Windows 7

[frostbitevinnie]

So, with my new computer purchased from Best Buy, I can get a free upgrade to Windows 7. Y'all recommend I do this??? I'm no computer genius so install will be a snap with no hardware or other issues?

[omegajim]

over vista, that's a no brainer.

[Clint]

Yes. Although I don't consider Vista nearly as horrible as the reputation it has, 7 is better in a number of ways, starting with the way cool new taskbar functionality. Some say it was stolen from Mac, but it's just one of those things that makes sense and was inevitably the standard interface for most OS's.

[Smurf]

OK, installed 7 as a dual boot to make sure all my programs and drivers would be accepted. It played well with everything including Office 2000, but did not have the driver for my printer (old Deskjet). After playing for a few hours I decided I like it much better than Vista so I blowed the Vista Partition into oblivion and now I only have 7.

Awesome OS, and so much faster.......applications and internet. I am satisfied that this is prolly the best thing since XP, I think Microsoft hit a grand slam with this one.

[omegajim]

but did not have the driver for my printer (old Deskjet)

get the feeling 7 is going sell more printers.

[Clint]

There is a ton of support for drivers. You can often install older drivers through unofficial channels or use Vista versions. Try here.

[Smurf]

Thats what I did, used an older version of the driver and it worked just fine.

I was suprised that Office 2000 worked. It's outdated but still works.

[AZRyder]

Originally Posted by inspiron

I was discussing this with a colleague yesterday - his only comment, after upgrading to Win7 64-bit, was that it was a royal PITA trying to find 64-bit drivers for some of his older peripherals. I've got an older USB flat-bed scanner which I rarely use, but when I need it, I want it to work. I'm running Vista 32-bit on my desktop machine (quad-core AMD Phenom), and have had no problems with the scanner since I plugged it into a USB-2.0 hub. But it was tough to find the 32-bit driver for Vista, and the one I'm using is copyright 2000 ... I doubt if Epson has published a 64-bit driver for this scanner.

The options would be to try running the scanner driver in XP-compatibility mode (not sure if that will work), or trash a perfectly good scanner and replace it with a new one that provides 64-bit drivers (unnecessary expense and environmental impact). Or, just man-up and keep using Vista until either the OS is trashed or the scanner dies.

I had the same problem with my Epson with Vista 64 Go to VueScan Scanning Software and get vuescan It supports something like 1200 scanners that don't work with Vista. It should work with Windows 7 though you might check further. I plan on installing windows 7 in the near future. I usually wait for the first service pack lol.

[Clint]

I may have already said this, but to me this is SP1. Microsoft did a massive Release Candidate distribution and ironed out 99.99% of bugs in advance. Based on that, and by the tremendously positive buzz on Twitter and in the blogosphere, there's no reason to wait.

I did my third XP --> 7 conversion over the weekend. Aside from the older DVD drive not wanting to read the disk, it went beautifully. Every single device was automatically installed and drivers updated. All I did was reinstall the apps and replace profiles.

[inspiron]

Actually, Vista SP1 was released a few days before Win7 hit the market, so it's more like SP2.

But what's important to realize is that Win7 IS the "how it should be" release. Vista was pushed out the door too early, built by too many teams without sufficient integration testing. The project manager for Win7 spent quite a bit of time analyzing Vista, trying to cut away the fat. One example - there were over 7 separate printing subsystems running in Vista, because several different developer teams were working on different parts, and weren't talking to each other. These have been stripped away from Win7, making it leaner and faster.

[omegajim]

Vista was pushed out the door too early, built by too many teams without sufficient integration testing.

you've just described nearly all the first revision of any software made by nearly anybody, anywhere.

[drgibson]

We have tested 7 on everything in our shop and it is solid it runs well even on our 6 year old pcs, nary a sowtware issue either, even 16 bit legacy apps.

[Clint]

16-bit isn't legacy, it's antiquity.

[omegajim]

some stuff, like our shipping software, is old, but it works just fine thank you.

now if we could get a barcode printer that didn't cost an arm and a leg and moves slightly faster than semi frozen molases.

[Smurf]

Just checked the Task Manager at idle..................0% processor usage and only 580meg of memory usage.

Compared to Vista at idle..................25% processor usage and 1gig of memory usage.

As far as I can tell, there is practically no overhead in 7. Has anyone configured the backup ?
Have mine set to backup every Sunday night to an external usb hard drive.......We'll find out in about 5 days if it works.

So Far....................Still Loving It.

[inspiron]

Originally Posted by omegajim

now if we could get a barcode printer that didn't cost an arm and a leg and moves slightly faster than semi frozen molases.

I assume you mean a label printer, because you can print barcodes with ANY printer. I wrote software to print barcodes on an HP LaserJet 4 back in 1990.

[Thundurburd]

Originally Posted by inspiron

back in 1990.

Back then I was still using DOS.

[Clint]

I was pimping out my Mom's 3.11 box. I must've rearranged the desktop windows a thousand times (no taskbar back then--it was all out front). Wolfenstein 3D was quite the innovative experience, too.

[inspiron]

I wrote software for DOS and Windows 3.0 back then...

[Thundurburd]

Didn't think much of Windows 3.xx or the early Windows software. Compared to the other GUIs (Mac, UNIX, etc.) it was pretty unattractive. Waited until '95 and actually liked it. I think I'll like Windows 7.