Windows 7 - First Impressions - Page 6

**perris** · February 5th, 2009

I finally got this one going, it installed smooth as glass, only took about 15 minutes, that was quite a surprise

it's very snappy but I believe that's because there are very few effects and hardly anything running in the backround

it doesn't recognize the driver folder since i partioned but once I pointed hardware in the right direction so far everything seems to work perfectly

it seems just like vista right now, I haven't seen anything that makes me want this operating system when it goes live but time will tell, and don't forget I was very reluctant to go to vista and then when I did I hated that os till issues were resolved and now I wouldn't go back to xp unless I had to

**Johnny** · February 5th, 2009

Give it time, first blush does look a lot like vista. But as you use it you will see a lot differences.

**X-Istence** · February 11th, 2009

Why am I currently giddy like a freshmen in college surrounded by lots of hot women? I am not sure why, but I know it has to do with Windows 7. Windows 7 has to be the biggest improvement in the last few releases of Windows, much like going from Windows 98 to Windows XP, and is what Windows Vista should have been.

Windows Vista was extremely slow and sluggish on the machine I tested it on, now I will agree that the hardware is not that great however the machine still works and I am pretty sure that I am not the only one with older hardware lying around. Not only that, but the average user does not have the latest and greatest machine either. The hardware is as follows:

Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz, no HT
1 GB of ram
60 GB IDE hard drive
Atheros Wireless 802.11g network card
GeForce 4 Ti 4600 128 MB ram (22" wide screen monitor at 1680 x 1050)

Windows Vista had major issues running software, it would lock itself up when it did not have the resources it required, and when running multiple pieces of software on the same machine it would stop responding or not re-draw certain portions of the screen. The situation did not improve much with Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista. Vista may have had some cool features but they were not good enough for me to keep playing with it and it got in the way more than it got out of the way. From my viewpoint it was a hopeless mess, and not worth my time.

Windows 7 however is an absolute blast, it is like night and day. Running the CPU at a 100% the OS stays very fluid, I am able to switch applications, switch to new applications and keep doing what I was doing no matter what is going on in the background. The scheduler has been improved dramatically, and it is noticeable. I have yet to really enjoy working with any Windows OS that Microsoft has released, however I currently feel like I did when I bought my first Apple Mac, the iBook. Here is an OS that will let me do what I need to get done and move out of my way to let me complete the task at hand.

Resource usage is also much lower. In Vista it would spend a lot of time paging, and the memory usage was around 80% all the time in Windows 7 with more software running it is still under the 60%. The fact that when it is booted up it uses less resources also helps with the experience as a whole. New applications open faster and since there is less paging going on the whole system responds faster.

The new "task bar" and way it shows what applications are running is neat, and while people can claim it was taken from the Dock in Mac OS X, I believe Apple could learn something from Microsoft in this case. The whole mousing over the icon to see all of the windows that are active is absolutely fantastic. With my current graphics card I do not get to see the full previews, nor the glass interface, even even so I prefer the method Microsoft used. Mouse over and you get to see the windows, then click to activate. With the Mac OS X Dock you get the same effect, except you have to right click, which is more of a hassle and slows me down, and as such it is never used. You are also able to pin applications to the start bar much like the quick start functionality that Windows XP had, and this is absolutely awesome. Once again people say it is taken from Mac OS X's Dock, and here I would say they are right. However the functionality is practically the same, and I believe that both OS's can learn from each other.

Cleanliness. Windows 7 is very clean and polished. The task bar being different certainly helps with this, even now with almost 25 windows open my task bar is not a mess of small little bars with some text on it. It is a bar with a bunch of different application icons. I may not have noticed the same thing with Vista because of battling with it, Windows 7 just seems to have been taken better care of. The control panel has been organised in an sensible way, and yet there is still a way to go back to the previous versions if you are used to it. The theme is not childish anymore like XP, and is not as intrusive colour wise as the one in Vista. Just good enough. I never liked the whole sidebar dealie, however the Gadgets are absolutely awesome. I wish Mac OS X had something like that built in, the whole hitting a button to see Dashboard is cool, but having them right there on my desktop absolutely rules.

Security. UAC was always a thorn in my side, it would cause too many popups, especially there where I did not want them, and it just annoyed me. Sure, people compared it to Mac OS X again, but 3 pop-ups for moving something to the trash? The UAC still pops up here and there, however most of the time it stays hidden. One could argue that this is a bad thing, however I am running as Administrator. Any normal user account would probably see it more often when installing software. The Firewall is also a pleasure to use, a few of the applications I use wanted to create a listening socket, and the Firewall asked me if I wanted to allow this, and whether I wanted to allow this just for my local network, or also for public networks. Being able to set profiles and have various different Firewall configurations is absolutely fantastic. This should make it much easier to secure road warriors that are on the road, yet need a certain service running while at work that allows them to sync something, or create automatic backups, or update their local software.

Since installing Windows 7 I have had some issues, this is related to the fact that I am using a Windows XP driver to run my graphics card, without it Windows 7 would not let me use the full 1680 x 1050 my screen supports. 3D mode is also broken, so any games I want to run cause a blue screen of death. Even in Vista these games would not work correctly, so I am not entirely surprised, however in Vista everything would just be jittery and not update fast enough, and I'd have lines coming down the screen like a camera that is pointed at a CRT monitor. Very annoying.

After playing with Windows 7 I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. I enjoy using it more than I have enjoyed using previous Microsoft OS's, and I grew up in 3.1 -> 95 -> 98 -> 98SE -> ME -> 2000 -> XP -> Vista/2008 Server -> 7. Microsoft has finally done something right, and I look forward to seeing the final release of Windows 7, it is already looking better than Vista ever did, and if my experience says anything, corporations will be able to roll this out on their older machines without having to worry much about performance loss.

Full disclosure: Bert owns both Apple and Microsoft stock, thus he has a vested interest in both companies. Bert is a full-time university student (Software Engineering) that primarily uses Mac OS X for all of his work. Bert enjoys tinkering with software and currently has the following Operating Systems running in various different ways: Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows 7, OpenSolaris, FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris 10, and Haiku.

**zeke_mo** · February 11th, 2009

^ thanks to your post I am burning the ISO to dvd =x

**Johnny** · February 11th, 2009

I agree that windows 7 is fantastic ... I love it ...

**tdinc** · February 11th, 2009

I took the plunge this morning and installed 7 on my HP laptop. I'll keep it simple.

Likes
* Faster
* does not have a bloated feel like Vista (just seems that way)
* no issues what so ever (so far)
* all my programs work (even Autocad)

Dislikes
*none (yet)

**epk** · February 11th, 2009

the new calculator and paint are pretty cool

btw.. does anyone know how to add computer and control panel to the taskbar?

**LordOfLA** · February 11th, 2009

right click and pin to taskbar not available?

**epk** · February 11th, 2009

umm.. it is, but when I pin them their icons don't show :S

(I can see em if I right click the bar tho)

**LordOfLA** · February 11th, 2009

I'll install windows 7 again later this evening and take a look

**epk** · February 11th, 2009

oki... thanks man =]

**LordOfLA** · February 12th, 2009

you can pin them to the explorer icon - right click that and they show up at the top of its context menu

**epk** · February 12th, 2009

ohh, ok.. but not as an icon of their own?

that'd be so much faster/easier

**LordOfLA** · February 12th, 2009

not that I can see - if I drag them to the taskbar it offers to pin them to explorer.

**epk** · February 12th, 2009

yeah, thats ok

thanks anyway (:

bmclaughlin807 · February 12th, 2009

The only thing I can see is to add a toolbar with the shortcuts in it. One click access.

segamil · February 12th, 2009

Ok, just downloaded Windows 7 beta from MS and was given a serial number. I have Vista currently installed in my main machine and its pretty stable but slow. I don't want to have to back up everything, so would it make sense if I installed W7 in a new HD and leave my current Vista installation intact, so I can revert back to that when W7 expires in August?

**LordOfLA** · February 13th, 2009

you should backup important data anyway - anything else is redundant

trukkmann · February 13th, 2009

I had high hopes for Win7 and I hate to say it, but I really like it.

Much more snappy than Vista and boots faster than just about any other OS. One quirk I dont like, when running Vista, or any other OS for that matter under VMWare on Win7, when I open IE in Win7 it takes (my machine) 30 seconds to a minute to bring up the browser window. I have 2GB RAM with 512 allocated to Vista, and a Pentium D930 3.0 GHz CPU, fresh install on 320 GB SATA3. Also, starting a virtual machine VMWare kind of locks up for about 30 seconds before it actually starts the vm. I'll be sending feedback today but otherwise I'm really happy with Win7. This will be my new OS when it goes final.

**Bman** · April 8th, 2009

So they are stating build 7100 will be the RC, and will officially be announced April 10th, if that. Will this be publicly available like 7000 beta? Will I be able to upgrade from 7000 to 7100, or whats the deal with it?

February 5th, 2009	Top \| #101
perris OSNN Godlike Veteran Joined: January 2002 Location: new york Posts: 12,229 Reputation: 4333 Power: 288	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions I finally got this one going, it installed smooth as glass, only took about 15 minutes, that was quite a surprise it's very snappy but I believe that's because there are very few effects and hardly anything running in the backround it doesn't recognize the driver folder since i partioned but once I pointed hardware in the right direction so far everything seems to work perfectly it seems just like vista right now, I haven't seen anything that makes me want this operating system when it goes live but time will tell, and don't forget I was very reluctant to go to vista and then when I did I hated that os till issues were resolved and now I wouldn't go back to xp unless I had to IT'S NOT WHAT YOU'VE DONE IT'S WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO

February 5th, 2009	Top \| #102
Johnny Paul Reed Smith Joined: January 2004 Location: Happy Valley Posts: 4,838 Reputation: 2369 Power: 170	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions Give it time, first blush does look a lot like vista. But as you use it you will see a lot differences. Paul Reed Smith.

February 11th, 2009	Top \| #103
X-Istence * Joined: December 2001 Location: USA Posts: 6,490 Reputation: 2808 Power: 217	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions Why am I currently giddy like a freshmen in college surrounded by lots of hot women? I am not sure why, but I know it has to do with Windows 7. Windows 7 has to be the biggest improvement in the last few releases of Windows, much like going from Windows 98 to Windows XP, and is what Windows Vista should have been. Windows Vista was extremely slow and sluggish on the machine I tested it on, now I will agree that the hardware is not that great however the machine still works and I am pretty sure that I am not the only one with older hardware lying around. Not only that, but the average user does not have the latest and greatest machine either. The hardware is as follows: Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz, no HT 1 GB of ram 60 GB IDE hard drive Atheros Wireless 802.11g network card GeForce 4 Ti 4600 128 MB ram (22" wide screen monitor at 1680 x 1050) Windows Vista had major issues running software, it would lock itself up when it did not have the resources it required, and when running multiple pieces of software on the same machine it would stop responding or not re-draw certain portions of the screen. The situation did not improve much with Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista. Vista may have had some cool features but they were not good enough for me to keep playing with it and it got in the way more than it got out of the way. From my viewpoint it was a hopeless mess, and not worth my time. Windows 7 however is an absolute blast, it is like night and day. Running the CPU at a 100% the OS stays very fluid, I am able to switch applications, switch to new applications and keep doing what I was doing no matter what is going on in the background. The scheduler has been improved dramatically, and it is noticeable. I have yet to really enjoy working with any Windows OS that Microsoft has released, however I currently feel like I did when I bought my first Apple Mac, the iBook. Here is an OS that will let me do what I need to get done and move out of my way to let me complete the task at hand. Resource usage is also much lower. In Vista it would spend a lot of time paging, and the memory usage was around 80% all the time in Windows 7 with more software running it is still under the 60%. The fact that when it is booted up it uses less resources also helps with the experience as a whole. New applications open faster and since there is less paging going on the whole system responds faster. The new "task bar" and way it shows what applications are running is neat, and while people can claim it was taken from the Dock in Mac OS X, I believe Apple could learn something from Microsoft in this case. The whole mousing over the icon to see all of the windows that are active is absolutely fantastic. With my current graphics card I do not get to see the full previews, nor the glass interface, even even so I prefer the method Microsoft used. Mouse over and you get to see the windows, then click to activate. With the Mac OS X Dock you get the same effect, except you have to right click, which is more of a hassle and slows me down, and as such it is never used. You are also able to pin applications to the start bar much like the quick start functionality that Windows XP had, and this is absolutely awesome. Once again people say it is taken from Mac OS X's Dock, and here I would say they are right. However the functionality is practically the same, and I believe that both OS's can learn from each other. Cleanliness. Windows 7 is very clean and polished. The task bar being different certainly helps with this, even now with almost 25 windows open my task bar is not a mess of small little bars with some text on it. It is a bar with a bunch of different application icons. I may not have noticed the same thing with Vista because of battling with it, Windows 7 just seems to have been taken better care of. The control panel has been organised in an sensible way, and yet there is still a way to go back to the previous versions if you are used to it. The theme is not childish anymore like XP, and is not as intrusive colour wise as the one in Vista. Just good enough. I never liked the whole sidebar dealie, however the Gadgets are absolutely awesome. I wish Mac OS X had something like that built in, the whole hitting a button to see Dashboard is cool, but having them right there on my desktop absolutely rules. Security. UAC was always a thorn in my side, it would cause too many popups, especially there where I did not want them, and it just annoyed me. Sure, people compared it to Mac OS X again, but 3 pop-ups for moving something to the trash? The UAC still pops up here and there, however most of the time it stays hidden. One could argue that this is a bad thing, however I am running as Administrator. Any normal user account would probably see it more often when installing software. The Firewall is also a pleasure to use, a few of the applications I use wanted to create a listening socket, and the Firewall asked me if I wanted to allow this, and whether I wanted to allow this just for my local network, or also for public networks. Being able to set profiles and have various different Firewall configurations is absolutely fantastic. This should make it much easier to secure road warriors that are on the road, yet need a certain service running while at work that allows them to sync something, or create automatic backups, or update their local software. Since installing Windows 7 I have had some issues, this is related to the fact that I am using a Windows XP driver to run my graphics card, without it Windows 7 would not let me use the full 1680 x 1050 my screen supports. 3D mode is also broken, so any games I want to run cause a blue screen of death. Even in Vista these games would not work correctly, so I am not entirely surprised, however in Vista everything would just be jittery and not update fast enough, and I'd have lines coming down the screen like a camera that is pointed at a CRT monitor. Very annoying. After playing with Windows 7 I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. I enjoy using it more than I have enjoyed using previous Microsoft OS's, and I grew up in 3.1 -> 95 -> 98 -> 98SE -> ME -> 2000 -> XP -> Vista/2008 Server -> 7. Microsoft has finally done something right, and I look forward to seeing the final release of Windows 7, it is already looking better than Vista ever did, and if my experience says anything, corporations will be able to roll this out on their older machines without having to worry much about performance loss. Full disclosure: Bert owns both Apple and Microsoft stock, thus he has a vested interest in both companies. Bert is a full-time university student (Software Engineering) that primarily uses Mac OS X for all of his work. Bert enjoys tinkering with software and currently has the following Operating Systems running in various different ways: Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows 7, OpenSolaris, FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris 10, and Haiku. My blog!

February 11th, 2009	Top \| #104
zeke_mo (value not set) Joined: August 2004 Location: Placerville, CA Posts: 1,963 Reputation: 1290 Power: 122	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions ^ thanks to your post I am burning the ISO to dvd =x "My Mind is a swirling miasma of scintillating thoughts and turgid ideas" ~Sam Zeitgeist Money as Debt, educate yourself.

February 11th, 2009	Top \| #105
Johnny Paul Reed Smith Joined: January 2004 Location: Happy Valley Posts: 4,838 Reputation: 2369 Power: 170	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions I agree that windows 7 is fantastic ... I love it ... Paul Reed Smith.

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February 11th, 2009	Top \| #106
tdinc █▄█ ▀█▄ █ Joined: December 2003 Location: Sterling Heights, MICHIGAN Posts: 3,505 Blog Entries: 19 Reputation: 2905 Power: 164	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions I took the plunge this morning and installed 7 on my HP laptop. I'll keep it simple. Likes * Faster * does not have a bloated feel like Vista (just seems that way) * no issues what so ever (so far) * all my programs work (even Autocad) Dislikes *none (yet)

February 11th, 2009	Top \| #107
epk OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: October 2006 Location: Buenos Aires Posts: 1,242 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 951 Power: 86	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions the new calculator and paint are pretty cool btw.. does anyone know how to add computer and control panel to the taskbar? My Battlefield 2 Stats Page My Youtube account, I have some cool game videos there << check it!! (:

February 11th, 2009	Top \| #108
LordOfLA Godlike! Joined: February 2004 Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7,015 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 4137 Power: 209	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions right click and pin to taskbar not available? If HK-47 and GLaDOS had a child, the character they create would cause the video game world to overdose on awesome. -sheridanmovieguy: Dragon age forum user.

February 11th, 2009	Top \| #109
epk OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: October 2006 Location: Buenos Aires Posts: 1,242 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 951 Power: 86	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions umm.. it is, but when I pin them their icons don't show :S (I can see em if I right click the bar tho) My Battlefield 2 Stats Page My Youtube account, I have some cool game videos there << check it!! (:

February 11th, 2009	Top \| #110
LordOfLA Godlike! Joined: February 2004 Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7,015 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 4137 Power: 209	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions I'll install windows 7 again later this evening and take a look If HK-47 and GLaDOS had a child, the character they create would cause the video game world to overdose on awesome. -sheridanmovieguy: Dragon age forum user.

February 11th, 2009	Top \| #111
epk OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: October 2006 Location: Buenos Aires Posts: 1,242 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 951 Power: 86	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions oki... thanks man =] My Battlefield 2 Stats Page My Youtube account, I have some cool game videos there << check it!! (:

February 12th, 2009	Top \| #112
LordOfLA Godlike! Joined: February 2004 Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7,015 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 4137 Power: 209	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions you can pin them to the explorer icon - right click that and they show up at the top of its context menu If HK-47 and GLaDOS had a child, the character they create would cause the video game world to overdose on awesome. -sheridanmovieguy: Dragon age forum user.

February 12th, 2009	Top \| #113
epk OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: October 2006 Location: Buenos Aires Posts: 1,242 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 951 Power: 86	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions ohh, ok.. but not as an icon of their own? that'd be so much faster/easier My Battlefield 2 Stats Page My Youtube account, I have some cool game videos there << check it!! (:

February 12th, 2009	Top \| #114
LordOfLA Godlike! Joined: February 2004 Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7,015 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 4137 Power: 209	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions not that I can see - if I drag them to the taskbar it offers to pin them to explorer. If HK-47 and GLaDOS had a child, the character they create would cause the video game world to overdose on awesome. -sheridanmovieguy: Dragon age forum user.

February 12th, 2009	Top \| #115
epk OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: October 2006 Location: Buenos Aires Posts: 1,242 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 951 Power: 86	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions yeah, thats ok thanks anyway (: My Battlefield 2 Stats Page My Youtube account, I have some cool game videos there << check it!! (:

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February 12th, 2009	Top \| #116
bmclaughlin807 Let's blow something up. Joined: April 2008 Location: Denver Posts: 84 Reputation: 50 Power: 47	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions The only thing I can see is to add a toolbar with the shortcuts in it. One click access.

February 12th, 2009	Top \| #117
segamil OSNN Addict Joined: April 2002 Location: Washington DC Posts: 135 Reputation: 10 Power: 121	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions Ok, just downloaded Windows 7 beta from MS and was given a serial number. I have Vista currently installed in my main machine and its pretty stable but slow. I don't want to have to back up everything, so would it make sense if I installed W7 in a new HD and leave my current Vista installation intact, so I can revert back to that when W7 expires in August?

February 13th, 2009	Top \| #118
LordOfLA Godlike! Joined: February 2004 Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7,015 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 4137 Power: 209	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions you should backup important data anyway - anything else is redundant If HK-47 and GLaDOS had a child, the character they create would cause the video game world to overdose on awesome. -sheridanmovieguy: Dragon age forum user.

February 13th, 2009	Top \| #119
trukkmann OSNN Addict Joined: July 2005 Posts: 110 Reputation: 70 Power: 81	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions I had high hopes for Win7 and I hate to say it, but I really like it. Much more snappy than Vista and boots faster than just about any other OS. One quirk I dont like, when running Vista, or any other OS for that matter under VMWare on Win7, when I open IE in Win7 it takes (my machine) 30 seconds to a minute to bring up the browser window. I have 2GB RAM with 512 allocated to Vista, and a Pentium D930 3.0 GHz CPU, fresh install on 320 GB SATA3. Also, starting a virtual machine VMWare kind of locks up for about 30 seconds before it actually starts the vm. I'll be sending feedback today but otherwise I'm really happy with Win7. This will be my new OS when it goes final. abit IP 35 Pro w/ BIOS v17 - Q6600 (G0-SLACR) 400x8=3200MHz Thermalright Ultra-90 w/90mm Tornado @ 52C Load 2x2GB G.Skill PC2 6400 @ 5-5-5-15 2T/1.9v@1:1 Cooler Master eXtreme Power 550w PSU - Cooler Master Centurion 5 case eVGA 8800 GTS 320MB/320bit @ stock with Zalman VF-1000 keeps temps ~60C Load Western Digital 250 GB SATA3 - Lite-On 20x DVD+/-RW with Lightscribe Win7 Ultimate x64

April 8th, 2009	Top \| #120
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,700 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 218	Re: Windows 7 - First Impressions So they are stating build 7100 will be the RC, and will officially be announced April 10th, if that. Will this be publicly available like 7000 beta? Will I be able to upgrade from 7000 to 7100, or whats the deal with it?