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Windows 7 out and ready for action


JoeDaStudd

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Either way 64bit gives more RAM than you can handle :)

 

 

I think I'll only upgrade to Windows 7 when I build my next machine... or if I get a copy and have a spare hard drive lying around the place. Neither of which is currently true. I liked the RC version, a little sluggish but very nice for where it was at. A massive improvement on Vista, which my SO has on her laptop... *cringes*

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In theory, a 64-bit processor can address up to 2^64 bytes of memory; we don't bother taking into account the flip bit at the end of the word (we're not dealing with an integer - we're dealing with addresses).

 

Anyway, I've installed Windows 7 x64 on my tower, and it runs smoothly. Albeit, I haven't tinkered with it 100%, but I will be in the coming weeks. You'll hear about my complaints experiences with the OS soon. :P

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Does W7 run games well from earlier than 2006? That's one reason I didn't buy Vista.

 

Should do, It has XP mode, which basically emulates XP so you should in theory be able to run any program that was compatible with XP/Vista/7.

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My dad's new PC with this arrived yesterday. Pretty slick so far, I was expecting there to be some problems with compatibility and such, but nothing so far :)

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Does W7 run games well from earlier than 2006? That's one reason I didn't buy Vista.

 

I never did run into an issue playing a game through vista, even going back to old games such as System Shock 2 (which just required a patch).

 

Still 7 has the XP compatibility mode like others have said which emulates XP very well. Still, Vista was fine with most programs so 7 should be too.

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Meh. It seems I'll have to make a clean install anyway, because the versions are different.

 

How can I check the true amount of memory that I have? I get 3 and 4 GB from different places. :blink:

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Meh. It seems I'll have to make a clean install anyway, because the versions are different.

 

How can I check the true amount of memory that I have? I get 3 and 4 GB from different places. :blink:

3GB is the max on 32 bit xp, so thats all it will tell you if you use xp....If you check on a 64bit OS such as vista it will tell you that you have 4, which is correct.

 

I'm assuming you are referring to RAM, if not ignore my post.

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I have a HP laptop running Windows Vista Home Premium (32bit edition, 2GB RAM, 160GB HD, AMD Turion 64 x2 1.6GHz Processor)

 

Through my school, I am able to download either Windows 7 Professional (x86) and (x64) editions (Free comes at the price of a 5-6 hour download time <_< )

I have heard some positive reviews about Windows 7, and am interested in trying it out, however, the only edition I can get is W7 Professional for free.

 

A couple of questions:

 

1) From anyone's experience, is it worth moving from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7? Is there much of a positive difference? Are there any negative differences?

 

2) Can I upgrade from Vista Home Premium to W7 Professional? I checked some sites on-line, and I believe I cannot, but I figured I'd ask.

 

3) How can I find out if I can run the 64bit edition? Are my specs even good enough to run the 64bit edition?

 

4) If I were to go with a clean installation of W7 Pro, which I feel I would probably have to do, how would I go about backing up files and applications? I currently have a good deal of money invested in MS Office 2007 and Norton 360. Everything else I could just re-download again.

 

1) I did it yesterday, I have [cabbage]loads of files, so it took me 2 hours, shouldn't take too long for you. Absolutely worth it, my comp and laptop are now both running Windows 7.

 

2) No, but you can upgrade from Vista Home Premium to Vista Pro then to Win 7 Pro, or from Vista Home Premium to Win 7 Home Premium then to Win 7 Pro.

 

3) Your processor is a 64bit processor, so yes. I'd recommend getting an additional 2GB of RAM if your laptop allows you.

 

4) Office - Uninstall it from your laptop before you do the clean install, install on Win 7, put in the same key, if it doesn't work then activating it by telephone should work.

Norton 360 - Uninstall it from your laptop before you do the clean install, install on Win 7, if you have any troubles then contact Customer Support

 

Hope I helped.

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What's worth it is getting rid of Norton and have a faster computer with a better antivirus such as the free version of Avira Antivir which has a much lower memory usage than Norton when running.

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Thanks for the input. Unfortunately, my motherboard will only recognize 2GB of RAM (says the HP website). Knowing that, is it still worth going 64bit? Or would it perform too sluggish with that memory?

Even if you cannot surpass 4GB, I see no reason why you should be deterred from 64-bit. :)

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Thanks for the input. Unfortunately, my motherboard will only recognize 2GB of RAM (says the HP website). Knowing that, is it still worth going 64bit? Or would it perform too sluggish with that memory?

Even without the extra RAM, 64-bit has so many benefits. Including better security, and programs running their 64-bit version can start up much faster than the 32-bit version.

 

However, 64-bit does have this problem, so if you find that running in 32-bit you often have high CPU usage, 64-bit might not be worth it.

 

The main disadvantage of 64-bit architectures is that relative to 32-bit architectures, the same data occupies more space in memory (due to swollen pointers and possibly other types and alignment padding). This increases the memory requirements of a given process and can have implications for efficient processor cache utilization. Maintaining a partial 32-bit model is one way to handle this and is in general reasonably effective. In fact, the highly performance-oriented z/OS operating system takes this approach currently, requiring program code to reside in any number of 32-bit address spaces while data objects can (optionally) reside in 64-bit regions.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit#Pros_and_cons

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I've just installed Windows 7 Professional the other week and I have to say I'm highly impressed. Downloaded MSE too and so far have had absolutely none of the problems I've had with XP or Vista (XP reinstalls would never recognize my harddrive, since it didn't know what "SATA" is, and Vista was just annoying). Recognized all my hardware immediately, no installation errors, and the only driver I had to obtain manually was Catalyst for my graphics card, took all of 30 seconds to find. Built in firewall is pretty effective too, much better than XP.

 

Can't wait till my new monitor arrives next week, I'll be able to experience everything for the first time in HD. :thumbsup:

 

EDIT: For those who haven't tried the free MSE I'd recommend it, find it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

It's quickly becoming one of the top ranked free Anti-Virus programs out there.

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I'm trying out that MSE, and appart from the RAM usage (which is very low so -> it's good), I am not impressed by it. I don't get prompted with anything, ever, which is something I hate in an antivirus.

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I'm trying out that MSE, and appart from the RAM usage (which is very low so -> it's good), I am not impressed by it. I don't get prompted with anything, ever, which is something I hate in an antivirus.

Maybe it means you're not infected?

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I'm trying out that MSE, and appart from the RAM usage (which is very low so -> it's good), I am not impressed by it. I don't get prompted with anything, ever, which is something I hate in an antivirus.

Maybe it means you're not infected?

 

It does mean I'm not infected, but what I like in an antivirus is when I get prompted when theres updates or such, so I get a sign that it's updated. What I said here is just an example, I like when the antivirus at least shows in the corner of the screen some action.

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I've just installed Windows 7 Professional the other week and I have to say I'm highly impressed. Downloaded MSE too and so far have had absolutely none of the problems I've had with XP or Vista (XP reinstalls would never recognize my harddrive, since it didn't know what "SATA" is, and Vista was just annoying).

 

XP works fine with SATA; you just need drivers. The only hard drives in my XP machine are SATA drives.

 

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml

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