Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate Review Discussion

@T61Dumb: I'm going to guess that there were a LOT of under the hood changes that we haven't heard much about. You don't take two or three years changing the look and feel of an OS, that I know.

Let's just wait and see what is up W7's sleeve...

 

Well no. The hardware I have is indeed supported. Dell E6400, M4400, Lenovo T61. All drivers up to date from Lenovo, Dell, and the secondary vendors.

Trust me. OK don't trust me. Attached is the microsoft problem tool from this very minute on the E6400 (which I am using now).

Now you see where it says "Download updates for Windows Vista", and "Recommended Updates Available", (with the Adobe Reader logo), and "Device driver problem found"? I have downloaded the latest updates for Vista, I have Adobe Reader up to the minute, and when I click on the Device driver problem found link, it says my USB driver needs to be better. I have investigated carefully and I have the correct and latest drivers for my hardware. Oh yeah, I have the latest audio driver too. I have taken the steps recommended by these indicators, several times over. And yet these potential "solutions" are continually suggested to me.

In a way, it makes sense. Adobe Reader DOES cause problems. But the Adobe updates are not addressing them. Ditto the Windows Vista updates - they seem to do a lot of patching security holes, but they have not yet gotten around to the stuff that prangs my systems. So yes, I put the latest stuff on, I read notebook review for other people with the same hardware before I decide to update things, etc. I'm doing "all that".

But the problems still occur, and Vista can tell from looking at the crash dumps I suppose. It knows who the bad actors are, and it keeps pointing at them (including itself).

Ah yes - "This problem is being researched." That link reveals:

Well, at least they know they haven't solved everything.

So I keep reading about Windows 7 hoping to hear about the knowledgable people who, despite a couple years of coping with Vista's instability quirks, find that Windows 7 has sorted them all out.

Yes, your machines do not have wrinkles. Mine do. I know what is wrong with them, and if Adobe and Microsoft and Dell or Lenovo, and maybe one or two other vendors finally iron them out, then I will have notebooks that don't save power by becoming comatose.

 

The one thing that really frustrates me with Vista (better in sp1, but still there) is extremely slow file io. Unzipping a 200 meg zip file can take several minutes, copying a directory of, say, 100 files totalling 10 megs can take 30 seconds. These same operations run several times faster on XP running in a virtual machine on the same laptop!

Can we expect better file io in 7?

 

Unfortunately the IO system is unlikely to change anytime soon. The IO system has been designed so that IO tasks like unzipping a file has been broken up into many many small tasks. The downside is obviously speed, especially in the case of file operations that involve copying files to and from destinations that are on the same partition.

The upside is your system stays responsive throughout the duration of the task. This is why you can scan your drives with an antivirus, backup your system, and the indexer search your drives all without your mouse pointer playing hopscotch on your screen.

Also note, in XP, the copy dialog disappear before the operation ever finished to give the user a sense of "speed." This was mostly reversed in Vista.

 

Great review of the W 7 RC, decided to download it to my secondary machine after reading this (and other) reviews that ensured me Windows 7 RC was the way to go. If all goes well my main will also be getting it.

 

Areo Peek comes in handy when you are doing a lot of keyboard and mouse work in one application and need to refer to another application for reference material or information.

Yes, in the old days, you could select always on top, but the floating document still got in the way of having all the space you needed for your practical application. The other thing you could do was a quick alt-tab, but that took your fingers away from crucial hotkeys.

Now with Areo Peek, you just hover the mouse over the reference application, look at what you need to, then just start typing or bring the mouse away from the taskbar to apply the info. It actually works much faster than the other two sources of doing it.

 

I have both a clean install and an upgrade install going. The upgrade install worked out well and I recommend people give it a try.

 

Man can't wait to try out windows 7. From all the reviews and posts ive read about it seems that it is worthwhile.

 

I've got it running and really like it, probably not enough to go out and buy it, but will by a new notebook with it on when it is released.

 

the task bar imo is already a must have, in fact i preordered w7 first day because of such feature even though my tablet comes with vista business loaded

one thing i like if windows 7 can get idea from os/x is the dashboard and expose, although i am using google desktop and it is totally capable of replacing dashboard, i'd like an innate support more. having expose is just another option besides the task bar.

if we all ignore vista's presence, windows 7 is the best upgrade from xp pro with all the right things done and appropriate improvements.

 

Is it just me, or has everyone just skipped a discussion on the whole "ribbon" change to standard Windows apps?

I personally HATE, no, make that, DESPISE, the Ribbon in Office 2007. I hate it so much that when a friend purchased her new laptop and at my recommendation purchased Office 2007 for about $50 at BestBuy we shipped it back to Microsoft for a refund and I GAVE her one of my licenses to the previous version.

Why did they go and try to fix something that was not broken? It is a real drag on productivity and is a poor attempt to Mac'ify Windows in my opinion.

I guess that the main reason why it bothers me so much is that they do not include (or at least when I last touched Office 2007) a way of changing to "Classic mode" where you get your menus back. Is there a way to do this with Windows 7, or will I be stuck with the horrible ribbon? If there is no way of changing to "classic" I will never "upgrade".

Alfred

 

I don't like or understand the point of "the ribbon" either. I guess I'm sort of adjusted to it a bit, but it's no where near as intuitive as the old way, and seems like stuff is in completely random places, where it more or less used to make sense.

Outlook 2007 is probably a teeny tiny bit better, if you use Exchange, but otherwise the rest of Office 2003 probably makes more sense. I do think they've inadvertently made a larger opening for Open Office, as I actually like some things better about it than 2007 (not that Open Office isn't AMAZING considering what it is, but I still have some overall preference for Office)

 

I just dont understand what they were thinking when they decided to completely redesign a set of productivity applications which MILLIONS of people and businesses depend on without having a way to switch between the "new" and the "classic". We are talking about a MAJOR rewrite, if you showed me both versions side by side I would not recognize that they were related by anything except the name "Microsoft Word/Excel/etc.".

I do not have W7 installed on a machine yet, can anyone check to see if there is a way to go to a "classic mode" for windows apps that use the ribbon?

Alfred