Windows 7, what works and what doesn't

leezard

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 24, 2004
Messages
4,949
Figured we might as well get a list going of what doesnt work for people. List your OS version (64 or 32 bit)

OS win 7 64 bit

what is working
Steam
mozy backup (havent fully tested this but it seems to work)
FF3
Thunderbird
Avast free edition
LCD software for the G15 keyboard
WHS connector installed flawlessly
roboform
SecondLife (have to use Vista drivers, not the ATI win 7 beta drivers)
Sam Broadcaster
Itunes


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


Heres a list compiled by MrGuvernment, I will try and keep it updated but here is a direct link to it

Working (information comes from various boards and forums ([H] | OCF | XS )
(some items may need compatibility mode / run as administrator, or even registry edits to work properly)

RED---Requires Registry Edits / direct file modifcation
ORANGE---Requires to be run as Administrator / compatibility mode
GREEN---Requires no modification to install and run


Applications

* 7-Zip
* Acronis True Image 11
* Adobe CS4 Master Suite
* Adobe CS4 Productions Suite
* Adobe Photoshop CS3
* Aim
* AnyDVD
* Avast Free Edition
* AVG Internet Security 8.5 Beta
* Avira AntiVir
* CCCP Codecs Pack
* Ccleaner
* CPU-Z
* CyberLink Power DVD Hi Def
* Digsby
* Directory Opus
* DVD Rebuilder Pro
* FireFox 3
* Foobar2000 v 0.9.6
* Foxit Reader
* Fraps
* Google Chrome (mixed results)
* Hamachi
* HandBrake
* HWMonitor
* IMGBurn
* iTunes 8.0 x64
* Juniper Network Connect 6 VPN
* Media Monkey
* Microsoft Office 2003
* Microsoft Office 2007
* Microsoft Streets & Trips 2007
* Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
* mIRC
* Mozy Backup
* MSN Live Messenger v2009
* MyMovies
* MySpace IM
* Nero 7
* Nero 8
* NOD32
* Nvida Ntune
* Opera
* PCWizard 2008
* PGCedit
* Pidgeon
* PowerISO (known memory leak)
* QuickTime
* Real Monitor
* RivaTuner 2.22
* RoboForm
* Sam Broadcaster
* Samurize
* Skype 4 Beta 3+
* SpeedFan
* Teracopy
* Thuderbird
* Total Commander
* Trillian Pro 3
* Ultramon (mixed results)
* Utorrent
* Ventrilo
* Virtual Clone CD
* Virtual Clone Drive (requires immediate reboot to work)
* VirtualDub
* VLC Player
* VMWare Workstation
* Winamp 12
* Winamp 5.54
* WinAVI 8.0
* Winrar
* wPrime
* Xfire
* Yahoo Messenger 9
* Ytunnel Pro 2.5




Games

* AoC
* Call of Duty 5
* Fallout 3
* FarCry 2
* Flat Out: Ultimate Carnage
* GrandTheft Auto IV (mixed results)
* Half Life 2
* Left 4 Dead
* SecondLife
* Starcraft
* Steam
* Team Fortress 2
* TrackMania Nations
* Unreal Tournament 3
* World Of Wracraft


Hardware / Drivers

Coming soon
 
using Win7 x64

I can't get any Radeon drivers to install. I tried the W7 beta, Vista x64 8.12 under compatibility, and it just stalls on Analyzing Configuration. This sucks.:mad:
 
using Win7 x64

I can't get any Radeon drivers to install. I tried the W7 beta, Vista x64 8.12 under compatibility, and it just stalls on Analyzing Configuration. This sucks.:mad:

weird, they installed fine for me
 
what works..
AoC
Farcry 2
L4D

what doesnt
cs source, the menu overlay wont show. all i get is the backround.
cs1.6 has weird scan lines.. ~_~

all was fine using the same drivers under vista.. i did install win7 ontop of vista.. maybe i should try a fresh format.. ~_~
 
Strangely, Google Chrome didn't work in Windows 7 x64 for me. It would install, but could not actually render or navigate to a web page
 
Anyone get Logmein Working? I tried installing it the other day didn't awnt to install.
 
I did the upgrade to see how it would go... took a long time. I cannot access the CCC for video setting.. not essential but I do change my graphics settings a bit often.
 
Got secondlife working

Uninstalled the Win 7 beta drivers and used the 64 bit Vista drivers, works fine. gonna install SAM broadcaster now and see if I can DJ
 
Figured we might as well get a list going of what doesnt work for people. List your OS version (64 or 32 bit)

OS win 7 64 bit

what is working
Steam
mozy backup (havent fully tested this but it seems to work)
FF3
Thunderbird
Avast free edition
LCD software for the G15 keyboard
WHS connector installed flawlessly
roboform


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
SecondLife throws an error stating it can not run because video card drivers are installed wrong, out of date or unsupported

I haven't tried installing ultramon yet, but I dont get why this type of functionality isn't built in.

oh and i have digsby installed and works fine
 
One thing I found out:

Some application / driver installers contain secondary installers that are called during the inital installation. If you have to have compatibility mode for the main installer, you most likely will have to hunt down where the secondary installer was extracted to and enable compatibility mode on it as well.
 
I know others have claimed Windows 7 drivers are 100% compatible with VISTA, but it isn't. There is a good chance that Win7 has a different driver layer. So, hardware manufactures need to work on the Win7 compatibility list for drivers few months prior to the official release
 
I know others have claimed Windows 7 drivers are 100% compatible with VISTA, but it isn't. There is a good chance that Win7 has a different driver layer. So, hardware manufactures need to work on the Win7 compatibility list for drivers few months prior to the official release

They do have the same driver layer. Every Vista driver I've needed has installed fine on Win7. That list includes my Motorola RAZR, Intel SMB device, Realtek ALC1200, Nvidia Geforce 260 GTX, and ATI Theater 650 Pro.
 
I did notice I ran Update and there was an Nvidia driver that would not install. It didn't say what version it was so I couldn't tell. The error code said that it's trying to install software that isn't compatible or that would be older than what's already available.

I also had the OS completely hang on me, I could open start menu but no programs, task manager, shutdown/restart would work, just was hanging. I had to manually power down.

I also could not connect to my USB hard drive. It worked at first, then I attempted to later and it would not bring it up, just kept trying to read.

I also noticed the IE8 button sometimes doesn't minimize when you click it. Several times I've had to click it 2-3 times to get it to minimize. (I minimize by clicking the task button, not minimize up top).

Also, no Software Explorer!!!!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad::confused::confused:
 
They do have the same driver layer. Every Vista driver I've needed has installed fine on Win7. That list includes my Motorola RAZR, Intel SMB device, Realtek ALC1200, Nvidia Geforce 260 GTX, and ATI Theater 650 Pro.

Let's think through a different outlook. Since we are dealing with a closed source OS, we have to apply few guess work, but phones have their own communication layers for transfer, so Win7 has to only worry about the intermediate driver to handle that communication. That goes for any large storage device that only need generic intermediate drivers. They can also be running certain devices in the compatible layer. I'm more concern with mainboard drivers from manufactures. Maybe, compatibility list isn't an issue, because Win7 already comes with most of these chipsets. However, how about certain boards that might require higher level software that needs to be hooked into kernel driver such as bluetooth, wireless USB, certain USB printers, etc. Maybe, driver programmer can jump into this thread and shine a light on this topic.

Also, if you remember, there were issues with NT3.51 and NT4 driver compatibility issues in the past. This also applies to 2000 and XP. Both of the time, MS did claimed it will be compatibility. After few months after the release, the manufactures were releasing separate packages of drivers for different OSes.
 
So that's several items you should be sending as feedback to Microsoft per the "Send Feedback" link at the top right of every corner of every window. Did you? Even once? Or did you save all that just to post it here? :D Just curious...
 
Let's think through a different outlook. Since we are dealing with a closed source OS, we have to apply few guess work, but phones have their own communication layers for transfer, so Win7 has to only worry about the intermediate driver to handle that communication. That goes for any large storage device that only need generic intermediate drivers. They can also be running certain devices in the compatible layer. I'm more concern with mainboard drivers from manufactures. Maybe, compatibility list isn't an issue, because Win7 already comes with most of these chipsets. However, how about certain boards that might require higher level software that needs to be hooked into kernel driver such as bluetooth, wireless USB, certain USB printers, etc. Maybe, driver programmer can jump into this thread and shine a light on this topic.

Also, if you remember, there were issues with NT3.51 and NT4 driver compatibility issues in the past. This also applies to 2000 and XP. Both of the time, MS did claimed it will be compatibility. After few months after the release, the manufactures were releasing separate packages of drivers for different OSes.

I was only providing a list of a variety of hardware that has had no problems installing drivers for (except the RAZR, which was choking at the 6.1 version number). I also installed the Intel chipset drivers and USB drivers without issue.
 
Same..very Vista x64 driver has worked fine if I choose Vista compatibility.

P45 chipset drivers, JMICRON eSATA driver, GTX 2xx drivers, X-Fi drivers, Ralink-based wifi driver, Logitech G15 / MX518 drivers all worked fine.

If you play games using Punkbuster you may run into issues though. Punkbuster doesn't work on Windows 7 with the Battlefield games and some others.

It looks like AVCHD /h.264/ AC3 decoding is built into Win 7 which is nice. I played a couple of h.264/AC3 720p blu-ray rips (.m2ts files) in WMP and they played nicely. WMP actually attempted to play a Blu-ray movie, but it would just show the "loading" icon.

Anyway I'm dual booting Vista and Win 7 now, even though after the PB issue I was like Ok i'm going back to Vista. But Win 7 is so snappy, I want to see how it handles gaming / video encoding.
 
Question about activation?

First boot up it asked about my activation key. I had it stored on my computer so I just skiped that part? But now I get no reminder or anything? Doesn´t mind not having to activate it jsut worried that I will loose my key if I am not fast about it? If it´s some 24h limitation?

also a forum related note using explorer 8 it loves to open a blank page after submitting a message. enabling compability mode seem to help?
 
Question about activation?

First boot up it asked about my activation key. I had it stored on my computer so I just skiped that part? But now I get no reminder or anything? Doesn´t mind not having to activate it jsut worried that I will loose my key if I am not fast about it? If it´s some 24h limitation?

It will start reminding you everry now and then, dont warry about loosing your key
 
Question about activation?

First boot up it asked about my activation key. I had it stored on my computer so I just skiped that part? But now I get no reminder or anything? Doesn´t mind not having to activate it jsut worried that I will loose my key if I am not fast about it? If it´s some 24h limitation?

also a forum related note using explorer 8 it loves to open a blank page after submitting a message. enabling compability mode seem to help?

You can use it for 30 days without putting a key in or activating.
 
Question about activation?

First boot up it asked about my activation key. I had it stored on my computer so I just skiped that part? But now I get no reminder or anything? Doesn´t mind not having to activate it jsut worried that I will loose my key if I am not fast about it? If it´s some 24h limitation?

If your worried than go into system properties and activate it.
 
If you really want to put it in now, you should be able to do it on the computer properties windows, there is a button to change the product key at the bottom of the screen.
 
Cant get any X-FI drivers to install. Knowing Creative we may not get any with Windows 7 even when its officially released......
 
Forum member ryan_975 just gave me a tip to try right clicking the installer and enable Vista compatibility mode.

The only thing is, if there's a secondary installer embedded, you'll have to hunt down where the main installer extracted it to and do the compatibility trick to it as well.
 
That is why I said, Win7 uses a different driver layer. The compatibly layer must thin even not to hurt too much performance. Also, who knows. Maybe, finally going to utilize various instruction sets from various CPUs. Anyway, I can't verify my assumption. I haven't bothered to install various debugging tools. I will wait for RC to get deeper.
 
That is why I said, Win7 uses a different driver layer. The compatibly layer must thin even not to hurt too much performance. Also, who knows. Maybe, finally going to utilize various instruction sets from various CPUs. Anyway, I can't verify my assumption. I haven't bothered to install various debugging tools. I will wait for RC to get deeper.

No, Installers are coded to certain version numbers. If it encounters a version it doesn't recognize (i.e 6.1 instead of 6.0 or 5.1) it chokes. Win7 uses the same drivers as Vista.
 
The only thing is, if there's a secondary installer embedded, you'll have to hunt down where the main installer extracted it to and do the compatibility trick to it as well.

Ah I understand. Most likely it be extracted to the Temp folder if there is a secondary installer. I will attempt this soon.
 
Ah I understand. Most likely it be extracted to the Temp folder if there is a secondary installer. I will attempt this soon.

Not necessarily. my RAZR drivers extracted the secondary stuff to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Motorola Shared"
 
Odd, I didn't have any issues with secondary installers. Are you using the current version from creatives website for Vista?
 
My Auzentech X-Meridian sound card works (the driver is fine), but for some reason I cannot get its control panel to work. The 32-bit Win7 had no problems with that, but for some reason I have to hard-reset my computer every time I try to run the "Oxygen HD Audio (32-bit)" control panel in the 64-bit version.
 
Linksys wireless-G WUSB54G USB adapter for wireless network does not work.

Any ideas...the machine I am testing Windows 7 64bit on has only wireless internet access so I am kind stuck...I have been looking for drivers on my other system that I could jump drive over but so far no luck. The win xp and Vista drivers dont seem to load in Win7 and DriverMax does not do the job either as others have suggested using that to import the driver.
 
I installed Windows 7 Beta 64 bit and all I get is a black screen with my mouse pointer lit up (white, and I can move it around) and text in the bottom right side that says. Its to me almost looks like my PC resolution is super low, but I hit the microsoft logo on my keyboard to pop up the windows menu and tried ctrl alt delete and nothing pops up. But I can move my mouse around fine.

Windows 7
For Testing purposes only. Build 7000


I hope this works as I might have over written one of my raid drives 0:(. I have 4 of the same drives and think I deleted the wrong one. I'm going to restart and hope my vista 64 ultimate is still there.
 
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