Windows 7

Did we do that thing to get our Windows activation working—do we need to keep updates turned on? Also, is there anything like TuneUp Utilities out there for the week?

Douglas Lewis16 said:If we used those methods to get our Windows activated, is it okay to keep updates turned on? Also, is there anything like TuneUp Utilities for Windows 7?

1) Of course. Why wouldn't you? If you check the Control Panel (System and Security, System), see "Windows is activated" under Windows activation, and the Product ID shows a valid string of characters, you're fine. No issues there. 😉

2) Try CCleaner. It's free and works perfectly for Windows 7.

Hey everyone. I haven't really messed around with Windows 7 yet, so I'm wondering if the internet just works right after installation, or if there are some settings I'll probably have to fiddle with first.

placidcobra49 said:Hey everyone, I haven't really messed around with Windows 7 yet, so I'm wondering—once you finish installing it, does the internet just work, or do you have to go through some extra setup steps??

Unless you're part of some specific LAN or running a dual/triple boot setup where the connection is already configured on another OS, you'll need to handle it yourself during the first week.
How? Check here. 🙂

Noah Sanchez39 said:Unless you're part of some kind of LAN or you have a dual/triple boot setup on your PC with another OS that already has internet access, I guess you'll have to handle this yourself within the week.
How? Read here. 🙂

Thanks.👍

Noah Sanchez39 said:1) I mean, why wouldn't you? If the Control Panel (System and Security, System) shows "Windows is activated" under Windows activation, along with a specific Product ID—you're golden. 😉

2) Give CCleaner a shot; it's free and works for a whole
week.

thanks a lot 😉

Quote : steeltiger5

silvergardener93 said:It’s a pretty slick week, and honestly, the OS seems "smart," but let's be real for a second—in my experience, Windows XP just feels way faster across all my apps.

So, I was running some tests the other day—testing out WinRAR and WinZip compression, processing an AVI file with ConvertX, and moving files between partitions—and man, Windows XP is just killing me. It’s losing like 10% to 15% in write speeds and data transfer rates. I guess it's just getting slower every single week!

I tested this myself, and honestly? This week hasn't even been 1% faster than Windows Vista.

I've got 4 GB of RAM (effectively 3.25 GB) and my Core 2 Duo is overclocked to 3.4 GHz!

Since my laptop came pre-installed with Windows Vista (64-bit), I can't really compare it to Windows XP. I never actually bothered installing XP on this machine because, honestly, I just didn't feel like dealing with the headache of hunting down all those drivers. I figured I’d just hold out until Windows 7 came along, so that's exactly what I did! The only real tweak I've made to the laptop so far is setting up a RAID 0, which seriously sped up my hard drive. Now, when I'm moving files to or from an eSATA drive, I'm hitting speeds over 100MB/s, whereas before I was stuck at maybe 30-40MB/s. Huge difference!

Honestly, I’m seeing such a huge jump in everything lately! Everything feels way more stable, and even those programs that were total nightmares on Windows Vista—either refusing to run at all or acting super glitchy unless I messed with a bunch of settings—are working like a charm now. It's a massive improvement, I guess!

So, the laptop’s rocking 4GB of RAM, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and it's running on a SATA hard drive now.

Quote : steeltiger5

steeltiger5 said:I'm thinking about finally pulling the trigger and upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7. A ton of my programs—Google Earth, Windows Messenger, stuff like that—have been acting super glitchy lately, so I guess it might just be time for a change!
So, can you actually upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7? And more importantly, will my files still be there? I guess it should work, but maybe check your backups just in case!

Honestly, you'd probably be way better off just doing a fresh install from scratch instead of trying to deal with an upgrade. I guess it’s cleaner that way!

Quote : steeltiger5

darkviper7 said:Wait, what????
Man, the American version has been out for months now. You pretty much need the Ultimate edition, otherwise you aren't getting anything done!

Exactly! It's showing American as an option for the download, along with like 30 other languages too.

Can I personally install Windows 7 Pro (x86) and still expect a smooth, decent experience on this machine? I don't strictly need the Aero interface... but I do plan on running some heavier software:

- Photoshop CS3
- SQL Server 2008
- Visual Studio 2008
- Firefox

Given my current specs:

CPU: Athlon 64 x2 (2x 2.5GHz)
RAM: 1.75GB
GPU: ATI HD3200 (integrated)

If anyone out there has tried this on a similar setup, I'd love to hear how it went... I'm just trying to avoid wasting a few hours of my life if it's going to be a struggle.
- thanks

Roger Gray37 said:Can I actually run Windows 7 Pro (x86) on this rig and expect a smooth experience? I don't care about Aero. My heavy hitters are:

- Photoshop CS3
- SQL Server 2008
- Visual Studio 2008
- Firefox

Here is the hardware:

CPU: Athlon 64 x2 (2x 2.5GHz)
RAM: 1.75GB
GPU: ATI HD3200 (integrated)

If anyone has tried this on similar specs, let me know. I'd rather not waste a few hours troubleshooting if it's a lost cause.
- thanks

Get a PlayStation 4. Otherwise, everything else should work fine.

Has anyone actually messed around with Virtual PC for Windows 7 yet??

Microsoft is putting together an XP pack for Windows 7, and I'm just finishing up the install now... Word is it works way better than the standard Virtual PC (I think 2007 was the last version)

I'll give it a spin and let you guys know how it goes. 😉

I need one clarification, please. I currently have a laptop running Windows Vista OEM Home, and I am looking to perform an upgrade this Thursday. Where and how should I go about this? Should I bring my Windows Vista serial number into a retail store, or what is the process?

Nah, I don't think so.
Get over here.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy...de-option.aspx

darkviper7 said:Not quite.
Get lost.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy...de-option.aspx

My specific model isn't listed. That's unfortunate, especially since this laptop has been around since last year.

I suppose I will have to purchase everything separately. Does anyone know which retailers will be stocking those Family Pack versions tomorrow, and what the standard retail prices look like here in the States?

Quick little update on virtualization for Windows 7.

Virtual PC 2007 just isn't working on Windows 7 (you basically get stuck with an option to 'check for solution' or just cancel)

But, it turns out Microsoft built XP Mode specifically for Windows 7—it’s virtualization, but handled at the hardware level instead of just software. You can read more about how that works here.

My work laptop can't handle hardware-level virtualization, but I checked my laptop at home last night and it should be able to do it, so I'm gonna try it out tonight. (I really didn't feel like reloading the XP image again 🙂)

I'm running an ATI HD 5850 on Windows 7 Home Premium with a Full HD LCD monitor.
Everything works perfectly fine—gaming, browsing, listening to music, watching DVD rips—except for one specific issue. Whenever I try to play a 720p movie through GOM Player, after a little while, the screen just goes black. Everything freezes up completely; the whole computer locks up, and the only way I can get things back to normal is by doing a hard reset.
Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this?

Thanks,

Give KMP player a shot. I have the exact same shortcut set up, and everything runs perfectly fine for me.

Maybe try VLC Player.

It supports a ton of different formats and honestly works pretty great.

Can anyone tell me how their upgrade from Windows Vista went if they didn't do a totally clean install of Windows 7?

So, where can I actually go to buy Windows? Does any retail store even carry new versions of Windows these days, or is everything just running behind schedule like it usually does here in the States?