Windows 7?

Anyone using windows 7? Had many problems w/ my other laptop (XP). Since, I had a credit oif $140 from HP (their defective printer), thought I'd add some more $, & apply it towards a new laptop.

This OS is very different from XP. A program I've used for years (Mastercook) is not entirely working properly - a web import bar to grab/import recipes from the web.

Before I get out my cables & transfer my recipes, files, etc. from my other laptop, wanted to ask if anyone is Using Windows 7, & if you're pleased w/ it.

I'm tempted to pack it in & send it back, but I'll probably lose the credit, as I won't buy anything else from HP - particularly since their printer had problems. What happened to HP? I always thought their products were highly rated.
 

Doc

Administrator
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
I have Windows 7. Had it since May. It is awesome. I find no faults with it. I prefer it over XP and Vista.
I wonder if you are experiencing a browser issue since IE is different? I would suggest you download Firefox and try it. I'm hooked on firefox. The spell check alone would make me switch but I truly like it much better than IE. It's not perfect but it's closer to perfect than IE.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html?lang=en-US
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
the fact that you even got a credit from HP speaks volumes for their inclination of "valued customer"

Win7 is nothing more than Vista dressed down to fewer screwy interfaces.

software that worked in (up to) XP is prone to not working in Vista (plus). Microsoft changed the rules, not the software vendors.

there may be work arounds for specific software packages in Vista/Win7 - you need to consult with some experienced users in that regard.

but,,,, have been forced to deal extensively (sigh) with Vista and now Win7, I can tell you the transition can be survived. and I am not a Microsoft cheerleader . . . .
 

Adillo303

*****
Gold Site Supporter
1) I like windows 7 a lot. It does take some getting used to. I feel that it is worth it.
2) Windows 7 has an XP mode available that runs XP programs that will not run on Win 7, You may have to upgrade to Pro to do that.
3) Upgrading to pro is very easy - Click start type windows anytime upgrade in the search box and it does it. It does cost some cash.
4) I like Firefox as well, but recently, I have fallen in love with Chrome.
5) Internet explorer 9 is available in Beta and is supposed to be awesome. The Beta has been mega polished.
6) You gotta go Win7, Apple or Linux. XP just isn't going to be around forever.

Chowder, I cheerlead for no one. I make my living making computers work. My desk has all three O/S's above. They are all good at some things and bad at others. For the sheer weight of available applications windows is still out in front.
 

Mama

Queen of Cornbread
Site Supporter
All of my stuff (desktop, laptop, printer/fax/copier/scanner) are HP and have been very pleased with all of mine. No trouble whatsoever. I think that there are going to be lemons with any manufacturer but that does say a lot that they gave you a credit. My desktop has XP. My laptop is only a couple of months old and has windows 7. I'm still learning it but have been pleased with it so far. Add me to the list of Firefox fans. I've been meaning to check out Chrome just haven't yet.
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
>> XP mode available that runs XP programs that will not run on Win 7,

some, not all. as is the case with Vista "compatibility mode" - some, not all.
 
Thanks all. I downloaded FF, as I remembered they have an add-on, called recipefox, that used to grab the recipe from the web & import it into my mastercook program. It worked w/ xp, but it's not w/ windows 7. I'm at a loss right now about what to do.
 

Doc

Administrator
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
Good luck! I hope it works for you. Please keep us posted, so others will know if it works or not.
 

YeOldeStonecat

New member
I've seen using Win7 since the BETA.
I love it, especially for laptops. For my job (SMB Consultant..small/medium business computer/network consultant)...I use my (primary) laptop all the time going onsite to clients. My laptop lid simply get shut, opened, shut, many time a day, stuffed in my laptop bag, office, home, and boy did they do a great job with hibernation/suspend power management. I think my laptop truly reboots once every 3 or 4 or 5 months. Else, 99.9% of the time it's suspended/hibernated and woken up.

For desktops...I also love it. Not that I had a problem with XP, but even so, stability wise it's even more stable. It just runs and runs, I reboot that perhaps every couple of months due to critical updates that require it. My main office workstation is still running Vista 64.

Windows 7 is a wee hair quicker than Vista...sure when Vista came out it was very doggy, but as service packs and many other incremental updates came out, performance slowly but steadily improved. Plus..back when Vista came out, many people still had single core early P4s, and the fake dual core (hyperthread) P4s...which were barely up to the task. Fast forward a few years to current times, and most of those old rigs are long gone to the boneyard, with pretty much all processors now true multi-cores.

On dual core or higher, with 2 gigs minimum for RAM, it runs great. If you're a power user or gamer, shoot for 4 gigs of RAM (or more if you're a super power user...go 64 bit Windows so you can use past 4 gigs). If you have an old app that needs XP mode, ensure you get 4 gigs....and a quad core is better, as XP mode is really just a virtual machine..so your hardware is running two OS's at once. It's just a special version of VirtualPC.

As for legacy software, I've not come across many that won't run in Vista/Win7. Most of those that have a quirk can run fine just by right clicking the shortcut and setting the compatibility mode, and/or "run as administrator". There is some software I've seen, mostly line of business apps and accounting apps, where an old outdated version won't run on the newer OS's, but since LOB apps or accounting apps are important, you should be running a current supported version in the first place.

Out of my 7 computers at home, only 2 still have XP...one of those hasn't even been turned on in months. The rest of Win7 and a few *nix distros (Mint and OpenSUSE) (technically another running a linux security gateway distro called Astaro)

Just for kicks, at the office we have an old Dell, some mini Optiplex model, GX260 or GX240 I think, it's an early Pentium 4 2.4GHz, has 1 gig of RAM, onboard Intel video...we installed Windows 7 on that, and it actually runs about as equal as it ran Windows XP. It may take a little longer to boot up than it did with XP, but once up and running, it's quite usable for basic stuff..surfing the web, etc.

Windows 7 is so much easier to use and setup with peripherals too, printers, scanners, cameras, phones, etc. We are at the time were we'll see less and less support in hardware for WinXP, so there's another reason to catch up. Windows XP was great, it lived a longer than usual life for a Windows OS. But it's currently 3 generations old now. Windows 98se was great too..back in it's time. But sometimes...it's time to move on, newer and better ones have come out. Make the move!

Although I'm not overly fond of HPs laptops, I do still like their printers. Granted many of the multi-function ones tend to have extra bloated drivers, but the printers themselves are still good and one of my recommended brands.
 

Adillo303

*****
Gold Site Supporter
When Win 95 first came out, I was resistant. I fought it as long as I could. One day a customer said to me "I don't want to go backwards!" I realized they were right. One needs to embrace the newer technology and move forward. Microsoft definately needed to learn the "lesson of Vista" in that they cannot just jam an O/S down peoples throat and they have to like it. They seem to have learned that with win 7. It is a good product and it supports more hardware than it's predecessors. It is not without quirks, but then, nothing is.
 

YeOldeStonecat

New member
Yeah Win95 sure was different. 95a quite glitchy too, 95b got her a bit more stable.

Ugh...the networking back then...10Base 2 coax...troubleshooting those T-bars and terminator caps was such a pain! And then then popular Artisoft LANtastic networking software until Microsofts own NetBEUI and peer to peer caught on more.
 

Adillo303

*****
Gold Site Supporter
Coax - Yeah, I remember that. An entire ten story affirm down with a break in the coax somewhere.

Old window, how about 3.1?
 

Jim_S

Resident Curmudgeon
Gold Site Supporter
Coax - Yeah, I remember that. An entire ten story affirm down with a break in the coax somewhere.

How about the user who decided to reorganize their cubical and disconnected everything from the computer and didn't reconnect a couple of small black cables?


Old window, how about 3.1?

Naw, thats no good. Winders for Workgroups 3.11 rocks! :whistling:
 
Coax - Yeah, I remember that. An entire ten story affirm down with a break in the coax somewhere.

Old window, how about 3.1?

At least I could back it up (w/ 100 disks). Hahahaha. Don't you miss DOS? NOT!

Well, my knees are starting to lock up. I dug up my cables to transfer my cookbooks etc. between an xp & win 7. Doesn't work -- incompatible. Haven't tried to hook up the wireless printer yet. I may need a Pro. Used to have a puter guy that worked for Nasa. This would be a breeze for him. Doc, I may have to wait on passing out the flyers, until I'm all hooked up. I'm pooped! To be continued? Thanks, again.
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
>>Win 3.1

that was my first network admin experience - with Novell 0 point something, or so it felt that way....

WFWG was a huge improvement (g)

some of the Quickbooks modules will not run post-XP, nor AutoCAD < Vista release version, quite a few older database apps fail. some of it is Vista file structure changes, some fail trying to write to protected areas. what I have heard is if the app is coded to use %env.variables% Vista/Win7 can cope but if it paths are are hard coded Vista/Win7 barf.

if it's 64b none of the 16b installers, etc. work.

if you're forced into going past XP, which is pretty much '...any new machine' checking with your software vendors to see if your versions work is required effort. folks mostly don't and get some veddy nasty surprises. it's bad enough to have shell out a bucket'o'bucks for the Vista+ versions/upgrades - but it's really not good when there is no upgrade . . . . software abandoned, have a nice day!
 

Adillo303

*****
Gold Site Supporter
OK folks I have in my office:

MSDOS 6.22 Botable CD
Windows 95 Install CD
Windows 98 SE Install CD
Windows Millennium Install CD
Windows NT Workstation and Server
Windows XP

Oh Yeah - Netware 2.0

Step right up and get your O/S

Jim - As long as they left the cables on the "T" - not os bad.

CC - Used to carry the 100 Floppies - I still have a 5 1/4" drive someplace.

BTW CC - How about copying all of it to a flash drive and getting across that way. Also if you would like a crossover network cable to just network the two machines, just let me know how long it should be. I have a 1,000' roll right next to the desk. I always prefer the network idea myself.
 

Adillo303

*****
Gold Site Supporter
Chowder - If you have that much of your software that does not work and you run that much old software that is irreplaceable, I suppose that you will stay with XP. Sorry to hear that.

Win 7 has so fat done everything I have asked of it. Even good serial port support for all of the communications controllers that I need to program.
 

YeOldeStonecat

New member
OK folks I have in my office:

MSDOS 6.22 Botable CD
Windows 95 Install CD
Windows 98 SE Install CD
Windows Millennium Install CD
Windows NT Workstation and Server
Windows XP

Oh Yeah - Netware 2.0

Step right up and get your O/S

Jim - As long as they left the cables on the "T" - not os bad.

CC - Used to carry the 100 Floppies - I still have a 5 1/4" drive someplace.

BTW CC - How about copying all of it to a flash drive and getting across that way. Also if you would like a crossover network cable to just network the two machines, just let me know how long it should be. I have a 1,000' roll right next to the desk. I always prefer the network idea myself.

I bought another house and moved in June this year....I actually got around to cleaning out..and throwing out...3/4 of my accumulated computer "junk". All sorts of computer hardware going back to the Pentium days, routers, hubs, switches, cases, laptops, motherboards, RAM going back to EDO, and my old software collections yes DOS, Win3, 95 a, b, c, and d, and every single variety and step up to today. (although proud to say I never saved a WinME CD) Novell stuff, *nix stuff, ugh what a pile of a mess of a collection. It was sad to say "bon voyage" to the collection..but it was just taking up space, less to move. Only kept software from Win2K era up, and hardware from Pentium 4 era and up...although I'm thinning some of that stuff out too, for the home going all laptops or ultra small form factor low energy consumption stuff.

FYI, if at least one of the computers that you're doing a transfer to/from has a gigabit NIC, crossover cables no longer required. Part of the gigabit standard is auto MDI-X, so gigabit NICs will auto detect and perform crossover if needed...just like auto MDI-X switches.
 

Shermie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
the fact that you even got a credit from HP speaks volumes for their inclination of "valued customer"

Win7 is nothing more than Vista dressed down to fewer screwy interfaces.

software that worked in (up to) XP is prone to not working in Vista (plus). Microsoft changed the rules, not the software vendors.

there may be work arounds for specific software packages in Vista/Win7 - you need to consult with some experienced users in that regard.

but,,,, have been forced to deal extensively (sigh) with Vista and now Win7, I can tell you the transition can be survived. and I am not a Microsoft cheerleader . . . .



I didn't think that Windows 7 was any more fancier than Windows Vista. Just hype to make it APPEAR as though it is better.
 
I bought another house and moved in June this year....I actually got around to cleaning out..and throwing out...3/4 of my accumulated computer "junk". All sorts of computer hardware going back to the Pentium days, routers, hubs, switches, cases, laptops, motherboards, RAM going back to EDO, and my old software collections yes DOS, Win3, 95 a, b, c, and d, and every single variety and step up to today. (although proud to say I never saved a WinME CD) Novell stuff, *nix stuff, ugh what a pile of a mess of a collection. It was sad to say "bon voyage" to the collection..but it was just taking up space, less to move. Only kept software from Win2K era up, and hardware from Pentium 4 era and up...although I'm thinning some of that stuff out too, for the home going all laptops or ultra small form factor low energy consumption stuff.

FYI, if at least one of the computers that you're doing a transfer to/from has a gigabit NIC, crossover cables no longer required. Part of the gigabit standard is auto MDI-X, so gigabit NICs will auto detect and perform crossover if needed...just like auto MDI-X switches.

Can you help walk me through it? Is there a program on win 7 that will help? I have cables & a disc for Easyshare. I hooked up the win 7 & xp laptops so I could drag & drop my cookbooks, photos, files from XP to win 7. Unfortunately, the disc won't work on the win 7 puter. Bought it back in 2005. Thanks a bunch.

P.S. I've been using MC pretty much since it came out years ago, & upgraded & upgraded. Would hate to lose all my recipes/cookbooks.
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
CC -

please get your xp computer backed up and make a disk image of the drive(s) before you get too deep into this - just in case.

because... Vista and Win7 have significant differences vs. the where & how XP handled things.

"migrating" your old data, programs, settings, preferences, etc., does - sigh - _not_ always go according to plan. migrating XP to Vista/Win7 has a poor track record - so be absolutely certain you have everything backed up. many users have found it easier, in the end, to just reinstall everything vs. the migration attempt.

>>the disc won't work on the win 7 puter.
this is to be expected. Vista and Win7 store things on the hard drive differently than earlier OS - if the transfer software doesn't recognize both operating systems, it won't work.
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
>>old software

I think that problem is (very generalized) less for individuals than for small/medium business. I work with a number of small business systems that are essentially modified old DOS applications - which still work reliably under XP.

it's not the cost of buying the latest versions - altho that is not insignificant. the problem is the zillions of reports, queries, linked in accessory programs, etc. which by and large will need to be completely re-created. a lot of manhours there - and then there's the learning curve hit on productivity.... it gets worst because many times it is not replacing Brand X with Brand X Vistacized... it may make more sense to go with Brand Y at this new point in time&space so that's not only "all of thr above" but add "translate whole system" - a daunting task to implement and keep everthing running at the same time.

you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs - it's difficult to argue the benefits of progress - at some point 'the old stuff' needs to be tossed and you get on with the new.

but there is a cost and impact. XP and XP hardware may hang on a whole lot longer than anyone is currently imagining - simply because of the size of the issue.

if you think about it, the first DOS software that had to be tossed was the really good stuff that achieved its speed/etc via direct hardware manipulation. W95 tolerated that, W98 less so, NT absolutely would not touch it. my experience was there was much not 'incompat' left by the time NT rolled in.

Windows up until NT was basically a DOS task switcher; there wasn't much old stuff left by the time NT rolled around that wasn't tolerated by Windows or NT's emulation. but Vista &+ obsoletes all of that stuff - lotta' stuff . . . . W95 (or earlier) up through XP - pretty long life span - lotta investment in there.

now . . . if the open source ..nix crowd comes up with a robust virtual xp, the old software may never go away! the OS handles connectivity and hardware, the virtual pc plays XP.....
 
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