Windows 7

Passa · Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 5:46 pm Post subject: Windows 7

Not sure if there was a thread on this yet, so here it is. I'll keep my Windows 7 stuff for the next post. But yes, discuss!
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Newland · Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:09 pm Post subject:

I got the RC edition off the cover of the September issue of PC user.
In my opinion, it's what Vista should have been, not very resource hungry and runs surprisingly fast. Not a fan of that grouped taskbar feature, might just be an acquired taste though.

I wont be buying it until the first service pack is released and all the software I use now on XP are made to be W7 compatible.
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Jellyfish · Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:14 pm Post subject:

Unless you're running poorly made software, it all runs on Windows 7 perfectly fine. I run 64-bit Win 7 in a "commercial" environment and haven't had any issues even with software that was made for 16 bit OSes.
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Passa · Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:27 pm Post subject:

Delayed post because I got shaped halfway, image uploads take forever. Okay so I got it up and running on my laptop, spent today getting the kinks out. 32bit version by the way. First up - Vista drivers seem to work. My laptop is so old that in some cases, I had no Vista drivers.. and so far, all the XP drivers I've tried have worked too

both the videocard and wifi card are running XP drivers right now. No Aero obviously on this thing but the interface is still nice.

First up, performance. My old laptop is a little faster than today's netbooks (plus has discrete graphics) yet Windows 7 runs very fast. Even games seem fairly unaffected by the OS change. Though if I take it off the power cord and activate the power saving settings, things get a little nasty. My CPU drops from 1.4GHz to 600MHz to conserve power, and once that happens, XP and Windows 7 are worlds apart in performance. It'll take me 5 seconds to tab between windows and my music starts to skip, something that was unfathomable on XP.

The new taskbar/dock system isn't too bad though. It isn't quite the revolution it is made out to be. I initially downgraded it to only combining when I have too many apps open since otherwise it is generally more cumbersome.. but I never seemed to get enough apps open so it would combine.. so I switched it back. Guess the jury is still out on it really. Being able to drag things around on the taskbar is great though, as is the pinning. Screenshot time:

For a basic use computer, you wouldn't have more than this open anyway, so not a terrible result. Privacy issues are far more prevalent on Windows 7, the OS maintains a 'recently opened documents' list for each application:

I suppose it is all a user preference thing, as my computer is a personal one, this doesn't bother me so much, but on shared computers it might be something to think about/remember to disable. Guess it's no different to the 'recent documents' list on XP, just this is more obvious and more comprehensive.

Final thing - I'm running the Ultimate edition, but of course have no Aero since my graphics chip is too old. It is highly disappointing that the Aero Basic interface has such little (ie non-existent) ability for customisation, you're restricted to the one colour scheme. I'm yet to find a way to get around that, a bit of a sticking point with me since I was very much into always changing my XP themes around.

Anyhow, I'll get to some benchmarks of games performance/encoding etc later as well as battery life comparisons.
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3mt · Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 7:55 pm Post subject:

Well, I've been using it ever since the RC came out a few months back. My computer specs are: Pentium 4 3ghz, 1gb ddr1 ram with an AGP HD2600PRO 512mb.
I'm quite happy with the speed. Compared to Windows Vista, its like lightning. Bootup times are around 30 seconds, compared to like 2 minutes for Vista, games run smoother, and it looks better.
However, a downside is that there are days when Windows 7 just decides to stop and lag.
User-interface-wise, its a bit strange to get used to, but it is intuitive and logical, and it doesn't clutter your task bar with apps. There is a lot of emphasis placed on the aesthetics, and one of the things that strikes you first is the weird selection of wallpapers.
The main downside is that I have to reinstall my programs such as Photoshop, because I didn't upgrade from Vista.
Another problem is that when your computer is under load, songs tend to stutter, and webpages take longer to load. Also, watching youtube videos becomes a pain from all the lag.

But overall, I'm happy with Windows 7.
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Sin Ogaris · Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2009 8:00 pm Post subject:

So long as you can switch it back to classic mode (pre XP), I'm not going to care what the interface looks like.

Shadow Wave · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:57 pm Post subject:

I havent tested the OS... but does anyone know aussie pricing yet? OEM and retail?
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Juztin · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:18 pm Post subject:

Passa · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:31 pm Post subject:

Okay I did some benchmarks today comparing Windows 7 and XP to satisfy my own curiosity. All real-world, no synthetic ones. For references, this was on a Pentium M 1.4GHz, 1.5GB RAM, 32MB Radeon 7500. Most critical drivers were the same on both installs of Windows, including the graphics card and wifi adapter. XP is if anything at a disadvantage since it has been installed since December 2008 and has had time to cock itself up, though I keep it pretty clean. Anyhow.

Cold booting
Windows XP: 1:35.08 min
Windows 7: 1:20.57 min

TrackMania Nations Forever benchmark
Windows XP: 49.2 FPS
Windows 7: 47.7 FPS

Counter-Strike: Source stress test
Windows XP: 85.3 FPS
Windows 7: 84.06 FPS

Encoding 3-minute video with VirtualDub
Windows XP: 4:06.05 min
Windows 7: 2:45.14 min

Copying 12.5mb file over network
Windows XP: 2:22.38 min
Windows 7: 2:06.22 min

These results are pretty encouraging. I'll do similar tests once I've got it on my desktop too, but I think it's at the low end where the biggest differences in performance between the two OSes will be found. And Windows 7 does a pretty good job on this bottom-end hardware (the system scores a gigantic 1.0 on the Windows Experience Index). Virtually negligible performance drops in games, with significant improvements in video encoding/file operations.

If I can be bothered, I'll do some battery life comparisons later in the week.

EDIT: Should make mention of some of the issues I have come across though. Obviously an issue targeting specific hardware but fullscreen Flash video is corrupt and unusable for me, though non-fullscreen video on YouTube or iView runs fairly well. My 720p content is now unwatchable whereas before it would just occasionally stutter under XP. But anyhow, I think I'll be dualbooting both for a while until I make my mind up, though I'm already finding myself gravitating towards choosing Windows 7 from my boot menu at startup. That's a good sign.
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Red Baron · Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:42 am Post subject:

I've been using windows 7 for about a month now and have to say i was stunned by its performance.

I've used XP all the time before this so i never really got a feel for vista. The only experience of vista is on my mothers crappy computer that barely runs it. Anyways compared to XP, win7 runs way faster on the setup i had when i installed it (Core 2 duo E6400, ATI 1950pro, 2gb DDR) and of course upgrading the GPU only helped things

Most of the things have been covered already, but i'd like to mention how much i feel multi-tasking has become faster with 7. Alt+tabbing from apps and games during stress is a lot smoother than on XP even while using the fancy animations. I suppose this is benefits from better support for multi-core processors and might've already been the case with Vista since i never tried it. I've never noticed any lag or sound problems that have been mentioned before though.

bluejay · Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:20 pm Post subject:

considering the current vista upgrade offer, would it be wise to pick up a copy of 64-bit home premium, get the 7 upgrade through redemption, and then upgrade after the first service pack comes out?
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Jellyfish · Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:12 pm Post subject:

Windows 7 is Vista SP3, there's no need to hold off from upgrading. I'm pretty sure even my work place is considering making the jump to Windows 7 from XP next year.
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Shadow Wave · Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:15 pm Post subject:

Anyone know if the OEM versions of Windows 7 will allow you to... 'upgrade' from Vista without doing a reformat?
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Passa · Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 11:25 pm Post subject:

grim-one · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 11:32 am Post subject:

OEM discs should be identical to the retail versions, just they come without the packaging and are slightly cheaper.
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Shadow Wave · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 12:11 pm Post subject:

You sure, because when I reformat my PC with my OEM copy of vista, when it boots up into the install menu the 'Upgrade' option is greyed out?

I usually do a clean reformat before I install a new OS, but at the moment i've got Vista just how I like it and I don't really want that to change.
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Island_Wolf · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 1:49 pm Post subject:

OEM may not be a full OS because it is customised by a manufacturer that can add their own drivers or remove most drivers, 3rd party software etc. OEM are not a retail copy and because its cheaper, it has more restrictions.

You cannot upgrade using an OEM, only clean install. OEM is cheaper because of its restrictions, including the one I just stated, and from memory, you can't change the motherboard too, and can't transfer the OEM OS to other machine, it's stuck with its first machine forever.
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Hyper the Metroid · Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 2:35 pm Post subject:

Shadow Wave · Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 3:14 pm Post subject:

Benc82 · Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 5:01 pm Post subject:

We just got Win7 keys at work, so ill be installing that on my laptop and pc this weekend I think. Been liking the RC, much better than Vista.
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Jellyfish · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 11:11 am Post subject:

PixieGirl · Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:28 am Post subject:

I'm not sure whether to switch or not, I think I will wait for some reviews... The only reason I'm considering is really because I'm worried about newer games not working on Windows XP anymore. I have Vista for my laptop and its rubbish! But maybe this is better..
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mikezilla2 · Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:43 am Post subject:

Benc82 · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 2:04 pm Post subject:

^^There are a fair few reviews out there already.
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Nietzsche · Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 4:19 pm Post subject:

I'm going to switch. I'm sick of XP as I've had it for ages. Then again, I consider myself lucky I didn't switch to Vista
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