Posted on 10/26/2009 12:38:50 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
After nearly a year-long build-up, Microsoft’s ongoing pre-launch campaign to woo computer users has come to a close, with the public launch of Microsoft’s latest and greatest desktop OS, Windows 7.
Windows 7 is being born in to a world of uncertainty, one Microsoft has never faced before to such a degree. Apple’s (and Mac OS X) market share is the highest it’s been in over a decade. Linux has finally gained however small a foothold in home computers through netbooks. And what was Microsoft’s next-gen operating system, Windows Vista, has taken enough backlash that it’s going to be in therapy for the rest of its life.
By no means are these troubled times for Microsoft, but never has victory been less assured.
Unfortunately, Windows Vista started life as a technical misfit, something even we didn’t fully comprehend until later. It ate too much virtual address space, it copied files slowly, and it ran poorly on the lowest of the low-end computers of the time. Microsoft fixed many of these problems by the time SP1 hit, but by then it was too late. Vista went from a technical misfit to a social misfit, with no hope of immediate redemption.
So Windows 7 is being launched with some gargantuan tasks on its shoulders, few of them technical. First and foremost, it needs to reverse Vista’s (and by extension, Microsoft’s) bad image among existing Windows users, in order to get them off of the old and insecure Windows XP. Then it needs to help stem the continuing flow of Windows users to Mac OS X, which has continued to grow over the years. And finally, it still needs to innovate enough so that Windows doesn’t end up stagnant, and ideally sell a few copies to Vista users while it’s at it.
(Excerpt) Read more at anandtech.com ...
Long article.
I downloaded it directly from Microsoft, I had XP so I did a custom install, all went smooth, save for having to hunt for two drivers for my sound card and printer. So far, so good.
I normally would wait for the Service Pack, but curiosity got the best of me, and I wanted to clean up my PC anyway and get rid of old files I don’t use anymore to free up hard drive space, so I figured I’d kill two birds at once.
So you cleared off XP?
I cleared it off, I’ve got two other machines with XP, just in case. All my important files were backed up before to an external drive, so it was no big deal. All I did was reinstall Office and that was pretty much all I needed.
People shouldn't have to buy new stuff every time Bill Gates has a wild hair!
From page 5....
The Rough Edges
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The first thing that bothers us is a technical matter, and that is the addition of various levels of UAC , and the security ramifications of that. We’ve talked about this before in our look at the release candidate, but it bears repeating.
With the changes made to Windows 7, at the default UAC level of 2, signed Microsoft executables are auto-elevated to admin privileges when run by an admin.
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It’s the security ramifications of this that concern us. Someone already managed to exploit this in the pre-RC phase (where the UAC control panel itself was auto-elevating) to disable UAC entirely. The concern we have is that all of these auto-elevating programs are an obvious target for a local privilege escalation attack to accomplish something similar, if not the same. Imagine finding a way to make the Display control panel execute a 3rd party application with admin privileges, for example.
Now to be clear, it’s not as if this is the only way to achieve local privilege escalation attacks. The Windows kernel itself is a target, and I can’t think of any major desktop OSes that haven’t seen such an attack in the past. But this makes that easier, potentially much easier. And that’s a risky proposition when a UAC prompt may be all that’s left between malware executing and running amok or not.
Certainly someone is going to bite my head off for this, but I don’t think Microsoft should have made such a fundamental change to UAC.
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Looks like we still have an issue......
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Had Vista x86, did a custom install for Win7 x64. Did not encounter ANY problems. Encountered significantly IMPROVED peformance ... I say go for it.
What type processor? I have a Dell Optiplex GX280 with a 3.4 GHz P4 CPU with 3G RAM and am wondering how it will fare? Also thinking about moving my Dell 670 Xeon with twin 3.2 Ghz CPU's from 64 bit XP to 64 bit Windows 7.
What version Office were you using with XP?
Now that right there is FUNNY!
I’m using Office 2003 on my machine and it’s fine.
To get it to work with my network printer, I had to Add the Printer as a local printer for it to work, otherwise I got an “Access Denied” message. Also when I tried to add it as a Network Printer, it didn’t list my Printer Model for the drivers, but when I added it as a Local Printer, my model was there.
Are any of you having problems with lockups. The wife has been having quite a few with her new puter.
New or an older processor?
Has anyone who has 7 done any capture of streaming audio with it? From what I’ve read, early versions had a feature that degraded streaming CD quality sound to lower quality if you captured it. I was hoping they would eliminate that from the final release. I do pay for my music, but I don’t pay for operating systems designed to prevent me from being naughty.
I am using the 32-bit version, since I’m not a gamer, I didn’t feel the need to jump to the 64-bit version, even though I have a Duo 2 Core Processor.
I have Vista on a laptop and am contemplating what to do about moving it up ...doesn’t shutdown properly and can’t get a new Iriscan device ( a nice portable page scanner) to work right...
So far so good. One Win7 Ultimate installation under my belt and going for the Win7 Pro tonight (on one of my own machines). Kludging a bootable USB thumb with a 64-bit OS from a 32-bit system was an interesting challenge but I finally beat it into submission. They really need to start releasing this sort of thing on thumbs for the optical-drive-less netbook community...
New or an older processor?
Dell Dual Processor from 2006
I’m running it (Win 7 x64 Ultimate) fine on every computer in my house.
The oldest is a Pentium 3, I have a few AMD 4400X2s boxes, and I’m also running it on my two new i7 920 boxes. The Pentium 3 is obviously running the 32 bit version.
It runs as well as (if not better) than XP on all of them. The wife and kids love it.
Did it work out that way?
A 32-bit processor can only access 4GB of RAM without tricks like PAE (Physical Address Extension) which eat up CPU cycles while swapping RAM in and out.
As I understand it, 32-bit Windows has some additional restrictions on RAM access above about 3GB. Moving to 64-bit eliminates this limitation.
I downloaded it directly from the Microsoft store, so I could put in on a thumb drive.
For now I installed 32-bit since I only have 2 GB of memory, I also am worried about driver support for some of my peripherals if I go to 64.
Is it a big deal to later on install the 64 bit version, if I already have the 32-bit version installed?
Win7 x64 runs better than any of the predecesssor O/S’s from MS. The 7 is for 2007 ... MS was smart to hold off the release to tighten it up and I think they nailed it.
To be honest, “performance” is largely subjective. For instance, DirectX10 in games (when activated) can actually slow down your raw frame rate, while yielding a variety of visual benefits.
Being limited to DirectX9, XP does run some older, legacy games a bit faster. What I notice with Win7 is that frame rates generally meet or exceed XP’s, but with minor intangible benefits, like no hiccups or stutter when the video frame buffer fills, or when the hard drive accesses.
I can update my video and sound drivers without a reboot...Finally. There’s a caveat there, though - If the driver manufacture’s install program mandates a reboot, Win7 will still do it.
Win7 does get one black eye...People have mentioned printer drivers for older devices can be a little dodgy to get working right, and that was no exception for me. I had an old Canon PIXMA printer, and Win7 would only detect the scanner, but didn’t install the printer driver. It took me a couple hours to figure out how to make it work, and I saw others were experiencing the same thing.
Otherwise, flawless.
And, of course, I elected to download the compressed files instead of the ISO image. Dumb decision, but recoverable. And then, after I kill myself getting to work, I found the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.
I always do these things the hard way. (Sigh)
The XP mode on the pro version looks intriguing. I have the CS2 versions of Adobe Illustrator etc. and if they’ll run on Win 7 pro, it’ll save me a LOT of $.
BUMP!
+1
Not having used Windows for some time and only seeing it peripherally around work, I can’t speak to that with authority but as I understand it, it requires a format and re-install to go from 32-bit to 64-bit.
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