Hate to say it but Windows 7 sucks in my experience

So-called pro like yourself should know how to correct those issues very easily... the forum is full of such useful tweaks, yet you clearly never even disabled UAC... lmao if you can't even do that you have no call judging the stock defaults as the only way to do things, try googling the god folder, suddenly all your prayers are answered, but I guess you ARE the luddite I thought you where if that's the best excuses you have for rubbishing Windows 7.

Originally Posted by Highwayman

So-called pro like yourself should know how to correct those issues very easily... the forum is full of such useful tweaks, yet you clearly never even disabled UAC... lmao if you can't even do that you have no call judging the stock defaults as the only way to do things, try googling the god folder, suddenly all your prayers are answered, but I guess you ARE the luddite I thought you where if that's the best excuses you have for rubbishing Windows 7.

I don't actually remember calling myself a pro, but if you think I did at some point...

I did disable the UAC before I installed Firefox. You know what happened? I couldn't install firefox until I re-enabled the UAC. Not being able to install software on my own computer until I've jumped through enough hoops and said "Yes I'm Sure" enough times isn't an improvement.

I looked at the so-called "god folder". Big whoop, It's just the control panel in one window. The "god folder" does nothing about grouping folders alphabetically does it? No, because it's beyond the ability of Windows 7. All of my music is on an external hdd. If I want to listen to Devo, I want to look in the D's... not in the middle of the A-H block. I'm sorry if you feel this is an improvement. The "god folder" doesn't let you upgrade to media player 10 does it? No. What does MP10 do that 12 doesn't? Let's see. You can see the album artist, album title, full size (in my case 500x500) album art, song titles, song length, total album play time, bit rate... oh yeah, I almost forgot, I can change the background color. Nothing says improvement to you like lack of information and choice I guess.

I gave Windows 7 a fair shake. A few times actually. I just don't see how something that takes up 4x the space, uses 2x the system resources and lets you do 1/2 as much is an improvement. It isn't a user friendly OS, it's user safe. I imagine the thinking was something like this... "If we don't let them do anything, they can't break anything."

I'm not opposed to change when the change is for the better. Windows 7 (or if you prefer, Vista SP2) is NOT an improvement to XP.

Now you tell me... how exactly, as you put it, "all they have done is improve things"

Originally Posted by sirloyne

........I'm not opposed to change when the change is for the better. Windows 7 (or if you prefer, Vista SP2) is NOT an improvement.......

Off topic perhaps & pardon my butting in... but you sound a tad like me.
I have 2 laptops here on my desk. Both purchased as new with high end specs & each with a new OS - One Vista Ultimate 64-bit the second Win7 Ultimate 64-bit { ALIAS VISTA SP3}
My preference is to use the Vista lappy on a daily basis.
I wouldn't go so far to say Win 7 sucks but it is not my preferred choice.

I had exactly the opposite experience. Purchased a new laptop with Vista pre-installed from Dell and it was a nightmare. I wanted to downgrade to XP but was told it would void my warranty so I took the only option left and clean instlled Win 7 beta. I have not looked back. Search works, drivers are available, sidebar, and more efficient given the same hardware. Sure it isnt perfect but I am used to that.

My parting comment time marches on, support for vista ends soon, and sooner or later users will migrate to win 7 IMHO

There are some issues with the Sandy Bridge architecture on newer laptops because the drivers on the SP1 disc and Retail/OEM original copies don't have compatibility for USB3, the new unprecedented architecture, and so forth. By today's standards (July 2011), Windows 7 is actually an old operating system on install. This makes it impossible to install Windows 7 via USB3 flash drives. All clean installs need proper drivers after the fact. For Intel boards once you have the Intel INF Chipset drivers, Intel Rapid Storage Technology, and the video/graphics and audio drivers for your system, you are usually good. For USB3 they are sometimes on a non-Intel controller (JMicron is a good example here). This is the only place I've experienced issues.

BSODs can be cured - without specifics and just saying "Ahh I'm getting blue screens, I should go back to XP" - you put yourself into a tough spot and that includes an unwillingness to adapt to technology changes. Windows 7 shipped with more compatibility drivers for more devices than any other operating system in history. At the end of the day, it is up to the manufacturer of these devices to support their hardware. Admittedly when we are looking at blue screens, most of them are caused by faulty/crappy drivers when its not a software or hardware issue directly. The Dell 15z laptop on sale now is a great example: A clean install is difficult because the OS is kind of clunky without drivers. Once you install drivers after the clean install process, including drivers for the integrated Intel graphics adapter and the NVIDIA card you are good. Manufacturers are starting to build systems with an integrated video card just for Aero and the desktop experience to save battery life / electricity and then add on the dedicated card for video editing, graphics, and gaming support.

Because Windows 7 is fairly pre-USB3 and pre-Sandy Bridge you are going to run into problems with new hardware on a clean install. But with best practices, we collect a list of drivers we need post-install and work our way from there. This should help avoid BSODs altogether. Using premium software is also key - software like ZoneAlarm and other security apps that try to integrate into the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) usually cause more harm than good. Look at our BSOD forum and you will see how many crashes we are getting from people using ZoneAlarm combined with anti-virus software like McAfee or some other solutions. These are heavily advertised in the marketplace, but cause conflicts and hardly secure the system any way.

An informed user running Microsoft Security Essentials and Malware Bytes, could probably get away with never seeing a virus. Users looking for a more robust option could use ESET Smart Security or just NOD32. I use ESET SS with the firewall feature disabled and it has worked great for years. You should see the quarantine list on a friend's computer.

Over all, I don't see how you can say Windows 7 is inferior to Vista or XP. It can run on nearly the same hardware as XP and the security is bolstered 10-fold. Let's not even go into Vista because hardware compatibility was turned into a joke by late manufacturers. Its a good OS but its bulky. Windows 7 reduces that bulk. Best practices with Windows 7 and you will have a great computing experience. Start thinking ahead, use quad core procs, get boards with USB3 and eSATA, start looking into touch screens. Forward looking custom-built systems will last much longer than cheap throw-away hardware. If you build a computer for $200-$300 you're going to experience lag, freezes, and the problems associated with having a bottle-necked computer. I would not build a new system today that did not have at least 4GB+ DDR3, SSD, and a mid-level gaming graphics card. Doing so would be irresponsible and a gigantic waste of money.

Originally Posted by zigzag3143

My parting comment time marches on, support for vista ends soon, and sooner or later users will migrate to win 7 IMHO

Or wait for Win 8....

Originally Posted by JMH

Or wait for Win 8....

And have to buy new hardware. It is the dealers choice, but it will happen

Originally Posted by zigzag3143

And have to buy new hardware. It is the dealers choice, but it will happen

Reality here - New laptop, new OS / hardware...
{Easy come easy go.}

"...you put yourself into a tough spot and that includes an unwillingness to adapt to technology changes" But there are no technological changes here. At least none for the better. They've made the colors a bit brighter and the corners a bit rounder I admit, but it's twice a hard to actually find anything and at least 4x bigger. Everyone keeps saying how much better Windows 7 is, but they never say how.

"Windows 7 shipped with more compatibility drivers for more devices than any other operating system in history." Great... but I only have one printer. Why do I need every printer driver under the sun on my computer? Oddly enough, when I bought my printer it came with the drivers. Imagine that. Is this another reason why Windows 7 is so big?

"A clean install is difficult because the OS is kind of clunky without drivers." Harder to install on a completely blank hard drive? Now I am convinced.

"An informed user running Microsoft Security Essentials and Malware Bytes, could probably get away with never seeing a virus." I've never run updates on my XP machine. Why, you ask? Because for every 1 update to fix a "security leak" it creates 10 more leaks, needing 10 more fixes, and on and on it goes. ZoneAlarm firewall and a good anti-virus is all you need. I also use Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware. I have never had a virus that I can remember, (apart from a few back before I had at least an idea of what I'm doing). Windows 7 isn't more secure than XP, just bigger.

"I don't see how you can say Windows 7 is inferior to Vista or XP. It can run on nearly the same hardware as XP and the security is bolstered 10-fold." If by security you mean having to say "Yes I'm Sure" over and over... Being able to do almost as much while being 4x the size...

"Start thinking ahead, use quad core procs, get boards with USB3 and eSATA, start looking into touch screens." This is all well and good, but most people buy their PC at one of those brick and mortars. And if they go into a Best Buy, well, they're doubly screwed. Most people will also never benefit from a Quad. For many people, their PC is for e-mail and Facebook. This is who Windows 7 was made for. The Facebookers. USB3 and eSATA are external and have no impact on the performance of the PC. Touch screens? You think those will catch on? Do you have one?

"If you build a computer for $200-$300 you're going to experience lag, freezes, and the problems associated with having a bottle-necked computer." This isn't true. It might be slower, but it'll run just fine. I know, I tried it. (and I'm not just making that up. Or that.) You can also fix bottle-necking in the bios. I have 4GB DDR2 800 in my XP machine. I under-clocked it to 667, raised my FSB to 400 bringing my memory back to 800 and my INtel e6750 from 2.66 to 3.2. My FSB/DRAM ratio is now 1:1. No bottle-neck.

"I would not build a new system today that did not have at least 4GB+ DDR3, SSD, and a mid-level gaming graphics card. Doing so would be irresponsible and a gigantic waste of money." Depending on the timings, DDR3 memory is no faster than DDR2. Just because 3 is bigger than 2, that doesn't make it better. SSD drives wil make no difference to the Facebookers of the world, they just cost more. How would that be "irresponsible? An odd choice of word.

"If you build a computer for $200-$300 you're going to experience lag, freezes, and the problems associated with having a bottle-necked computer." This isn't true. It might be slower, but it'll run just fine. I know, I tried it. (and I'm not just making that up. Or that.) You can also fix bottle-necking in the bios. I have 4GB DDR2 800 in my XP machine. I under-clocked it to 667, raised my FSB to 400 bringing my memory back to 800 and my INtel e6750 from 2.66 to 3.2. My FSB/DRAM ratio is now 1:1. No bottle-neck.


I also overclock but overclocking isn't for your average windows user. The average user wants stabilty and speed, so I normally recommend they over spec their machine so it'll last. Most of windows 7's problems from my point of view are old drivers the oem's use in their install images. It has always amazed me when some ones building a pc they'll use the drivers that come with the mobo etc. When I built my current machine. I assembled it and then used my laptop to grab the latest drivers. Not had one single problem with windows 7 and Vista before it.