the box (or on the disk) which have to be explicitly identified and installed in order to gain functionality from them.



The only truly comparable 'bundled software' which comes with Windows are the 'Windows Live' apps which users can choose to download/install or not after the OS itself has been installed.

Included functionality is included functionality. It ain't a grab-bag afterthought bundle of freebie third party apps.
 
I joined IEEE, and through their connection with MSDN, I basically have 10 legit Windows 7 Pro licenses. More than enough to upgrade all my house PCs from Vista to Windows 7, so I thought Id share my experiences.

I actually like Vista, it runs great provided you have newer hardware. But I like Winodws 7 even more. As mentioned by others, Windows 7 does not really feel that much faster than Vista in day to day tasks if you have decent hardware. Standby is roughly the same speed, while hibernation seems to be faster (used to take ages). Boot times are also reduced in 7, it's much faster than Vista while a tad bit slower than XP. This is all on newer, less than a year old, machines.

However, on my 6 year old AMD AthlonXP 3000+ with 2.5gb ram and a slow 120GB hard drive that can only do about 25MB/s, Windows 7 was noticeably faster than Vista, but still slower than XP.

My only complaint with 7 is that they took out the feature where you can minimize Windows Media Player to the taskbar and have all the play controls there. There is a hack to get around this on 32bit systems, but not 64 =(
 
devil22 said:
I keep my save games on a different hard drive too. To do this, copy the "c:\users\%username%\documents\my games" directory to another hard drive, delete the original directory, open up an elevated cmd.exe window, and type:

mklink /d "c:\users\%username%\documents\My Games" "d:\My Games"

Substituting "d:\my games" for where-ever you copied it to. I do this to keep it backed up, since my D: and F: drives have backups, but my C: does not. It's easier to manage for me, basically.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip devil22! Will try it out on my Windows 7 RC1 later today on a game that doesn't require activation.
 
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