Anyone still running Windows 7?

Eric Wilson75 said:Just to wrap this up: should I go with the 64-bit version if I can, or stick to 32-bit?

Adam Moore said:Thanks, but my RAM is running at 800 MHz, so I'm honestly not sure what I should even try doing here...

Jeffrey Hall6 said:I also think it's time to move on to 7 - micu.

The only issue I'm running into is deciding whether to download the 32-bit or 64-bit version. What's the actual difference?

Right now, I'm running Windows XP, and it recognizes 3.23 GB of RAM.

Thanks in advance for the help.

dustyranger4 said:I find myself missing Windows XP. I tried installing Vista, but ended up rolling back to XP. Honestly, I feel like I’ll have to go back to XP again soon. The Control Panel in this version is a complete mess, and don't even get me started on how disorganized the file management is. While Windows Media Player is slightly better, I still find myself reaching for VLC just to get things done. Even the taskbar is restrictive—you can't pin everything you actually want there. The system behavior is unpredictable, too. It constantly drops into sleep mode and wakes up acting completely erratic. It’s frozen on me several times already. Like every other version of Windows, it feels noticeably sluggish after being installed for a while. It also boots up much slower than Windows XP Home. The worst part? The constant interruptions. "Would you like to send an error report?" followed by endless prompts asking for permission to do one thing or another. And Internet Explorer is its own special kind of disaster—clunky, awkward, and prone to crashing constantly. When it does crash, it asks if you want to return to the previous page, but clicking that usually just triggers another crash. To top it all off, the built-in mail agent is gone. Now you're forced to download something like Live Mail from the web, which is a cluttered nightmare that crashes all the time. Sometimes it sends emails, sometimes it doesn't; sometimes the screen just freezes entirely.
All things considered, Vista is just a glorified facelift that doesn't perform half as well as Windows XP. If you're still running XP, my advice is simple: don't bother upgrading to 7. They claim you won't need to hunt for drivers, but that’s a half-truth at best; in practice, you'll be hunting them down for most of your hardware anyway. Even on high-end rigs, the UI stutters—windows start "cloning" themselves like some kind of slow-motion glitch if you have a heavy program running. It's a mess. It feels like they tried to cherry-pick features from other operating systems and ended up failing to get any of it right.

Terry Booth45 said:Look man, Windows 7 came out just two months ago, while XP has been around for over a decade. XP already has three service packs, whereas 7 hasn't even had one yet. You can't expect a brand-new OS to be perfect right out of the gate, right? Just hang in there—once the first service pack drops, it’ll be golden...
YOUR ISSUE AS YOU PUT IT: "The worst part is: 'do you want to investigate why the system crashed' and then having to 'approve this or that" You can actually tweak things so it stops asking you all that stuff, but those prompts are really just there for your own security... maybe do a little Google searching on Windows 7 and you'll find some cool tips...

Windows 7 is giving me a hard time too. I installed the 64-bit version and the audio keeps crackling, even with the official Realtek drivers from my laptop manufacturer's site meant for 7. I tried deleting them and letting Windows install the standard driver, but I still get occasional crackling and "not responding" errors. It's pretty new, so we have to realize it isn't fully polished yet—just like XP wasn't perfect even after ten years. That's about it, buddy... cheers!

briskfalcon16 said:She isn't a friend... she's a girlfriend; 7 is a massive pain in the neck. If I have to choose, I'll go with the original (Vista) and just optimize it myself...

Robin Rodriguez5 said:SQL server 2005 i Visual studio 2005 on 64-bit Win 7 Home Premium

I originally posted this over in the Programming section, but then I realized folks here were already chatting about it. So, here’s the deal: I'm getting a laptop that comes pre-loaded with Win 7 HP 64. My big question is, will SQL server 2005 i Visual studio 2005 actually run smoothly on there, since they're both 32-bit? Is there anything I need to tweak—if anything at all—to make sure everything stays compatible? I need to be able to move my apps around, handle database backups, and restore them onto 32-bit Windows XP without any headaches.

Sandra Adams16 said:not sure if I need some antivirus first just to get online

Sandra Adams16;24147508 said:I'm installing Windows 7 and everything seems fine, but I can't get online. It just says there's no internet access. Does anyone know what's up? I went back to XP and my internet works perfectly there... so now I don't know. Do I maybe need to install an antivirus first so it'll let me connect? Like, if it's being super strict and constantly throwing warnings at me? Or whatever... does anyone have any idea what could be wrong?[/QUOT

I ran into something pretty similar once, until I realized my ethernet controller drivers were totally messed up. On XP, I never really had to hunt down drivers; I could usually get the internet running in like five minutes flat. Honestly, I'm pretty happy with 7. I don't see myself ever moving to 8. 😍

Samuel Scott8;24148317 said:

Sandra Adams16 said:I just finished installing Windows 7 and everything seems to be running smoothly—except for the internet connection. It keeps telling me there's no access... does anyone know what's going on? I've reverted back to XP for now, and the internet works perfectly fine there. I'm wondering, could it be that I need to install an antivirus first to enable connectivity? (Since it’s constantly monitoring everything and throwing up warnings...) Or am I missing something else? Does anyone have any ideas?

I ran into a very similar situation once before I realized my Ethernet controller drivers were completely outdated—back on XP, I never really had to hunt for drivers, and I could usually get online in about five minutes flat. Now that I've sorted it out, I'm actually quite happy with Windows 7; I don't see myself moving to Windows 8 anytime soon... 😍

So, what should my next move be? How did you manage to get it working?

KrSkO;24148463 said:

Samuel Scott8 said:So, what am I supposed to do with that info? How did you actually get yours working?

Is your modem hooked up via Ethernet or a USB cable? If it's Ethernet, I managed to switch mine over to router mode, which helped... I used wizard 2009 because when I went into Control Panel > Add Hardware, nothing showed up. No device manager entries, no drivers, nothing—it was like the Ethernet controller didn't even exist on the system. But through wizard 2009, I spotted that it was a Realtek GBE Family Controller. So, I just typed "Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller driver download" into Google, grabbed the driver, installed it, and suddenly everything just worked...😁

Jason Harris5 said:Every 32-bit application lands right in the "Program Files (x86)" folder on the system partition, and they run without a single hiccup.

The new Home Premium edition lacks support for Windows XP compatibility mode—which would have been your easy fix if SQL Server starts acting up. If things go south, though, you can always just spin up a virtual machine using free tools like Microsoft Virtual PC or Sun Microsystems' VirtualBox. Just install XP on the VM and run your legacy stuff there.