Windows 7 - First Impressions

ming

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17 Jun 2003
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I don't think anyone has started one yet, so let me be the one. :p

My first impressions after getting Win7 installed and running.... Absolutely GUTTED!

There's nothing to gain from upgrading from Vista IMO (with the exception of multi-touch, and I don't have touch screen.)

I didn't like what they did with the Quick Launch change. Active windows are now integrated into the icons in the taskbar (the ones you think are supposed to be Quick Launch shortcuts). I’m finding it very difficult to adjust myself to this new change.

Libraries?
Not quite sure how useful this is to most users. This seems to be the default view whenever you launch Computer/Windows Explorer. The first thing that appears are the Library Folders instead of physical drives.

What's MinWin about?
I haven't seen Win7 using any less resources/storage space than Vista so far.


Can anyone point out something that's new in Windows 7 and is actually useful and one that might cheer me up? :cry:
 
I am enjoying it, the new Windows Explorer is awesome, at least coming from Vista to 7, its awesome, if you came from XP to 7, you probably hate it.

The whole quick launch/taskbar thing is the best thing they have done in a long time, I am very happy with it and have gotten used to it almost right away. The progress bars within the taskbar button, awesome. The system has been running for a day or more now without issue, everything I have installed has worked, including all my new and old games.

If you need a reason to use 7, its stable. As far as I can tell.
 
Haven't had any bad experience with Vista to be honest.
since they flashed my bios my vista has been exceptionally stable

I haven't installed it and now maybe I won't, I would like to find out just as ming, exactly what is it about windows 7 that make people think it's a better os?
 
Actually, one (bad) thing about Vista is disk space consumption. I have less 4gb available at the moment and I only have Office and a few small apps installed.
I see Windows 7 consuming more than Vista rather than less. It eats up around 10gb (on 64-bit) without any other apps.

A lot of people say 'why not just get a bigger HD, it's not expensive'.
I haven't had my 36gb raptor HD long enough to need replacing. Nor do I want to have a massive 80+gb HD for having only an OS and a few apps installed on.
 
Haven't had any bad experience with Vista to be honest.

I have had a perfect experience with Vista, no issues at all, fast enough, so forth. Yet, 7 still seems a bit smoother to me, and well stability is hard to test. Is there good enough reason to use 7, if you don't care about the cool new features and little changes with the explorer, and things like that, then no.
 
I absolutely love Vista - mind you, I wasn't that impressed when it first came out. I bought it only a month or so after it was released and obviously there were quite a few compatibility issues and other problems. Once these were ironed out however, I thought it was really good and by the time SP1 came out it had become the best OS I've ever used. It's really solid, slick and stable.

So anyway, I downloaded the W7 beta which, compared to the first Vista beta, is like comparing Windows XP to Windows Me. I was really impressed with how stable and feature-full the W7 beta was. However, compared to Vista SP1 it just seemed a little shakey, with a couple of very minor issues. Obviously, that's to be expected as it's a beta version.

I got used to the new taskbar thing fairly quickly, though I prefer the Vista method at the moment. Perhaps that would have changed had I used W7 for longer. On the plus side, the new wallpapers are quite nice :) I copied these to my new Vista installation however, so I can have the best of both worlds now!

Other than that, I thought a few of the new changes to layout and options were good, most of them were just different. I certainly didn't notice anything I didn't like.

So that's pretty much my first impression; really nice but nothing groundbreaking, and still a beta version. Back to Vista for the next 12 months I think :)
 
most of the changes to windows 7 are in the kernel.

MinWin is just vista with all the fancy options disabled at compile time so they get slim kernel and a command prompt. nothing else.

windows 7 will have a slimmer kernel and fewer services running at start up.

There will be technical under-the-hood advantages to windows 7.
 
Windows 7 is great! I will be the first in line to purchase, in fact; it will be the first Windwos OS I ever bought :) All my other ones came with the pc ...
 
For the home (noob) user: Networking is easier... create a homegroup, type the home group password into each other computer you want to access the network... Easy as pie.

Sharing is as simple as right clicking a folder and choosing the option. Shares show up in the 'My Computer' view on other computers... no hunting for them.

Rotating wallpaper feature: Purty


For the more experienced user:
Remote desktop is improved: now has the ability to use multiple monitors properly (This is slated to be added to Vista as well... I'm sure the support will be added to Server 2008... hopefully 2003 as well)

For everyone:
My experience (Three systems running Windows 7 currently) is that it DOES use less resources and runs smoother than Vista on the same machines. I also ran it in a virtual machine with 512 meg of ram and it ran acceptably well. It's running on my older Dell laptop with full Aero and does so quite nicely with an integrated graphics card. Runs better on my wife's dual core celeron w/ 1 gig of Ram MUCH better than Vista ever ran with only a gig.

I'm sure I'll find more... this is only what I can think of off the top of my head.
 
yeah, I like the wallpapaper rotation as well. And the home network settings are pretty easy. I actually like the new UAC also, the level bars make it a lot better. Stability is great - It does seem to run a little better than vista. Handles resources better, runs smooth, looks great, and it is simple to install and use. This is truly the work right out of the box os. All I installed after enitial install was my video driver and avast!; everything else was already there and ready to use :)

And just so you know. I also think that vista is a great os. All the bad press didn't give it nearly the justice that it deserved.
 
My 1st impression was, "I thought this wasn't Vista". I've heard some great things about Windows 7 and how it's not Vista SP2. After installing it I see Vista, I don't care what they put under the hood the GUI made me uninstall it 5mins after bootup. I really hope Windows 8 isn't to far off before MS starts paying game makers to drop XP support.
 
My 1st impression was, "I thought this wasn't Vista". I've heard some great things about Windows 7 and how it's not Vista SP2. After installing it I see Vista, I don't care what they put under the hood the GUI made me uninstall it 5mins after bootup. I really hope Windows 8 isn't to far off before MS starts paying game makers to drop XP support.

Actually, from what my buds at M$ told me; windows is not vista sp2, it is vista sp3 with a different name lol ...
 
vista sp2 is ok - running it at the moment :)

I believe you'll have the option to revert the taskbar to classic style in release.
 
I was using it today on a Dell Mini 9 and it is FAST as hell on that netbook.

I can only imagine how much snappier it will be with the final build. Btw, AERO worked perfectly and boot time was faster than under Vista.
 
I really hope Windows 8 isn't to far off before MS starts paying game makers to drop XP support.

Why? You think they're going to go back to the XP user interface? Perhaps they should just go back to the Win 3.11 interface.
 
I think you need to have a PC with either 512 MB of RAM or 1 GB of RAM to notice the difference in speed with Windows Vista and Windows 7. After installing Windows 7 on my HP Pavilion Slimline the speed was noticeably faster. The transfer speed of data to and from my flash drive was also faster. Viewing photos from my SD card was also faster. Although Windows 7 is in beta I've decided to keep it on the HP Pavilion Slimline because it's more stable than Vista and it runs fast. I also like the new taskbar system.
 
Good Points
UAC modification , dragging to top of screen window maximising

Bad points : Finding any 3rd party firewall that works..... eventually ok using Kaspersky 7
 
The loss of QL is something that I'll have to get used to I guess.
I've been playing around with it again last night but haven't found a way to remove/disable Libraries from being the default folder that opens when I open Computer.
Does anyone know how I can open 'Computer' and have it open like in Win95-Vista to show the physical drives instead of the library?
 

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
Xie wrote on Electronic Punk's profile.
Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. :(

Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
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Rest in peace my friend, been trying to find you and finally did in the worst way imaginable.

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