Windows 7 Pro 64 bit Installed

Err · Post by **Err** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:41 pm

I installed Windows 7 this evening. My computer just feels faster with it. This could be just the fresh install but I everything seems quicker. Installation went off without a hitch. I installed my motherboard, video, and sound card drivers with no problems. The only glitch I had was when I was running Steam to install a game at the same time I was checking for Windows updates. My network connection got dropped. I clicked the connection icon and let Windows troubleshoot the problem. It reset the adapter and all has been fine since.

One feature I'm enjoying is the way you can maximize a window by simply dragging it to the top of the screen. I've installed Office, Nod32(64 bit), 7zip, Firefox, and the drivers and programs for my Sony camcorder. By the way, Windows Media Player has native support for the AVCHD codec that my camcorder uses and the H.234 codec. 7 is much quicker than Vista at transferring files from HD to HD. I copied ~15 gig of Pics and videos in ~6 minutes. I don't have any games installed yet.

So far, this has been one of the most enjoyable installations I've done.

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 12:08 am

How much ram are you running?

Err · Post by **Err** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 5:13 am

[quote="Executioner"]How much ram are you running?

4 Gig or Ram.

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 8:42 am

I pretty much have the same to say about my new install, which happened last night. Only mine is 32bit and Windows 7 Ultimate (if yours is any different). Only thing I ran across was getting audio to work as I still use an older SB Live! Value card from a Dell I had from ago. Ended up taking some time, even though I had thought I researched it thoroughly the day before (knowing I would do an upgrade to Windows 7). In the end I just needed to use an older release of the kX Audio Drivers than what I was trying.

2.4Ghz P4
2Gb RDRam (Rambus)
256 Geforce 6800 GT

And EVERYTHING runs just as fast, if not faster at times, than my trusty install of XP (I too am hoping that this isn't just because of the fresh install).

Err · Post by **Err** » Thu Oct 29, 2009 7:45 pm

It's taking me longer to reinstall Oblivion plus all the mods for it than it did for me to install 7. :lol

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 1:36 am

Coolest little trick I found so far is being able to grab the top of a window, shake a little with the mouse and any and all other windows on the desktop will minimize. Im sure there are a few more things like this to be found.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 6:33 am

Yeah I like AeroSnap. The handy one for me is slamming a window to the right or left side of the screen to have it resized to exactly half the screen width. I often have to open two windows side-by-side and that makes it easier.

Err · Post by **Err** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 9:21 am

Since I bought the pro edition, I installed the Virtual XP mode last night. I haven't had to use it yet but it's nice to have XP handy rather than restarting the PC and actually booting to XP when I need it.

You can get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 1:09 pm

Found Windows 7 boot manager not real good. Set it up to dual boot Ubuntu and every time I chose Ubuntu it would never load it. Just went back into Ubuntu and set up Grub to be the main Boot Manager and as is well again.

Executioner · Post by **Executioner** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 2:11 pm

I'm sure most of the snappiness is due to a fresh install. Most OS's decay over time, and I'm sure having win7 for 3 years will start to slow down over time just like all the other MS OS's.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 8:30 am

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 10:05 am

I love that FP

mile

I need to get into things like that with my 3D art.

Soon, very very soon maybe.

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 1:02 am

LOL, good. Actually, Vista has been less bad than I expected. That, however, probably has more to do with how powerful my computer is & turning off a bunch of crap.

Err · Post by **Err** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 9:24 pm

An update after about a week and an half with Seven.

All of my programs and games are working great. I like to record the local orchestras and with Vista-64 I had to boot into XP (32-bit) because, for some unknown reason, I could not make a recording in Vista using the Line-in without it sounding like a skipping CD. I have an Auzen Prelude 7.1 that I bought specifically for Vista because my old Soundblaster Audigy, at the time, only had generic drivers that disabled many features of the card. I even tried the Audigy in Vista and the recording still didn't work. Now, I'm able to record in Seven with no issues thus far. I use the following programs to record, edit, and share:

CD Wave for recording
Audacity for editing
Plextools Pro LE for burning audio CD's (must have a Plextor burner to use)
dBpoweramp (registered) for conversion to flac
Paint Shop Pro 8 for CD art
Traders Little Helper for checksum generation, sector boundary error correction, and checking of the encoded files.
MakeTorrent2 for making torrent files for the tracker.
BitTornado for seeding or downloading torrents

I've also installed many of my games with minor issues, one was my fault the other is GFWL live BS:

Oblivion
Fallout 3: Thought I had an issue with missing textures for the DLC's but I'd forgotten to patch the game.

Steam Games:
TF2
Trackmania
Red Orechestra
Half Life 2
Batman: Arkham Asylum*

*As all who own this know. This game requires GFWL in order to save your games. However, GFWL does NOT keep a copy of your saved game on a server somewhere. It's in the /My Documents/My Games/Edios/ directory. With most games, all you need to do it drop your old save into the the new directory. Not so with this game. In order to use your old save, start a new game and allow it to create a save. Then overwrite this save with your old one. This was the only way I could get this to work.

I've only had one lockup so far. It was caused my my daughter's Leapster 2. This system has a strange bug that if you don't periodically connect and upload the achievements that are stored in the memory, the cartridges won't play. The system will keep resetting itself when the cartridge is selected. Anyway, after, installing the Connect software, I connect the device and after a minute of waiting for the software to recognize the Leapster, the computer locks up, requiring a hard off. I restart and then everything was fine. My guess is that the software should have prompted for a restart after installation but didn't.

I'm still having an issue with my network adapter losing connection. This seems to happen when several programs are trying to use the connection at once. All I have to do to correct this is click on networking icon in the notification area and select troubleshooting. Seven resets the adapter and all is well. I don't know if this is a driver issue or a Windows issue. I'm really not too concerned as it's never disconnected when playing TF2 for 2 hours or Trackmania online.

I ended up turning off the UAC. I don't mind it asking permissions when installing a program but I get very annoyed when it asks to run a program that's already installed like Plextools Pro. I don't know how to make a program trusted.

So far, this is the best experience I've ever had with an OS that's brand new. I suggest that anyone running Vista get Seven.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Nov 07, 2009 10:02 pm

Thanks for the tip on Batman. May need to look this up when I migrate from XP to Win7.