20 Windows 7 Tweaks & Tips – Every Secret Uncovered to Date
Posted 01/21/09 at 06:00:00 PM by Norman Chan
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Calibrate Text Rendering and Color
The first thing you need to do after a clean install of Windows 7 on a laptop is to tune and calibrate CleartType text and Display Color. Windows 7 includes two built-in wizards that run you through the entire process, pain free.
Launch ClearType Text Tuning by typing “cttune” in the Start Menu search field and opening the search result. You’ll go through a brief series of steps that asks you to identify the best-looking text rendering method.
For Display Color Calibration – very useful if you’re using Windows 7 with a projector or large-screen LCD – search and launch “dccw” from the Start Menu. It’ll run you through a series of pages where you can adjust the gamma, brightness, contrast, and color of the screen to make images look their best.
Better Font Management and a New Graceful Font
Font management is much improved in Windows 7. Gone is the “Add Fonts” dialog , replaced with additional functionality in the Fonts folder. First, the folder shows font previews in each font file’s icon (viewed with Large or Extra Large icons). Fonts from a single set will no longer show up as different fonts and are now combined as a single family (which can be expanded by double clicking the icon). You can also toggle fonts on and off by right clicking a font icon and selected the “hide” option. This will prevent applications from loading the font (and therefore save memory), but keep the file retained in the Font folder.
A new font called Gabriola also comes bundled with Windows 7, which takes advantage of the new OpenType and DirectWrite (Direct2D) rendering.
The Gaming Grotto is a Less Ghetto
One of our biggest pet peeves of Windows Vista is the Games Folder, which we not-so-affectionately refer to as the Gaming Grotto. Games for Windows titles and other game shortcuts would automatically install to this directory, which we could only access with a Start Menu shortcut. The concept wasn’t bad except for the fact that it prevented us from starting a game up from the Start Menu search bar. We could call up any other program by typing its name in the Start Menu field except the games installed to the Games Folder. Fortunately, this oversight is fixed in Windows 7.
Become More Worldly with Hidden Wallpapers
Windows 7 Beta comes with the Betta fish as its default desktop wallpaper, but it also includes six desktop backgrounds catered to your region (as identified when you first installed the OS). US users, for example, get six 1900x1200 images showing off famous National Parks and beaches. The available wallpapers for other regions are still included in a hidden folder.
To access these international wallpapers, bring up the Start Menu search bar and type “Globalization”. The only result should be a folder located in the main Windows directory. You should only be able to see “ELS and “Sorting” folders here so far. Next, search for “MCT” in the top right search bar. This will display five new unindexed folders, each corresponding to a different global region. Browse these folders for extra themes and wallpapers!
Take Control of UAC
Despite good intentions, User Account Control pop-ups were one of the most annoying aspects of Vista, and a feature that most of us immediately disabled after a clean install. UAC in Windows 7 displays fewer warnings, but you can also fine-tune its notification habits by launching the UAC Settings from the start menu. Just type “UAC” in the Start Menu search field and click the result. We find that setting just above “Never notify” gives a comfortable balance between mindful security and incessant nagging.
Windows 7 x64 Ultimate Annoyances
Submitted by SloppyGoat on Wed, 08/26/2009 - 10:43pm
I just started running it awhile ago, and I find it to be a tad annoying. I liked XP Pro from the start, really. I thought (and still think) that it was Microsoft's best client OS. Sure, it needed some tweaking to get it set up right, but what OS doesn't? Server 2003 is also a very good server edition, IMO. After these two, they dropped the ball on some things. Is it just me, or does it seem that MS has taken all of the best little features of XP and just thrown them away?
Now, some of the things that really annoy me about Win7:
1) They've done away with the classic start menu! Why?!!!! I hate the Vista style start menu! There are a lot more clicks required to get what you want now.
2) There is no way to change the default install directories without some problems, so if you like your programs installed onto any partition besides C, you're stuck having to change the drive letter on every single program you install! (And we all know some SW doesn't even ask you where you'd like to install it.) I've always changed it to another partition, in order to keep the OS partition as small as possible for backup purposes. Now, that is practically impossible. This is also the same in Server 2008, and what Admin in his right mind wants all data installing to the C partition, much less common files and profiles? All of that, along with PST files and any other important info, should be stored on a separate partition for backup/restore purposes. (Keep the OS image as small as possible and it's easy to restore without having to do much afterward.) 99% of the time, restoring an image is only necessary because Windows became unstable, right? The rest of the data is fine, if it's stored somewhere else.
3) No more LAN icon animation?! Why?!!! It was so nice to be able to glance at the system tray and be able to see if packet activity was actually taking place or not. Now, there is not even an option to enable that blinking screen animation. WTH were they thinking?
4) No more right click display properties on the desktop? It seems that everything requires more clicking and hunting. Is there anything more efficient at all?
5) What's up with the desktop icons? I used to be able to just set them to auto arrange and then place them in any order I wanted. New icons would just place themselves at the end of the line, as they should. Now, they seem to go under the Computer icon, or some other weird place. Is there no way to make them act like they used to? They just throw themselves wherever they want to now, so it seems.
6) Quick Launch! Why did they get rid of that? It was such a simple and useful little menu. I used to create submenus in it and have a nice secondary start menu full of all of my favorite programs that I could access so quickly, just by clicking that little arrow. I even had Quick Launch in my Send To menu, so I could quickly send items to my Quick Launch menu. Now, it requires all kinds of manipulation to get it back to what it used to be.
7) Documents and Settings/Users folders. What is up with this? Why did they take something so simple, duplicate it and make it confusing? Now, I don't know if I'm deleting shortcuts to something, or actual data. If you unhide all the hidden files and folders, this becomes a mess of complicated shit! Anyone figured out what they've done to the file system yet? I guess if you just ignore it and leave everything hidden, then this won't bother you. Power users don't like hidden files and folders, nor some strange circular web of shortcuts leading back to some other folder. Maybe there is some reason for this that I'm missing?
http://tga.sytes.net
What is so special?
Submitted by LinuxMaster9 on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 10:48pm
I run Windows 7 64 Bit Ultimate RC1 and I only use it for some of my less Linux compatible games. What I don't see yet is anything that Linux or Mac or BSD hasn't had for at least a year prior to Vista. When Vista came out with the "Aero 3d" Gui, I looked at it and laughed. Aero is a cheap knockoff of Compiz Fusion and Beryl. Linux has had a Full 3D GUI for years. There was a package called 3D Desktop in the repos. The built in Burner app has been in gnome and KDE for years, the malware/virus issue is way better than any MS OS. The Linux OSes have been 64 bit for a long time (multi-core hyper-threading). There is the whole dependecy issue someone posted about but I really dont see the issue, most dependecies are just libraries which take up what, average of 25kb in space? It is no different than Windows or Mac. When you install a MS program or game, it installs the necessary required software components to run a.k.a. "dependencies." Linux for the most part is free in cost whereas MS is $50-$300 per copy.
Submitted by Robarino on Mon, 11/16/2009 - 5:17pm
Hello, "LinuxMaster9". No Windows feature article would be complete without some insecure Linux fanboy giving us our daily dose of FUD, opinions presented as fact, manipulated statistics, ridiculous comparisons, and downright stupid arguments over meanlingless details. In a world where everyone else is trying to make money, pay their bills, and show success; "Linux is free" comes up as a tired and sad way to sell an operating system. Free crap is still crap and you've done little to convince people of otherwise. Going so far as to split hairs over who did what first with the GUI is just petty. Linux, all 256+ variations of it, are hardly shining examples of originality or consistency.
It's only obvious that your post was designed to make you and your fellow penguin users feel good about yourselves. But the truth is NOBODY is going to read it and decide to switch operating systems because of it. You failed.
So, basically your saying
Submitted by mdkplus on Sat, 10/03/2009 - 8:25pm
So, basically your saying Win 7 is just a big hack job
Submitted by BlueX273 on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 9:53pm
Okay, It's official, WINDOWS 7 IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Windows 7 Home Premium for $50, or Pro for $100
Submitted by u217946 on Fri, 06/26/2009 - 9:40am
The online retailers participating in Microsoft's pre-order Win 7 disc sale starting at midnight Eastern tonight are:
• Amazon
• Best Buy
• Costco
• Fry's Electronics
• Office Depot
• Office Max
• Sam's Club
• Staples
• Tiger Direct
• Walmart
• NewEgg
• Nebraska Furniture Mart (What the?)In Canada, you can hit:
• Staples
• Future Shop
• Best Buy
• London Drugs
• Amazon
• The SourceAnd in Japan, the pre-order is available at:
• Yodobashi Camera
• Amazon
• Yamada Denki
• Bic Camera
• and "all small partners" (whatever that means)
Submitted by andyell on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 7:51am
Firstly i have tried the shortcup for dual screens windows + P and the display does not appear --- any ideas I have an PRO/100 VE Network Connection Driver
secondly- i havebeen using windows machines since win 3.1 trogh to this version 7 and the differences are pretty significant. There might be "bloarware" and gliches but thias is much better, faster and more stable than XPSP3 that I had previously
Andy
Submitted by yamahog on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 9:20am
I am running 32bit now on a P4 2.8 with 1 gig ram "it rated 3.7" and it seems to be as smooth as xp so far, and IE8 is running much smoother and faster than 7, I hated IE7 it was constantly freezing up and crashing for some reason, I look forward to testing the 64bit on my new comp next week.
Submitted by Brooks69000 on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 10:47am
Since no one has mentioned, or seems to know the most basic difference between the core/kernel of 2k/xp and vista/7 and it's succesors i'll explain it to all of you, and while the haters will never upgrade, those of you who don't see a reason to upgrade will hopefully understand why you will eventually have to upgrade.
Win2k/xp was built for and during the era of superfast, single core, single cpu (and in many cases single gpu's). It runs so well because it's programing is small and optimized for just such a setup.
Vista/7 and their succesors, were designed and built for the era of multicore, multi processing units (cpu's, gpu''s, and other coprocessors, like ppu's). To achieve this it's programing is bigger and more complex than 2k/xp's. As such it is not as efficient, yet. However as the core, speed, and PU count increase, the speed and efficiency similiarly increase. It's projected that a 16 core cpu will run vista/7 with, at least, the same speed and efficiency as a superfast dual core can run 2k/xp, while the increasing core count will only decrease 2k/xp's efficiency, since it's unable to take advantage of the extra processing power afforded by more cores.
So, over the next 2 or 3+ plus years, unless you plan on sticking with a dual or quad core cpu, for life, you will have to give up 2k/xp.
I'm really enjoying Windows
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Mon, 05/04/2009 - 2:50am
I'm really enjoying Windows 7 RC1 Build 7100 64bit. If you can get your hands on a copy of RC1 your Beta keys will work to install and activate RC1.
Win7 is now my sole OS and I'm happy. No more Vista.
Thanks for the tips and please give more power tips.
Submitted by Carmievg on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 12:05pm
I don't know if this has been touched on or not in the comments, but from what I've seen in the past two months or so I've been playing with 7, it looks to me like malware may.. and I emphasize MAY be a thing of the past. At least the dangerous stuff which can actually harm your system and force a format and clean install. Seems everything outside the kernel is being run in a virtual setting, and the core of the OS is isolated from everything else. Ghot can go right ahead and stick with XP, I'm ok with that. But I like 7. I will be getting a full version (or two) once it becomes available. It boots quicker than Vista, and XP for that matter, seemingly because it loads the operating system first, then anything else gets loaded in the background while you're off to the interweb. I guess that could just be my perception, but that is how I see things happening. I still can't bring myself to intentionaly infect it, but I do have VirtualBox installed and just might give that a shot..
If it burns, burn it. If it doesn't burn, you don't have it hot enough.
Submitted by craig0246 on Sat, 02/28/2009 - 10:40pm
Anybody know how to get Audigy X-fi sound card to work w/ Win7x64? I heard someone was able to find a work around using Vistax64 Audigy drivers, but I'm not sure if it was a particular version or what since the latest drivers doesn't appear to work with it. It just says it can't find valid hardware.
well I just timed my XP shutdown and boot times......
Submitted by ghot on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 6:28pm
.....with a stop watch. 11 seconds to shut off, 23 seconds to browser! I even have seven slow -a** startup programs.
THATS HOW I DEFINE BLOATWARE!!!!! Keep in mind that I have FIOS 20/20 connection, which itself takes quite a while to shut down and startup. I don't even have a fast computer. Its just an overclocked AMD 5000+.
When you really dig through all the crap in Vista and Win 7....its still just XP, for the remarkably low price of 300-400 dollars (if you act before midnight tonight) lol
Pretty soon MS will have ads on TV saying... "not available in stores" and "if you buy, right now, we'll double your order for no extra cost" After all, 2x crap is still crap :)
Oh and what a marvelous invention the dock is....lol....just like it was when they called it the Quick Launch Bar..... lmfao!
I don't know who "everybody" is but I liked XP from the get go....plug and play...call me hooked. Sure XP had bloat, the difference is, that you can UN bloat XP in about 20 minutes :/
Trully the only improvement I saw in the Win 7 beta was that it flawlessly applied the correct drivers to all my hardware. As for the rest....its really a mess....it takes so much longer to accomplish anything and not because the OS is slower (it IS XP afterall) it simply because MS chose to move all the settings around to no improvemnet that I could see. For about 15 years ...you could right click anything and get to properties. Why did they change that? In Win 7 you right click the desktop and choose properties....and you're off to wonderland. If something ain't broke....don't fix it ! Sure it didn't take me that long to realize that to change the desktop properties...I had to right click and choose settings. But when you have about a billion people expecting the desktop properties to be labled ....properties....why change it?
Take efficiency, and edit out all the intelligence and what you have left is a post-XP Microsoft operating system :)
such...such anger
Submitted by dracx619 on Wed, 02/25/2009 - 8:30am
seems to me anytime i come across a comment from you, its a complaint or a nag. do you ever see the good in things? embrace change? open to something unfamiliar and different?
ive been testing out 7 for the past couple of months and absolutely love it and i am by no means a microsoft troll. unlike you (as its apparent) i like exploring changes in everything whether it be an os (other than xp which im very tired of), program, heck even noticing changes between random new model stuff like cars and prodction gear. i realize a lot of people arent like me and like to stay stuck in the past or live by the ol 'if it aint broken dont fix it' motto. but if everything stayed the same, we wouldnt live in the age we live in today and might as well still be using win 98se. isn't xp just a 'prettier' win 98? now you may go crazy talking about the ittle things that make xp better and or different than 98. same goes for 7, while you claim it essentially is xp, well duh, but they include many different tweaks and features that make it what it is and for me, different and way better than that ol dinosaur xp.
i find the super dock very useful and find switching and grouping programs to be very handy (and would be even better with touch capabilities) setting up home networks is much easier, personalizing it wasn't difficult and the options they give are quite nice. the aero shake and snap have come in handy, i like how explorer looks and works, just everything about it is fantastic, i dont have any complaints besides the few bugs the beta has.
on my comp, 7 loads much faster than my xp and my xp install is pretty fresh. what bloat are you talking about? i havnt bought a ms license since my '02 version of xp pro but i will for 7 as soon as it comes out.
just for background, ive used every version of win since 3.0 and every mac os since '94 (and started playing with linux just last year) so its not like i havn't seen or experienced the evolution of OSes.
the only Win i havn't liked was ME cause it just plain sucked from many standpoints. so i really dont know what your deal is, if you want to be stuck in the past and complain about everything you feel is to different to be useful, then continue living your pessimistic little life.
Submitted by dracx619 on Wed, 02/25/2009 - 11:23am
*posted twice for some reason
Submitted by LatiosXT on Thu, 02/19/2009 - 6:31pm
Every release of Windows since 95 has been criticized as bloaty.
So why don't you go back to Windows 3.1, oh wait, that's just a bloaty version of 2.0, which is a bloaty version of 1.0, which is a bloaty DOS file manager.
Submitted by Candymancan on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 2:13pm
You know people said the same crap about windows xp when it came out. It took along time for people to finally get off 98se and 2k. Get your thumb outa your ass . This pertains to the poster below me
Submitted by ghot on Tue, 02/10/2009 - 9:47am
90% of those tweaks and about 100 more can be accomplished in less time with less hassle in XP Pro. Like I said before...when is MS gonna release a NEW OS.....not just XP beat to death with bloatware. I can navigate the START menu on XP Pro with NO clicks and get to any programs particular choices with NO...yes NO clicks. Try and do that on Windows 7 :/ I wish I could post pictures here...I truly think most people have forgotten how simple, easy and fast Windows XP is.
LOL at changing desktop wallpaper...in XP i can do it in 3 mouse clicks. Half an hour later you can do the same in Windows 7....puleeeeeeze :/
Take efficiency, and edit out all the intelligence and what you have left is a post-XP Microsoft operating system :)
Submitted by spinalfap on Fri, 02/27/2009 - 10:23pm
dude all u have to do is right click on the desktop, click personalize, and click wallpaper settings. I dont know if i can count but that seems like three clicks to me, and this is in vista and 7. Every win os has the start menu practially the same except for icon and color layout so they are the same in that sense. So yeah dude just calm down, get ur facts right, and have a good experience trying out 7.
Submitted by wgaf on Sat, 02/07/2009 - 3:31am
Tried it already. Most of this stuff is explorer crap and keyboard shorts.
None of which is a reason to try it. The OS core is what is interesting, and not so much the fact that they finally produced a workable goodlooking os. That's beside the point.
Unfortunately without an ap such as vlite to remove all the nonsense u probably won't use, it's bloatware at best.
I ran it using sharpe enviro shell replacement, f*** explorer-no offense, alongside TC UP.
Problems?-yes
It will install from your desktop just fine as long as you know where your sata drivers reside. It will also make a backup of the OS but dumps files, as in plural, only to the root of your target drive. If you need to reimage your drive-forget it. It will tell you it needs to find the drivers again and at this point It could not find them.
It also tried to force down my throat video drivers for my card which kept crashing. Uninstalling them did nada as it repeatedly would reinstall them until I fiddled with the settings.
My point is explorer still sucks and WMP has NEVER been a player of choice. IE is still something that is as well forced down your throat. When a vlite version for 7 comes round that will be the single most important tweak tool u could ask for. Explorer tweaks and key shorts are child's play.
Submitted by Stevereno on Mon, 02/02/2009 - 4:01am
I installed Windows 7 x64 on a old dual core 939 AMD Athalon system. It found all the drivers including raid for the system board. My X-Fi sound card was the only one that didn't have drivers but I found a work around to install the vista drivers and it is working.
So far Windows 7 is running better than Vista. Looking forward to the release to mfr.
Submitted by watuzi on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 9:11am
So far, I like Windows 7 a lot. It is very fast and responsive. My only complaint is that I have no sound coming from my integrated motherboard. I have no doubt this will be resolved once Windows 7 is offically released.
Shut up
Submitted by Geeksquadmyss on Tue, 01/27/2009 - 3:33pm
Stop complaining about windows! vista sucked when it came out but those issues have been fixed. But there are some annoences that i would like to see fixed, like the constant permission slips that you have to "sign" to move files and delete files.
Submitted by periodhyphenund... on Mon, 01/26/2009 - 11:15am
Windows 7 is nothing but spyware!
It crashes on nearly every single program!
It takes 20 seconds longer to load Windows 7 than it does for XP
Windows 7 was designed to prevent the end user from finding out what it is doing in the background without your knowledge
Well done NSA, Well done!
Lay off the drugs.
Submitted by Denis63 on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 12:08pm
Lay off the drugs.
Submitted by MrNaPaLm32 on Tue, 01/27/2009 - 2:55pm
what a well-informed response.
Submitted by novengeance on Mon, 01/26/2009 - 3:46am
I love all these geek wannabes that like to bash Windows Vista/7 and Microsoft, saying how they love Windows XP and how it is the best, etc, etc...
Windows Vista is very acceptable now. And Windows 7 will be great. People criticized Windows 98 and Windows XP when they came out, saying it was just the same but worse. The difference now is that the internet is super mainstream and so we get all these idiots in front of a computer repeating stuff other people said, claiming they know what they are talking about, citing benchmarks they don't even understand and don't really mean much.
And now we also have all these Linux lovers bashing Microsoft, pretending they are super hackers while they had no idea Linux existed before Ubuntu, saying how Vista is just eye-candy while they claim all the eye-candy was on Linux first, though they had no idea about it before Vista, and also claiming they use it for everything while they have a dual-boot with Windows XP.
The truth is, it takes a little while for the OS to work 100%. Windows XP sucked until SP1, just like Vista. Windows 2000 users said the same thing about XP that XP users are saying now about Vista. I used Windows 2000 until almost 2004, just like I used XP until last month.
Get a freaking personality and stop repeating stuff you don't even know anything about.
Submitted by thomsonr on Sat, 03/14/2009 - 4:56pm
A very good post, that reflects my feelings exactly. It's funny how people forget that XP was bug ridden at first.
Actually I had very little trouble with Vista. I use it at home and work, I'd never go back to XP. I am looking forward to the Win 7 release and in fact am writing this from 7048. My main complaint with Windows is it's too expensive to buy off the shelf.
Oh and for the Linux fanboys...I do like Ubuntu and in fact have it installed along with Vista and 7. I consider it a backup system. For a free OS it's great and while the 3D cube Desktop is impressive it can't touch Vista or 7. I will however continue to download each new version .
Submitted by lviseth on Fri, 02/06/2009 - 9:28pm
Finally! someone with a mind! i've been wanting to say this, and i actually created an account just to reply. =]
Submitted by Shadowcaster on Sun, 02/01/2009 - 12:52am
I agree!!
Which drivers? Neither XP
Submitted by horzo on Sat, 01/24/2009 - 12:15pm
Which drivers? Neither XP nor Vista work. For any of them.
Submitted by bochiman on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 8:49am
SetteMaxer (a free utility) will automatically perform twelve tweaks that will put Windows 7 on steroids instantly.
12 Automatic Tweaks For Windows 7 Beta: SetteMaxer
Submitted by MeTo on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 2:09pm
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-windows-xp-vista,6895.html
Win Xp Still beats Vista & Win 7 So just stay with Win Xp!
Submitted by wangstramedeous on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 2:50pm
It doesn't quite work as described. After replacing the code, clicking on windows explorer does open to "my computer". But when I click on anything in that window, a new window is opened to explore that.
What's up with that.
Submitted by NAYRhyno on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 11:03am
How about drastic changes to the user interface that enhance productivity? Th enew taskbar makes every day tasks so much faster. I can now pin Adobe Acrobat, MS Word, whatever I want to the taskbar and just right click the icon to see the files I have recently worked on. Or with the explorer icon, i can see recent folders I have opened or saved things in.
How about even better and faster voice and handwriting recognition? Voice controlled computing is an amazing enhancement, that was much improved with Vista and is even better in 7. I use voice control for basic tasks all the time. Handwriting recognitionhas improved to the point to where I can write as fast as I can, and the PC keeps up with minimal errors (on a tablet with a 1GHZ celeron).
How about better performance overall and better managment of memory? Compared to XP, 7 is leaps and bounds ahead in application launch time, and OS boot time. My pc's boot in under 1 minute with 7 (from the time I hit the power button to the time I am in the OS and have launched an explorer window.Memory management is sooo much better even compared to Vista. I regularly have 10 apps with several windows each open on my tablet (1ghz celeron, 2gb ram) and things don't slow down for paging. Try opening 50 or so different windows in XP.
How about easier file management? I can manage files from my tablet, my desktop, my HTPC, all easily with libraries. All my pictures (etc.) show up in one place without me having to copy everything to multiple PC's multiple harddrive or multiple folders.
I could go on... The best thing to do is to try it. It's free! If your system gets up and running smoothly (I have installed on four different machines of various ages with no trouble), and you use 7 for two weeks I bet you will be excited by what it does for you. Now if all you do is work on one window at a time or one app at a time, or basic computeuse, you may be happy enough with XP.
Submitted by MeTo on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 5:33pm
So if Mostley you just play games Win 7 has no real advantage over Vista?
Submitted by NAYRhyno on Mon, 01/26/2009 - 12:22pm
Well it will have DX11, but supposedly that will be released as a Vista update. If you just play games, spend your money on a better video card and not an OS. But i dont know anywon one you ONLY uses their pc for games.
Submitted by horzo on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 8:37am
Gah...I've tried three different network cards and both 64 and 32 bit versions of Windows 7, and the base installation doesn't have drivers for any of them. Doesn't seem like a good sign.
Submitted by NAYRhyno on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 11:05am
It's not to hard to just download them to a USB drive is it? You obviously have internet access.
Submitted by mgalletly on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 6:31am
My four year old AMD 3400+ laptop with two GB of DDR2 400 and ATI 9700 graphics now performs better than it did under even a clean install of XPsp2 or XPsp3. There are some minor issues, but this is a beta OS so I wasn't expecting everything to be perfect.
My ripping and encoding times for video and audio are better, my downloading, with or without the getright download manager are faster, and my games mostly perform a little better. I never did vista on this machine, so it was a full clean install of win7 onto a partition for me. I'd get rid of the winxp partiion completely, but smart-card middleware for the Army doesn't work right under win7, so I'm keeping xp for now, but that's all I've used it for in the last week. When the middleware issue is sorted, I'm going to put win7 on my desktop computer as well. That's the only thing holding me back.
Submitted by inahayze on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 5:30am
Sadly, I have yet to see a good reason for the need for Windows 7(like Vista). What exactly, other than pretty little pictures and a new appearance would be the motivation to upgrade? Does it stop spyware better than XP can? How about performance? What new security features does it have to prevent malware, that an experienced XP user can't do already? Is there a new FAT system? Oh, and I can install, by my own choice, third party apps to do multimedia and such. Sooo, what's the motivation? I guess those who are persuaded that they are "out of date" by using XP will feel pressured. Does anyone know what "marketing" and media persuasion is anymore? Would you like to buy a Lamborghini with a VW engine in it? I recall reading in MaxPC, when Vista was about to be released, an intro by Will Smith, stating basically the same idea- what is Vista really doing to combat spyware and viruses/malware? Well Will, have you just decided to succumb? I'd like to see your response to this.
Submitted by mdkplus on Sat, 10/03/2009 - 8:59pm
I still love my XP systems, but.........Will XP be patched to deploy dx11? NO. Can XP boost your core memory with a usb 2.0 thumbdrive or mem card? NO. Will your computer hardware fail within the next 5 yrs or so? YES. Will XP support newer hardware technologies or have updated drivers for it 5 years from now? NO. Is XP support dated? YES. Are drivers dated? YES. Will Win 7 support 16 core processors? YES. Will XP? NO Is Win 7 already more secure than XP? YES.
You still use FAT32? Dude! What are you afraid of, convert to NTFS already....unless you prefer the thumb drive file system and are still living in the 80's. Is that Lotus123 I see on your desktop, next to Wordperfect 6.0?
Submitted by NAYRhyno on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 5:17am
Some repeats, I am sure, but this is also a good post. http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2009/01/12/the-bumper-list-of-windows-7-secrets.aspx
EDIT: XP for dummies, seriously? Man, people are so hard on new stuff. I am guessing you started loving XP the second it came out? It seems like everyone has forgotten XP pre SP2.
I hve been using 7 primarily since PDC. It is an awesome OS, with simple and well designed advances that make general computer use faster and more efficient, even in beta form. I can't wait for official release.
Submitted by ghot on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 4:20am
I still see nothing worth a cr*p....cept bloat. This is still just XP for dummies...when we gonna get a NEW OS?
Submitted by mdkplus on Sat, 10/03/2009 - 9:03pm
I personally like the bloat, it is all usefull to intelligent people like us, maybe you should try the new chrome OS I hear it's pretty watered down
Submitted by Magius on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 11:43am
I don't see any "bloat" on those pictures, in fact every modern OS out there offer similar bells & whistles (and seem proud to do so).
So, where does the bloat come from? This beta is running better and faster than Vista. Vista on itself is currently running almost on par with Xp (after the service pack of course).
Or are you this type of person that simply dislike change and eyecandy?
Submitted by davidbrown2 on Thu, 01/22/2009 - 2:00am
It is possible to use the classic start bar.
If you go to the theme selector and go further down to the High-Contrast themes, theres a windows classic theme there
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