Upgraded to build 7229 earlier today. Working great. dohrk, if I can help, let me know.

Thanks, I tried the vista driver for my laptop. It works fine.

I am rather liking win7 so far, still poking around, but I really like the rotating desktop pictures, it is a nice touch.

dohrk, see above for some good info. :thumbsup:

Figured I'd give 7 a shot so I downloaded the release client and it's awesome so far but I can't seem to dual boot it along with my old XP install. 7 is installed on a sata drive while the XP install is on a pata drive - there's only an option for one or the other within the bios and I never get to that OS selection menu.

Any way to sort this out without having to dig through the bios every time I want to switch operating systems?

Also, is there a significant difference between the release client and the (newer) other versions I see floating around?

Manic_Skafe, because of the way you installed 7 on a separate drive you don't have a lot of options here, unfortunately. Neither OS is aware of the other. Some people like that route but having to go into the BIOS every time would drive me nuts. I will do some digging around, see if I can find a better answer for you.

Well I googled it to death and couldn't find anything so thanks for responding.

And what about the end of my last post, am I missing out on anything because I'm using the release candidate or should I dig for one of the other versions?

Manic_Skafe, is the following what you did? I'm guessing no...

"You'll be fine.. Just boot off the Win 7 disc and start the install process as you normally would than once your at the partition manager just select the HDD you wish to install 7 to then let it install.. Once it's done you'll encounter the Boot Manager each time you boot up your machine.. This is where you choose which OS you want to boot into..."

If not, then you can either reinstall Win 7 following the instructions above (Both hard drives plugged in and working), or get a boot loader. Here's a link to one: Download GAG 4.10 - free boot manager. Allows boot of up to 9 different operating systems - Softpedia

I have not used that boot loader so it's not a recommendation from me, just an option. I hope this helps you, maybe others will chime in with some better ideas. I only use the built-in Windows boot manager. To be honest, if I was you I would just start over. Best of luck! Windows 7 is definitely worth the hassle. After a couple of weeks I bet you won't even want to look at XP.

---------- Post added at 06:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:12 PM ----------

I'm using Build 7229, x64. But the RC is probably fine for you. That is unless you are comfortable with Bit Torrent and checking hash numbers.

Yeah I don't know Manic_Skafe...I had vista and windows 7 installed on separate hard drives and it always asked me which one I wanted to boot into when I started it up. Sorry...

Thanks guys, I'll give that boot loader a shot as I figured this would happen. While installing a ran into a seemingly irremediable No Required CD DVD Device that wouldn't sort itself out until I pulled all pata devices from my mobo - 1 cd drive and the hdd that has XP installed on it.

Oh well. And you're right Wyodiver33 - less than 24 hours in and it's already on my tower and two of my laptops. :thumbsup:

Windows 7 is just an all around better experience than vista or xp. It seems to always feel responsive and when I boot the system is useable much quicker. I did an upgrade from vista not a clean install. I imagine it will be even faster with a clean install.

I have a rather weird thing to report...

My computer is running a little slow, by this I mean the clock is losing a few minutes here and there. I have been resetting the clock with an internet server at least once a day.

I will try and run XP for a while to see if it is my computer or Windows 7

dohrk, I doubt it's because of Windows 7, although anything is possible. More than likely it's a BIOS issue, probably the CMOS battery. Is it an older computer? Like 3 years or so? If it is the battery don't stress, they are cheap and easy to change. Don't change it until you do some research first, though. I'm pretty sure you will see the same problem in XP.

Windows 7 pricing out!

Gizmodo - Windows 7 Pricing: Good News, Mostly - windows 7

Glad I don't have to pay for it until next March! If I buy it at all. Might go back to XP Pro.


I'm kidding! After using Win 7 for six months, going back to XP Pro would require gouging my eyes out. No thanks.

Well, I booted into XP yesterday, with no time loss, today in Win7, lost time right away. I will do a more controlled test in the next day or two, and let you all know how it goes.

I bought my W7 upgrade today.

Me too. Got screwed out of 15$ due to the Canadian exchange rate, but I think the pricing is very reasonable after playing with the RC. Glad I got it for half off...anymore and I'd probably go for the OEM version whenever the hell thats released.

So give me the lowdown...the bottom line:

Upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7. Will it be worth it?

I want to take advantage of the half-price dealio if this is the case.

Unless it is a burden to spend $50 on it, I think it is a good idea.

See if there are new drivers available for your motherboard. Even a bios update (read first about dangers of bios upgrades).

Yours
Zb

so as I understand it when I get the upgrade to windows 7 64bit i will be able to do a fresh install even if I have Vista 32bit, correct?

Upgrade? No, don't think so. Above, in this thread, are many good sites for info. But I am pretty sure it's 32 to 32, 64 to 64.

I love Win 7, on Build 7229, 64 bit. Has been rock-solid for me.

my understanding was that you didnt need to install vista to do an upgrade. i was under the impression that you start the installation with the upgrade and it makes you put in the vista cd basically just as a check to make sure you have a legit copy. My friend said he was able to upgrade(on a completely fresh install) to vista 64bit and it just made him insert his xp cd that was 32bit just basically as a check. I'll have to check out the links you have posted. thanks.

Plenty of info in my links above. There are ways to trick an upgrade install to be clean.

My role in anything technology-wise is done. I'm only going post boobies, and comment about boobies from now on. That should keep me out of trouble. Well, hopefully. Best of luck.

Maybe you guys can help me. I'm trying to speed up how fast the preview window shows up when hovering over active programs. I thought I saw the option somewhere but I can't find it.

I've been running Windows 7 since the CTP that they gave out at the PDC conference last October. Not on my work machine, but on my main machine at home. It's been really stable on my Athlonx2 64-bit running 64-bit Windows and in various VirtualBox VM's. It's been really stable even when running CTPs and betas of Visual Studio 2010 and Skype. The one problem I've had with it was connecting to it using RDP from my OS X Tiger laptop. It would connect, but if I pressed a key it would disconnect me. That's gone away since the RC and a few patch Tuesdays. Friends of mine have run it on everything from 6 year old PC's to Netbooks with 1GB of RAM with no problems.

I have the 64bit R.C. running full-time on both my computer and my Wife's. I've been using it since the beta came out, and this is one rock-solid OS. It is way faster than XP Pro in 32 or 64bit. I currently have XP Pro x32 on one drive, and Win7 x64 on another. The Win7 install replaced my old XP x64 install, so I can make comparisons from experience. It's almost painful to boot up and use XP now. I absolutely despise Vista in all it's forms even with the service packs, but this is working so well I pre-ordered it for both of us.

I haven't had one 32bit app hiccup even though it's a "new" OS, and 64bit.

Keep in mind that when the "official" version is released in October, you'll have to do a clean install if you are using XP, or the pre-release versions of Win 7. That bites, but it will be worth it.

Been using Win 7 RC for the past 6 months now on my Asus laptop and so far so good. DEfinitely better than Vista and faster too. I still have another 6 months and then I need to decide whether to keep it and buy it or remove it totally from my laptop.

Vinrej, you only have until the end of March. At that point Win 7 will shut down every two hours.

I recently upgraded my mythtv system to windows 7 with media center. The media center in windows 7 is awesome. My system now integrates directly with hulu and netflix and can still detect and auto-skip commercials. Windows 7 has been a really great operating system so far.

I've been using Win 7 for almost a year now. It definitely is the best version of Windows that I have ever used. (And I go back all the way to 3.1.) Now I have to buy it. Drag.

I own Windows7 Pro on my laptop(business class) and Windows7 Ultimate on my desktop. They both run fantastic!!! btw, they are both legit licences. It's the 1st time I've owned a copy of windows that didn't come with the computer or that wasn't pirated. It's a weird feeling.

Well, it will feel weird buying Win 7 because I've been using it now for so long (legally) and I'm used to it. There won't be any "Oh boy! Something new!" feeling.

I went ahead and bought the release version after using the public beta. Everything just seems to work well with Windows 7. I couldn't go back to XP after using the beta for so long so I bit the bullet and spent the $105. First time I've paid for an OS in 8 years.

I got a copy of Windows 7 Professional from my university for free and installed it last weekend. I am really loving it so far. It's soooo pretty and functional.

I installed it on one of my pc's at home.

it's just a really lazy version of OSX imo. sure, it's better than vista and XP, but it still pales in comparison to OSX.

Saying it "pales in comparison" to OSX is a little extreme. I've got tons of experience with both, and I think Windows 7 is completely on par with OSX. It's all about preference I suppose.

You're right, it is all about preference..

I mean I see where Windoze did improve on some things, but it just seems so much slower than OSX (even if 7 is that much faster than other windoze os apps)

From my experiences, it really depends on the PC or Mac hardware as to how fast the OS responds. On my PC, Windows 7 is instantaneous with literally every action I want to perform. Not sure how that can be considered "slower" than OSX.

If you are talking about how you go about doing things and performing actions in each OS, they are very different. Windows probably takes more clicks on average to perform at least some portion of your routine tasks, but if you've been using Windows for a while, there are shortcuts and ways to make everything just as fast as OSX. OSX is probably more user friendly out of the box.

I'm mainly going by stuff I do everyday, like render times etc.

Even on a windoze box with 2 QuadroFX5700 cards, it's slower than on my MBP quite often.

I'm not a techy, I'm just saying what it feels like is happening. Not starting a war or anything. I can just get work done faster on the mac than on the windows machine.

quick question: I just installed 7 from Vista via a "clean install". All of my old files are backed up externally, but is there any reason I can't just use the versions in the "Windows.old" folder that 7 created during the install?

I don't think you would have a problem doing that. I did it once and had no problems.