Windows 7

At the start of the install, it’s asking me to load some drivers, but I can't get anything to work... it wants me to plug something in, but what exactly?
I know I had a nightmare trying to install Windows XP because I've got one of those SATA hard drives or something, and if it isn't that, it's the other one where the drive just won't show up. 🙏🙏

Windows 7 includes built-in SATA drivers, so it should work without any hassle... the installation process is typically quite fast and straightforward... however, if you were using Windows XP, it would require specific SATA drivers and wouldn't recognize the drive unless you switched the BIOS setting from AHCI to IDE instead of how it is currently configured

Noah Ruiz73 said:And who on earth is going to buy that at such an insane price point!? 🤔

People shopping at Best Buy, I guess. Clearly. 😛

Nabava.net

So what kind of drivers is he actually looking for at the start?

I mean, I assume you’re actually seeing *something* on the screen? Otherwise—how on earth do you even know you need to go hunting for drivers in the first place?

Someone mentioned they were hunting for drivers but couldn't find anything compatible, so they just popped in a different system installation CD and finished the install...

Can I just run the installation right over my current Windows XP setup without losing all my files, or am I going to have to wipe everything and do a full format on the C drive?

Sam Murphy said:Can I install this over Windows XP without losing my files, or am I looking at a full C drive format?

Pretty sure you'll need to format C—unless you're upgrading from Windows Vista, then you might skip the wipe when moving to 7.

So, here’s the deal: back on Windows XP, I could just right-click the taskbar -> toolbar -> Win Media Player, check the box, and then whenever I minimized the player, it would pop up as a little icon by the clock in the system tray... how do I pull that off in Windows 7?

Douglas Lewis16 said:I honestly think you’re going to have to wipe the C drive entirely... unless, of course, you're upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7, which might let you skip the full format...

But wait, is it actually possible to move from Windows XP straight up to Windows Vista without having to format everything? And I'm also wondering, what am I actually gaining by making the jump to either Vista or Windows 7 in the first place?...

Sam Murphy said:Can I actually upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista without formatting everything? And what’s the real point of moving to Vista or 7 anyway?

Upgrading from XP to Vista is doable; this page covers the details

For a look at Windows 7 from an XP user's perspective, check here

IMHO, now that 7 is officially "out," jumping from XP to Vista won't get you much of anything.
If you have the time (and the patience), there's a pretty massive 15-page deep dive on Windows 7 you can read here

Douglas Lewis16 said:Wait, let me get this straight: back on Windows XP, I could just right-click the taskbar, go to Toolbars, check Win Media Player, and then when I minimized the player, it would pop up down by the clock in the system tray as a little icon... how am I supposed to pull that off in Windows 7?

A new OS demands new ways of doing things. 😁 In Windows 7, the player minimizes to the taskbar exclusively, and that is the only way it works now!
I've heard rumors that there might be some third-party software out there to mimic that old minimized player look, but honestly? 👍Google rules
if you want to hunt it down.

Noah Sanchez39 said:Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows Vista is definitely doable; this page goes into much more detail about that process

If you want to look at Windows 7 from an XP user's perspective, check out this link

In my honest opinion, now that Windows 7 is actually out in the world, jumping from XP straight to Vista wouldn't really give you much of an advantage...
If you happen to have some free time (and enough patience), there is a pretty massive article covering everything about Windows 7—it's about 15 pages long—that you can read here

But honestly, what would you even gain by upgrading to Windows 7?

Sam Murphy said:And what would you actually gain by upgrading to Windows 7?

Hmm...🤔

Look, at my job, I'm stuck using Windows XP Pro SP3 on a Pentium 4, 1.60GHz, with 512MB of RAM. Could things be better? Sure. My coworker and I have been waiting months for new PCs, but still nothing. And even when they finally show up, there's a 99% chance we'll still be running the "good old, reliable" Windows XP. It’s a bit early to jump to Windows 7.

At home, though, I've got a two-year-old machine with a Core 2 duo, 2.4GHz, and 4GB of RAM. For the most part, Windows 7 runs incredibly well. Performance is 👍👍. I'm not much of a gamer or a programmer, but overall, I'm very happy with how everything performs.

In your case, I don't know how old your Windows XP PC is or what the specs are (CPU, drive, memory, graphics), but if your setup is similar to mine, you shouldn't worry. Just do a clean install of 7 and you're set.

As much as people resist new tech by sticking to proven, stable systems like Windows XP, I think Windows 7 was finally built the right way. Still, it's smart to double-check if your most-used apps are compatible with the new OS and if your drivers are up to date... 😉

Team, how can I set up Windows 7 so that all my documents are saved to a different partition instead of the C drive?

velvetlynx63 said:Hey guys, how do I set up Windows 7 so my documents go to a different partition instead of the C drive?

Still stuck at work, grinding away on this old Windows XP machine.

Have you tried right-clicking My Documents, hitting Properties, and then checking the Target folder location? 🙄

Noah Sanchez39 As follows:
Still at the office, working on my Windows XP PC...

Have you perhaps tried right-clicking on My Documents, selecting Properties, and checking the Target folder location? 🙄

I'm aware of that; it works that way on Windows XP, but things are handled differently here in the States.

Noah Ruiz73 said:New OS, new problems 😁 This week, the player minimizes to the only way left !
Apparently there's some 3rd party app to get that old-school minimized player look back?! Google rules 👍

Here's my fix—simple enough... not sure if I'm allowed to drop a link without catching a ban, though..

http://devrexster.googlepages.com/wmp12

Noah Sanchez39 said:Hmm...🤔

Look, at my office, I’m stuck working on a Windows XP Pro SP3 machine running a Pentium 4 at 1.60GHz with just 512MB of RAM. Honestly, things could definitely be performing better than this. A colleague and I have been waiting months for some new PCs to arrive, but there hasn't been any sign of them yet... and even when they finally show up, there is a 99% chance we'll still be stuck using the "good old, reliable" Windows XP. So, thinking it'll happen within a single week feels a bit optimistic...

On the other hand, my home setup is about two years old, featuring a Core 2 Duo clocked at 2.4GHz and 4GB of RAM. Between everything else, Windows 7 runs incredibly, incredibly smoothly on it. The performance is 👍👍. I'm not exactly a hardcore gamer or a developer or anything like that, but looking at the big picture, I am truly satisfied with how everything operates...

In your specific situation, I'm not entirely sure how old your Windows XP PC actually is or what kind of hardware you're rocking—you know, the CPU, hard drive, memory, or graphics card—but if your specs are even remotely close to mine, then you really don't have anything to worry about. You can just perform a clean install of Windows 7 and call it a day...

No matter how much people resist new tech by sticking to tried-and-true, stable systems like Windows XP, I genuinely believe that Windows 7 was finally built the right way. Still, it is always a smart move to double-check whether the apps you use most often are compatible with the new OS and make sure all your drivers are updated... 😉

Here is what my current build looks like:
Motherboard : ASUSTeK Computer Inc. K8V-MX
Chipset : VIA K8M800 (VT8380)
Processor : AMD Sempron 2600+ @ 1600 MHz
Physical Memory : 512 MB (1 x 512 DDR-SDRAM )
Video Card : ATI Radeon 9250 (RV280)
Hard Disk : ST3200820A (200 GB)
DVD-Rom Drive : TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-S162A
CD-Rom Drive : HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8523B
DVD-Rom Drive : PKROPKF 12Z492J SCSI CdRom Device
Network card : Techsan Electronics Co. Ltd. B2C2 Broadband Receiver PCI Adapter (FCII)
Network card : VT82C570 MV Controller VT6102 Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter
Operating System : Windows XP Professional SP2 DirectX 9.0c
DirectX : Version 9.0c (March 2009)