James Castillo8 said:I'm running Windows 7 RC1 7100 and I can't get Daemon Tools to work—any idea how to fix this? I remember having a similar headache back when Windows Vista first launched; the older 4.0 version would just block me, but now with the newer one, the installation fails constantly. It keeps telling me to restart and try again, but honestly, it's getting me nowhere. 😢 Also, does Windows 7 come with DirectX 10 pre-installed? And does anyone know where I can download DirectX 10 or 10.1 for Windows Vista?
Regarding Daemon Tools—have you tried using compatibility mode? It works perfectly fine for me.
Gerald Taylor15 said:I haven't had a chance to scroll through every single thread—maybe this came up already—but has anyone seen an in-depth review of Windows 7, you know, like from sites such as PC Gamer or similar, covering the pros, cons, and all that?
PC Mag actually covered it a few months back.
Anyway, it’s probably not worth the headache for someone who isn't particularly tech-savvy. For instance—I couldn't exactly get over to my buddy's place to fix it for him—he tried installing it, and it immediately hit him with a password prompt. It was likely some permission conflict because he was installing it onto an old drive. I didn't have a quick fix off the top of my head since I've never run into that specific issue, so he just ended up reverting back to Windows XP. Even if he had bypassed that admin account issue—which might have been tied to his old Windows XP user profile or something along those lines, I can't quite remember—he would have just run into folder access problems right after. Then I'd be stuck trying to walk him through fixing permissions over the phone, and he really isn't the type to enjoy that kind of troubleshooting. I actually had a bit of a struggle myself when I had to sort out permissions on a secondary drive—never really had a reason to mess with that before—because the file owner was still set to an old username from a different system.
What Bluetooth software are you all running on Windows 7? I’ve had a hell of a time just trying to get my software to launch—the Bluetooth stick itself seems fine, but without the software actually running, I can't even get the basic features to work properly. It was a similar nightmare back when I was using Windows XP; I struggled through the installation, but eventually tracked down the right drivers and got the Nokia CD working.
With Windows 7, I couldn't get that Nokia software to behave, so I ended up using some Soliol driver just to get by. It works, I guess, but I'm definitely not thrilled with how limited the functions are. Does anyone have a better recommendation? (Something that actually plays nice with Windows 7?)
Mark Sanchez3 said:I don't have anything against Windows 7—but why not just wait for the "final version" to drop and then hit the torrent sites? 🤷 Plus, Service Pack 2 is coming soon; maybe that'll actually breathe some life into Windows Vista.👍
From what I understand, Windows 7 handles files and processes completely differently than Windows Vista does. Because of that, Windows XP and Windows 7—which perform pretty similarly—are significantly faster during basic user tasks compared to Vista. 😁 I actually read in a magazine that this pre-release version was surprisingly stable, so I went ahead and installed it (grabbed it straight from Microsoft's site), and the system has been performing quite well so far. Still, I don't think this leap forward even comes close to the jump we saw when XP launched. Now, that was a truly solid operating system—and it still holds up today.
It feels to me like with these newer systems, and even with certain Microsoft apps, they try so hard to improve things—like the UI and user experience—that it just ends up making everything more complicated. I don't know... I'm not particularly obsessed with Windows 7, but I think I'll stick with it. (I skipped Vista because it just drags along; I usually run standard office hardware rather than high-end rigs, and I really don't feel like buying new gear just because an OS is poorly optimized.)
Wait, can memory actually limit how much I overclock my processor? If I push the memory clock up a bit, will that let me squeeze more Hz out of the CPU?
I was doing a little digging online and found out that P2P activities can actually trigger a BSOD—specifically on Windows Vista, whereas on Windows XP it just tends to freeze up. It seems especially common when using a wireless connection, though I'm strictly on a wired setup. For them, the "Blue Screen" hits right in the middle of a session, but for me, it only happens during boot-up. It might not even be BitTorrent's fault, but I honestly don't have the time to mess around with troubleshooting right now. The errors weren't anything too common, so it could be a driver issue or something along those lines... I'm not entirely sure. I managed to fix it by using System Restore, and I can see that BitTorrent isn't running anymore. I'll try reinstalling BitTorrent first, and if that fails, I'll test out a different client to see what sticks, but I'll tackle that later.
rustydriver23 said:Man, it's still just a preview build, so obviously there are going to be bugs and little glitches here and there... I honestly don't know what people expect from these kinds of testing operating systems.......
I don't really care about that—I'm running this as my primary and only OS, and I've made my decision, which seems to have been the right one so far.
What I actually want to know is why BitTorrent might have been causing issues (it’s entirely possible those same problems existed on Windows Vista, after all 😁 ), just so I can avoid it in the future.
Windows 7 is working fine for me too, though it could be smoother. (The main thing is File Explorer acting up a bit—for instance, "My Computer" sometimes takes forever to open, or when I switch to another drive and try to sort a bunch of files by a different key, it just hangs. You just see that progress bar at the top moving indefinitely and nothing happens.) It's generally okay, especially since I figured out how to handle those permission issues on my secondary drive (which was originally on a different OS). But these permission headaches feel just like they did on Vista, if I'm being honest—though I wouldn't know for sure since I jumped straight from Windows XP to Windows 7. I only have Vista on my laptop, which came pre-installed and I rarely even touch it...
I finally figured out why I was getting those blue screens every single time I booted up my PC. It turns out it was BitTorrent! I only realized this yesterday after using System Restore—which actually worked, by the way—and since the restore rolled everything back to a point before I even installed BitTorrent, the program isn't even on there anymore, and for some reason, it won't let me reinstall it.
I honestly have no clue why that would happen; I mean, why on earth would BitTorrent cause Windows to crash like that...
Joseph Moore40 said:I had a similar headache with my Samsung DVD drive back when I was running Windows 7—ended up testing it and realized the hardware was just shot. Once I picked up a replacement, all my Windows 7 issues vanished and everything’s been smooth sailing since. If you need a solid free tool to check your drive, I'd recommend Nero-DiscSpeed.
I'm honestly not sure yet. I'm hoping I didn't mess up the jumper settings—maybe it's set to slave when it shouldn't be. There's also a chance I slightly damaged the IDE connector; I might have forced it in the wrong way once and bent something a little. Then again, it could just be voltage instability from the overclocking. I'll wait until I'm actually in the mood to crack open the case and swap that jumper before I draw any conclusions.
I'm running RC 7100, which I grabbed directly from microsoft.com, so there's nothing else to report. Everything is working smoothly on my end—I just have a habit of being a bit long-winded when I write things out 😁. I’ve also been poking around and testing all sorts of things within the OS—really pushing its limits—and I've stumbled upon a few quirks. (For instance, regarding the taskbar: it isn't enough to simply dock it to the left; if you move it to the left and then try to resize it—widening it and then narrowing it back down using the mouse—I end up with this strange "fog" effect stretching across my entire desktop... specifically over the area where it used to be expanded. You can see what I mean in this screenshot if you're curious . (The only way I've found to clear it up is by moving it back to the bottom, so it's fine, I guess)
Try moving the taskbar to the left side, then try expanding it slightly before resizing it back down—what happens then? On my machine, when I shrink it, everything behind it stays blurred out, making the desktop impossible to see. Honestly, this thing is still riddled with bugs, if you can even call them that.
There are just a couple of things that trip me up occasionally—nothing major, really. I’m using it as my primary OS, though if I’m being honest, I’d say Windows XP feels more stable. That makes sense, given how much more complex this system is and how early we are in its lifecycle. Maybe once a certain Sony Pictures update rolls out, it'll be just as rock-solid as XP. I'll get it sorted out 🙂
Most of my headaches likely stem from the hardware side of things; Explorer tends to hang whenever that specific DVD drive acts up—I can't quite put my finger on why. (The one working fine is the IDE/ATA drive, which worked perfectly on my old rig, while the Sony drive here is crawling at 300-500 kb/s compared to the other SATA drive hitting about 12 MB/s...). As soon as there's a disc in it, Explorer just freezes. I probably need to double-check my hardware manual; since this is a brand-new build and a new OS, I might have missed a connection somewhere...
Regardless, people definitely run into issues with Windows 7—just take a look at the support forums—but honestly, that's par for the course when dealing with Windows.
Is anyone else running into weird glitches with Explorer?
I’ve just hit a new low—things are definitely getting worse. Explorer started lagging heavily before it eventually crashed; I actually went ahead and selected the restart option from the menu myself. But after that Windows-initiated restart, Explorer is completely broken. Specifically, if I try to open My Computer or any random folder, I get an error message. Is anyone else experiencing these kinds of strange Explorer issues? The error says, "The remote procedure call failed and did not execute"—no error ID included. To make matters worse, I can't find a trace of this specific error in my logs, and I haven't been able to find a single solution online for this exact problem.
Quick question for someone who might know their way around this stuff better than I do: what could be happening with Windows regarding explorer.exe, folder access, and the RPC?
Michael Bishop97 said:That blacked-out screen happens because you need to run the file as an administrator—that’s what I kept running into myself, and from what I know, it's the same issue on Vista too.😉
No, it just wouldn't work—I tried everything. I messed with the UAC settings and even tweaked some things in Local Security, but nothing budged.
That was just a single file and a really specific situation—it actually had a Trojan embedded in it. Honestly, I don't think it would have worked on my laptop running Vista either. And please, don't ask me why I decided to run a file containing a Trojan in the first place... necessity called.
Second of all, my biggest headache right now is actually Explorer...
So, here’s the deal—whenever I boot up my PC with a DVD still in the drive, or even if I just pop one in while everything is already running, the system takes forever to recognize the disc or its files. During that laggy period, the entire Explorer interface starts acting up—it's incredibly sluggish and keeps freezing on me. For instance, I tried moving a specific file to the Recycle bin, but it just wouldn't budge, no matter how many times I tried. It’ll probably work fine after a quick reboot, though I'm not entirely sure if that applies when a disc is inserted or if it's just a general system hang—I don't really have the time to sit here and test it out right now. I'm starting to suspect it isn't a hardware issue—since I see the same error on both drives—but maybe it’s because one is a SATA drive while the other is an older IDE/ATA model.
Is it actually normal for copying files from a DVD to crawl at around 300-500 Kb/s? I could have sworn it used to run a lot faster than this.
Wouldn't that be running a bit faster? I mean—what kind of speeds should we actually expect from a modern SATA optical drive compared to this old relic?
Also, I’ve run into another bug—or maybe just some instability—where if a process like that hangs, it causes issues similar to what I noticed back on Vista. When I select restart from the menu, the system just logs me off and stops right there; it won't actually reboot, so I end up having to manually hit the reset button on my machine. These are all perfectly solvable issues, really—they certainly don't overshadow the overall positive impression and experience I've had with this OS. I mostly just use this space to vent about the specific hiccups I've run into personally.
I've managed to push this system into an unstable state several times, though as far as I can remember, it hasn't actually crashed. Explorer keeps crashing—and honestly, performance is pretty sluggish—though I'm not sure if it's a hardware issue because it happens whenever I have two DVDs loaded in my dual drives. Everything becomes incredibly slow, and getting into My Computer takes forever. Is anyone else dealing with this? PS: This mostly happens after I've already started playing a movie or opening a couple of files from one of those DVDs.
Also, I haven't spent much time working with Vista, so I don't know if it's the same there, but in Windows 7, you can't just manually restart explorer.exe. If I kill the process and then try to launch explorer.exe again, I can't open any folders or anything at all.
Furthermore, I wasted about two hours trying to run an exe file that simply wouldn't let me open or even copy it—it just kept throwing permission errors at me. I eventually got it working in Safe Mode. It’s a bit frustrating that even with administrator rights, you can't do whatever you want with certain files; you just don't feel like you have total control over the machine. Everything else seems mostly fine and works pretty well.
PS: Just now, I got hit with a "14 problems to solve" notification, saying "Windows needs more information to try to solve 14 problems." Whenever I'm watching something off a DVD, Explorer just stops responding properly...
As for the bugs—it’s honestly frustrating how that one issue used to pop up even back on XP. It was running smoothly at first, but now the Task Manager icon just won't show up in my notification area, and I can't seem to get it back no matter what I try...
