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Windows 7- Is it worth it?

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Feb 3, 2006
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In a van down by the river 916
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Heywood J.
I haven't played w/ windows7 yet- is it worth the upgrade?

Running XP Pro/64 on a Xeon QuadCore 2.5Mhz w/ 4GB of RAM:nerd
 
Me moving from XP too

I bought two boxes with 64 bit W7 from Costco for the office. I hooked them up for general internet use and downloaded Office 2010 Beta so everyone can start getting used to the interface. I have not had any complaints or questions about where stuff is so I guess that is a positive.

I have been using it for a short while. I got the RC a long time ago but never installed it until lately. Now I have the 32 bit RC installed on a P4 2.6 GHz with 1 gig of DDR dual channel and Hyper threading enabled, on an old Intel perl 865 chipset. It has visual basic express, .Net 3.5, SQL and some other BS installed.

With 500 threads and 15,000 handles at idle it uses about 30% ram and easily spikes to 30% CPU usage, at idle. It will bog down pretty easy but manages applications reasonably, considering the old hardware.

I built a 64 bit machine and it runs very well. I ran some demanding stuff and it breezed through it very nicely. With the appropriate hardware it seems to be doing the work I throw at it. I am in the middle of developing a module for my app that queries road maps and routes. The computer calculates, writes images and *.prn files to disc, updates the DB, and asks for more. The only bottleneck seems to be the FSB. I would have preferred an Intel LAN chip but the realtek seems to manage OK. I ended up disabling TCP/IPv6. I have not had a chance to try gigabit over Ethernet yet though.

i7 – 860 2.8 GHz Socket 1156 Lynnfield family
Running 1333 MHz bus
P55 Express Chipset
Realtek 8111D LAN
8 gig of DDR3 dual channel RAM (4 sticks)

So any cons I can find….

Must have new hardware

Will cause integration issues with some apps. (Have not tried XP mode but I plan on avoiding this if at all possible) 64 bit works with my printers though.

Microsoft says networking is easier but I am not sure about that. Maybe because I keep trying to manually configure things I am just fighting the wizard. It seemed easier to search for the old GUI ways than to research the Microsoft tutorial on how to use the wizard.

Copying directories across the network seems to be a permissions nightmare. Real slow read/write speeds to Server 2003. Not sure why, maybe my network sucks.

Editing HTML files (i.e. copy, delete, paste) within a directory will adversely affect subfolders that hold supporting files.

Sharing folders has some features I need to brush up on. The ever comforting, “You’re in good hands…” icon is totally gone and if you don’t share correctly it shows a padlock. You must look at the bottom of the window for specific stats.

If you like to save your data files to a separate physical drive than your OS, you need to search for it because the special preformatted MyDocs folders are really in your face. Maybe there is a way to change their directory.

That’s all I’ve got to say about that.
 
Yeah, Ken. Unless you have major issues with XP, don't bother. Unless you like your GUI to look "fruity".
 
After the failure that was Vista, 7 is worlds better and I like it. Coming from a Mac user, I can tell you Windows is finally catching up to OSX...somewhat :laughing
 
There aren't any compelling features for us in 7, although we'll probably make the switch in about a year (currently imaging everthing to XPsp3).

We'll transition to 64 bit at the same time, but I don't expect it to make much of a difference.

Switching to the newer version of Office is more likely to generate calls because of the new interface (we aren't even using 2007 yet).
 
Its a bit better in terms of how it manages multiple file transfers, locally, but for the most part, until there is a dedicated app that needs 7 to run, you're better off sticking to xp, and what works.
 
I enjoy Windows 7, but if you add RocketDock to XP you essentially have the Best Windows 7 Feature.
 
I like it so far...we have it installed on 3 machines at home, and are utilizing the Homegroup and Libraries features a good deal.

I also run an HTPC, and Win7 MCE makes a great living room pc.

I also think that the way Aero handles docking windows is great...makes it much easier to tile apps side by side...also has built in hotkeys to stretch to extents (ie, make it maximize the window in a specific direction...great for widescreen monitors and multiple apps)...

With an SSD installed in my not-so-powerful laptop (C2D T8300, 4GB, GF8400m), it will boot to a login screen in under 30s...

Didn't really think much of it till writing this post...but I would say it's definitely a good upgrade...I used my technet subscription to get Win7 Ultimate (10 licenses, plus a ton of other crap available) for ~$250
 
I have until the end of this month to take advantage of the free upgrade from Vista to Win7 on my (relatively) new Sony Vaio notebook. :nerd
 
Hooli said:
I have until the end of this month to take advantage of the free upgrade from Vista to Win7 on my (relatively) new Sony Vaio notebook. :nerd
Click to expand...

I got the same deal when I bought my laptop last year. I upgraded it about a month ago and it's WAY better than Vista. Vista = :jaded
 
I got it for free, so it wasn't about cast to me. However, I'm pretty amazed with how smooth the transition has been. No issues so far. Would I pay for it? It depends on how much.
 
I've been running the RC since it came out and then I bought the full version.

If you're going to buy a new computer soon, don't bother upgrading. If you don't plan on changing for a couple of years, it's worth a try.

XP is for old people.
 
Mr Pepsi said:
I enjoy Windows 7, but if you add RocketDock to XP you essentially have the Best Windows 7 Feature.
Click to expand...

What is this rocketdock-like thing that is supposed to be part of Windows7? I can't find where it is enabled?!!?!?!
 
HellFyre said:
What is this rocketdock-like thing that is supposed to be part of Windows7? I can't find where it is enabled?!!?!?!
Click to expand...

Rocketdock is a utility you can add to any windows OS.
It is similar to the Windows 7 Task bar, its like a cool task launcher.
 
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