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Windows 7 Public Beta Available Friday

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Island Dog
PuterDudeJim
Join Date 10/2004
+274
Reply #51 January 10, 2009 9:10:05 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

I have been trying Stardock products on 7. Here is some results, BTW Neil says " UNDER ON CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU TRY BOOTSKIN PRO ON WINDOWS 7!!"

https://forums.wincustomize.com/336036/page/1/#2015030

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Island Dog
PuterDudeJim
Join Date 10/2004
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Reply #52 January 10, 2009 9:13:09 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

OOPS

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Island Dog
starkers
Join Date 05/2004
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Reply #53 January 10, 2009 11:13:05 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

ok started my download wich is going to take 20 hours.....

Whoa... 20 hours???

Well my mouth, mine took just 4hours 46mins to complete... that was the 3.5 gig W7 x64 version.

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Island Dog
Leo the Lion
Join Date 05/2003
+100
Reply #54 January 11, 2009 1:06:07 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

So guys what are your first impressions?????????............

I must say I am very impressed.............

Speed and responsiveness is always two of my main concerns..........and I'm amazed. I installed 7 on a three year old laptop with an AMD Turion processor with a gig of ram and a very lightweight graphics card and it flies along........Just as quick as XP.

I'm using IE8 on it and thats flipping round the net like a mad thing............

No compatability problems.............It found several drivers that I needed and installed them...........All hardware is working fine.

Has the WMP had an update?.............replay quality on music seems better

It's a least six months away from being released.............and it's this good already !!!!!

 

  

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Island Dog
Leo the Lion
Join Date 05/2003
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Reply #55 January 11, 2009 1:52:55 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

And here's a great article that talks about many of the changes. A really useful read:-

http://mintywhite.com/tech/windows-7/will-windows-7-be-a-worthwhile-upgrade/

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Island Dog
starkers
Join Date 05/2004
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Reply #56 January 11, 2009 6:41:46 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

First impressions....

Installation of W7 x64 was quick and seamless, completed in just over 16 minutes... clean install not an upgrade

Startup is much better than Vista's... cuts out the logo screen and goes straight from a 'sort o'f bootscreen to logon to desktop in just under 30 seconds.

Over-all system speed is appreciably faster than both Vista and XP, the UI is slick, well laid out/presented and feels smooth to use... over-all MS has streamlined the GUI and access to Windows apps and functions is much better than in previous incarnations.

The shutdown on the start menu is much improved... now there is a main button with various sleep, logoff and shutdown options.

I like the new wallpaper function that allows time alterable slideshow feature... and for Aussies selecting the Oz location option an Aussie wallpaper theme pack.  Oh, and the new interactive taskbar thumbnails are excellent.

I like the fact that MS dropped the sidebar on this one... in Vista that was a resource sucking hog with no use or practicality for me... yet the sidebar gadgets are still there should one want or need them.

I seems also that MS may have done away with 'Ultimate Extras'... also another good thing cos most of that is bloat anyhow, like who needs Dreamscene when we have Deskscapes... right!

Windows Media Player has had a facelift... the UI mightn't be as flashy as in Vista, but it is clean looking and WMP  seems to sound better when playing MP3 or WMA files.

My internet connection seems rather slow at times, however, but I think that may be due to a wireless driver thing... W7 is now updating the Netgear drivers so that may very well resolve that issue.

Another strange thing was that my media drive was not showing up in 'Computer'... although it was appearing in 'Disk Management'  It took a little while to figure out why not, but I was able to bring it on line easily enough.  For some odd and unexplained reason this partition did not have a letter assigned, so it was as simple as assigning it a letter and voila, it was there.

I haven't delved into it too deeply as yet, but early indications are that W7 is superior and a more user friendly OS than Vista was at the same stage... and is now, so yeah, the finished item is a must when it becomes available on the shelf.

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Island Dog
starkers
Join Date 05/2004
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Reply #57 January 11, 2009 7:14:39 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Oh yeah, the UAC is nowhere near the pain in the arse intrusive as Vista's... I don't have it turned off, yet it certainly isn't as bothersome as Vista's is on the lower elevation using TweakVista.  Dunno if it'll keep asking permissions on previously allowed items as I haven't got that far, but installing Firefox only took the one permission, not 2 like in Vista with UAC fully turned on.

And file move/copy/transfer is decidedly faster than in Vista.... no more of that 'calculating' crap, it just gets stuck into it and is done in no time.

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Island Dog
starkers
Join Date 05/2004
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Reply #58 January 11, 2009 8:22:31 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums
Well I figured out why my internet is slow... excruciatingly so, and it has nothing to do with wireless drivers. I have a 25gb per month package that reverts to dial-up speed when the allowable amount is reach... and yeah, the 3.5gb Windows 7 download helped push me/us over the top. Normally 25gb is ample, but I've had some heavy duty downloads this month and obviously exceeded our monthly limit. Dunno how anybody could live with dial-up, it's bloody woeful. Oh well, it's only for a day and our account resets to broadband, thank goodness.
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Island Dog
vStyler
Join Date 11/2004
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Reply #59 January 11, 2009 8:35:35 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

mine took 55 mins to dl

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Island Dog
Robbie_Boy
Join Date 03/2005
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Reply #60 January 11, 2009 10:53:01 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Crap it only got to 1.86 Gigs and stoped downloading and the iso don't work.....

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Island Dog
starkers
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Reply #61 January 11, 2009 11:01:17 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

More good stuff... the UAC in Win 7 has user adjustable levels... something Vista should have had.  By default it prompts for permission for programs to install/make changes to the systen, but does not seek permissions for user prompted changes.  There is a higher lever which prompts for both, another similar to default but without screen dimming, and then off entirely. The default setting, as I alluded to before, does not prompt for elevations anywhere near as often or persistently as Vista's default, so MS has listened to users wants, needs as well as complaints.

I also read somewhere that Win 7 would not install someone's Creative soundcard, but I was able to install my Soundblaster X-fi Extreme Gamer Pro using the provided setup disc for Vista, without administrator rights or special permissions.  Given that Win 7 is based largely on Vista architecture, the drivers and all apps installedand work seamlessly, as I suspect other software and hardware designed for Vista will also.  If anyone has issues installing Vista designed software in Win 7, I have been advised that setting compatibility to Vista and running as administrator should in most cases resolve it.

Another improvement on Vista is the more customisable System Tray.  Instead of simply hiding icons, Win 7 gives the option to show individual icons and notifications, meaning they both display in the sys tray; to. to show only notifications, meaning the icons are hidden offscreen while still showing notices but are accessible via an 'add button; or icons and notifications are hidden, meaning all are hidden off screen and only the clock shows in the sys tray, thus effectively reducing/eliminating taskbar/sys tray clutter. Yup, a big improvement on Vista and earlier Windows versions

mine took 55 mins to dl

Was that because you have DSL 2 or... had MS take out all the bits you wouldn't like.

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Island Dog
starkers
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Reply #62 January 11, 2009 11:14:57 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Crap it only got to 1.86 Gigs and stoped downloading and the iso don't work.....

I read on the Windows 7 home page somewhere that interrupted downloads can be resumed where they left off by simply reactivating the download link... if you have not cleared your cache or temp files you should be able to do this.  If not, but you already have a license key, it would still be OK to restart the file download from the beginning... and let me say, it'd be worth your while as Win 7 has been a pleasant computing experience for me all 'round.

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Island Dog
CarGuy1
Join Date 03/2007
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Reply #63 January 11, 2009 11:18:57 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

starkers...are you running 32 or 64 bit and how much ram do you have? I'm running the same sound card and the static is unbearable. I understand it's could be due to having over 3 gb of ram and I'm having a hard time resolving it.

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Island Dog
Leo the Lion
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Reply #64 January 11, 2009 11:34:25 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

You mention some great points there, starkers in your reviews. I'm glad you found the same thing as I did with the sound quality improvement in Windows Media Player. I found this incredible. I've been using some sound enhancing software to improve the sound quality in both Windows Media Player and Winamp in XP but 7's new player just takes this to a whole new level. For someone, like me, who loves to listen to music when tapping away at the keyboard, this is huge.

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Island Dog
PuterDudeJim
Join Date 10/2004
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Reply #65 January 11, 2009 5:13:24 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

mine took 55 mins to dl
  Same here. Cable modem at 6MB/sec.
    I seems also that MS may have done away with 'Ultimate Extras'... also another good thing cos most of that is bloat anyhow, like who needs Dreamscene when we have Deskscapes... right!
   If it would work...lol.

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Island Dog
Snowman
Join Date 03/2001
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Reply #66 January 11, 2009 10:40:55 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

mine took 55 mins to dl

That long?

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Island Dog
starkers
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Reply #67 January 12, 2009 12:08:23 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

starkers...are you running 32 or 64 bit and how much ram do you have? I'm running the same sound card and the static is unbearable. I understand it's could be due to having over 3 gb of ram and I'm having a hard time resolving it.[/quote]

I'm running the 64 bit version with 8gb of Ram, but I've not experienced any static or hum on my rig.  You may need to open the Creative Control Panel and make some adjustments to the EQ, Crystalizer, EAX, etc to see if you can eliminate it.  There again, it may be a driver issue that's affecting your rig and not mine... doing an update with the Creative auto-updater may help resolve it.

[quote who="Leo the Lion" reply="14" id="2015548"]You mention some great points there, starkers in your reviews. I'm glad you found the same thing as I did with the sound quality improvement in Windows Media Player. I found this incredible. I've been using some sound enhancing software to improve the sound quality in both Windows Media Player and Winamp in XP but 7's new player just takes this to a whole new level. For someone, like me, who loves to listen to music when tapping away at the keyboard, this is huge.

Yup, the new media player is something, isn't it... crisper, clearer and cleaner.  I love my music as well, so WMP in Win 7 will get a lot more use than earlier versions for sure.... and with 5.1 surround set up with the rear speakers behind me it's awesome.

Oh, and has anybody else had a problem with Win 7 going into sleep mode and freezing, requiring a hard boot to reatart it?  It happened to me yesterday, and I also read on the Win 7 blog about someone else experiencing it as well.  Anyhow, I thought that I'd mention it for those wondering why they can't wake their PC with the usual mouse/keyboard gestures.

 

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Island Dog
Robbie_Boy
Join Date 03/2005
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Reply #68 January 12, 2009 10:13:45 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

I read on the Windows 7 home page somewhere that interrupted downloads can be resumed where they left off by simply reactivating the download link... if you have not cleared your cache or temp files you should be able to do this. If not, but you already have a license key, it would still be OK to restart the file download from the beginning... and let me say, it'd be worth your while as Win 7 has been a pleasant computing experience for me all 'round.

 

First off thanks to starkers for saying to redownload it..... cos i was'ent going to!!!!!!! BUT ´'m glad i did now cos this is real cool and going to be a realy a great op system..... Windows 7Woo-hoo!!!!!

oh i have a spare key if anyone needs one.

 

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Island Dog
starkers
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Reply #69 January 13, 2009 12:42:59 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

First off thanks to starkers for saying to redownload it.

No worries there, Rob, I'm glad to be of help... by the sounds of it, you are rather impressed with Win 7, as am I, and will enjoy using it to no end.

Also, for anyone who is not aware of it and fear they have missed out, Microsoft has done away with the 2.5 mill limit and will continue to offer betas to anyone wanting a copy until Jan 29.

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Island Dog
starkers
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Reply #70 January 13, 2009 10:19:15 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Another observation...

Win 7 x64 seems to have a lower memory and CPU footprint than Vista x64.  While my copy of Vista x64 hovers around 7% - 13% CPU usage on Idle, sometimes peaking higher depending on background services, Win 7 x64 hovers around 1% - 3% constantly, peakinghigher only when running various apps  Similar differences for RAM too... in Vista x64 the used RAM usually sits on 23% to 29%, whereas in Win & x64, used RAM sits around 20% - 25%.

Anybody else noticing a reduction in resource usage in Win 7 to Vista?... ie;  32 to 32 bit, 64 to 64 bit, or 32 bit Vista to Win 7 x 64 bit, etc

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Island Dog
CarGuy1
Join Date 03/2007
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Reply #71 January 13, 2009 11:55:22 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Are you running dreams in Vista? That would account for higher CPU usage.

I find all in all, Win 7 runs about the same for me. 

One thing...my experiance scores are alot lower for my hard disk. In Vista I have a 5.9, Win 7 is 3.0. More than likely it's chipset drivers causing the differance.

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Island Dog
petrossa
Join Date 10/2007
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Reply #72 January 13, 2009 12:18:38 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Quoting starkers,
reply 20
Another observation...

Win 7 x64 seems to have a lower memory and CPU footprint than Vista x64.  While my copy of Vista x64 hovers around 7% - 13% CPU usage on Idle, sometimes peaking higher depending on background services, Win 7 x64 hovers around 1% - 3% constantly, peakinghigher only when running various apps  Similar differences for RAM too... in Vista x64 the used RAM usually sits on 23% to 29%, whereas in Win & x64, used RAM sits around 20% - 25%.

Anybody else noticing a reduction in resource usage in Win 7 to Vista?... ie;  32 to 32 bit, 64 to 64 bit, or 32 bit Vista to Win 7 x 64 bit, etc

yes. vista x64 sp2 to win 7 x64. About the same as yours, must be said though vista sp2 doesn't run AMD C&Q anymore, whereas win7 does

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Island Dog
starkers
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Reply #73 January 14, 2009 1:28:02 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Are you running dreams in Vista? That would account for higher CPU usage.

No, not running dreams at the time of observation... the posted readings were taken while the systems were idle, only background services, etc were running at the time.

One thing...my experiance scores are alot lower for my hard disk. In Vista I have a 5.9, Win 7 is 3.0. More than likely it's chipset drivers causing the differance.

Were you running the 32bit or 64 bit version of Vista... and which version of Win 7 are you running?  The reason I ask is that when I went from 32bit to 64 bit in Vista, my CPU score was higher by .2%, but my primary HDD was lower by .1%... so if you went from 32bit Vist to 64bit Win 7, that may account for the slightly lower score in Win 7.  Just a thought!

yes. vista x64 sp2 to win 7 x64. About the same as yours, must be said though vista sp2 doesn't run AMD C&Q anymore, whereas win7 does

My copy of Vista Home Premium x64 is only SP1 as I have not ventured to use the SP2 beta as yet, but given your observation, SP2 does little or nothing to address the higher CPU usage in Vista x64 from SP1.

Having said that, it would seem that Win 7 has improved hardware support over Vista all 'round.  While I had issues getting Vista to recognise my external HDD in a X-craft case, no matter which USB port I used, Win 7 recognised it instantly in one of the ports Vista refused to see it in.

Also, I've been over to the nVidia home page and, for those not aware of it as yet, nVidia drivers for Win 7 can be downloaded via Windows Update and going to 'optional' downloads.

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Island Dog
starkers
Join Date 05/2004
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Reply #74 January 14, 2009 2:51:12 AM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

Another plus with Win 7, not having to reboot after large/important updates.  I just installed the nVidia drivers for my 8800GT and did not have to reboot afterwards, not like in XP and Vista.  I also did drivers for my Viewsonic monitor and Netgear wireless receiver at the same time... no reboot required.

For those who are not keen on the depth of the new taskbar, going to properties and clicking on 'small icons' reduces it to normal size... and yeah, it looks much better, plus the interactive thumbnails remain.

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Island Dog
Robbie_Boy
Join Date 03/2005
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Reply #75 January 14, 2009 2:01:43 PM
from WinCustomize ForumsWinCustomize Forums

OK all is going great here!!! CPU Useage is the same on both Vista and windows 7 "2-3% max 5%" when idle......

everything but my hot keys and cam on my laptop is working ok

oh and i don't mind the new taskbar it dose not look so big on my monitor 1680x1050........

i'm likeing alot this new op system.....  

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