Windows 7 First Impressions of Windows 7: A Fresh Experience After XP and Vista

Hi.
I'm totally in love with Windows 7. Like you, I never ran Vista - although I checked it out in some stores and online.
I shied away from Vista because my 5 year old build (3.4Ghz P4, 2 Gigs ram, X800Pro) was not optimal for it.
I thought what the heck on New Year's eve and tried Windows 7 beta and it runs as smooth as silk on this old machine.
I took a chance and replaced XP at the time and it worked out well.
The simplicity is great. The eye candy I'm used to from playing with some Linux flavors in the past yet it's a nice change from XP. For me the fact I can run it smoothly and thoroughly test it without upgrading this machine is making me very happy. Of course by the time it hits the stores - I'll be rebuilding again anyway.
Looking forward to future builds and then buying the final deal.
I'm pleased I gave Vista a miss. From this experience - even though I don't need to upgrade (simply to run the OS) I feel keener to do so.

ps. I chose Kaspersky as my temporary security suite. I'll try other options with other builds. I'm interested in how people are getting on with different security suites at this time with Windows 7.

I only tried one and that was Norton which gave

me an error that is didn't support my OS. I just usee Windows Defender and Avast Anti virus.

Hi there Garbanzo, Welcome to the forum!

One thing to keep in mind regarding memory usage is although Windows 7 does use less then Vista.. XP isn't entirely truthful when reporting how much it uses.. It runs great on 2GB of ram for sure but just remember it's a tad bit deceitful in that regard ... Microsoft did a great job fixing this problem in Windows 7 though in my opinion..

As far as UAC goes.. Since you didn't use Vista you lucked out, it was way worse then 7 is in that regard.. Win 7 allows you some flexibility with UAC though.. with Vista it was either turned on, or turned off, there really wasn't a happy medium.. and if you turned it off and on more then once it really mucked things up.. But Windows 7 now gives you the option to "turn it down" rather then completely off. I've been using Windows 7 since build 6801 and I have to say MS did a bang up job making UAC less intrusive and overall less noticeable... You say it is annoying... well it can be for sure, but in 7 I don't mind it at all, I have it turned down to the second to lowest setting, and it barely pops up... I'd suggest you fiddle around with the settings a bit and I'm sure you'll find one that fits your needs as far as UAC is concerned...

To open the Task Manager there's a slightly different key combination to use now, it is the same for Vista (and it works in XP too) Rather then CTRL+ALT+DEL you can use CTRL+SHIFT+ESC and that will open Task manager...

As far as all your hardware not working out of the box goes, just try using the latest Vista drivers, they are "supposed" to work in Windows 7 as well. If they don't work for you and there isn't an official Windows 7 driver released for your hardware yet then you'll just have to wait until there is... which will be a bit of a wait of course since 7 is in BETA stages.. but soon enough..

The wait for 7 to "catch up" in terms of hardware/software compatibility won't be as long as you think.. since Windows 7 is built off the Vista kernel. Therefore all the hardware and software that is compatible with Windows Vista is/will be compatible with Windows 7..

Glad to hear your liking Windows 7!

Radenight said:

Hi there Garbanzo, Welcome to the forum!

One thing to keep in mind regarding memory usage is although Windows 7 does use less then Vista.. XP isn't entirely truthful when reporting how much it uses.. It runs great on 2GB of ram for sure but just remember it's a tad bit deceitful in that regard ... Microsoft did a great job fixing this problem in Windows 7 though in my opinion..

As far as UAC goes.. Since you didn't use Vista you lucked out, it was way worse then 7 is in that regard.. Win 7 allows you some flexibility with UAC though.. with Vista it was either turned on, or turned off, there really wasn't a happy medium.. and if you turned it off and on more then once it really mucked things up.. But Windows 7 now gives you the option to "turn it down" rather then completely off. I've been using Windows 7 since build 6801 and I have to say MS did a bang up job making UAC less intrusive and overall less noticeable... You say it is annoying... well it can be for sure, but in 7 I don't mind it at all, I have it turned down to the second to lowest setting, and it barely pops up... I'd suggest you fiddle around with the settings a bit and I'm sure you'll find one that fits your needs as far as UAC is concerned...

To open the Task Manager there's a slightly different key combination to use now, it is the same for Vista (and it works in XP too) Rather then CTRL+ALT+DEL you can use CTRL+SHIFT+ESC and that will open Task manager...

As far as all your hardware not working out of the box goes, just try using the latest Vista drivers, they are "supposed" to work in Windows 7 as well. If they don't work for you and there isn't an official Windows 7 driver released for your hardware yet then you'll just have to wait until there is... which will be a bit of a wait of course since 7 is in BETA stages.. but soon enough..

The wait for 7 to "catch up" in terms of hardware/software compatibility won't be as long as you think.. since Windows 7 is built off the Vista kernel. Therefore all the hardware and software that is compatible with Windows Vista is/will be compatible with Windows 7..

Glad to hear your liking Windows 7!

Click to expand...

Personally I believe VISTA was not a bad operating system at all. The only thing that made it bad was the stupid people making different software suites and expecting to get by with not following strict guidelines outlined by microsoft. VISTA would of been successful had developers not been stubborn in their old ways and followed the new way.

UAC was not a complete disaster in VISTA. Its purpose was to make sure that whenever you do something whether it is install an update, edit the registry, change a setting or change control panel items that you were absolutely sure that that is what u should of been doing. This cracked down on the number of support phone calls for things like of my gosh i accidentally completely deleted a file or something like that. Overall it was a terrific idea and maybe it could have been improved on a little but lets give credit where credit is due.

If the Vista drivers for some reason dont work try using the installer that came with them in "Compatibility Mode" of Vista that way they should install correctly. Hopefully Microsoft will have most of this fixed by the time the public beta comes out.

We all have to remember that even though windows 7 was built off the VISTA Kernel there are differences. This means that not all hardware and software will work. Even if you use compatibility mode it may not help.

thank you for the replies, they are very useful in helping me understand some things.

i have a further question regarding UAC. turning it off disables Gadgets. is this a feature or a bug?

I think that's a bug... It should be resolved either through Windows Updates soon or by the next build..

This is an interesting thread. I don't think I have read any firsthand reports of users jumping from XP to Vista.
Several things the OP has commented on were, as we know, in Vista. It was a good introduction and training ground for Windows 7. ::::
" so far my only gripe is having to hold SHIFT to open a new instance of an app, i wish it could be done with the mouse alone."
I am not sure if this is the area you mean, but, using the mouse only, if you right click the application in the Taskbar, you can then click the app again to get a second instance up on the desktop.
Have you tried installing OPus in XP compatibility mode+ (Right click - select properties and then the Compatiblity tag) It was one of the better features of Vista, and works more efficiently in 7.
If you are still trying to hunt the UAC down, type Msconfig in your RUN box and open "tools" Select "Chnage UAC Settings" and "launch (bottom right). It was commented on before, but for some reason, I find I can still launch the Gadgets from the Program file folder. Like the other posters. I find them a waste of time, space and resources.
Resource monitor/Task manager, is an easy one. Just right click the taskbar and select it!

I like Vista. My own installation is quite heavily customised and still, for the time being, runs as well as 7 . It does not have any compatibility or driver issues. The UAC is, and always will be, a very controversial subject with many flavours of view. One of my first procedures, when reinstalling Vista or 7, is to disable it.

Wow about no Vista in your life. Amazing. How I came to 7 was complete frustration with Vista, was on betas prior to release and bought a store bought vista box they day they shipped. That is when happy computing went away for me. I must have re-imaged Vista more than 25 times since the day i bought it.

So I was going to re-image back to XP3 and came across 7. I grabbed it an WOW am i amazed. I installed over my sluggish working copy of Vista Ultimate. I like everything so far about 7. Fast and more efficient. Just taking some time to find things and get used to where things are. I never got used to Vista after XP but I feel better so far on 7.

So far my install of 7000 is working great and far better than Vista ever did on this box. One issue I have is connection to shares on WHS. Now and then I get BSOD. Not like I thought this beta would be any different than all the others I tried but if my shares worked on 7 I would never go back to vista. I have no complaints really with 7. Im impressed.

I will say that I completely impressed with build 7000. I am usually knocking a Microsoft product, but this one seems to be solid. It has a KDE4 feel and a lot of the same features of a Linux Distro. Know I wondering what will happen to this OS at release.

Just thought I would share a little...
I'm really impressed with this Windows 7 Beta. It's fast and pretty with just enough useful UI changes to make me keep it (at least on the lappy).

BTW
I was an early Vista beta adopter and still use it as my main OS. I love it. It's solid and I only had one old scanner problem (no Vista driver) that I solve by using a Win2k VM. I appreciate people sticking up for the truth and getting the word out. Vista bashing is just silly.

I have been with Windows since I got my hands on a measly little Flpooy Disc with Windows 1.1 (yes, I still have the original disc and packaging). Ever since then, I have seen this "OS" evolve and take great strides forward (and one huge leap back (Millenium anyone?)) and take into account many things that people wanted and what they thorugh we needed and even sometimes some things we didn't know we wanted or needed.

All in all, I think Windows 7 has finally put together many things we that have been lacking in the Windows Environment and, so far, has put them together well. I initially installed Windows 7 Beta on a separate partition to poke at it and see what I could break. Amazingly, I managed to not break much at all.

Since then, I have notices how much I like the Windows 7 interface and overall look and feel better than Vista. It was that time of year for me to wipe and re-load an OS on my system (I do this once a year for sanity sake). I decided to take a leap and just put Windows 7 on my Home PC for all my day to day workings and really see what it's made of.

It has yet to disappoint. So far, all my applications are working flawlessly. My games are all up and running with no issues and in many cases, the games are running much better!

I think, hands down for me, one of my most favroite features is the "Desktop Slideshow". I have many images I like to have set as my desktop image, but I just hated rotating through them and remembering to change them and all that. This feature lets me have all my pics that I want rotating through on whatever timing I want. THANK YOU MS!

I really can't wait for the final release and see what it has to offer.

hello..i would like to share my first impression about windows 7 too .. this is my third day using it..
beside the fact that is really beautiful .. logon screen and themes and the tast bar and all the visuals included, it is the fastest MSOS i used so far.. ( i hope this is not because it still BETA )..
the second i see the desktop when starting windows, and the next second i can use and access everything..
well that was not the situation with vista and xp unless you disable some start up items from msconfig or using any other softawre.
will it is not the same in windows 7 .. when you see the desktop screen, you do not have to wait for some seconds to be able to open (my computer) for example.. just double click on it ,, and see how fast it will respond ...
so far, i have no compatibility problems with the basic software i use ,( virtual drive - thanks to iroken22- , corel draw X4, photoshop cs3...etc ) thigns are perfect..
what i reallly had for a couple of times is.. for unknown reasons, i restart the pc normally then i get an error message saying that boot ini or boot file is corrupted or missing,. then i have to boot from windows 7 dvd and click on repair my computer.. then everything is ok again. i do not really know why i got this message for like 2-3 times during the fist day of use.. i do not see it anymore now ..
that is all for now, we still have long time to test and think and face some ptoblems and SOLVE ( hopefully)..
in short, windows 7 is really not a new look for the same os, it is something NEW..

I also have to add that I love windows 7. I never used vista except for a few minutes once, and have found 7 to be far more intuitive and easy to use, and oddly fun to play with. I have seen some reviewers gripe about the taskbar, but I completely disagree with all their complaints - it's terribly obvious which icons have running applications, and even if they have more than one instance. Also, being able to mouse over and see the different windows and preview them is extremely helpful. Makes finding what window and instance you want a heck of a lot easier. I will say though, that having every tab of IE8 be it's own window instance is silly I feel, but then again, I just use firefox (although it is stuck in safe mode for now).

At first it was kinda strange not clicking an active icon to simply open a new instance, but having to right click (or use shift apparently). Upon further reflection, this actually seems like a great move akin to clicking the old desktop icon in the quicklaunch of XP to jump back to the desktop. Now, simply clicking the icon will bring the program back to the fore, and you don't have to worry about spawning a lot of windows and cluttering things. No, this really does seem like a true, fundamental, and good design change for the GUI from previous windows.

Another gripe I read was about having an icon pinned to the taskbar (ala Mac OSX) caused it to no longer be seen in the start menu and such. I have not experienced that, and have firefox in the main start menu quick launch, pinned to the taskbar, and on the desktop, so I have no idea what they were going on about (other than newly installed applications appear in the list at first, but they are not actually pinned in the start menu and so could disappear once used and pinned to the taskbar, but that's good and will reduce needless, unintended clutter). On top of that, one can simply drag the desktop icon into the start menu to pin it there too. It would be nice to be able to do that with the icon on the taskbar, incase the icon on the desktop was removed. Still, it's not an issue as far as I can see, and quick as pie to rectify.

The UAC isn't annoying at all (though I've used linux, where it's been around for a long time), and having a slider for it is a smart move - well described choices and customizability are always a nice thing. The documentation within the OS, the help section, troubleshooter, and basic explanations for different possible settings, blows XP out of the water on that front. Same goes for the OS's ability to handle drivers on its own, and the ease at which deeper OS tasks can be done (such as manually installing drivers - not nearly as much of a pain as in windows XP). Not to mention 7 is considerably faster at such tasks than my XP install.

Anyways, for me, I never truly used Vista, yet jumping to this OS from XP was a piece of cake, and figuring it out was dang easy. Definitely the first MS product I've actually really liked a lot. Let's hope they don't muck up the final release.

I bought a new HP Pavillion notebook PC with Vista Home Premium. It's run just fine for the past year or so.

I have a home-built PC that was running Windows XP.

I decided to put it aside because I prefer my new Macintosh, or my HP Vista Notebook.

I never would have thought of installing Windows Vista on that older computer. But I decided to try Windows 7 Build 7000.

I reasoned that I had nothing to lose since this computer was sitting unused.

The computer motherboard is considered a "business" motherboard. Basically it just can't handle multimedia. It freezes and stutters when I try to play music. I figured it could be used for just "fun" computing.

I was pleasantly surprised. It runs just fine.

It's an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ with 2 ghz CPU and 3 GB of RAM.

If Windows 7 continues to run so well on this older computer, I'd most likely buy it for a future new computer build.

Deal or No Deal?

Vista was a no brainer
Windows 7 is the right brain
OSX is the left brain
Linux is ambidextrous

What's the price Tag?