windows 7

[unhap]

can you guys do a rundown on the show of windows 7 and its new features/performance?

[b1thunt3r]

I ran Windows 7 under Virtual Box on my Eee Box B202 (Stock), with 512MB allocated to it. It ran better then a P4 3.2 HT with 1GB RAM, in host mode...

[computoman]

Now install all the windows required virusscan and spyware preventers and let us know how efficient it is.

[MasterQ]

EVERY operating system has viruses (yes, even macs and linux machines)... but why program a virus for an operating system only a small minority uses? Windows can't help that it's the popular kid... and from what I've seen so far, 7 is everything vista should have been and more

[b1thunt3r]

Now install all the windows required virusscan and spyware preventers and let us know how efficient it is.

It was like year and a half ago i stopped using Virus Scanner and Spyware Preventars. And till now never had any problem...

[computoman]

I have been using linux 10 years and yet to see a virus for linux. But, yet I have an office full of windows machines from new clients to clean up.

[quote]
but why program a virus for an operating system only a small minority uses?
[/qoute]
As Spock would say "That's Illogical"

[davmoo]

It was like year and a half ago i stopped using Virus Scanner and Spyware Preventars. And till now never had any problem...

I've not used any kind of virus/spyware/adware prevention crap in at least 10 years. I've never had a problem even once.

And just for the record, its not because I don't want to pay for it. There are plenty of free alternatives, plus my intarwebs provider (Comcast) makes the McAfee package available for free.

I know it drives Computoman nuts when I say this, but a brain in your head is far more important for virus prevention than is the choice of OS on your computer. That was true for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/Me/XP, and it still holds for Vista and Win7 too.

[trunolimit]

yeah I haven't used any virus and spyware guards in a while. The thing I keep telling people is watch out what you download and where you go online.

More time is spent hacking windows because it is the most used operating system at home. Although being the most popular kid on the block is the only thing windows has going for it. Windows is so far behind linux and Unix based OS's networking features its ridiculous and when it comes to looks and intuitive features Mac trumps windows so much that windows has gone through great lengths to look like OSX. All that windows is doing right now is playing catch up.

I liked vista but like I said nothing to it that hasn't already been done and vista is such a memory and resource hog. I never realized it until I put xp on my new laptop and saw how much faster and stable it ran. sorry to say I never did go back to using vista. I'm better off using xp with a vista skin.

[myketuna]

I played around with Windows 7 in a virtual machine with 256MB of RAM and it ran really well. Otherwise, I don't see my upgrading anytime soon. I'm keeping XP for as long as I can. As far as virus/firewall protection and all that, I use both only because I go to certain... erm, "spaces" on the net. I feel safer having virus and firewall protection. I guess it's the same reason I have a condom in my wallet. Never really needed either though. :D :(

[computoman]

How microsoft feels about w7...

Dear Beta Participant:

Thank you for evaluating Windows® 7 Beta. To help you complete a more thorough evaluation we've assembled an array of resources and put them all in one convenient location, the Windows Developer Center.

Windows 7

Explore how you can build applications on a solid foundation; enable richer application experiences; and integrate the best of Windows and web services with Windows 7.

Windows 7 is a rock-solid platform designed to serve your development needs. To address some of your everyday challenges, Windows 7 provides improved debugging tools, data and documentation that accelerate software development. With the multi-core functionality, Windows 7 itself will run faster and provide a better overall experience for you and your users running new and existing applications. With Windows "touch", graphics and video enhancements, you can build software that is more usable, enjoyable and productive for your users. A familiar desktop and intuitive navigation helps users get to your applications quickly and easily. Learn how features like federated search and accelerators in Windows 7 allow you to extend web based capabilities to the client and vice-versa.

GET STARTED NOW


Should I have put my boots on first?

[davmoo]

How microsoft feels about w7...


Should I have put my boots on first?

Why? Its no more full of crap than any Apple, Linux, or any company in any other industry's press release. Oh, wait a minute...you actually take press releases seriously?

This is what I don't get about a lot of people. Advertising an OS is like any other business. Do you expect Ford to have an advertising campaign that says "Our cars suck and you should buy a Chevy, but here's some pictures of Fords". Of course Microsoft is going to lay it on thick, that's what companies do.

I remember Apple laying it on just as thick when they came out with Leopard. Ya know, the OS with wonderful security features like a firewall that was really off even when you turned it on, and neat-o cool features like that.

[bdegrande]

EVERY operating system has viruses (yes, even macs and linux machines)... but why program a virus for an operating system only a small minority uses? Windows can't help that it's the popular kid... and from what I've seen so far, 7 is everything vista should have been and more

Wrong almost completely. OS X has ZERO viruses (trojans and phishing scams are not viruses).

The market share argument is also complete nonsense. Mac OS 8 and OS 9 had FAR smaller market shares than OS X, and they had viruses - enough so that Apple used to include antivirus software with Macs. This is an argument made by people that don't have a clue what they are talking about.

There are specific technical reasons why OS X, or Linux, or Vista with UAC turned on, are orders of magnitude more secure than XP. Go to any Microsoft TechNet event and they will be happy to explain them.

Anyway, I like what I have seen of Windows 7 so far. I had put Vista on four "Vista-capable" machines and had to revert to XP on two of them becase performacne was so horrible. 7 definitely is faster and has a smaller footprint. It is basically Vista, I wouldn't be too happy about having to pay for this "new" OS after having bought Vista.

[computoman]

xkcd on W7
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/windows_7.png

[davmoo]

The market share argument is also complete nonsense. Mac OS 8 and OS 9 had FAR smaller market shares than OS X, and they had viruses

But its a different world now, and you're comparing apples (har har) to oranges.

Back in the OS 8 and 9 days, the average virus writer was some snot-nosed kid holed up with a computer in his parent's basement after he got home from school, and the thing he was looking for was bragging rights.

Now, worms and malware are tools of organized crime, and they are going to focus where they can get the most gain for their time invested...they want money, not bragging rights. Puffing up their chests and yelling "Look at us! We wrote a OS X virus!" doesn't get them anything they give a damn about.

[bdegrande]

But its a different world now, and you're comparing apples (har har) to oranges.

Back in the OS 8 and 9 days, the average virus writer was some snot-nosed kid holed up with a computer in his parent's basement after he got home from school, and the thing he was looking for was bragging rights.

Now, worms and malware are tools of organized crime, and they are going to focus where they can get the most gain for their time invested...they want money, not bragging rights. Puffing up their chests and yelling "Look at us! We wrote a OS X virus!" doesn't get them anything they give a damn about.

There are still more than enough snot-nosed kids to write viruses for OS X (or Linux for that matter), and OS X gives them a headstart with a GREAT set of development tools. Again, there are specific reasons why XP has all of the viruses, and they have nothing to do with market share. If XP had 10% of the market, and OS X, Linux, and Vista the remainder, XP would still have 98% of the viruses. You do see the occasional Vista virus, like the animated cursor virus, but you really have to invite it in as a user, like turning off UAC, for a virus to have much of a chance in Vista - and Vista has a pretty big market share.

The market share argument is made by those too lazy to even attempt to understand what is actually happening.

[burkhartmj]

I figure I'll use my first post in several months to steer a thread back on topic.

The technical issues surrounding virii on various platforms is interesting, and it'd be awesome to read a different thread about it, but this is a windows 7 thread.

I didn't watch the show on it, but I've been using Windows 7 almost as my primary OS for about 3-4 weeks [yes, before the beta was technically public] and I have to say I'm extremely impressed. It runs faster on my XPS M1530 than Vista Ultimate [and faster than XP for it's short lifespan, but that might have been from having to hack together drivers]. The device support was also pretty awesome. Only thing that didn't work immediately that Windows Update couldn't find was my fingerprint reader [that I never use]. Only major issue keeping it [a beta!] from becoming my primary OS is it doesn't natively support my external 1680x1050 monitor, and nVidia's beta drivers are broken when it comes to custom resolutions. But to be fair, XP was the same way, and Vista was until I set the custom stuff.

While I will admit 7 moved a little closer to OS X in some of the looks [though not much] the core way that the interface works is fundamentally different, and still very much Windows [which I am a fan of]. I don't believe this is close enough to Vista for it being an update making any sense whatsoever. This is admittedly coming from a person who loved Vista and experienced very few problems with it , but there is enough changed in the interface and under the hood to constitute a new OS.

I'm running Windows Firewall and AVG Free, as well as a bevy of other usual programs, and it doesn't seem to slow down a damn thing. Most of the time I forget I have it installed until I expand the taskbar to access a different tray icon. I've never experienced any speed loss from Antivirus, except when leaving whatever was on the computer when it got to me [the Dell branded McAfee crapware for example]. The only time AVG has slowed down my computer was during thorough virus scans, and I just set those to occur late at night.

A surprisingly good thing in 7 is IE8. 7 was aggravating a bug in Firefox that kept deleting all my bookmarks [not a big deal since I have Foxmarks, but still annoying] so I switched over to IE8 and I must say, I'm impressed. It renders pages quickly and relatively crisply [though I still prefer how pages look rendered by Gecko], and had some pretty useful features built straight into the browser. It also has a less cartoonish/garish and more slick business-like feel to it. While extensions are a necessity for me, keeping me from anything other than Firefox in the long run, it looks like IE8 will serve as a pretty awesome backup browser, for those quick lookups [what I currently use Chrome for].

The only feature I'm kind of frustrated at MS for leaving out is multiple desktops [spaces in OS X]. My short stints in Ubuntu always had me using at least 4 spaces at any given time for my various apps that I run all the time, and now that OS X has it I feel like Windows is behind the curve on a feature that is becoming standard across all other platforms. To be honest though, I didn't even think about it until this last week, and only remembered after seeing a mac friend utilize it. It tends to be a moot issue once you move to multiple [I]physical desktops while using a program like Ultramon.

That is what I've experienced so far, but I don't expect much to change beyond drivers maturing.

[trunolimit]

I figure I'll use my first post in several months to steer a thread back on topic.

The technical issues surrounding virii on various platforms is interesting, and it'd be awesome to read a different thread about it, but this is a windows 7 thread.

I didn't watch the show on it, but I've been using Windows 7 almost as my primary OS for about 3-4 weeks [yes, before the beta was technically public] and I have to say I'm extremely impressed. It runs faster on my XPS M1530 than Vista Ultimate [and faster than XP for it's short lifespan, but that might have been from having to hack together drivers]. The device support was also pretty awesome. Only thing that didn't work immediately that Windows Update couldn't find was my fingerprint reader [that I never use]. Only major issue keeping it [a beta!] from becoming my primary OS is it doesn't natively support my external 1680x1050 monitor, and nVidia's beta drivers are broken when it comes to custom resolutions. But to be fair, XP was the same way, and Vista was until I set the custom stuff.

While I will admit 7 moved a little closer to OS X in some of the looks [though not much] the core way that the interface works is fundamentally different, and still very much Windows [which I am a fan of]. I don't believe this is close enough to Vista for it being an update making any sense whatsoever. This is admittedly coming from a person who loved Vista and experienced very few problems with it , but there is enough changed in the interface and under the hood to constitute a new OS.

I'm running Windows Firewall and AVG Free, as well as a bevy of other usual programs, and it doesn't seem to slow down a damn thing. Most of the time I forget I have it installed until I expand the taskbar to access a different tray icon. I've never experienced any speed loss from Antivirus, except when leaving whatever was on the computer when it got to me [the Dell branded McAfee crapware for example]. The only time AVG has slowed down my computer was during thorough virus scans, and I just set those to occur late at night.

A surprisingly good thing in 7 is IE8. 7 was aggravating a bug in Firefox that kept deleting all my bookmarks [not a big deal since I have Foxmarks, but still annoying] so I switched over to IE8 and I must say, I'm impressed. It renders pages quickly and relatively crisply [though I still prefer how pages look rendered by Gecko], and had some pretty useful features built straight into the browser. It also has a less cartoonish/garish and more slick business-like feel to it. While extensions are a necessity for me, keeping me from anything other than Firefox in the long run, it looks like IE8 will serve as a pretty awesome backup browser, for those quick lookups [what I currently use Chrome for].

The only feature I'm kind of frustrated at MS for leaving out is multiple desktops [spaces in OS X]. My short stints in Ubuntu always had me using at least 4 spaces at any given time for my various apps that I run all the time, and now that OS X has it I feel like Windows is behind the curve on a feature that is becoming standard across all other platforms. To be honest though, I didn't even think about it until this last week, and only remembered after seeing a mac friend utilize it. It tends to be a moot issue once you move to multiple [I]physical desktops while using a program like Ultramon.

That is what I've experienced so far, but I don't expect much to change beyond drivers maturing.

First off I'll admit I don't know much about under the hood OS operations but what pissed me off about Vista is I loaded XP on this laptop that came with Vista and XP smokes vista on how fast and stable it runs. But that's not the main reason why I abandoned the OS,


reason 1. No remote desktop in bound for home basic users
reason 2. networking was a major headache (i could see xp machines and folders from vista but cant see vista from xp, eventually I fixed it)
reason 3. Transfer rates, I could move a 1 gig file from xp to xp in a mater of minutes 2, 3 tops. try that on vista and it takes 10 minutes at the least. I plugged in my usb drive and its the same story. WTF

all that being said I do love everything else about it. the Live search is a god send, I don't know how I ever lived without it.

[burkhartmj]

First off I'll admit I don't know much about under the hood OS operations but what pissed me off about Vista is I loaded XP on this laptop that came with Vista and XP smokes vista on how fast and stable it runs. But that's not the main reason why I abandoned the OS,


reason 1. No remote desktop in bound for home basic users
reason 2. networking was a major headache (i could see xp machines and folders from vista but cant see vista from xp, eventually I fixed it)
reason 3. Transfer rates, I could move a 1 gig file from xp to xp in a mater of minutes 2, 3 tops. try that on vista and it takes 10 minutes at the least. I plugged in my usb drive and its the same story. WTF

all that being said I do love everything else about it. the Live search is a god send, I don't know how I ever lived without it.

I can understand everything you mentioned [except Home Basic issues, never dealt with it and never will]. I'd experienced reason 2 as well, but I'm pretty sure that was from MS updating the network stack, so certain features Vista was trying to implement on the network, XP couldn't utilize and thus it ignored Vista.

Reason 3 appears to be from a poorly implemented feature aimed at improving transfers. If you look at transfers in XP, it's very barebones, giving you an estimated time and a progress bar. In Vista, it gives you a bunch of information about the transfer including number of files, size of transfer, number of files left to transfer, and size left to transfer. Keeping all of that up to date through the transfer seems to be what slowed everything down. 7 is still slower [from a very unscientific comparison to my memories of XP] than XP, but faster than Vista.

[burkhartmj]

Something else I'm missing in Windows 7 is extending the taskbar across the 2nd screen when dualscreening.

Figured I'd use that musing to keep this thread alive.

[trunolimit]

Something else I'm missing in Windows 7 is extending the taskbar across the 2nd screen when dualscreening.

Figured I'd use that musing to keep this thread alive.

vista has that option? osx?

[burkhartmj]

A) .....yea that was bad phrasing, I was referring to the fact that I was expecting it, not that it was there in previous versions

B) I do use Ultramon on Vista, so "miss" wasn't completely the wrong word.