Windows 7

remus · 27 Oct 2009, 07:25

Sketchup is running fine on my machine, no noticeable change in performance. All the renderers i use are working fine so far, as well (indigo and twilight.) Anything in particular your worried/interested about ecuadorian?

Ecuadorian · 27 Oct 2009, 07:32

Thanks for the reply, Remus. I'm worried about all my older software, some of which no longer get updates from the developer (PD particles comes to mind). How good is the virtual XP mode?

remus · 27 Oct 2009, 07:36

I'll see if i can find any xp specific software and give it a go

remus · 27 Oct 2009, 11:30

Anyone got any freeware xp only stuff they want to try out? i couldnt tihnk of anything off the top of my head

On another note, ive noticed chrome slows down a lot sometimes. Its really annoying when it happens, as the whole thing freezes up for a few seconds while following links. restarting seems to solve it, but itd be much better if it didnt happen in the first place.

honoluludesktop · 27 Oct 2009, 11:49

I have VPC, and VS installed on a WinXp. From what I see on the MS VM forums, VWinXp on Win7 adds hardwired code for VMs, better access to multi core, and usb ports (this is a big deal for VMs). Besides legacy software, other reasons to run VWinXP, include access to hardware that has no drivers for vista, and Win7. Fantastic for older large scale printers or plotters.

Ecuadorian · 27 Oct 2009, 15:18

@Remus:
Poor Chrome ... Did you make a clean install or just installed on top of Vista?
Anyway, thank you for being willing to test with freeware XP apps. Here's a couple I use:
Playstation Media Server (to browse photos/music/video in my PC from the living room)

Subtitle workshop, the one I used to synchronize subtitles to my background tut.

Last night I thought of another reason to upgrade from XP: Windows Live Movie Maker. How are you liking it?

I think I'll just stop asking questions and go grab a Win7 package...

remus · 27 Oct 2009, 15:57

Both worked fine with just a straight install (no messing required.)

WRT the chrome thing, it was a clean install, so there shouldnt be anything slowing it down.

Ecuadorian · 27 Oct 2009, 16:13

Thanks for testing, Remus.
The Chrome thing worries me, as it means there might be other problematic XP applications (I have a truckload of small XP apps such as ArtRage, VideoMach 4, Stackz!, NeatImage, a specialized CD-ROM encyclopedia I use frequently, etc). I'll wait a few weeks for you guys to continue telling us your experiences with Win 7 and in the meanwhile I'll go buy the netbook.

solo · 27 Oct 2009, 17:12

A friend of mine very recently bought a new laptop with Window 7 pre-installed, he came by last night as we are collaborationg on a project in downtown Dallas anyway he noticed I had a USB powered scanner that was not being used as it does not work with Vista (Visioneer onetouch) anyway he plugged it into his USB jack and it was recognised and worked straight up without even needing the driver disk. Just that compatability alone is amazing (Visioneer does not work on a Mac)

chango70 · 28 Oct 2009, 00:57

Just some basic SU experience in Windows 7. It appears that SU running in Windows 7 loads up a LOT faster. When I was in Vista 64 bit home premium I had to wait say like 20 sec (loads of ruby scripts) before the application becomes usable. Now it is more like 10 sec. This is a substantial improvement.

honoluludesktop · 28 Oct 2009, 01:15

Solo, did he do that without running VMWinXp? If so, perhaps Win7 default drivers include stuff not found in Vista. Fantastic.

solo · 28 Oct 2009, 01:43

Honolulu, I believe his machine is stock, and probably not running any virtual machine setup, at least not what I know of.

notareal · 28 Oct 2009, 11:09

@solo said:

...he noticed I had a USB powered scanner that was not being used as it does not work with Vista (Visioneer onetouch) anyway he plugged it into his USB jack and it was recognised and worked straight up without even needing the driver disk. Just that compatability alone is amazing (Visioneer does not work on a Mac)

I have one usb dvb-t stick, that was never working properly in XP nor in Vista. It did not have a driver for any 64 bit win. Best of all, the manufacturer got buyed out and the product line was closed.

Guess what - it works just fine in Win7 64-bit, just stink it in and enjoy the show

Ecuadorian · 28 Oct 2009, 20:47

Ok, guys, you won.
I've just returned from the local distributor with Windows 7 Pro 64. The border of the disc has some funny holograms with sparkles that makes it look like the disc is scratched; MS should rethink this design. Anyway, I'll be installing it this weekend and will be reporting my experiences.

honoluludesktop · 28 Oct 2009, 21:06

In addition to the new drivers, I wounder if those older Win programs that would not run in WinXP might run in Win7. Now where did I put that disk.......

remus · 28 Oct 2009, 21:16

@ecuadorian said:

Ok, guys, you won.
I've just returned from the local distributor with Windows 7 Pro 64. The border of the disc has some funny holograms with sparkles that makes it look like the disc is scratched; MS should rethink this design. Anyway, I'll be installing it this weekend and will be reporting my experiences.

If you dont post for a couple of weeks we'll know whats happened to you

Ecuadorian · 29 Oct 2009, 03:32

Small update: I have two hard drives, the first one with two system partitions and the second one with all my data. The first one contained XP and Ubuntu so I decided to delete the Ubuntu partition and install Windows 7 there. I can now dual boot XP and 7.

Now, for the dark comedy part: Windows 7 can't read my second hard drive. No matter what I try, it simply can't. Every time I boot 7 it messes up my data drive file structure and I have to repair it with XP later. Not only that... the first time I booted 7 with the data drive it offered me to format it. Imagine what could have happened. My data hard drive is NTFS and was formatted in XP. Any ideas of how to make it readable by 7? It has no fancy features turned on besides XP's Index Server, but then again my XP system partition also has this feature enabled and it's perfectly readable by 7. I guess I'll have to move all my stuff to one of the system partitions, format the data drive and move all my stuff again so I can finally start to actually use 7.

The ironic part: Ubuntu had no problems reading my data disc. It's infuriating that Linux can read an XP-formatted disc with no problems (in fact, it can read pretty much any format you throw at it), while 7 can't.

The scary part: Imagine what would have happened had I not kept XP. I would now be Simply Outta Luck, completely unable to access my data. sigh Now I know why Linus Torvalds poked fun at 7.

honoluludesktop · 29 Oct 2009, 04:04

Didn't you install Win7 64 bit? Will it read 32 bit dirves? I know that you can have 32 bit data, and programs, but????

Ecuadorian · 29 Oct 2009, 04:28

Yes, I installed Win 7 Pro 64-bit. I still haven't installed any software on it, but for some obscure reason it won't read my second hard drive, a 500GB Samsung SATA disk I bought just months ago. XP 32-bit and Ubuntu 32-bit can read the drive without any problem, but Win7 can't and prompts me to format it.

Ecuadorian · 29 Oct 2009, 07:18

I would highly recommend installing Win7 in dual boot instead of wiping out your XP. Then you can see if your hard drive is read automatically by Win7, and if it isn't, you can still access your data.

My two discs are formatted in NTFS and both use the SATA interface, so it's weird the one is being read and the other not. The one that does work is a Western Digital, while the other is a Samsung.

When I tried to install the Release Candidate of Windows 7 it was not compatible with my LG DVD writer, but the retail version works perfectly with it, so I guess the odd problem with Samsung my hard drive is just one of those little things that will be ironed out sooner or later by MS. Until then, I've started moving all my stuff and I'll soon be reporting how things go after formatting the disk.