Windows 7 - What are your thoughts on the operating system?

I must say there's one thing i dislike about windows 7. They've crippled the interface, in an attempt to mke it more mac-like. The disperance of the Classic Menus and the quick launch bar are a huge letdown.

I've always used the Quick Launch Bar to keep the clutter off my desktop. Before the Quick Launch Bar, I used the Office Toolbar for the same purpose.

Another reason I'll stick with XP, thank you, Microsoft.

Going to wait to see how it goes with everyone first but running both Vista (newest pc) and XP on rest I think I'll leave it all alone as not worth upgrades as not broken, leave it.
Most of the pcs at workplace are XP and no plans at all.

You can use the new Taskbar the same way you used the quick launch bar. Just drag any programs icon or shortcut to the taskbar and you will be given the option to "PIN" it there. Once pinned you can quick launch it. You can also change the size of the icons in the taskbar. The default ones are to huge in my opinion

You can turn on the classic style menus by right clicking the start menu and selecting properties and then go through and set how you want things to display.

The task bar works when you pin a program to it like a greatly improved quick launch bar in vista only with each icon having more choices when you right click it.

Windows 7 is far superior to Vista and XP now has faded to a very distant third place. I have been running Windows 7 since the early betas and even in beta it was the best operating system Microsoft ever released. I have run every Microsoft operating system version since they released their first DOS version.

Generally thats a real good idea, especially witn MS products. The initial releses of both XP and Vista had some major bugs that showed up after they were released on the market. XP had a flaw in the plug & play software, which opened it up to being exploited by hackers, and Vista's installer was not capable of handling a computer tht had more than 2gig of memory, and would not install.

Win7 does seem very good on a lot of levels. OF course I expect a few major bugs to show up in the next month or so. My rule, at least since XP - is wait for the 1st service pack. That seems to take MS bout 1 year generally...

Win7 DOES seem pretty stable, its probably going to be ok, but who knows.

Somehow I managed to miss that. I'll go back over that again. Thanks for the heads up

1. I wonder how you came to the conclusion that Windows 7 is just a service pack for Vista. After all, you said you have never used it.

2. Thanks for the info on the SCAM part; I'll be more careful of Microsoft and similar companies in the future.

3. Since Microsoft has now turned to scamming customers, it should be reported to the Police for prosecution. Maybe the FBI since the Redmond City Police may not be enough to do the job.

4. This is important since it is their standard mode of operation. "Typical" you wrote.

If anyone interested in trying it is a student, or has a student in the family, then there are options to get it fairly cheaply:

http://www.microsoft.com/canada/windows/discoverytour/studen...

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/GettingRead...

Maybe you should try the version of vista you have before running on for paragraphs about how bad it is, moron. Or go buy a Mac and Shut the @#$% up, jack@$$.

I've been using it for nearly a month and love it! No complaints.

No problems at all, best OS I have used to date.

I was always a hardcore XP fan, not anymore.

Never tried the beta, but I replaced Vista 32 Home Premium with W7-64 bit Ultimate.... on a Dell Inpiron 1720 laptop...

I couldn't be happier!!!!

The W7 disk found EVERYTHING except one card reader... and after 3 requests to Dell, a guy sent me Server 2008 driver for this, and it worked perfectly in W7-64!

i'm running 64-bit win7 ultimate and it runs every 32-bit app i throw at it. a few, a very few, need to be run in a 32-bit context, which is its 'compatibility' mode. that too seems to work.

i thought i would never give up xp willingly, and to a clone of vista?

yet, given the choice of booting to my old xp/64 installation or the new win7, i am constantly going for the new. i have enough apps installed and enough customization now to make it sane. some observations are that if you're a dos hack at heart, if you really liked shortcuts via 'run' and if you like explorer how it's been for over ten years, win7 may be a bit of an annoyance for a while.

if you like a pretty, pretty OS, win7 may well do it for you.

if you are a bit of a power user, you may well be hating life with win7 until you can get it to quiet down and stop asking you for permission to do everything. go get "ultimate windows tweaker" to adjust quite a few settings that one *ought* to be able to access via the UI, but apparently are hidden. this is as good as we do, for now, absent a M$ tool like tweakUI.

i haven't reverted off the aero explorer style yet, but i may try going to classic mode to see if the run command has its old magic. OH, the run command... haha. it's not enabled by default, but it's easy enough to check the box when customizing the start menu.

win7 runs most everything pretty smoothly, including an older hp psc printer that vista wouldn't supply a TWAIN interface for.

this OS takes a lot of ram. i have 8 gig and it's hogging nearly 1 of that (with firefox running). that's less for photoshop, less for anything. boo-hiss.

tonight i'll try installing garmin software and cross my fingers.

No issues installing Garmin Software over here....it should install without a glitch.

Over all - its pretty good - stable. Its not much an improvement over Vista though, in they've dialed down the UAC some - which is good...

Sadly the interface has been crippled....
So basically we have Vista with a crippled interface....

Having used vista, and the RC1 of win7,....i must say,,,i agree, its largly hype - it IS basically a service pack for Vista..If if hadnt been for the succesfull negative PR campaign against Vista, they likely would have never released win7 - the new things would have been put into Vista SP3. 7 doesnt seem any more stable or functional than Vista. THey HAVE dialed down a few things like the UAC and a few other minor things and fixed a few bugs but its hardly a major upograde

Slashdot has some information on what to look for in Windows 7 SP1: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/01/13/150205/What-To-Expec...

Still very happy with the move to Windows 7 here.

I love Windows 7 64bit. it is faster and more pleasing to the eye than XP. The only annoyance I can report is the UAC prompts which I turned off the first day I loaded Windows 7. You can turn off UAC in Msconfig. 95% of my programs work the same as XP.

i have a 32 bit and loved over laptop with vista . lots of drivers so it recognized about everything i plugged in . i have a mac now as per my daughters insistance and so far so good . new learning experence though.

Just exchanged Vista (32) for 7 (64 bit), had Vista 18 months. Same basic specs, no change in hardware. Still use XP (32) a lot on other machines daily.

I would not upgrade XP or Vista to 7.

Yet, 7 is very, very, nice. As said earlier, take 7 if offered - but no driving need to upgrade from an installed (and paid for) current Operating System.

Here's the diff between Vista and 7:

http://www.intowindows.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/differ...

I love Win7. Never tried Vista. Upgraded my main PC from WinXP to Win7 a month ago and have had no problems. I was worried that I would have some legacy hardware and software issues, with stuff that's several years old, that might not run well or at all in Win7, but that hasn't been a problem at all. I love the visual look of it, the organizational libraries, and the stability.

For those who used Outlook Express in WinXP (I do), what are you using now that OE no longer exists in Win7?

Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, other? Preferences, recommendations?

I can give my feed back on Windows 7 as far as my Garmin software compatibility is concerned. All Garmin software work fine. I have no issues in connecting my Nuvi 765t to Windows 7.

I have been using 7 since the beta first relesed jumping from XP. I love it speed and look and thought it was the best OS since bakery bread until.

I have several computers and remained with XP for convenience for recording with adobe Audition 3 and Steinberg Cubase 5 Recording Software. I finally made the conversion to 7 and was astounded that Microsoft removed the stereo mix.

for those that don't know what stereo mix is "Stereo Mix" is what used to be called "What you hear" or summat. In XP recording options you could select "What you hear" as a source, instead of Mic or Line-In. So whatever sounds coming out of the speakers will be recorded, as in "what you hear".

being afraid of law suits the stereo mix was disabled as far back as Microsoft Vista and leaving the recording industry in shambles.

Below find what I found that explains this travesty:

The RIAA maintains the position that any recording of any copyrighted works is a violation of copywrite law and therefore illegal. However, the United States Supreme Court begged to differ with that viewpoint in Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984), also known as the Betamax case, when it ruled that the making of individual copies of complete television shows for purposes of timeshifting does not constitute copyright infringement, but is fair use. The same principal would also protect the recording of internet radio and other media, although the Supreme Court has not ruled specifically on this issue, but the Court does follow stare decisis, the principle that former court decisions must be followed. The ruling contemplated that the person taping was receiving the television show from a legitimate source, so such a ruling would not and does not give legal support or justification for downloading music or movies from a source who is not entitled to disseminate such media.
So when you watch a magor league baseball game on TV and late in the game it is announced that “This copyrighted telecast is presented by authority of the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball. It may not be reproduced or retransmitted in any form, and the accounts and descriptions of this game may not be disseminated without express written consent.” Whoa! You can legally tape this game and watch it later at your convenience, so rules the U.S. Supreme Court. And that part that "the accounts and descriptions of this game may not be disseminated without express written consent" I guess this means that if I try to tell you what I saw on the televised game last night I am violating their copyright, so Magor League Baseball maintains. So much for a little thing called the First Ammendment. I do not think that in spite of digital rights management (DRM), that the reason that certain sound cards are not supporting the stereo mix option (I have a new HP dv6810us notebook with a Conexant High Definition SmartAudio 221 sound card) is the RIAA (although they probably would very much like to limit our ability to record with our computers in any manner). I believe it is a MicroSoft problem and that MS rushed out Vista, a flawed operating system that conflicts and is incompatible with a lot of different hardware peripherals. And just last week I got a Windows Vista update concerning my sound card, the Conexant High Definition SmartAudio 221. Of all the sound cards in the world, MicroSoft was updating mine! I was so excited that they were finally fixing the no stereo mix problem. So I downloading the update, rebooted the machine, and of course the update did not fix the problem. I don't know what it fixed, but it didn't fix my problem. I can't record with my computer (except with the microphone) and yes, i have gone to the volume icon in the system tray, right clicked, then clicked on recording devices, then right clicked in the white space, and both the "show disabled devices" and "show disconnected devices" are checked, and no, I still have no stereo mix or wave. And I have spent numerous hours with HP support and MicroSoft support, and no, they have not offered any solutions. Let me restate that. They have offered numerous suggestions, and none of them have worked. I am frustrated and pissed off.

So the stereo mix is no longer available! Thanks to the recording industry, the sound chip drivers no longer offer this as an option since it was a "back door" way to recording copyrighted material. That really sucks, since it was also a good way to record legal material as well. However there are still ways to get around the issue.

I use a 3rd party application called virtual audio cable as a work around, but why should I have to?

Has anyone else noticed this and if so what have you done to get a fix from your manufacture?

Sony F series I7 with windows 7 ultimate

Went from XP to windows 7. Hated it at first but the new little features like snaping windows from side to side is what makes windows 7 better than xp.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well it performs. I wasn't expecting to like it right away, but it was a rather seamless transition from XP.

Was my first real exposure to it. Seems like a nice upgrade from XP, however it appears that the MS Engineers assume all PC users are idiots. The control panel for example complicates the simple. Why?

I'll take OSX any day.

Never used the Beta, but the final version is great. A vast improvement over XP, and it's much more stable and quick than Vista.

Having no issues so far, I only got it because I just got a new PC. Otherwise there isn't that much difference between it and XP for my use.

Windows 7 appears to be primarily Window Dressing on top of the same old Windows OS. There are a few nice things, but, for the most part, you're paying a lot of money for another incremental upgrade. Vista was the beta, and Windows 7 was the real release. If you have Vista, Windows 7 might be worth the upgrade, but, if you have XP it probably isn't.

my .02

Beas

I've been looking at a Netbook and I see "Starter Win 7" listed all the time... Anyone know the diff between full and starter versions?

Here's a quick take on Windows 7 Starter Edition and how it compares to the others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions
Netbooks may find it hard to run Win7 without bogging down, which is why Microsoft did a Starter Edition. Most newer laptops and home PCs with 2GB RAM run well on Windows 7 Home Premium. The few people who need the extra features in Home Professional or Home Ultimate can always go to Windows Anytime Upgrade within Home Premium, pay a fee to Microsoft, and get a new key that turns on those features, without reinstalling.

Bob,
This is not a Microsoft problem. Microsoft has not disabled Stereo Mix. Sony did it. On your laptop. Sony's driver for the Conexant audio is the problem--it's a known issue. Sony not only makes PCs, they distribute CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray discs, and they are among the most aggressive companies in trying to curtail Fair Use by crippling hardware and software they're involved with.

I use Windows 7 and Adobe Audition and my sound card does live streamrecording in stereo just fine, just as it did in Win XP.

You can try this fix in post 6 of this thread, if you can make sense of it. English is not Lluis's first language.
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/580387?tstart=0

No joy there, you need a new PC, one without drivers made by or for Sony, one with a sound card or chip that has drivers that support live stereo recording (most do).

Dell Laptop Inspiron 1720... Dell would sell W7-32, but not W7-64.
If I was going to upgrade (and I did) it would ONLY be to W7-64!

BEAUTIFUL!!! Installed W7-64 Ultimate.
It found all but one piece of hardware.
Contacted Dell for that...
Took 4 contacts... First 3 said "GO BACK" to Vista 32.
NEVER!!!
4th guy gave me driver for one remaining item from Server 2008, and it worked FLAWLESSLY!!!

W7-64 is faster, and less buggy than Vista 32

I then replaced the 5400 RPM drive, with 2 7200 RPM drives.... First one as second drive, and used Acronis Home to back up OS... Then Replaced Boot drive with larger 7200RPM drive than what I had before... Acronis only made identical sided boot drive, but remaining space was made into a "Download" drive... So now I don't clog my boot drive with downloads!!!

I'M ABSOLUTELY HAPPY WITH IT!! MUCH FASTER! ACTS LIKE A NEW COMPUTER!!! Would do it again in a Hearbeat!!!

Interesting. My old desktop has a Sound Blaster audio card in it from Creative. It came with a suite of audio software including the MediaSource player/recorder which has a "What you hear" option in the recorder. I still use that feature to this day.

I wonder if that's been taken out of current Sound Blaster products?!? Bummer, if it has.

Another reason to keep my WinXP desktop running just as it is.

With it, I can even download music videos in .flv format and strip out just the sound track to an mp3 file that I then put on my Nuvi 660.

As I explained two posts above yours, "What you hear" or stream recording is NOT disabled in Windows 7. It depends on the soundcard or sound chip driver. Bob has this issue because his sound chip driver is installed in a laptop made by Sony and Sony doesn't want people using their PCs this way. Yours is not. Creative Labs has no axe to grind and as far as I know, their sound equipment is fully functional in Windows 7. I don't know, however, whether they have updated drivers for really old sound cards, nor whether your older legacy software would work in Windows 7. Mine did, but there are exceptions.

And if your PC is old enough that it barely had the resources to manage WinXP without choking, it's not going to be able to run Windows 7. Most people would want at least 2GB of RAM, as one benchmark. RAM is cheap now, but some older PCs can't take 2GB of RAM or have no upgraded memory available. Money is usually better spent replacing rather than upgrading 10 year old PCs.

dagarmin
Thanks for your info, I ended up disabling the onboard laptop soundcard and got an external..

Thanks again

Bob

I have an HP G60-230US Notebook PC. It came with Vista 32, which was a hassle. I recently upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate 32. Much better than Vista although I'm still getting used to the interface. I agree that Vista was a big mistake and XP was better than that. Appears that Windows 7 is a change in the right direction.

Although its name suggests perhaps even grander capabilities, Windows enthusiasts are excited over the discovery of a hidden "GodMode" feature that lets users access all of the operating system's control panels from within a single folder.

To enter "GodMode" one need only create a new folder in the root of c: and then rename the folder to the following:
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

The folder will then transform and the folder Icon will become and resemble a control panel. while playing God you will have several dozen internal control panels available for your liking

I've done it. I guess it's cool. To me it's just a suped up control panel. it doesn't let you do anything you couldn't do from somehwere else. Just puts all the available options and information in one place. I guess it's conveient if you like to tinker with your sytem a lot.

Agree with dja24: seems like it just puts options in slightly more convenient reach, but doesn't allow any special functionality beyond what the operating system already provides. (...which certainly makes sense, since I would want the full complement of OS capability for which I paid to be available to me without too much trouble!)

No complants on the new syestem...kinda like it.

Great info here all.. The one IT guy who's opinion I trust has nothing bad to say about 7. One of his comments was I think they finally got it right!

Flip

I deleted this because I had already posted same information in this thread, and forgot!!
Cliff Notes: Like it!

Nice thing about God Mode is it puts options there that you probably ignored or passed by in your exploration of Windows 7. It’s fair to say that God mode is a good to have as an option on your desktop.
Unless someone is computer illiterate, then they shouldn't go to the control panel anyway.

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit is the only way to go.

The 64-bit version is way faster than the 32-bit version and now with Windows 7 you can add an unlimited about of RAM to your computer, which is the main reason I upgraded.

The "Library" feature is great for organizing all your different kinds of files and there is some added Networking features as well.

I've been using it since it's inception and have never had one crash or any other problems.

The physical memory limit on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit is 192 GB.

I love the Windows 7!