 "Overpriced upgrade, but well worth it if you skipped Vista" | 2009-11-18 |
| - Reviewed By rklaproth2 |
I'm in the IT Industry, so I consider myself an early adopter. I purchased the Iphone 3G on launch day. I purchased the Motorola Droid on Launch Day. I bought Leopeard the day it came out and immediately installed it. Same goes for Snow Leopard. You get my point. With Vista, on the other hand, I completely avoided it like the plague after hearing of all the problems. Then, one day, I accidently forgot to select the XP Downgrade on Dell's site, and my new laptop came shipped with Vista. I tried to love it, but me and Vista just had a love hate relationship, starting with the simple fact that Nero CD Burning software was not working with Vista (eventually fixed with an update that took several months)... And ended with my hatred for the interface in Vista! So, I ended up deleting Vista and installing XP Pro.
Fast forward to Windows 7... About 2 days after Windows 7 came out, my XP Pro machine at work got infected with spyware. After spending 2 days trying to clean my machine with all the latest products (Malwarebytes, Spybot Search & Destroy, and Symantec Endpoint), I finally said SCREW THIS, and I backed up my data, reformatted my hard drive and installed Windows 7 instead.
If for no reason other then SECURITY, I highly recommend anyone still running the obsolete Windows XP to move to Windows 7 because as time goes on, Microsoft will stop updating XP, and your computer will be at much higher risk for viruses, spyware, and malware. With Windows 7, I'm sure that risk exists, but let's face it, it's like running Mac OS. There aren't a lot of people using it yet, so there are significantly less threats out there. And of course, 7 has much better protection built into it. I would still recommend the following to protect yourself: 1. Do not use your computer as the administrator, browse the web with another user account that only has limited permissions. 2. Do not use IE! Use Firefox and install Adblock Pro as well! 3. Don't visit web sites that give you free music, games, tv shows, etc.. LOL
Anyway, as far as the overall experience in 7, I am still getting used to the user interface. I *LOVE* the aero peek where I can preview my windows I have open, and it nicely organizes all your Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, etc windows into 1 nice little icon instead of having hundreds of open windows.
Startup and shutdown... I think these are a little slower the XP Pro, especially waking back up from sleep mode. However, I have significantly LESS problems now when I put it to sleep at work and then wake it up at home. Before, when I would come home, my system would hang for 5 minutes trying to access our network file shares, now it seems to know that I'm not at work any more and comes up much quicker.
Stability... I have yet to have anything crash! Seriously Microsoft, you guys rock!
Systray & Clock - I Love the new design! Especially how it corrals all your systray icons into a little center where you can disable them! Finally I can stop that annoying Adobe and Java updater from constantly nagging me! And, HELLO! It shows the time AND the date now, what a novel concept huh? ;)
Compatibility.. Well I don't have 5 million programs, so I can't speak for that, but everything I've tried to run so far has worked.. Except the Cisco VPN, I had to tweek a few things to get that working, but I was able to finally get the VPN working.
Hardware compatibility.. EVERYTHING worked out of the box on my HP EliteBook laptop that is about 6 months old. The laptop does have a "designed for Vista" sticker on it, so that probably makes a big difference. The only thing that isn't working is the scoll function on my touchpad, but I'm sure if I go download the Synaptics drivers it will magically work. Even the Media Buttons on the top of the laptop work and the SD card reader! No extra drivers to download and instal... HUGE plus Microsoft, you are bridging the gap between Mac and PC!
That leaves me to my final point... Windows 7 vs Snow Leopard... Used them both, and honestly, I don't miss the stupid dock in Leopard at all. I am not a fan of the dock, I actually got Rocket Dock for my PC, and I ended up uninstalling it. I do miss the "Stacks" in Leopard... I also miss the "Corners" and "Expose"... And perhaps the thing I miss the most about my Mac is the program called Bento from FileMaker! But are those functions enough to make me want to use a Mac over a PC? Not so much!
Loving Windows 7, and hoping to discover more of the exciting new features when I have time, but day to day functioning, I was up and running pretty quickly and I am a happy camper with Windows 7!
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 "GARBAGE!" | 2009-11-17 |
| - Reviewed By kingraine |
HELLO, why can't you make the taskbar show behind windows? Why is there no quick launch, why was MSPaint turned into a confusing cluttered mess? Why is that annoying user account control garbage still there to annoy the hell out of everyone whenever they want to install a program? Why the hell is the network manager so stupid: you're forced to view it in the corn of ur screen when trying to access it, and forced to watch it try to connect to a single connection instead of being allowed to try and switch it on the fly. I CAN'T BELIEVE VISTA IS BETTER THAN THIS THING. IT'S INSANE!
The only noticeable improvement is the SDHC scanning speed and auto-finding of drivers for your laptop/PC, but Vista can do that too. Well I'm not going to use Linux, it's nerdware, and will probably go back to Vista, ironically. I don't, like most other people, how a company that is worth and makes billions, can't come out with an OS, and GUI, after getting tons of complaints about Vista, that doesn't anger the majority. If we want to be angry we can all just go to Linux, ok Microsoft? At least linux, apple and microsoft aren't the only alternative os', I'll keep searching for something better that isn't stuck the way it is because of companies that are paranoid about showing their source to anyone. |
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 "So-so. Lots of problems" | 2009-11-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2QU6JHWJOSONB |
I have been running Vista Ultimate and installed Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade. I'm not a tech-savvie person so it was a disappointment to encounter several problems with the transition to Windows 7.
The first problem was that Windows 7 would not bring along VPN Client or SAP software during the upgrade. I have to have these on my home computer in order to work so this is a critical shortcoming. The second problem was that Windows 7 would not recognize my HP printer. Going onto the HP website I found there is no Windows 7 driver available for my HP printer so I would have to use a lower-end generic driver. So far I have not been able to resolve either problem.
Our tech people at work suggested that in order to get my SAP software onto my now-Windows 7 machine, I should do the Custom Install instead of the upgrade. I did that over the weekend and had to reinstall all of my software and files and run through the voluminous updates. After all of that, Windows 7 stopped recognizing my Nvidia video card and accelerator and changed my screen resolutions, brightness and colors.
So the bottom line is that my Windows 7 upgrade, advertised as very simple and direct, has proven to be a dismal failure. If you have Vista and you can live with it, stay with it. |
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| "Windows 7 - Ultimate - Full Install" | 2009-11-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3CTQZDFT5SGJ0 |
I have installed Windows 7 - Ultimate - 64 Bit, while it is a chore to fully
install I have not had any difficulty. As it is new, it has lots of new devices
to be used and it takes me awhile to properly install and become accustomed to
the change in the Operating System. So far I am fully satisfied with the new
system. |
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| "Install Lockup" | 2009-11-08 |
| - Reviewed By arronmcneill |
This program sucks! I tryed 7 times to install this only to have it lock up at 62% every time and when I do there Windows 7 upgrade test in says there no problems, On one try I left it running four days strait at 62% and nothing changed. This sucks and I would like to get my money back, but I already opened it and Every time I call Microsoft try want to charge me.
By the way if you are wondering were it locks up at, it is the part of the install were the System info is transferred back to the computer. (Prass computer gods for Backups) I think I'm staying with Vista. |
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| "DON'T DO IT!!!" | 2009-11-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: A6SQMNCATYG74 |
| I purchased the Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade. I have had nothing but problems with it. KNOW THIS: your printer driver and any applications that are over a year or so old WILL NOT WORK, most likely, on the Windows 7 OS. You will need to buy a new printer and new updated applications (eg: Photoshop 8) because the older versions are not compatable. As for Windows 7 support from Microsoft: forget that too. I spent SIX HOURS of my time trying to get Windows 7 to work with my printer other applications, and all they did was force me to totally lose control of my computer because it would no longer recognize my bluetooth devices. Microsoft support is going to be useless to you: they hung up on me twice, failed to return calls at a predesignated time, and despite their promises and assurances, in the end failed to fix the problems. Worse yet, I had to go out and buy USB devices at my own expense just to fix the problems MS support caused. Then MS refused to reimburse me for that purchase. So the bottom line is this: its not just the cost of the "upgrade" (and I use that term loosely) that you will have to pay out-and thats expensive all by itself-but you also need to plan on buying a whole lot more expensive products to make them compatable with Windows 7. If I had it to do over again, there is NO WAY I would "upgrade". In the strongest possible terms, I recommend that you do not "upgrade" either. |
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