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Thread ID: 101638	2009-07-21 13:07:00	Impressions of win7 thus far	Chilling_Silence (9)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
793729	2009-07-21 13:07:00	Half of you probably won't care, and I'm not wanting to start an OS war (:ban) but anyways I thought I'd share with the world my first thoughts on the latest Win7 release. Installation: It was nice and painless, very very few options, there was a help button to assist me on my decision to Upgrade from my current OS (XP Pro) which I cant do anyways, or to install fresh (Custom). A few things bugged me like when I open the "Help" window on the side it wont let me focus the main window while its still open, but lets be honest I'm just nitpicking. I had 20GB unpartitioned so it was a real non-event installing it really Multiple reboots still bug me. My external HDD isnt supported by my current BIOS (1.5TB too big for it I guess) so it hangs on reboots if its plugged in during POST. A PITA, so I unplugged it during the whole ordeal. Post-installation it was nice and guided me through creating a UserID with password (Strongly recommended now, nice!). It suggested I name the computer and implied my username was to help distinguish me on a network. I thought "That could confuse some people", but then again if that would confuse them, they probably shouldn't be installing an OS, lets be real here ;) First (real) boot: It now has a nicer boot splash screen, instead of just "loading" the windows logo comes together, then they sort of ripple / wave to indicate its still doing stuff. I don't remember that being there last time, but then again I barely paid any attention (Have terrible memory anyways). Once logged in, the default screen is "different", but not all that bad. I'm glad they don't ask me during install like with Vista, but again thats just my preference. Desktop looks clean enough, still the same desktop I'm used to, but looks a bit more like KDE4. There's also a screenshot sort of tool called snippy which will no doubt be useful at some point in time... Initial setup to my liking: First thing I notice is that the taskbar wont shrink, its "double" the size of the standard XP. Kinda bugged me at first, but lets be honest, my resolution is so big I don't really care. I still hate IE, but its relatively snappy, all things considered... still doesnt "feel" as quick on its feet, but maybe I'm just too biased to be objective. It even shows me all the tabs when I hover over the icon in the taskbar. No idea why, seems kinda pointless, but oh well. I was hopeful about UAC but while installing Pidgin / Chrome / Flash plugins it kept bugging me, I don't wanna be bothered so maybe later I'll turn it back on. Its got 4 options this time and it explains them well (Briefly too) so happy days there. Tried switching the Control Panel from Category to "classic" view. Turns out its now "View by --> Small icons". Too many options to find UAC so I just search for it up the top-right and it shows me its under "Action Center". Nice job! :) Now thats sorted I position Pidgin in the right-hand side and it maximizes it for me! WTF for? I'd double-click if I wanted that :-/ Anyways, I can see they're trying to be useful but to be honest it just bugged me. Time to learn the "new" ways I suppose. Alt-Tabbing is nicer, hides the other windows after a short period of time which is useful when I have 5-6 pidgin chats open and they all look the same! Security / Updates: Windows Updates seem good, its OK with me screening them before download & before installation without constantly pinging me about it in the systray. Updates for ATK drivers (??) as well as one or two other minor things. Another reboot now is due for Avast Free to finish installation. Still not a fan of rebooting, but at least MS seem to be taking the security / update side of life a bit better, less annoyances, more flexibility, more straight-forward recommendations on it. The Shield has had a color change to Blue / Yellow now which seems a little more passive and a little less "OMG my pc is broken and there's red warning shields everywhere". It also auto-gave me NTFS permissions to my old User folder in XP, but pre-warned me prior to doing so in a nice, non-invasive, no-black-screen way. That was before I turned off UAC, so I'm happy & impressed there. Took a min or two to re-apply permissions to the directory, but so what, it was painless and I have a ton of files in there. Multimedia: My Docs seems gone, virtual folders now. Noticed a video in there and it looks like its 1280x720. Poorly encoded for HD, but the koala was cute. WMP 12 has a nice 'minimalist' feel to it, which I think I'll use for all AVI / MP4 videos I have. Played XviD / DivX / h.264 out of the box with no codecs which is nice, but adding MKV support would have been nice too. It plays my iTunes AAC m4a files (Even has the iTunes coverart nicely displayed instead of a blank window), but naturally not the .m4p files. +1 there also for Windows 7's karma. I also couldn't help myself and had to try Snippy so I took a screenshot of it. The controls fade from the window, and the title / artist / album switch every few seconds up top. Unfortunately windows still saves with a default of CAPS file extensions. Just a pet-hate of mine. Attached file: WMP12_m4a.PNG (www.imagef1.net.nz) (205 KB) In closing: So far it seems snappy, will keep it going for a few more days as my primary OS, will be installin War3 to try playing DotA and some custom additions too which may prove interesting. To be frank, it looks like its everything that Vista should have been 4 years ago :p Will I keep it? Will I stick with XP? Or switch back to my Gentoo linux distro on the other drive? I guess I'll find out in a week! So, anybody elses similar experiences? I've been reading all the other threads, but figured "Why not add 1 more" ;) Cheers Chill.	Chilling_Silence (9)
793730	2009-07-21 13:15:00	I hate it,every square inch of it. Haven't even seen a screenshot of it yet, Just getting in early.	Metla (12)
793731	2009-07-21 13:37:00	I love it. :banana Great OS, you're exactly right when you say it is everything Vista should have been. It runs better on my work PC than XP did, without aero naturally. (Celeron 2.6, 1.25GB RAM, onboard graphics), although I wouldn't really recommend running it on a PC like that, for the best experience you want 2GB +RAM, a decent dual core processor and a DX9 or higher gfx card with 128mb or more memory. (same as vista really) It's downright impressive on the home desktop, and visually its extremely smexy on the 1080p monitor and TV. I always thought people saying Vista was the new ME were taking things a little far, but after using Win7 for a few weeks, I'd say it [Vista Pre SP1] is a pretty accurate assumption. Win7 still hasn't crashed once for me, and I do some pretty crazy stuff with the work PC. Oh, except that time I accidentally unplugged the OS HDD while the lot was running, it didn't really crash, more stopped opening anything new. It ran fine for a good 2 mins with what it had loaded into the RAM . :D It's driver support is amazing for a MS OS too. Now shouldn't you be in bed with missus Chill? ;)	wratterus (105)
793732	2009-07-21 13:49:00	I should be, but she's pretty tired so was in bed by 10:30 ... still taking a little bit to get used to each of our individual sleeping patterns. I'm gonna eventually try and be asleep by 11 and awake by some horrid hour of the morning (5 / 6AM?) but we'll see .. baby steps, so I'm going to bed at 1 tonight ;) Yeah so far driver supports nice, it updated my Monitor support, noting that its an AOC monitor and there was some "optional" update to it. I ticked the box, why not :D You're right, Vista appears more and more like WinME the more I think about it :p I wanna grab my Eee900 and whack it on that to see how it handles it, 900Mhz Celeron with Intel onboard graphics instead of my 2Ghz Pentium-D w/ 9400GT, and THEN compare it to XP's speed ;) It does boot up in around the same time as XP though, give or take a few seconds either way.	Chilling_Silence (9)
793733	2009-07-21 14:49:00	Definetly install on on the eee900, I tried it myself, and results were surprising. On a fresh install it booted very quickly, possibly because Windows 7 is optimized for SSDs..plus the fact that its quite light on resources. Still not as fast as the Ubuntu distro I have installed on it though:D Blam	Blam (54)
793734	2009-07-21 19:14:00	Great report Chilling Silence - thanks for that. I have XP and have decided to get 7 when it comes out. Yes I would have thought that M$ would have realised that hardware and driver support is crucial when they bring out a new OS (eg Vista)	Digby (677)
793735	2009-07-21 21:07:00	I always thought people saying Vista was the new ME were taking things a little far, but after using Win7 for a few weeks, I'd say it [Vista Pre SP1] is a pretty accurate assumption. What?!! You're a tech, how could you not agree? It was a dog, it is a dog. I will change to WIn7 when it's officially released.	pctek (84)
793736	2009-07-21 22:26:00	I like it. Speedy, clean, serviceable. I will purchase.	kountryken (14110)
793737	2009-07-21 22:55:00	I tried it - epic fail. Just one of many OS installs this week (new 'puter) Win 7 was the most convoluted install as well as the slowest and (as installed) most useless. It could not detect my ethernet port, failed to recognise the onboard graphics, the Mobo disc would not recognise the Win7 OS, and generally, it was a pita. Since I only rarely use MS stuff over the last few years, I guess I have become intolerant of it's general lack of usefulness. On the bright side, I tried Mint; it is the first Ubuntu flavour that didn't make me feel like throwing up.	R2x1 (4628)
793738	2009-07-21 22:56:00	I love it! Installation was a breeze, has a good collection of device drivers. It even detects and connects to my home network (print and file sharing, etc) with minimal user input. I loads fast, too. Will buy it when it's released officially.:thumbs:	bk T (215)
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