Windows 7 nonsense

[MaxBurn]

Preliminary reports say that you can both do the vista double install trick and upgrade from the eval copy of win7. I don't put a lot of weight behind the forum users there but I thought the upgrade from the RC would specifically be blocked.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1462259

 

[Mercutio]

Well, the upgrade disc won't let you upgrade 32bit to 64-bit in any combination.
I'm about to try one of those "well used" Volume Licenses to go to Home Premium. I'm just going to take defaults all the way through and I'll see what I end up with.

 

[Mercutio]

OK, just like I suspected, it's just like what happens when you install XP on a system with 2000, or XP on a system infected with Vista - when you start the install, the default is to do Upgrade, which doesn't work on XP. You have to restart and do an Custom install.

Your existing Windows folder gets renamed Windows.old and your new home directory is C:\Users rather than C:\Documents and Settings. The installer doesn't format your drive or get rid of anything, it just doesn't make any effort at all to migrate your user settings.

 

[Mercutio]

OK, it's just islightly weirder than that. Everything "old" goes under Windows.old. The original Documents and Settings, Program Files and Windows folders are all there with no harm done.

Very simple and straightforward, and the install took about 26 minutes on a 9 month old 2GB E5300 with a 250GB Samsung drive.

Now I'll check to see if I can do the "Upgrade from an Upgrade" trick.

 

[ddrueding]

I just did an install of 2008R2 in less than 30 minutes on an E7500 to a Vertex 60GB...This is essentially Server "7", no?

 

[Mercutio]

The upgrade hole lives.

I was able to install an unregistered custom install on a blank hard disk from Home Premium Upgrade media, and then use that installation as the basis for an install that I did finish and register.

 

[Mercutio]

I just did an install of 2008R2 in less than 30 minutes on an E7500 to a Vertex 60GB...This is essentially Server "7", no?

Mine have been in the 20 minute ballpark, yeah.

 

[MaxBurn]

The upgrade hole lives.

I was able to install an unregistered custom install on a blank hard disk from Home Premium Upgrade media, and then use that installation as the basis for an install that I did finish and register.

Great, did you do an actual upgrade or did you advanced options clean install it that second time?

 

[Mercutio]

Upgrade.

 

[Will Rickards]

Anybody know if the intel GMA 3100 graphics chipset in the G33 chipset supports windows 7 aero? I ran the upgrade advisor and it says no. But it has directx 9 support.

 

[MaxBurn]

Wiki suggests GMA3100 is actually DX10 now with a driver update and supports aero.

I don't have my G33 video enabled.

 

[Mercutio]

GMA3100 has never enabled Aero Glass in my experience. You get a limited sub-set of Aero called Aero Basic instead, which I suspect uses a software renderer.

My notebooks and my standard desktop builds (G31/G41-based) just get Basic in Vista/7.

 

[Adcadet]

I currently run Vista and XP; I installed Vista after XP so when I start my computer it gives me a boot menu to boot Vista or "an older version of Windows". Given problems using my company's VPN stuff in Vista, I never considered Vista to be my prime time OS and use XP most of the time. I want to start using my Vista HD to experiment with Win7. Anybody see a problem doing a clean install of Vista to Win7? I presume (hope) that it will still let me boot XP if I wish. Correct?

 

[Mercutio]

If you have Cisco's VPN client, it still won't work on Windows 7.

Anyway, yeah, you can start your upgrade install from either Vista or XP and just choose to do a "custom" install and select the proper partition to put Win7 in. It's pretty painless.

 

[MaxBurn]

Well I have the same concerns as you with VPN and legacy apps for work still wanting XP so I have been using XP in VMware to get around the situation for about four months now. Is it an option to virtualize your XP partition?

Edit: Yes Cisco VPN client, me too.

 

[Adcadet]

Not sure how to answer your question about virtualizing my XP session - I just don't know enough about virtualized OSs. Sorry. But I'd like to learn more and hope to come January when my job duties will change significantly.

We were using Cisco but I think we've moved to an in-house system (which perhaps is a Cisco system with our decoration on it, of course).

 

[Fushigi]

I've been running Cisco's VPN client on my Vista laptop since I got it nearly 2 years ago. Version 5.0.02.0090. What's the problem?

 

[Adcadet]

Anybody suggest I take my current system from 2 GB to 4 GB of RAM? Honestly, most of what I do is sit at my computer and type in Word, frequently while using EndNote, sometimes while listening to streaming music and surfing multiple (>10) webpages. I'm running an E6400 running at 3 GHz on an Asus P5-NE board. I do sometimes do some gaming and I plan to play a fair amount of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 in January. Is my nVidia 7900 GS still considered decent for gaming? I've been in stuck in the hospital for far too many months and feel way out of date. I seem to have completely missed the introduction of i7, whatever that is, for example.

 

[ddrueding]

The onboard 9300 scores a 4.7/5.4 in 7's performance tool. Allows full Aero.

 

[ddrueding]

Anybody suggest I take my current system from 2 GB to 4 GB of RAM? Honestly, most of what I do is sit at my computer and type in Word, frequently while using EndNote, sometimes while listening to streaming music and surfing multiple (>10) webpages. I'm running an E6400 running at 3 GHz on an Asus P5-NE board. I do sometimes do some gaming and I plan to play a fair amount of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 in January. Is my nVidia 7900 GS still considered decent for gaming? I've been in stuck in the hospital for far too many months and feel way out of date. I seem to have completely missed the introduction of i7, whatever that is, for example.

The CPU certainly is your performance strong-point. I'd consider more RAM and a new video card. Or just get an i7, an SSD, and not worry about anything at all

 

[Mercutio]

I've been running Cisco's VPN client on my Vista laptop since I got it nearly 2 years ago. Version 5.0.02.0090. What's the problem?

Apparently not everyone has access to that version. I know a number of small and medium businesses that can't use whatever the hell client they were provided with in Vista with their PIXes.

 

[sdbardwick]

Merc, check your PM (not Cisco VPN related, unfortunately).

 

[MaxBurn]

On the Cisco VPN thing I am stuck with version 5.0.01.xxxx. and it sucks, sometimes even manages to crash XP on my work laptop when connecting, which wipes out the connection details and I have to call for them to make with the fixing. Works perfect in VM though. Is that software licenced per version or something? I looked way in the past and I didn't see a public download.


On a win7 related note I just deleted my win7 eval partition and did a clean install with upgrade media. It would not take my key in setup or later in windows, installed without key. Somehow it figured out that I had home premium (from the key?) and it never asked. Then I did this trick to get it to activate. No double install needed.
http://community.winsupersite.com/b...-windows-7-with-upgrade-media-the-answer.aspx

 

[Mercutio]

Weird. Maybe I'll make my students test a couple more install scenarios.

 

[Stereodude]

Apparently there is a easier way to do a clean install with upgrade media than the double install method. link

 

[Adcadet]

Just installed Win7 in place of Vista (upgrade). Indeed, it forced a clean install ("custom") which I wanted anyway but everything went very smoothly. So far Win7 seems decent - some of the good features of Vista with FAR fewer nags. Pending official company support and the availability of a few specific applications, this will likely become my next main OS. Perhaps then I can use my other HD for a Linux install.

 

[Pradeep]

From what I understand the imbecilic clowns managed to removed the option to see network activity via the little icons in the lower right.

 

[Chewy509]

Multi-national Language Support

I do have a quick question about what versions of Win7 have multi-national language support?

According to MS, I need to get Ultimate for any form of multi-language support? Is that correct?

I just remember when I was at TechEd this year, there was some mention of basic multi-language support in Pro as well? I don't want to have to get Ultimate if Pro will do what I need it to do...

The long story, My father in-law has been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, and only has a few months to live. One of his wishes is to get a new PC (to replace an old Acer running an AMD AthlonX2 5200+ w/WinXP), as it is now starting to have weird problems.

I've spec'ed a new PC for him, just need to know which version of Win7 to get. He mainly uses it for web-browsing, as well as doing online research on peoples history, (he assists quite a few people in tracing their family trees, especially Danish people, since he is Danish). The number 1 requirement for any new PC, is multi-langauge support.

I'm planning on getting a Danish keyboard for him to use on the new PC, but I need to know if Win7 Pro can be running in the following configuration:
1. English (Australia) as the default language
2. Danish Keyboard (QWERTY-type compatible with US layouts).
3. Support for Danish, Swedish, German and Norwegian input.

Since I only have access to Win7 Ultimate and Enterprise, it's a bit had to test for. And I know Ultimate supports the above configuration, but since it's an extra $60, that could be money that goes into another bottle of rum for him.

PS. I'm looking at a Q9400, P45 chipset, 4GB RAM, nVidia 9600GT, DVD, etc. type setup. i7 would be nice, but it adds an extra $$$ to the build due to the extra in the CPU and mainboard, which drives it outside of budget.

 

[Howell]

I've been running Cisco's VPN client on my Vista laptop since I got it nearly 2 years ago. Version 5.0.02.0090. What's the problem?

I can't find a Cisco VPN client that will work on 7 64bit. Does yours?
The UC camera software also doesn't run.

 

[MaxBurn]

Hmm win7 full language support looks like a premium feature, enterprise and ultimate only. I am not exactly sure on the partial support LIP thing, says free but only does the common items.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/How-do-I-get-additional-display-languages

 

[Chewy509]

Hmm win7 full language support looks like a premium feature, enterprise and ultimate only. I am not exactly sure on the partial support LIP thing, says free but only does the common items.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/How-do-I-get-additional-display-languages

Thanks, I'm so glad MS are open about such things... I think I have found away around it. If I fit a US-International keyboard, set language to English (Australia) with US-International keyboard, then he gets all the additional keys he needs, and it'll support all things he needs. The only thing he may lack is the dictionaries in Office...

 

[Will Rickards]

And acronis true image 10 is blocked for compatibility reasons.
I'm running win7 64 bit Home Premium.

 

[ddrueding]

Just added Russian via windows update...but I am running Ultimate x64...

 

[Mercutio]

And acronis true image 10 is blocked for compatibility reasons.
I'm running win7 64 bit Home Premium.

I went ahead and bought TrueImage 2010. It seems to be a lot faster for backup and restores, though the interface is not quite as friendly as it used to be to new users.

I don't know why they blocked it on the release version. I have it on my Thinkpad, which is still on the Release Candidate version of Win7. It's fine.

 

[Fushigi]

I can't find a Cisco VPN client that will work on 7 64bit. Does yours?

Makes me wonder if it's a 32/64 bit thing. My laptop is 32-bit Vista Ultimate. I haven't access to a 64-bit Windows install on a work machine to test. We aren't allowed to load the VPN on non-work machines without special approval from IT Security. Which is me for these things, but I cannot approve my own requests as that's a segregation of duties violation.

 

[Howell]

Makes me wonder if it's a 32/64 bit thing. My laptop is 32-bit Vista Ultimate. I haven't access to a 64-bit Windows install on a work machine to test. We aren't allowed to load the VPN on non-work machines without special approval from IT Security. Which is me for these things, but I cannot approve my own requests as that's a segregation of duties violation.

That is my belief at least with the version we are using. My coworkers are using 7 32bit.

 

[CougTek]

And acronis true image 10 is blocked for compatibility reasons.
I'm running win7 64 bit Home Premium.

Both Seagate's and Western Digital's versions of True Image work fine with my Win 7 Home Premium installation. Both are free too, as long as you have at least one of their hard drives in your system. I haven't searched for a True Image version on HGST's web site, but I suppose they haven't released one.

 

[CougTek]

I forgot to add that I'm running a 64bit OS too.

 

[Howell]

I went ahead and bought TrueImage 2010. It seems to be a lot faster for backup and restores, though the interface is not quite as friendly as it used to be to new users.

I have TI 2010 running on Vista 64. It saved my bacon with those stop errors.

 

[Will Rickards]

I have one of their hard drives, just not in the system. Does it check for seagate drives?