[mechman]

I have heard nothing bad about it at all. Coincidentally, I have my copies at the moment and have been running around the internet getting all the appropriate drivers for upgrading. I'm planning on doing it tonight.

I'll keep you up to date. :T

Drivers I've needed so far:

• Nvidia drivers
• Printer drivers
• Audio drivers - Soundblaster
• SATA driver for MB
• LAN card drivers
• Mouse drivers (RAZER) prolly not necessary

I am now running around to see what's not going to be compatible - program wise. I have the Pro version so it shouldn't be too much of an issue. But I'm gonna check anyways.

 

[mechman]

So far so good. Didn't take too long to install and it looks better than XP. :dontknow: I installed the 64bit version over a 32bit XP.


I've got a lot of installing to do now....

 

[mechman]

Well the move from XP to 7 was quick and painless. But it wasn't really an 'upgrade'. It's a clean install with WinXP moved to a folder called 'windows.old'. It's still possible for me to boot into it and use it if I needed to or get that errant file off the desktop if needed.

I always prefer a clean install. The only time I did an upgrade was from XP to Vista and I went running back.

Harp - It's my understanding that this has been from folks who purchased a digital copy and are attempting to use a burnt dvd to install.

 

[mechman]

My view is that Win7 is a more viable operating system that any prior Windows desktop platform.

I agree with that statement. But my experience is a bit limited at the moment.

 

[mechman]

What I like so far...

- The revamped taskbar. The old one has been around since Win95 and had run its course. The new one is very nice and I like the preview windows. As a person who normally has multiple windows/applications open, the new taskbar is a boon!

- As with any new OS, I like the look of it. It seems to be a little softer on the eyes. That was one thing that I always thought Apple had done right - the look of their OS. Of course I was a BEOS early adopter too - call me a nut. I believe there's some sort of Clear Type font or something as well. Makes the text a little smoother.

- Speed. Application wise I haven't noticed a boost. But the time it takes to come out of standby seems to be cut significantly. And the reboot and boot up times are quite a bit shorter as well.

- Gadgets - most of these you can probably get for XP. I know I had sticky notes on XP. But I don't recall it being integrated all that well.

There are more things that you may or may not like. You can see a review of the new OS here. MaxPC never gives any software or hardware a free pass.

 

[mechman]

To add to me previous post, the ability to increase the size of the icons is a plus as it makes it much easier to see what the icons are if you have a high screen resolution. You can do this irrespective of screen resolution, except for 640x480 from memory.

That kind of brings up my first problem with Win7. You can't make them smaller. With 20/15 vision I like them smaller than the average person.

 

[mechman]

It has color calibration within the control panel as well. :T

 

[mechman]

Can you tell me if the upgrade means I have to re install most of my programs again or will they still work? I Have Vista pro home 64bit and the upgrade to 7 is on its way in the mail.

Vista to Windows7 should not mean a re-install of your programs. I believe that was only for us WinXP folks.

 

[mechman]

No issues so far. Working fine on all three machines. One old piece of software wouldn't run for me. But I don't really need it anyway. I've been thinking about running it in virtualization mode but I've never found the time to set it up.