Windows 7 64bit

[CoM_Solaufein]

Had Alchemy no luck. Have recent Win 7 updates, no luck.

[Fionavar]

I am satisfied with Win 7 (32 & 64). I also realise that, imo, the PC is now obsolete for gaming. My experience - not definitive - Win 7 is sweet for my needs in an AV/Presentation environ. More specifically, it now sufficiently competes with MAC in the non-gaming/high AV/Imaging context.

[Kaftan Barlast]

it now sufficiently competes with MAC in the non-gaming/high AV/Imaging context.

 

 

What do you mean by that? 3D is 99,9% Windows/linux and its getting to be the same for video editing. Advertising people seem to prefer apple for the looks mostly, or because of the old "before 1992, only apple computers shipped with 256 color graphics chips" thing which is the whole basis for the whole graphics is better on mac tradition/misconception.

[Arkan]

Among the features I've already disabled are Aero (seriously, who the **** uses this?),

 

Seriously, I ****ing do.

 

I have no problems with Windows 7, so I don't think it's a bit of a *****. If you disable everything that makes 7 different from XP, then WHY get 7 in the first place?

Edited May 9, 2010 by Arkan

[LadyCrimson]

I also realise that, imo, the PC is now obsolete for gaming

Bah! depends on what kind of gaming you like to do. I think you're right that it'll eventually be so no matter what, but for right now....not yet.

 

If you disable everything that makes 7 different from XP, then WHY get 7 in the first place?

My impression is that Aero (most of it at least) is largely about visual and info presentation. Those things aren't vital core differences, imo. It certainly hasn't been needed to run/do anything I want to. If one likes it, great...but it's not needed to run the O/S, so if you don't like it, well, nothing wrong with turning it off, either.

 

The main reason to switch to Win7 even if you don't care about the presentation factor is because, again imo, this time software will force a switch, if you want to keep buying new software. That wasn't so much the case with initial Vista release, since most software makers were still creating to be XP workable. Now it's progressing far enough that won't be the case much longer...at least mostly. Or something. I resisted new versions of Windows every time until that became the case. :D

Edited May 9, 2010 by LadyCrimson

[Purkake]

The only thing I don't like about Aero is the translucent taskbar, it's really distracting if you have a bright wallpaper. That said the glassy look is way better than the horrible blue ones from XP.

[Spider]

The transparent taskbar can be turned off though.

[mkreku]

If you disable everything that makes 7 different from XP, then WHY get 7 in the first place?

Who gives a **** how it looks? Are you thinking that the interface is the only thing separating Win 7 from XP?

 

I switched to Win 7 to get access to DirectX 11 (and by default 10, 10.1). Also, Microsoft touted how the OS had become more modular so that even if something went wrong with the graphics, file managers, system drivers etc, you wouldn't need to restart the computer. Since most of the functions of the OS has been moved away from the kernel, not even updating the OS would need you to restart it. It's all bull**** though. Everytime there's an update for Win 7, you need to restart the computer. No difference there, in fact, I suspect it's become worse. And as soon as something goes wrong, the computer crashes back to BIOS. Violently. Also, Win 7 actually seems worse off than XP after a huge crash. It forgets preferences, it forgets date and time (!), and I'm not 100% sure about this yet, but it seems it can even mess with certain settings in BIOS!

 

There are also several major Vista bugs still left in Win 7, and I seem to run into every one of them. It sucks. For example:

 

Vista: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vis...-windows-vista/

Win 7: http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/windo...bootmgr-missing

 

This above example was a seriously annoying bug that appeared after one particularly naughty crash. It rendered the computer totally unusable! I had to bring in a secondary computer to fix the problem! Unbelievably bad.

 

Vista/XP: http://www.troublefixers.com/how-to-fix-sy...layed-properly/

 

My system tray icons disappeared. I fixed it the same way as the Vista fix linked above.. on my Win 7 rig. Lovely. This occurred regularly for a while and it was incredibly annoying having to restart explorer.exe manually all the time. Then it disappeared suddenly and I haven't had the problem since (about three months ago perhaps?).

 

Another Vista problem that is well known is the bug where it drops all USB drivers after waking up from Sleep mode. I naturally had the exact same thing happen to me with my Win 7 OS. I couldn't find any directly related links, but it's easy enough to find a few hundred thousand forum posts on the internet about the problem. It was also hugely annoying. I could use my USB keyboard/USB mouse to wake the system (via the BIOS), but as soon as Win 7 took control, all the USB peripherals stopped working. I don't even remember how that was solved.

[HoonDing]

Is it possible to run older games (pre 2000, like Baldur's Gate) on this operating system?

[Purkake]

Planescape Torment works well, but you'll probably have to Google the specific games to see how they fare.

 

Good Old Games games are guaranteed to work on W7, though.

[CoM_Solaufein]

BG works fine. I'm playing BG with Tutu right now. Sure would be nice if modern games like Fallout 3 would actually play.

[LadyCrimson]

Is it possible to run older games (pre 2000, like Baldur's Gate) on this operating system?

Yeah, just depends on the game and your personal luck. I personally haven't had too much luck with it, but I've read plenty of posts from people who managed to get this game or that working.

 

Btw, I don't know if it was mentioned already before, but sometimes things work "better" in Win7 if you r-click on exe files & 'install as Admin' rather than accepting the typical user-install-process a lot of programs default to. Win7 seems pickier about Admin rights issues.

[Gfted1]

Having just aquired a Win7 64bit system I noticed something. It seems like there are two "Program Files" folders, one that just says "Program Files" and one that says "Program Files (x86)". I assumed the X86 folder was for non-64 bit programs since thats where it put WoW so why is it that people have trouble running 32bit software when it seems the OS takes care of putting it in the right place for you?

[Purkake]

Having just aquired a Win7 64bit system I noticed something. It seems like there are two "Program Files" folders, one that just says "Program Files" and one that says "Program Files (x86)". I assumed the X86 folder was for non-64 bit programs since thats where it put WoW so why is it that people have trouble running 32bit software when it seems the OS takes care of putting it in the right place for you?

Not a clue, the two Program Files deal seems to be working out well so far. Maybe it was more of a driver issue, since you do need 64-bit drivers for everything?

 

I think Vista or Windows 7 dropped support for 16-bit applications, which could lead to some trouble with Baldur's Gate 1 and its 16-bit installer...

Edited May 17, 2010 by Purkake

[LadyCrimson]

If I understand things correctly (always iffy, hah), Win7's 32 bit emulator runs things in user mode, to keep any errors apart from Admin mode I guess, thus all 32 bit application code must also be able to run in user mode...and of course files and registry settings for 32 bit applications need to be kept apart from those for 64 bit applications. (32-bit system files are installed under Local Disk/Windows/SysWOW64)

 

If for some reason device drivers/applications don't allow for this/Win7's emulator can't force/make it work, things get fubar'd.

[Purkake]

But you can force 32-bit applications to run in administrator mode, which is pretty the first thing to try if something doesn't work.

[LadyCrimson]

Yup...but that doesn't always make things work either. It's, y'know...just the computer way. All I know is I tried just about everything to make certain games/programs work, but despite the fact other people say they have, it didn't for me. Hence I keep XP-32 around.

 

Pay no attention to the HAL behind monitor...

Edited May 17, 2010 by LadyCrimson