Install Windows 7 or Wait?

?? How did you install it already? I thought its only getting released on Oct, 22nd.

been using for 2 months now...very stable...do it!

Depends if you want to install it over or do a clean one.

Install it, I have been using Windows 7 for over a year now on my business laptop, as well as my home laptop. I have a Technet Subscription. I work for a IT company and highly recommend it. In my opinion this is what Vista should have been, its stable, not a resource hog, and it actually works! Start up times are much faster, as well as waking for sleep. Installing a fresh copy is very easy, the great thing is that once 7 is installed you no longer have to got to you manufacturers website and download drivers, 7 actually get the right drivers for your system and I was up and running in under 32 min (i timed it). I'm currently running both Ultimate and Enterprise 64-bit with 4g of ram. There is no going back!

While you are waiting you are suffering Vista. Get back to live.

I bought lots of windows software when it first came out & then there is that big stream of updates.

Like I got XP, yesterday I was going to use my original XP disk on my computer; but there have been so many updates, like SP2, since it came out that I didn't want to use it cause I thought it was out of date.

jangell2 said: Every time a new release of windows comes out, it has usually been a good idea to wait for some bugs to get fixed before installing the new version. Perhaps even to wait for the first service pack. However, windows 7 has been getting good reviews. My wife will get a free upgrade for her new laptop. Should we install it right away or, like in the past, wait for the bugs to get worked out?

Screw Microsoft, Windows

Install LINUX

If it works fine, don't update.

If you have a 64-bit capable quad-core machine, XP is really "wasting" quite a bit of its power and you should see better performance with Windows 7 in heavy multitasking or in some heavy processing tasks. But let's disregard that since most people really don't need as much CPU power as they have.

Windows 7 is meant to be more secure than XP. Processor features that prevent one application from writing in the space of another are enforced more often, and users run with less administrator privileges than XP usually did.
If you are already running as a limited user on XP (which has some drawbacks, some software won't work that way and many settings can only be changed by switching users and logging in as admin), then you are already quite secure, and if you know enough not to download "free screensavers" and keep software up to date, then upgrading from XP is probably not needed.

But very few users run as limited user in XP. If you are running as administrator, there is a real risk of getting malware that would be reduced by getting Windows 7. With good habits, and the available free tools, the risk is not enormous, but it does exist. Some viruses are subtle enough that you or your antivirus software may not notice them for weeks, so if you only keep one weekly backup, your backup may be infected too before you notice the problem.

Also, the Media Center features of Windows 7 are nice. If you have your computer hooked up to a TV or a big enough screen to watch movies or TV on it, and certainly if you have a tuner card, the improved Media Center alone may be enough reason to upgrade.

marsilies said: Most of the security advancements of Windows 7 are in it's UAC, which many people end up disabling.Exactly. UAC popped up so often on my Vista box that I ended up disabling it. Even if it remains enabled, users end up becoming trained to just hit OK.

marsilies said: jayK said: Exactly. UAC popped up so often on my Vista box that I ended up disabling it. Even if it remains enabled, users end up becoming trained to just hit OK.
I believe MS has tweaked UAC with each Vista service pack and with Windows 7 so that the prompts are much less common.Hoho!

I was at the W7 demo on Monday and the guy says 'Ok this will NOT cause a UAC question because MS fixed that'. He clicks something, and the UAC comes up. We all laughed.

W7 Updates

Bitlocker to encrypt files.

W98 Compatibility mode

4 Level UAC instead of a 2 level.

A TON of updates that only apply if you are running Win2008RC2
* if you are connected to a Domain remotely the Admin can take over your computer completely (Opening new ways to hack into people who are thinking they are getting free wifi) and if you copy a bitlocker document over to your PC and try to put it on a USB stick, it will bitlock the WHOLE USB stick.

* Finally if you request a document on your network server, it will also do a (what I think of as a torrent search) of all computers that have recently downloaded this document and share it you.

Well at least I have a free copy of W7 Ultimate to show for my 4 hours. The W7 guy was a major bore but the W2008RC2 guy was pretty interesting (I didn't get into the Exchange one).

jayK said: So I decided to take the W7 plunge after doing some research and finding that W7 improves gaming performance over Vista. So I purchase my $30 student upgrade license and run the installer...it hangs on "completing installation". I do some more research and manually add some of the drivers, and it's still hanging on "completing installation".
Try unplugging all your USB devices.

jayK said: So I decided to take the W7 plunge after doing some research and finding that W7 improves gaming performance over Vista.


jayK said:


At this point I'm about ready to replace my desktop PC with an iMac.

You wanted better gaming performance and now you're switching to a mac? Yeah, Sure....

jayK said: I have no Vista media, so I broke out an old XP CD and I'm currently in the process of installing XP to get my PC working again. WTG Microsoft.
People have found workarounds for installing Windows 7 Upgrade on a formatting drive:
http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/10/23/...

You may want to try formatting the drive and installing Windows 7 new.

The install on the new drive worked, so far so good. I was also able to return Win7 to Costco without any trouble (of course I didn't use the key from the retail box, just the media).

Quick question: how do you get rid of the search box on the Start Menu so you can open programs directly by typing the first letter of the program name?

marsilies said: jayK said: Hopefully I'll be able to install Win7 on the new drive using my student upgrade key, then I'll return Win7.
I know you already did this, but MS starting offering direct ISO downloads for those with student keys after the initial difficulties:

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/10/28/direct-download-ISO-dvd-...

You may want to download the ISOs and burn them to disc anyway, just in case you have issues later, you'll have a copy.That's good to know...unfortunately I already ordered backup media when I bought the student key (it was $13 additional).