Windows 7 is out in force. According to our stats here at PCMech, about 15% of you guys are already using Windows 7.
However, a whopping 51% of you guys are still using Windows XP. And 22% of you guys are using Vista.
Chances are, if you’re using Vista, you might be thinking about an upgrade. However, a lot of XP users are comfortable with it and are hesitant to rock the boat.
As you can probably tell, I have been playing around with the design of PCMech. I’m not done either. But, one of the things I am starting is a poll. You will see it on the sidebar of the site and we’ll probably rotate the poll with a new one every week or so. For this week, the question is simple:
[poll id="2"]
Have your say. 
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One of my customers yesterday said he bought a new Windows 7 laptop. He later discovered that there are no drivers available for his printers. He is pretty bummed about.that.
I’m going to wait untill most of the problems that always seem to occur with the release of a new OS have been taken care of. Besides, Vista works fine for me plus its getting pretty old Microsoft expecting everyone to buy a new OS about every 4 years. I’m not going to play that marketing game.
I’ve had problems getting my Samsung ML – 2010 to work with Windows 7 64-bit; although having said that I have managed to use it in Windows 7 via my XP box on my LAN – which requires a driver for it in Windows 7.
I first had this issue with the 64-bit RC, as it refused to install the Vista driver I had on CD: (Maybe it was only for 32-bit systems? I tried to download a driver for it from Windows Update, with no result.)
I subsequently connected it to my networked XP Pro 32-bit box and installed the XP driver. I searched for a networked printer on the Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit RC machine, and it found it and installed a driver, seemingly from Windows Update, which worked across the network. I left the printer connected to my XP box, and later installed the RTM’d version of 7 64-bit Home Premium on a brand new 1TB HD that I fitted. It found and installed the networked printer without a problem, so I left it at that: I’ve not tried to connect the printer to the 7 box again as yet.
I also have a Labtec webcam that appears to have both an XP and a Vista driver; but is Windows 7 (64-bit) willing to run it on its Vista driver: No way; it refuses to play ball. I can’t find a Windows 7 specific driver for it anywhere on Google either: Fortunately it’s only a cheapo webcam; so I’ll buy a new one packaged with a Windows 7 driver soon, and use the old one on my XP box only.
- That’s the negative bit: On the positive side Windows 7 had no problems finding a suitable 64-bit driver for the nVidia GeForce 7300 SE/7200 GS cheap graphics- card, nor the Realtek RTL 8168C(P)/8111C(P) (motherboard-specific-?) Family Ethernet Adapte, or anything else. ( However; Windows Update offered an updated driver for the onboard ethernet NIC, soon after installation, that didn’t work! Rolling back the driver got it working again.)
In my opinion, despite the odd annoyance, for a first-time RTM rollout it’s doing pretty well; and I’m sure that SP1 will address a number of those annoyances, in time.
I have a Samsung ML-2010 and I’m running windows 7 Prof. 64 bit. I had no problem, win 7 either found the driver or had it in the stock pile and loaded my printer . I have had very few problems only minor problems with outlook and coming out of sleep mode with out sound. Bruce
Unless you do Windows tech support and need to be familiar with the OS, or like to play high-end games, I can’t see any reason to use Windows. Same with OS/X, although you can’t really even play games with that one. Anything useful or productive can be done with Linux and you don’t have to worry about or defend against Microsoft, Apple, or black hats ruining your day or costing you gobs of money.
Or if you develop Windows programs which is the only reason I use Windows.
I use windows for the gaming ability. Linux is not up to par with gaming. I do plan on upgrading since I have Vista on my main desktop but I’m not sure how I want to go about it. Purchase an upgrade or the full.
Exert from XP magic Secrets
Preliminary information of 7 in comparison to XP :-
1 7 has registry monitoring, which is why it keeps prompting you to answer questions, but you don’t need this with XP, if you use Comodo Internet Security, which has an excellent registry monitor.
2 7 has a very flashy GUI, ( what you see on the monitor ), but it requires 128 MB, or a lot of RAM on your video card to run it, and so uses a lot of resources ( computer power ), whilst XP has a simple GUI, for which some amazing customization is available, that uses ???? MB, or very little RAM on your video card, and so uses very little rescourses to run it. When using a computer you rarely see the GUI, because you are using a program as Firefox or Thunderbird, so a flashy GUI is largely wasted.
3 7 requires a minimum video card of Nvidia 9600 GT, with 512 MB of ram on it, to achieve Aero 7.9, which are the glassy effects. However, 7 will work with lesser video cards, as it automatically downgrades the effects to suite the card.
4 7 will do things XP won’t, they are :- A Better networking ( the program that connects you to the internet ), B Hardware support ( the little programs that run dvd drives for example, called drivers ), C The capability to deal with very large files, as architectural plans, D More to come. However, the average user will not achieve any gain over XP.
5 The system files of 7 are ???? compared to XP, so 7 is only XP dressed up with a flashy GUI.
6 You can upgrade from Vista to 7, without a clean installation, for free with a purchase agreement issued in Sept or Oct 2009. Otherwise, upgrade costs are : Dick Smith prices 02-11-09, Home Premium NZ$ 250, Professional NZ$ 500. I cannot understand Microsoft asking such high prices, when they made Vista obsolete, due to it being a commercial failure, so the upgrade should be free.
7 You cannot upgrade from XP to 7, but as an Windows XP user, you can purchase the upgrade copy of Windows 7 (for the reduced price), and must do a clean install of 7 (i.e. install the operating system, install all your programs, and copy your backup files from XP), as the 7 installer will prevent you from upgrading from Windows XP.
8 Most programs will run on 7, however a few programs will not, but if you have a Professional Version of 7, it has XP in it, that you run in virtual mode, and provided you have a CPU, that has native virtualization support, you can run the program.
9 XP will run nicely on 512 MB of ram, as it will typically only use 350 MB of that, whilst 7 requires a minimum of 1.024 GB of ram, or Windows 7 Enterprise/Ultimate, 2GB+ RAM. Simply put, Vista computers will probably run 7, but XP computers probably won’t.
10 An Xp installation takes 3.3 GB, so a dedicated partition of 15 GB would be good, whereas, a 7 installation takes 5.5 GB, so a dedicated partition of 20 GB, would be good.
11 7 has no knowledge base on the forums, to help you fix yor computer yourself, and won’t have for a couple of years, till October 2011, so you will have to pay a tech big bucks if your computer goes wrong, which is Microsofts philosophy. XP has a comprehensive knowledge base.
12 After 7 had been released for only a month, people on the forums, were already reporting unfixable problems, and finding it wasn’t as good or usable as XP, as the hyp led them to believe.
13 There is a consensus of opinion, that it might to be better to wait for Windows 7 Service Pack 1, approx July 2010,or Windows 8, to be released, with all the fixes.
14 PCMech.com 10-12-09 quote ” Microsoft did say they were going to release a new OS every three years. As such they will be switching focus to that commitment in July 2010.” Selling people another new operating system, would make Microsoft billions of $, so this would certainly be very likely.
Conclusion : Experts are impressed with 7 , but considering cost benefit of, $ spent on purchase and installation of 7 + all your programs, problems with 7 being new, probably having to upgrade to a more powerful computer, and finally learning 7, sensible, practical experts, advise the non expert, average user, to stay with XP at the moment, as they will not achieve any benefit.