back to article Windows 7 - the Reg reader verdict

Microsoft takes the wraps off Windows 7 tonight, but thanks to the UK's looming postal strike Reg readers have been playing with the final, shrink-wrapped product for days. So before you go out and spend money on the new OS and/or a new PC, you might be interested in our what ad hoc panel of real readers has to say. First up …

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  1. Armus Squelprom
    Coat

    So, what does it *do* that XP can't. do?

    Not being funny or anything, but I've read a lot of the coverage of W7 (including fawning magazine articles surely ghosted by MS PR) and I've yet to find a unique, important function which W7 offers over a properly configured XP Pro.

    Okay, with XP you have to add a few external apps for critical tasks but that's arguably an advantage. I specifically prefer to trust TrueImage backup for example, compared to a built-in function which might be corrupted along with the rest of the OS. Ditto AV, etc.

    So really, all you happy adopters - apart from "new & shiny" what other key benefits are offered in W7?

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. Mothballs
    WTF?

    Just Another Lemming

    The very instant that Amazin' finally gets its act together and lets me have my pre-ordered Upgrade version of the W7 upgrade, I'll be dropping it over the top of Vista on this box, while fervently hoping it doesn't all end in tears. I therefore confidently predict that this thread will be dead and buried long before I'm fully up and running again with a shiny new OS.

    As a committed Luddite, I'm open to any and all suggestions as to how I can stick with the 'Classic' interface I've insisted on clinging to, despite improvements that Redmond keep trying to foist on me with each successive version of Windows.

    Answers, on a postman, to...

  4. Mark Eaton-Park
    Thumb Down

    Windows 7 is the USB support for NT

    WIndows 7 is basically a fixed Vista and like the NT4 service pack that supported direct X and USB that was never released they sold it as a new product. M$ should be made to fix Vista not charge people again for the product they already paid for. What exactly are you getting for your money? there isn't any additional functionality, it is solely the interface. If I thought pretty pictures for buttons made a difference I would have bought a Mac. What I want is an OS that will allow me to use my computer productively i.e. to run applications not spend hours messing with the desktop. The OS should be invisible unless M$ are going to include their office, development suit. What I see is a ton of additional processes that I don't need using up my processor bandwidth, M$ should pay me as they seem to run more unnecessary code on my machine than I do. If M$ had said fair enough Vista was a mistake here is what we really wanted you to run and you can have it for free, I would say fair enough but to charge people again and again because they still can't code it right is offensive. Don't bother buying W7 buy snow leopard instead that way if you need pretty pictures to remind your how to use a computer at least it will be stable and wont cost you as much.

  5. Modjo30

    Windows 7 problems

    Had my retail copy a few days,had trouble on install turns out it was my 8800gt graphics card it did'nt like but now I have it up and running I can't install anything even though it's set up as admin,getting annoyed with it

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    Do me a Favour, it's a bloody DRM crippled OS

    Windows 7 ? No thanks, Opensuse Linux does everything I need. Microsoft are not getting any of my hard earned cash. It would cost me a fortune to update my 4 desktops & 5 laptops in the family. That's why they all run Linux. In fact Bill would have to pay me before I put windows on any of my machines ...

    Flame Proof underpants engaged.

  7. C 2
    FAIL

    RE: virtual desktops

    Virtual desktops - By Rick Giles

    "Why it doesn't have virtual desktops like Linux and OS X I don't know, that is the most useful feature that it lacks."

    Be thankful that they were able to get at least one working right.

    ::

    you mean half-right don't you?

    Seriously, Linux has been able to do many desktops well for atleast 12 years now, you'd think MS would have ripped it off a long time ago.

    ANYwhoo, speaking of the most horific UI EVER ... at work this week we where trying to sort out some permissions problems (the usual stupid MS stuff) and I had to ask myself, what kind of sick, twisted, and malignant mind designed the UI for the last 2 turds from MS! I mean Holy F*cking Shit America!!! Did they hire some schizophrenic sadistic asshole off his medication and have him design this monstrosity or WHAT?!

    Go back to the security UI from NT4 it actually WORKED, and while they're at it find someone SANE to design these dialogs and UIs!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Beware: No Yellow Triangles for Generic Drivers

    Trying a W7 Enterprise on a Thinkpad R40 (1.5 GHz, 1 GB, 40 GB HD).

    Unlike XP, W7 does not show the yellow triangles for generic drivers if it can't find the correct ones.

    So you get incorrect messages like "video card does not support DirectX', when the generic driver is installed. You have to click on each driver to find the incorrect 'generic' ones.

    Even with correct driver (using XP video driver), still can't get full resolution on LCD screen.

    Usual sloppy, useless, incorrect MS error messages. Business as usual.

    Eight years between XP and W7: not much has changed.

  9. Greg J Preece

    @lumatrix

    So you installed it on a piece of shit so old they don't make drivers for the graphics card any more (and nVidia/ATI drivers go back quite a way), and you're surprised it's no faster than XP...

  10. Winkypop Silver badge
    WTF?

    It's way too early to tell....

    I'm holding out for Win7 SP2 myself....

  11. Mathew White
    Thumb Up

    @Mark Eaton-Park

    And in snow leopard you can type '>console' at the login screen and be done with that pesky GUI!

  12. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD

    64bit Windows 7

    I'll wait a bit till I see what the problems out in the wild are ... then, if they are minimal, or tolerable, will I upgrade my xp (32 bits) to 64 bit W7.

    One big deal breaker will be if my 32 bit games fail to play well :)

  13. finnbarr
    Pint

    Not much different, with a few annoyances

    I've done a clean install (took about an hour and a half) and this is the result :

    Start up time appears poor.

    Pre-install, the windows upgrade adviser swore blind that the Aero interface would not work on this machine, yet it works fine.

    Apps are running faster than XP (but that might just be down to the new, clean installation).

    Driverless webcams perform poorly, much worse than under XP.

    My StarTech DVI KVM switch no longer functions correctly. When I switch back to the Win 7 machine, the monitor goes black and I have to disconnect and reconnect the switch-to-monitor cable to get it back. This is actually my biggest problem and if i can't fix it, XP will have to go back on until it is fixed.

    It's difficult to see what the advantage over XP is.

    Beer, because I need one.

  14. Faster Better Greener
    Happy

    A Mac users perspective on W7

    It strikes me that this is an awfully long thread about installing a bit of software on some computers. There's so much mild relief that W7 nearly, sort of, kind of, works I'd guess that many of you have had bad experiences with some previous bit of software and were almost not expecting it to work at all. Or am I missing something?

    As a Mac user, I was under the impression that OS updates involve simply taking a DVD out of a tastefully designed (recyclable) box every year or so, watching some nice pictures of deep space for a few minutes and then being rewarded with another issue of the world's slinkiest means of operating a computer.

    Ah, and yes, that OS does seamlessly blend with the world's best OS for operating ultra-portable devices.

    Erm, and yes, there is never any question of hardware/OS mismatch, because the same company produces and controls both to a ruthlessly high QA standard.

    Ahem, and that slinky OS leads equally seamlessly into the world's best eco-system for retailing digital content direct to consumers. Songs for a a few cents/pence a pop; videos for a few quid/dollars; Apps; in-App sell-through.

    From all of which Apple takes a slice.

    Which is why Apple had the best quarter in its history.

    Which is why Apple has more than doubled in value in the last year.

    Have I tested W7? No. Will I ever do so. No. So am I qualified to judge it? Yes, in the sense that there are increasing millions like me for whom MSFT's latest OS is a matter of the profoundest irrelevance. For us an OS is merely a slick window onto an increasingly converged digital content field. And it is we, non-users, who are superbly qualified to make THE key judgement on W7. The judgement of non-use, of couldn't give a stuff, of irrelevance.

    W7 doesn't matter to me.

    W7 doesn't matter to my company.

    W7 is a total irrelevance to both my personal and commercial digital existence.

    I do not care whether W7 is better than its miserable predecessors, as I never have cause to use any of them. Because I don't need to, don't want to, and don't, ever, intend to.

    Worryingly for MSFT, this "judgement of irrelevance" is now shared by a significant slice of the IT-using world. A fast-growing slice.

    If there's a historical precedent here, it's US railroads in the 1950s: lovely trains; but about to be rendered totally obsolete by aviation. IMHO by 2025, MSFT will go the same way as the Sante Fe and Baltimore & Ohio and all the rest of them. The premium market will evaporate, and they'll be left with just hauling freight around the crumbling infrastructure of yesteryear.

    I'm off down the Apple Store to buy a magic mouse. Just for the £55 fun of it. Oh, and to pay for it I'll only have to cash-in 0.4278 of an AAPL share.

    And happy toiling to you all.

  15. Karl Dallas
    Alert

    What about stereo mix?

    I installed RTM on my Toshiba Equium A100 with no problems, except that it would not update, so first I had to back up all my data and then had to reinstall my apps.

    My general impression was good: speedier, less of that infuriating wait looking at the "not responding" message (why couldn't it say "working", which is what Vista really means?).

    However, in my radio work I use Stereo Mix on a daily basis, but found that there was no way I could enable it. (The Toshiba Equium I use had stereo mix working, though it needed a bit of tweaking).

    Does anyone know if the Win7 Ultimate I now have will allow me to use stereo mix?

  16. Piro Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    @Mothballs

    If you're going to use Vista or 7 without aero on capable hardware, you may as well go back to using XP, because it will simply perform MUCH better in pure GDI+ mode.

  17. Rattus Rattus
    Thumb Down

    After some testing, I'm keeping XP

    Only place I still use Windows at all is on my gaming box. I've played with the 7 RC as well as with Vista and my conclusion is that XP is staying until I really want to get a game that just will not run at all without Windows 7.

    W7 runs pretty much the same as my XP install, no faster and no slower (unlike Vista) so I don't see the point of paying so much money for essentially no change. Any more serious applications will be running on my Linux boxen, anyway.

    I also understand 7 to have largely the same DRM mechanisms that are built into Vista, which I don't like on what I consider ethical grounds. I may not try to infringe copyright but if I do at some point choose to, it will be for reasons I have decided are very good reasons and I don't feel it's the role of my OS to say I can't.

    And finally, the biggest reason I'm not replacing XP - the interface. The warm steaming pile of interface. I don't care if it's pretty, I don't care if it's shiny, I just want an interface that works, that doesn't require a dozen clicks to do a task that could be performed by just one or two clicks. I want an interface that doesn't keep asking me "Are you sure you want to do that?" I am in full agreement with a previous commenter who complained bitterly about the stupid "Button of Screaming Death" (haha). Sometimes I want to reset, sometimes I want to shut down, sometimes I want to log off. Why do I have to click on a tiny little sliver next to the massive button two thirds of the time? Could they not at least have given the two buttons equal screen real estate? And speaking of massive buttons, what's with the giant close button on the windows? I'm quite capable of seeing three buttons with three symbols and choosing the right one for that task at hand. I don't need a giant oblong red button yelling "This is it! Over here!" to close a program.

    Ok, I think I'll stop it there. Once I started talking about the interface I could feel my temperature rising along with the hyperbole level, which should tell you something about my opinion of the interface.

    Long story short (too late!), W7 sucks less than Vista, but I won't be using it.

  18. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: A Mac users perspective on W7

    Thank you for that.

    I'm off to post a lengthy piece on an article I've just read about a new cat product which will give a dog owner's perspective. I think it's needed for balance.

  19. edwardecl
    Thumb Up

    It's not a bad OS

    I've been running Windows 7x64 since about 2 days after the final retail was released on the internet.

    The one and only problem I have had so far is the Windows desktop being a bit buggy, a few times the desktop appeared to stop updating itself, so if you copied something there or deleted something the icons didn't appear/disappear on screen. Oddly enough I had the exact same problem on Vista obviously a bug they don't know about but easily fixed by refreshing the desktop although not fixed until you rerun explorer.

    I had trouble finding Win7 specific drivers, but is to be expected as it was not officially released at the time. Windows Vista drivers worked fine for the most part (except the audio driver which seemed to batter the CPU) but to be fair it did have a Microsoft driver that I used instead until a few weeks later a proper Windows 7 driver was released.

    I can't think of any other problem that are not fixed by running apps in compatibility mode which I have had to do a few times (same on Vista). I still have turned off UAC though, as it is as annoying as hell stopping certain apps from worked properly, and their policy of signed drivers only kind of irritates me a bit, same on Vista though.

    It's a good desktop OS but in my opinion should have been a fix for Vista. Bug fixing and optimisation should not be a pay for item in my opinion. Linux is still the better OS for networking and serving though as windows networking sucks big time, but that's to be expected.

  20. Rob 78
    Jobs Halo

    @Faster Better Greener (Wxxxxr)

    Blimey, someone picked up their XL cool aid this morning. Is there an app for learning to be sanctimonious or are you just gifted?

  21. Mike Dyne
    Thumb Up

    RE: A Mac users perspective on W7 #

    You wrote all that just to say "I'm a Mac fanboi - I don't need Windows7"?

    Wow.

    I like Win7, I have done since the beta, thru RC1 to retail. It works, it's faster than Vista, prettier than Vista, more stable than Vista.

    My fave feature is the "drag-window-to-edge-of-screen-to-resize-it-nicely" trick. :)

  22. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Help

    I'm confused. I've installed this new version of Windoze and now I can't seem to find the Program Manager. What's going on?!

  23. Joey
    Jobs Halo

    Installed on Mac, no probs...

    Just installed 7 on my Mac Pro running Parallels desktop 4 (alongside XP and Ubuntu). Fairly painless by MS standards. No option on browsers though, it is IE or nothing. Surely this is a bit naughty? Just had to turn off all that tasteless 'Aero' eye candy. Are Windows user's life so colourless that they need all this razzamarazz going on within their peripheral vision?

  24. Alan Bourke
    FAIL

    A Mac users perspective on W7

    Oh dear, quite a rant about Windows 7 from someone who's never used it.

    Don't need it at home? Good for you. Not a gamer then.

    Don't need it in the office? Nice one. You obviously don't need to run any payroll, business intelligence or accounting software on your Macs.

  25. Dangerous Dave
    Thumb Up

    doesnt need beefy hardware IME

    I've got it on my mid spec desktop at home plus an aging Dell Latitude X1 lappy (Pentium M 1.1GHz ULV, 2GB RAM!) and both run fine, drivers all installed first time without a hitch

    I tried Vista on the same laptop a couple of years ago (when it hit RTM) and it crippled it and had me running back to XP. Vista was installed Ok but it seemed any disk operation sent the mouse pointer into blue-spinny-circle mode and explorer would be "not responding" for 30 seconds. Looks like MS have managed to sort that at least :)

    Happy with it so far, been running full 7 for a couple of months now via MSDN

  26. Jimmy 1

    Pro UAC

    I did a clean install of Win 7 over XP pro without any problems. What has impressed me most is that the developers have had the good grace to finally acknowledge the superiority of the Linux security model with the introduction of the UAC. Okay, its only a nod in the right direction but at least you no longer have to install an app like "Drop My Rights" in order to retain the convenience of having an admin account and being able go online safely.

    As for the people who advocate disabling this security feature we can only hope that MS have the balls to lock it down completely in service pack 1.

  27. Andy Livingstone

    While waiting

    Enjoyed reading these posts while still waiting for delivery from Amazon.

    Normal Royal Mail postal delivery arrived on time though.

    Will go and press my nose against the front door like an excited kid to see if Santa or Home Delivery Service arrive first. Any bets?

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Alan Bourke

    Not defending rampant fanboyism and Faster Better Greener is frankly talking out of his arse, and this is not intended to be an 'ad hominem' attack, but I've got to pick you up on your counter points;.

    Firstly this whole gamer thing. Niche market that is competing with consoles that, as a combined package, cost a lot less.

    Payroll/Accounting? There are a number of decent accounting apps that include payroll functionality available for the Mac. No, they are not Sage, but MYOB and Intuit to name two produce fine accounting apps for the Mac. So it's entirely inaccurate to say that solutions don't exist.

    Business Intelligence? Since when has data mining been exclusive to Windows? I wasn't aware that OLAP could only be performed on the Microsoft platform. Crystal Reports may be the industry leader, but it isn't the only solution available. That's not to say that the Windows platform is crap! In fact as we are all aware, it's is the best supported platform for business applications there is, but to say that you cannot perform these tasks on other platforms… Bollocks mate! Plain and simple. Conversely, you can produce graphics, music and video with Windows if you want, the Mac is just better supported (generally better software available).

    I'm all for shooting down stupid fanboyism, but using FUD to dispel FUD is futile as it only goes to render your rather relevant initial point well, pointless!

  29. Snert Lee

    Conventional Wisdom Support

    Seems to be proving the old adage: Microsoft Anything v.1 will have grand ambitions but turn out to be crap. However, by v.3, it becomes borderline decent. Because, as we all know, Windows 7 is Vista service pack 3, aka, Vista version 3.

  30. Glyn 2
    Grenade

    Indeed

    @Mosh Jahan" - You're very much "the glass is half empty" type, I imagine. A lot of your complaints are about trivial things that can be easily rectified or only need configuring once after initial setup."

    I'm sorry if you consider the UI trivial and MS breaking the rules it's been saying I should follow on their expensive courses for years

    @John 104 "Search can be turned off. its called the indexing service, or, more correctly on Win7, Windows Search."

    Yes, the search can be turned off, which makes it a bit difficult to do a search. I'm not on about the search indexing I'm on about the physical act of searching and making changes to that search, which is why I was talking about how you request a search not how vista/w7 actually performs it

    See what I put "Search is the same as vista, doesn't search well, doesn't let you search higher or lower in the file structure without going back and reentering your criteria"

    "Desktop Icons. Um, Yes you can. Turn Auto Arrange off and you can put them anywhere you want...Seriously, are you that inept of a user that you can't figure these things out"

    Can't see where I said this, about the desktop items. Especially as my icons on the desktop are spaced out just where I want them :S

    Maybe I'm just that inept

    @lennie

    If you're going to call me a liar, you can go and try the computers I've used and the people around me have used and then, and only then, if it behaves completely differently for you than everyone else who I've seen use it, can you call me a liar

    It's easier to read and comprehend where something is when you can see the file paths all together i.e.

    c:\program files\winapps\logfiles\log 1.txt

    c:\program files\winapps\logfiles\log 34234 3.txt

    c:\program files\winapps\logfiles\log 20091021 from a car.txt

    than via folders

    (log 1.txt)c:\program files\winapps\logfiles\

    (log 34234 3.txt)c:\program files\winapps\logfiles\

    (log 20091021 from a car.txt)c:\program files\winapps\logfiles\

    Finding that the log files are in "c:\program files\winapps\logfiles\" is much harder in this view than via the paths column.

    "it doesn't stutter at all."

    So when you type "windows" for example it doesn't start looking for "w"s then refresh and look for "wi"s etc.

    This computer is brand new so presumably it can cope, it's a 3Gb ram 3 Ghz HP

    "I find the search function in the start menu a welcome addition I use all the time, even if I'm looking for a program, I use the search to find it, thigns are much faster to find that way. don't know why you would not want to use it, but that's your prefference."

    If you can't organise your start menu properly and need to search for things instead of arranging it how you want, that's your affair

    And the option to turn it off would be such a crime???

    If you disable search entirely it goes, why not an option in the preferences?

    "and also, there is no search button beside any shutdown button anywhere in the OS. if you're talking about the start menu search box, it does not have a search button because the search box auto-searches as you type....so that complaint is stupid and is a lie."

    Are you blind or stupid? Next to the search box is a little blue button with a magnifying glass in it, when you type it turns into a little blue box with a white cross in it.

    "I was gonna go through all your full comment and show how lie you are with your "complaints" but then I thought I'll leave you alone because clearly your comment is not worth anymore of my type dissecting."

    Calling me a liar after demonstrating your obvious idiocy!!! It's true, it's not worth your "type" or even your "time"

    @Lupus

    No, you don't :P

  31. Dangerous Dave
    Paris Hilton

    @ AC 04:47

    "Even with correct driver (using XP video driver), still can't get full resolution on LCD screen"

    If it's an Intel onboard graphics chip like i have on my work Optiplex 360, you need to manually edit the driver INF file before installation so it picks up the additional resolutions (being a part time linux user i'm used to this *sigh*). I had to do this on my XP and Win7 installs, so not a Windows problem, just Intel writing crap drivers. Intel G33/31 Express + Dell 1909W (1440x900) here.

    see here: http://www.jjclements.co.uk/index.php/2007/07/19/intel-gfx-driver-resolution-fix/

    Paris, because she likes the full width

  32. jake Silver badge

    If anyone noticed I've been quiet for a while ...

    I've spent the last week trying to use Win7 for my day-to-day business. I think a week is a fair test. Yes, on a modern machine, with more than adequate horsepower. Bottom line? I've nuked it, and I honestly wish the IRS would let me write-off my time. What a completely pointless waste of CPU cycles.

    I may, or may not, give Win7 another try at SP1. Probably not.

    Never has so much code delivered so little to so many so late. MS should be ashamed of themselves.

  33. Ocular Sinister
    WTF?

    @Alan Bourke

    Have to bring you up on the whole payroll thing... Both SAP and PeopleSoft run just fine on Linux. I'm more of a PeopleSoft expert and I can tell you that its certified on Red Hat and Novell SuSE (and AIX and HP-UX and, of course, Windows). Client side... well its all browser based, so more or less platform agnostic.

    In any case - the whole point is these applications are moving off-site into service providers. No longer will businesses have to maintain large complex applications like PeopleSoft or SAP themselves. This will be especially true of smaller business that don't have the expertise, money or inclination to be running HR applications. They want to focus on their core business and out-source the maintenance of the HR software 'to the cloud'. And that maybe Microsoft's undoing - in the next year or so I see old Windows servers being replaced by online services rather than newer hardware/software.

  34. bluest.one
    Pint

    Pretty Sweet Actually

    Installation on a Dell XPS 420 went without a hitch in about 30 minutes (clean install of 64-bit). When running Vista the microphone (integrated sound card) wouldn't get recognised unless I installed some crappy drivers; with Windows 7, everything was working off the bat. Win7 installed my Gigabit ethernet drivers (previously I was limited to wireless with Vista until I hunted down the drivers and installed manually) and the Chipset drivers installed automatically.

    The only two things I had to complain about was Explorer defaulting to the stupid libraries without an option to change it (I downloaded a little program to fix that as opposed to changing where the shortcut was pointing) and explorer libraries not integrating with Windows Media Player libraries (as far as I can tell).

    And I can finally have a vertical taskbar that looks like it's supposed to be like that) that takes advantage of my ridiculously widescreen monitor. Native keyboard shortcuts for bunging windows onto the other monitor also make me pretty happy, as does my move to 64-bit out of the box.

    Add to that, native support for all sorts of codecs (Quicktime with thumbnails, etc) and I'm pretty happy with Windows 7.

    Not too shabby.

  35. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Gotta love DHL

    I can't offer a comment on Windows7 because my upgrade is currently in Jo'burg. En route from Germany to the UK...

    http://www.dhl.com/publish/g0/en/eshipping/track.high.html?pageToInclude=RESULTS&AWB=6398462722&type=fasttrack

  36. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Well W7, think I will stick with XP.

    I borrowed a version as I refuse to pay nutil I have tried it, especially after benig burned by vista ultimate.

    So good points.

    It's shiny.

    Freed up my RAM as I put on 64 bit and now have my 4 GB and my 2 x 1GB gfx cards.

    Boots faster than vista. Though not XP or Mandriva, or ubuntu

    Still has the sleep mode and wake up, which is nice and fast.

    Bad points.

    Firewall is a farce, a couple of machines running windows 7, can't see eachother for LAN games. turn off firewall we can, after playign a few games turned firewall back on and stil everything can now get through, as if the machines inherit permissions or set a up a "buddy system" so they don't mistrust eachother again.

    Netowrk sharing. I can't get W7 to see my XP home, XP pro or linux machines, at all, no chance, zip. So I can't transfer files between them. However my linux machine can see W7 and allows me to copy my files across with ease, so that is okay then. The penguin saves the day.

    Homegroup. What a crock of shite. It opens up all files types of a type you declare. So my linux machien after I put in my password had FULL access to every system file, every program and document on my W7 machine. No hassles. I was copying system registires out of the system. Now bear in mind most people use wireless and judging by my street alone, lots still don't secure it and you can see the options for hackers to be far more numerous. I personally can't wait for the neighbours to upgrade to just have a laugh. The Belkin54G unsecured wireless network on my street it a prime example, as is the BThome hub.

    The UAC is marginally less annoying but the "did this prgram install correctly" is even more annoying, I have to tell my machine that a program installed correctly because it can't decide.

    The two selling points, "snap" and seeing windows on your taskbar are in Linux or Vista, not new at all. The scrolling background is also in my Mandriva box. It ain't new.

    The inability to open more than 1 IE8 window or Excel etc, is annoying.

    I can't have sound coming from speaker and headphone, one or the other. Both are coming out different headphoen jacks, however I play gamesi n daylight with speakers and headphones at night. HOWEVER I now have to go into the control panel and then click on a menu to tell my PC this fact. How rubbish is that?

    Multiboot is not even an afterthought. I had XP Pro on the other hdd, the MBR has gone leaving me with W7 pile of turd. So I am now trying to recover the MBR with anything, given the lack of support for third party MBR's I am struggling to revover it.

    132 updates after two days.

    Things like parental controls and moviemaker are a download, why not part of it?

    The same blocky and chilidish icons are still there, I have to do about ten things to shrink them align them and make them less annoying before they don't make me think I am playing with a five year olds desktop.

    Search doesn't suck, the indexing does.

    Admin rights is an "okay" away. Can't wait for a virus to use that facility.

    The "games" directory doesn't auto update, and it is hard to manually edit correctly. So I have to mix and match where games icons are stored, as a result the games directory is being removed and ignored completely. Pointless exercise to have it there and only do half it's job.

    Some games so far will only work if I put them in Vista compatibility mode. (I know, scary)

    Why is there two program files directories?

    On my home network, I have two PC's with the same name. The W7 Pc and the W7 Pc with capitals for it's name. Both have shares, both have users and both have things I can mess around with. Of course I can only see this in Linux and W7

    That is my findings after a weekend of testing. Here is SP1 before I part with cash, and a hope I can get the MBR for XP working again soon. Heck I might even dig out the Vista 32bit as at least that worked on my home network and my MBR file allowed me to have multiboot.

  37. Chris Hunter
    FAIL

    Quick Install? What about some software?

    "I installed it in 20 minutes" is all we hear. NONSENSE! You might be able to load up this steaming pile in just 20 minutes on a quick machine (this quad core 8 Gb 3.2 GHz machine took almost 2 hours), but you won't have any software!

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/fail_32.png

    It's too expensive for a service pack (which is all it is), and it's so badly broken that it's just another typical MS waste of time. Time to first BSOD was 1 Hr 42 Mins - rebooting (sort of) recovered the open files, but then it promptly fell over again...http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/fail_32.png

    No sign of an option to use another browser. Gets MUCH slower after the first few boots, and won't run much software (even MS products from just last year won't run properly).http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/thumb_down_32.png

    Wiped the crap of the HDD after two wasted days with this pile, and installed a proper OS with some applications (latest Ubuntu).

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re: Quick Install

    My 4GB Ram, 64-bit dual core 3Ghz processor (that's $200 for the motherboard, processor and ram - or about 135 English Beer Tokens) installed the whole thing from scratch, including drivers, adding to the domain, installing AV which insisted it wasn't compatible but just worked anyway and the first (surprise surprise) round of updates took 20 minutes.

    Maybe an upgrade takes longer, but my experience of major OS upgrades suggests you only do that if you don't have a means of copying data to another drive.

    As for Mac "I've never used it, will never use it and therefore I reckon I'm qualified to comment on it" Fanboi - since when was Mac OS the best OS around?

    I could point to at least 3 that are better and none of them have been upgraded since 1995.

    So go ahead, buy a mouse for $100, hope it's 'magic' enough to make up for having to spend twice as much on an intel box with a GUI as everyone else.

    In reply to this dildos comment someone suggested you could only play games on a PC, to which someone else suggested the PC was just a niche market in a console world.

    Both I'm afraid are far from the truth.

    World of Warcraft, the only game that actually matters, is available on Macs and not on consoles.

    Once caught, no amount of 'jump, strafe, shoot' can replace it because pretty graphics can only make up for so much lack of depth.

    My guess is WoW has caused more unemployment through sickies, more failed exams through lack of revision and more illness through lack of sleep than every other game ever written, combined.

    I guess in the end I like Windows 7, and in answer to those that feel XP can give them the exact same thing, maybe so, but only if you're still using a 32-bit, single core processor. What Windows 7 (and indeed Vista) gives in terms of a real features is the ability to use more than 3.25GB of ram and can make proper use of 64-bit processors as well as multiple cores or multiple processors. Yes XP 64 did this to some extent, but not very well. It was incompatible with vast swathes of software, not to mention drivers, and wasn't very reliable with software it supposedly could run. Windows 7 does away with all those limitations and so far it looks like it's extremely stable, even if the program swears blind its incompatible when you install it.

    Part of the problem is that not much has been written yet to take full advantage of 64-bit processors, more than 4gb of ram or multiple cores. This is because there just hasn't been enough time and too much of the business world just stuck to XP Pro. This will change, because even the diehards in the business world recognise they can't continue to use an OS that won't be getting security updates. The speed increases will come, you just have to be patient. Anyone who remembers the first 3D cards of the early 90s knows how this will go.

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