What's the verdict on Windows 7?

[flagreen]

Anyone using it? If so what version are you using? I'm running Vista Ultimate right now only because I go a free copy of it when I went to Micrsoft's indroducing Vista seminar. Vista Ultimate is basically a pig, but of course the price was right. I'd like to get something a little less obese if you get my meaning.

Bill

 

[Bozo]

I'm using Win 7 Pro at work. It's much better than Vista. I purchase the OEM version for $155.00.
I'd recommend it.

 

[ddrueding]

7 Ultimate everywhere. Currently deploying 7 Pro for everyone at work. Very easy to install, not significantly slower than XP for normal stuff.

 

[Bozo]

Just make sure you have at least 2GB of memory.

 

[Will Rickards]

I use it at home but am still not fully used to the file explorer changes from XP. I have to say that navigating files is my only annoyance in 7.

 

[Mercutio]

7 Ultimate everywhere. Currently deploying 7 Pro for everyone at work. Very easy to install, not significantly slower than XP for normal stuff.

I think it is significantly slower, or at least "not faster and it keeps making these weird pauses and slowdowns that seem to be connected to Windows and not to the underlying hardware."

I'm using it and Server 2008 R2 on my Windows computers right now, but every time I start typing and it takes 15 seconds for the computer to catch up, I get more and more pissed at it.

Also, if you're thinking of paying for Win7 Ultimate, be aware that the baseline MSDN subscription is $200 and includes 200 total activations for each version of Windows 7, 100 of each version of Vista and at least 100 for each version of MS Office.

 

[ddrueding]

I don't experience these pauses, and there is a significant gap between "significantly slower" and "not faster".

 

[Santilli]

Flagreen! Great to see you posting again. How have you been?

Thanks to David D. I'm using 7 32 bit on my old Dual Xeon machine, and 64 bit on The Beast(see signature).

At the same time I went to 7, I also moved up to SSD's on both machines.

7 was the choice mainly since it had drivers for all the different hardware, pretty much over the last 11 years, that I was using in the older server, and, all the new stuff in The Beast.

In fact, 7 was not the original choice, but, trying to find the right drivers for XP, for the new hardware using XP 64 was no fun, nor was it trying to find XP 32 bit drivers, as well.

On The Beast, I'm using Office 2007. I don't see any lag at all, typing.
The dual Xeons don't have any problem using Office 2000 either.

God Mode makes it a bit easier.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2010/01/05/windows-7-god-mode/

The multi-layer garbage that hides the basic functions in Vista is still there in 7, but, you can get by it.

Networking seems a bit weird. I have a hard time getting the two computers to talk to each other using the Gigabit connection. Keeps wanting to default to the slower, 10 mb/sec standard speed.

Anyway, it does a lot of stuff with no fuss, and, I'm getting to be ok with the auto stuff.
Hope this helps.

GS

 

[Mercutio]

I don't experience these pauses, and there is a significant gap between "significantly slower" and "not faster".

"Not faster" is the best case scenario, and I get pauses ALL THE FUCKING TIME, probably at least once an hour. It's worst on my notebooks, but it happens on all my systems. It's worst in Word and Thunderbird, but of course those are the programs where I actually type. These are computers with SSDs and i7s. Pauses should not happen.

 

[sechs]

No Internet reversi. How could they?

 

[flagreen]

Thanks guys - great feed back! I think I'm going to go Win7 Pro vs. Ultimate since I don't need the media center crap. Once again thanks to all.

Bill

P.S. Hi Greg - i'm doing fine and you?

 

[Handruin]

I am using windows 7 ultimate on three systems right now and was using it on an additional 4th system until I recently converted it to a NAS device.

I've never seen the pausing or stuttering that Mercutio sees with windows 7. There must be something else going on with his systems causing this. I also find it to run better than Vista on my laptop. I like it better than XP and I think it runs close to it in terms of performance. My Dell work laptop has XP and the same CPU and memory as my Thinkpad which is Win 7 and my thinkpad feels faster than it in every way. This could also be due to my work laptop being loaded with McAfee and other stuff to bog it down.

 

[Mercutio]

There's nothing running that would otherwise cause longish gaps in responsiveness, and the software I'm using is exactly the same as the software I use with older versions of Windows. I've played with disabling indexing and system restore (which of course not very smart) without seeing any improvement.

And yes, I've done virus/spyware scans.

 

[Handruin]

Does the CPU spike or anything when the pausing occurs? Maybe something configured in the hardware or a specific piece of hardware you use maybe has a conflict or problem with windows 7 (or the driver)?

 

[Santilli]

Hi Bill:

There are a bunch of registry settings that Microsoft put in that REALLY slow down the visual effects, and snappiness of 7 Ultimate, which is what I'm using.

I'm currently looking through a bunch of stuff to see what I've missed in using the OS.

You can use the classic theme, and this seems to speed things up a bit. Most of the tuning stuff that used to be quick and easy is still under a couple layers of garbage.

God Mode helps for that.

I maybe wrong, but it sure feels like you need a LOT of ram with 7, like 6 gigs or more.
Right now I'm at 2.35 GB of memory on 64 bit and 1 GB on the 32 bit system.

I've run well over 5GB with certain bunches of programs open.

I have noticed that file transfers use a TON of cpu on the dual Xeon box. Doing 50-70 MB/sec file transfers can show cpu usage in the 60-70% range with normal programs running.

I also wonder if having a very fast graphics card, with nearly 2 GB of video ram, not to mention and two GPU's doesn't hurt?

 

[Mercutio]

Does the CPU spike or anything when the pausing occurs? Maybe something configured in the hardware or a specific piece of hardware you use maybe has a conflict or problem with windows 7 (or the driver)?

I could buy the hardware theory except that the problem is worst on my notebooks, which don't have any hardware in common with my desktops. Likewise, the fact that it occurs across a half-dozen systems suggests that it's not an odd bit of faulty hardware.

I don't see meaningful CPU spikes in Task Manager, and I haven't been motivated enough to start watching Interrupts/Sec or other CPU related counters in Performance monitor, which I suspect would be helpful.

More than likely I'm going to finish getting my Win7/Server 2008 certifications and then switch back to old Windows.

 

[Mercutio]

Thinking about things, I think every one of the machines I'm complaining about has Acronis TrueImage (Home or Server) installed and all but one of them has VMware Server.

No Antivirus except Clamwin, minimal background software.

Could it be something with TrueImage or VMware?

 

[Santilli]

Vuze, AVAST, Peerblock, and Firefox are a pretty common set running on my server. Vuze is the primary culprit, and, once in awhile, typing is slow because I'm using near 100% of my processors, combined with a higher then normal priority for Vuze.

YMMV.

gs

PS
Have you considered optimizing for background programs, or changing priorities on the programs you are running?

Still, with an i7, I suspect yours is software related.

I'm running VMPlayer on The Beast, with no issues. Actually, that's not true. There does seem to be times when mouse and keyboard functions lag, even though the cpu use is minimal.

 

[ddrueding]

I would look to VMWare server. I run Acronis on my machines without issue.

 

[Handruin]

I don't have either of those on my systems, but the closest I can get to it is having VMware workstation 7 installed on my main desktop. I don't get any pauses while using it or when it's not running VMs. I could try installing vmware server to see if I get the same issue.

 

[Adcadet]

Also, if you're thinking of paying for Win7 Ultimate, be aware that the baseline MSDN subscription is $200 and includes 200 total activations for each version of Windows 7, 100 of each version of Vista and at least 100 for each version of MS Office.

I'm thinking of building another computer with Windows 7 and I'd like Office 2010, but I don't really want to pay through the nose. My work really doesn't have great discounts for home software. The cheapest MSDN subscription I see is $600 (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/buy.aspx)- am I missing something?

 

[ddrueding]

Technet Plus

 

[Mercutio]

Greg, Vuze is a total hog. Why are you using it instead of uTorrent?

I don't think my issue is VMware. I have a mix of Server v1 and Server v2 on these machines and on some of them the VMware services aren't even running but I still get pauses.

As an aside, I keep meaning to set up a dedicated ESX system and I haven't gotten around to it yet.

TrueImage is either Home 2010 or one server version or other. I'm not doing constant backups or anything, either.

What else is installed on all these machines?

Handbreak, utorrent, 7zip, Filezilla, Kompozer, Firefox, Thunderbird, Foxit Reader, Chrome, ACDSee 3.1 (which is 15 years old), Terminals, Winvi, Spybot and Spywareblaster. The don't all have MS Office or OpenOffice and they don't have any other software in common.

One of them has MS Security Essentials. The rest have ClamWin, which isn't even memory resident.

 

[MaxBurn]

You all missed the boat, there were really great upgrade preorder deals running and I am glad I did it. I haven't experienced the slowdown things merc is experiencing. I am running vmware server too but I have a couple bat files to kill the vmware services when I don't need them.

Now that I have used 7 and server 2008 a while I really like the file explorer windows, especially how it breaks down the url by clickable folders and how it switches to the old text style url when you need to copy or paste it, genius.

As for a lot of the other things I am finding myself just typing what I want into the start menu text field rather than try and find where they hid it or moved it to. Don't like that there is no classic control panel.

 

[Mercutio]

Greg, Vuze is a total hog. Why are you using it instead of uTorrent?

I don't think my issue is VMware. I have a mix of Server v1 and Server v2 on these machines and on some of them the VMware services aren't even running but I still get pauses.

As an aside, I keep meaning to set up a dedicated ESX system and I haven't gotten around to it yet.

TrueImage is either Home 2010 or one server version or other. I'm not doing constant backups or anything, either.

What else is installed on all these machines?

Handbreak, utorrent, 7zip, Filezilla, Kompozer, Firefox, Thunderbird, Foxit Reader, Chrome, ACDSee 3.1 (which is 15 years old), Terminals, Winvi, Spybot and Spywareblaster. The don't all have MS Office or OpenOffice and they don't have any other software in common.

One of them has MS Security Essentials. The rest have ClamWin, which isn't even memory resident.

 

[MaxBurn]

wow, super weird double post. I wasn't even on this tab after hitting submit.

 

[LunarMist]

That was weird. A double-double?:bstd:

 

[Mercutio]

wow, super weird double post. I wasn't even on this tab after hitting submit.

Small icons view is much closer.

 

[ddrueding]

What else is installed on all these machines?

Handbreak, utorrent, 7zip, Filezilla, Kompozer, Firefox, Thunderbird, Foxit Reader, Chrome, ACDSee 3.1 (which is 15 years old), Terminals, Winvi, Spybot and Spywareblaster. The don't all have MS Office or OpenOffice and they don't have any other software in common.

Of all that, the ones I run (without issue) are uTorrent, Firefox and 7zip.

 

[LiamC]

I also don't see Mercutio's slowdown on my three Win 7 boxen.

Of the three UI's XP/Vista/7, I like Vista's the least. I like quite a few things about 7's UI, but Vista's File Explorer drives me spare every time I open it.

The thing I don't like about 7 is it's networking tools. I'd imagine they are better for a novice, but things like disabling IPv6 cause the IPv4 network to change to an unknown "public" type which basically disables everything, like browsing MSDN for help... and there doesn't appear to be an easy way to change the "type" of network that is automatically detected

 

[Santilli]

I found Mercutio's slow down. I've got streaming video, about 3 different windows open, and, I was typing in another. The web pages are www.wetsand.com and www.surfline.com
Both have flash adds going , surfline in particular.
I started typing in another forum, and, nothing for about 2 seconds.
Firefox is taking 555,000 k of memory.
Plugin-container.exe*32 is taking 10 % of my processor, just went up to 12, and firefox up to 12% on weird blips, but most of the time, around 1-3%.

 

[Santilli]

Hi Just installed a Flash blocker in Firefox. That's cut the plugincontainer down to about 4-5%
even with double the number of windows open.

Whoops! It just happened again, worse then before, typing and trying to erase something.
This is typing in Firefox, here, and, Firefox is using about 405,400 k memory, pluginc 75k memory.

I was going to say I think it's the Adobe Flash Plugin, but now I'm sure of it.
All four of the open webcam pages just crashed, with the message:
"The Adobe Flash Plugin has crashed."

 

[Santilli]

Anybody know how 32 bit apps are run on 64 bit windows? Emulation?

 

[ddrueding]

WOW64

 

[Santilli]

Might that help add to a possible slow down?

 

[mubs]

I have Win 7 Pro on a 3 yr old Dell Lattitude with 2GB RAM. No slowdowns. However, when replying in Outlook or editing an existing document in Word, the typed characters will suddenly start appearing further down the email thread or document. Never had this problem on the same machine when it was running XP. It;s damn irritating. I also don't like the file explorer in Win 7. Over all, things seem more cumbersome in Win 7 & Office 2007. Maybe I'm getting cranky in old age and refusing to learn new things.

 

[Bozo]

Mubs, I agree.

I have been using XYplorer for file management. Better than Win 7.

 

[Handruin]

I found Mercutio's slow down. I've got streaming video, about 3 different windows open, and, I was typing in another. The web pages are www.wetsand.com and www.surfline.com
Both have flash adds going , surfline in particular.
I started typing in another forum, and, nothing for about 2 seconds.
Firefox is taking 555,000 k of memory.
Plugin-container.exe*32 is taking 10 % of my processor, just went up to 12, and firefox up to 12% on weird blips, but most of the time, around 1-3%.

I don't get any text slowdown when visiting both the sites at the same time. My CPU usage is between 1-2% when sitting idle at those pages along with a few other websites.

 

[LunarMist]

I have Win 7 Pro on a 3 yr old Dell Lattitude with 2GB RAM. No slowdowns. However, when replying in Outlook or editing an existing document in Word, the typed characters will suddenly start appearing further down the email thread or document. Never had this problem on the same machine when it was running XP. It;s damn irritating. I also don't like the file explorer in Win 7. Over all, things seem more cumbersome in Win 7 & Office 2007. Maybe I'm getting cranky in old age and refusing to learn new things.

Windows Explorer really turned me off the one time I installed 7. The line spacing in the detail view was very high, so the number of files viewable at once was reduced. There was also a whole row of wasted space in the toolbars at the top.

 

[MaxBurn]

The default view for huge icons and text is annoying but easily fixed. Right click desktop and click personalize. On the left select display and change it from the default 125% to 100%. Text size is on the left but should be 100% after changing the display.