Anyone still running Windows 7?

So, I'm wondering—if I finally pull the trigger and jump from Windows XP over to Windows 7, am I going to be stuck in driver hell? Specifically with my motherboard drivers... because I've been scouring the web and honestly, there's nothing—zero zilch—for either XP or 7. :S The only thing I actually have is this old disc that came with the rig back in the day, and man, I picked this thing up way before Windows 7 was even a glimmer in Microsoft's eye...

Windows 7—I'll get all the drivers installed

Does anyone know of a gadget or app for Hotmail that would give me an alert when a new email hits my inbox? 😉

Joshua Garcia3 said:http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html

So I was thinking about picking up some legitimate copies of Windows 7 Professional—both the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions

but here's the thing... is there even such a thing as a license that lets you install it on basically an unlimited number of machines? Like, could I just hand them out to whoever I want without any legal headaches? Is that even a real possibility or am I just dreaming?

Anything is doable if you have the budget, but let's be real—it isn't free. When you're placing an order, you actually have to specify exactly how many licenses you need; there’s no such thing as an unlimited pass. 🙂

I was missing my modem driver, but then Windows started nagging me about needing some update for Vista

Joshua Garcia3 said:Anything is possible, I guess, but nothing's free. When you're pulling the trigger on a purchase, you've gotta be specific about how many licenses you're actually grabbing. There’s no such thing as an unlimited pass. 🙂

Yeah, that’s what I figured. If there’s no unlimited option on the table, I guess I’m just sticking with my "originals." What else is there to do, right? 👍

Thanks.

bluetinker17 said:I'm wondering if I can actually make the jump from Windows XP to Windows 7 without everything breaking. My motherboard drivers are a bit of a headache because I can't find anything for either OS online. All I have is the original disc that came with the PC, but since I bought this thing way before Windows 7 was even a thing, I'm guessing those drivers might be useless.

Ryan Martin70 said:Windows 7 just installs all the drivers on its own.

It really all comes down to which motherboard you’re running and what chipset is under the hood. In my experience, Dell and Gigabyte boards tend to be the biggest headache, especially when it comes to fighting with audio drivers. 😢
What motherboard are you running? 🙂

Joshua Garcia3 said:It really boils down to which motherboard you're running and what kind of chipset is under the hood—usually, the Dell and Gigabyte boards are the ones giving people the most headaches, specifically when it comes to those annoying audio drivers. 😢
So, what kind of board are we talking about here? 🙂

I'm rocking a Gigabyte motherboard with an 865p chipset and an LGA 1150 socket... so, uh, based on that, am I doomed to deal with these driver issues? :S

bluetinker17 said:I'm running a Gigabyte board here, 865P chipset, LGA 1150... so, basically, am I going to run into trouble with these drivers? :S

Looking at the official LGA 1150 - GIGABYTE page, neither of those two motherboards with the 865P chipset offers any drivers for Windows 7. 😢

So, I was working on my desktop earlier trying to get Windows XP Service Pack 2 installed with those SATA drivers included, but the whole thing just completely froze up during the setup process. I tried restarting the installation to see if it was a fluke, but nope—same result. Then I thought, "Okay, maybe it's the drivers," so I grabbed a different disc with just Windows XP Service Pack 2 without the extra SATA stuff, but it hit that exact same wall at the exact same moment. Now I’m starting to worry that those specific SATA drivers might be causing some sort of conflict, and honestly, it’s making me pretty nervous about trying to install anything on that brand-new laptop I just picked up

Jamie Murphy2 said:I tried installing Windows XP Service Pack 2 on my desktop using SATA drivers, but the installation just froze. I tried again, and nothing. Then I tried a different disc with Windows XP Service Pack 2 and it froze at the exact same spot. I'm starting to worry those SATA drivers messed things up, and now I'm terrified to try installing it on this new laptop I just bought.

If I recall correctly, there was already some discussion in this PDF about installing XP on a SATA drive. You probably need to go into the BIOS and disable AHCI or something like that. 🙄

What kind of laptop are we talking about?

I’ve got this old Toshiba Satellite L500 laptop sitting here. It's about five years old now, which honestly doesn't feel that long in tech years, but it just completely froze up on me. I tried everything I could think of—I even spent some time digging through the BIOS settings to see if I could kickstart it—but nothing worked. It's officially dead on arrival.

Noah Sanchez39 said:If you go by the Socket 775 - GIGABYTE page, neither of those two 865P chipset boards actually offers drivers for Windows 7. 😢

Man, I don't know—that’s literally why I asked :/:/ . . . . looks like I'm stuck riding this old, crappy XP system forever . . . and one more thing, since I'll be sticking with XP anyway, what's the actual deal between SP3 and Windows XP Service Pack 2?

Seriously, why does Windows 7 32-bit only show 3.25GB of RAM when I actually have 4GB installed? Is it just a display glitch, or is the system actually limited to that amount?

bluetinker17 said:Also, one more thing—once I finally make the jump to XP, what's actually the difference between SP3 and Windows XP Service Pack 2?

There aren't any massive or critical differences (link)

Zachary Miller14 said:Hey guys, why does Windows 7 32-bit show only 3.25GB of memory when I have 4GB installed? Is it just showing that amount, or is that all it can actually use?

D’oh – 4GB RAM, but only 3.25GB usable on Windows 7 🙄

Look, 32-bit systems never actually showed anything different anyway. If you're so obsessed with seeing that number, just install 64-bit, though I have no clue what that's actually going to do for you—is it just so you can stare at the label? 😁

Does anyone know if there's a little gadget or some kind of tool for Hotmail that can give me an alert when a new email hits my inbox? I hate having to manually refresh the page just to see if I've got mail—I saw something about that for Gmail, but I was wondering if there’s anything similar for Hotmail😉

Roger Brown50 said:Anyone know of a gadget or some kind of tool for Hotmail? The damn thing won't give me any notifications when a new email hits my inbox. I have to manually go to the site every single time just to see if anything actually showed up. I saw some way to do it with Gmail, but does anyone have a fix for this?😉

Just set up a Gmail account and forward everything from your Hotmail over there. Problem solved. Done. Simple as that. 😁

Douglas Garcia52 said:Just set up a Gmail account for yourself—then just set up email forwarding from your Hotmail address to the new one... and honestly, that's it. Problem solved! 😁

And what exactly are you getting at with that... 😁