146 of 159 people found the following review helpful:
Here Comes Windows 7
Here comes Windows 7, nearly three years after Windows Vista and eight years after Windows XP. By most accounts, Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. Do we finally have a worthy successor to XP?
** CLEAN UPGRADE UPDATE BELOW 10/29/09 **
PROS:
- Fast startup and performance
- Stable
- Nice aesthetic and functional changes...
97 of 106 people found the following review helpful:
Be careful which Version of Windows 7 you buy !!!!
"Windows Vista(tm) Home Premium cannot be upgraded to Windows 7 Professional.
You can choose to install a new copy of Windows 7 Professional instead, but this is different from an upgrade, and does not keep your files, settings, and programs. You'll need to reinstall any programs using the original installation discs or files. To save your files before...
This review is from: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (DVD-ROM)
Here comes Windows 7, nearly three years after Windows Vista and eight years after Windows XP. By most accounts, Windows 7 is what Vista should have been. Do we finally have a worthy successor to XP?
** CLEAN UPGRADE UPDATE BELOW 10/29/09 **
PROS:
- Fast startup and performance
- Stable
- Nice aesthetic and functional changes to the desktop
- Improved networking, power management & security
- 32-bit & 64-bit versions included
- Windows Media Center
- Windows XP Mode
CONS:
- User Account Control still annoying
- Upgrade can be challenging
- Expensive
CLEAN UPGRADE UPDATE 10/29/09 **
It seems that a lot of upgraders have been complaining about the upgrade process, especially from XP. Most of us expected to be able to format our hard disks and be prompted for either the XP disc or product key. Alas, this is not the case. The upgrade is much more complicated than it should be and some workarounds have been discovered
Method A (simplest)
If you already have an older version of Windows on the hard drive, finish the Custom Install, without entering the product key. After installation, go to your System Properties and click the link to activate Windows. Enter your product key and it should activate. This has worked for me twice.
Method B (hardest)
If Method A doesn't work, try the registry hack.
1. Finish the custom install without entering the product key then click Start and type regedit.exe into the "Search programs and files" box.
2. In the registry, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/. In the pane on the right, you'll see an entry for MediaBootInstall. Double-click on it and change the value from "1" to "0" and click OK.
3. Close regedit and go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories then right-click on Command Prompt and select "Run as administrator." You'll get a UAC alert, click Yes.
4. At the command prompt, type: slmgr /rearm and hit Enter. Reboot.
5. Now try to activate. If it fails, make sure there are no pending Windows Updates to install. If there is, install them, reboot and start over from Step 4.
Method C (most time consuming)
Perform the Custom Install and skip the product key. Once completed, run the upgrade again from within Windows 7 but this time, enter the Windows 7 upgrade key and then activate Windows.
** END UPDATE **
I had been running the Windows 7 release candidate for 3 months and the full version 2 weeks before official release date. The experience convinced me to finally upgrade my Windows XP systems to 7. This review briefly touches upon some of the key features and enhancements of Microsoft's latest OS.
PERFORMANCE & STABILITY
One of the welcome enhancements Microsoft made was start-up time. The shutdown time has been improved as well. Also, in my non-benchmarked experience, Windows 7 has been at least as fast as XP if not faster. The kernel changes and ability to run the 64-bit version probably has a lot to do with that. Most benchmarks from around the Internet seem to support my observations.
64-BIT
I am elated to finally upgrade to a 64-bit operating system in order to take advantage of more memory support and modern processors. I have Intel Core 2 Duo processors in both my systems with 4GB of physical RAM but XP only allowed 3.25GB for system use.
DESKTOP
At first login, you'll notice the changes to the taskbar. The taskbar is no longer just a place to store quick launch icons and view open windows. It now provides functionality in the form of Jump Lists, which allow you to select your most frequently opened files or links from the apps you have "pinned" on the taskbar. The clock and calendar are improved and the Show Desktop icon is now integrated in the far right corner. Other desktop enhancements include Aero Peek, Aero Shake, Snap, new themes and wallpapers. You also get gadget support. All of these features combine to create a much improved and enjoyable desktop experience.
LIBRARIES
Windows 7 introduces a new feature called libraries. Previously, your system had shortcuts to My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, etc. which had files residing in only those specific folders. Files can now reside anywhere on your system and be organized inside libraries. It's similar to how many music and photo applications organize files.
NETWORKING
Even as good as XP was, networking was cumbersome. Windows 7 makes connecting two or more Windows 7 systems together easy, using HomeGroup. This enables easy sharing of files and devices. One downside is that HomeGroup is only supported between Windows 7 systems. File transfer performance between computers has been vastly improved and connecting to a wireless network has never been easier on a Windows machine.
SECURITY
Security in Windows 7 is good and comes with Windows Firewall and Defender. Still, you'll probably want to invest in a more comprehensive Internet security suite, like Norton's. User Account Control (UAC) has been tweaked in order to give user accounts more flexibility in controlling their own security as well as providing more detailed information so the user can make better decisions about whether to allow certain actions. Coming from XP however, it is still annoying. Also, in Windows 7 Ultimate, you can encrypt entire hard drives as well as external portable storage devices, like USB thumb drives. Though this is a welcome integrated feature, much of the functionality can be found in a popular open-source program called TrueCrypt.
POWER MANAGEMENT
Power management has been improved overall and you should be able to squeeze more battery life out of your laptop, even when using your DVD drive. Sleep and resume has also been improved. XP wasn't always consistent when entering or resuming from sleep mode, but Windows 7 has been perfect.
WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER
I've only briefly played around with WMC but it looks promising. It has some fun options for media, especially when you're connected to the Internet. It may even be an adequate replacement for component DVR's should you choose to use it as the centerpiece to your entertainment center. The biggest advantage for me is that Windows 7 now includes a DVD decoder. This means that I can now watch DVD's natively. WMC is available in all Windows 7 editions except Starter.
WINDOWS XP MODE
For applications that ran in XP, but won't on 7, there is now XP Mode. It isn't perfect and your system has to have virtualization support and turned on. Go to your system BIOS to check. If supported, then install Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode. Check your hardware if you intend to use XP Mode.
RECOMMENDATION
If you're an XP holdout, like I was, I recommend upgrading. Vista SP2 users may have less reason to upgrade but might want to just for the changes to the taskbar and the UAC improvements. For users who don't need to use their computers in a corporate environment, then Windows 7 Home Premium edition is a good choice. I'm guessing most power users will choose Professional. I suggest a clean install for best results. If you're a Mac OS X user, there is probably nothing in Windows 7 compelling enough for you to consider switching.
SUMMARY
Windows 7 is the premium Microsoft OS that Windows users have been waiting for. It's fast, secure, stable, visually appealing and fun to use. Windows 7 will make your old system feel fresh and new again. New system owners with Windows 7 pre-loaded can feel confident that they're getting the best Windows OS ever produced.
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This review is from: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (DVD-ROM)
"Windows Vista(tm) Home Premium cannot be upgraded to Windows 7 Professional.
You can choose to install a new copy of Windows 7 Professional instead, but this is different from an upgrade, and does not keep your files, settings, and programs. You'll need to reinstall any programs using the original installation discs or files. To save your files before installing Windows, back them up to an external location such as a CD, DVD, or external hard drive. To install a new copy of Windows 7 Professional, click the Back button in the upper left-hand corner, and select "Custom (advanced)".
Simply said you cannot upgrade Home Premium, keeping your programs and files, you must start over similar to a clean install.. To install Windows 7 on top of Home Premium while maintaing all of your files, programs, settings etc., you must purchase the Ultimate Upgrade for $19 more.
This will allow people who are not "computer friendly" upgrade without the hassle of backing up files, re-installing programs etc. especially if you don't know where the original program CD(s) are...
trc
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This review is from: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (DVD-ROM)
I'll admit, I've been running Windows 7 for six months now: the preproduction version of it and have just upgraded to the gold code. So I have quite a bit of experience with the operating system. Let's get to the nitty gritty:
Should you upgrade from Windows Vista? YES! I mean it - upgrade today.
Windows 7 is quite simply faster, more stable, boots faster, goes to sleep faster, comes back from sleep faster, manages your files better and on top of that it's beautiful to look at and easy to use. Even the preproduction version of Windows 7 was better than my Vista with SP2.
Should you upgrade from Windows XP? Maybe, but for different reasons.
XP is a good operating system and if you don't need to add new hardware or software, XP is good. However, XP is old as an operating system. Also chances are that if you're running XP, you might not meet the minimum requirements for Windows 7 - check the compatibility site at Microsoft to see if your system will support Windows 7. That said, Windows 7 is light years ahead of Windows XP in terms of functionality, ease of use, etc - to me it's worth buying a new system.
64 bit or 32 bit?
If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's ok skip this section. If you have a core2 duo or core 2 quad or a multi cpu machine, go with the 64 bit OS, it handles memory and the CPUs much better. If you have a single core CPU, one CPU or run special programs that require 32bit, then stick with 32 bit for now.
INSTALLATION:
Installation was very straight forward. You put in the CD and reboot your machine. You might have to enter your bios and enable the "boot from CD" option. Once the machine reboots a nice screen comes up to guide you through the installation. You have the option to upgrade your PC or do a clean installation. I did an upgrade and it brought in all of my files and settings from my windows Vista system. It worked great.
The upgrade did take about 2 hours for me so definitely consider.
I noticed that early on in the installation the operating system went out to Microsoft's site to look for the latest and greatest updates, so I think this should help Microsoft respond quickly to any hiccups with compatibility.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK:
The driver from my old HP Inkjet printer for 2001 doesn't work on Windows 7 so there are some things that will not transition. I had to use a generic HP driver which doesn't give me the quality that I got from an injet - so overall, I'm up and running with that printer but I'm degraded on the inkjet front. That said, I recently upgraded to a HP CP2025DN Color LaserJet Printer that I love so no real loss there. I'll likely pick up a cheap inkjet for the occasional photo that I might need to print. Everything else upgraded.
BENEFITS
-faster boot time
-faster go to sleep
-faster wakeup
-faster about 20% to 30% faster at running applications than my Vista - seriously (but those are my results without any benchmarks or anything like that, just seeing how fast Adobe Illustrator loads, and how fast all the applications respond)
-joining wireless networks is much easier
-the interface is just plain beautiful
-my wallpapers are now a slideshow that can be set to change every few minutes (I'm not stuck with the same picture)
-Gadgets - these are wonderful little small applications that you can drag onto your desktop. I have a weather gadget and a calendar gadget on my desktop that tell me
-Better taskbar management - hovering over the taskbar icons shows me mini windows of what's running
-Better file management - I can organize my files into Libraries that are sortable not only by type but by folder or other data. It's great! I can browse through my presentations or illustrator files!
-Windows Media appears to be smoother which I love.
-You get some virus protection and firewall with Windows 7 but consider something more comprehensive like McAfee Total Protection 3User 2010. Yes, it'll make your computer run a bit slower but
CONS:
- Some older programs might not work and some drivers might not be available like my inkjet driver.
- Other than that, there aren't too many drawbacks to Windows 7 - it's a great OS.
WHICH VERSION SHOULD I GET?
I got the ultimate version because I have clients who ask, "is your hard drive encrypted?" -- I wanted to be able to say yes and have sensitive data encrypted one of my computer volumes - Bitlocker is only available in the Ultimate version. Ultimate also includes Multilanguage support.
If you're a home user that doesn't do a lot of networking, you might consider just the home premium edition. If you're using a laptop and connect to networks at work, you might want the Professional version of the operating system to help you with domain joining. Also Windows Professional gives you the option to run applications in XP mode so if you have old applications you can use that nifty feature. I already have 1 application running in XP mode - it's nifty to run an old application.
NOTE:
The box contains both the 32 bit and 64 bit OS.
OVERALL:
It's very hard to write a comprehensive review on an entire operating system so I didn't even try - I'm sure magazines will devote entire articles to the operating system and several books will come out. My goal here is just to give everyone a glimpse of what I've found to date with this new OS. I do hope this has helped you in making a decision.
Hats off to Microsoft on Windows 7. It's more of a refined Windows Vista than an entirely new operating system but it was needed. Thank you.
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This review is from: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (DVD-ROM)
I've been using Windows 7 since its beta release, but my laptop's been running the final version for weeks now. I really disliked Vista and preferred XP still, but Windows 7 has tipped the scales...finally. Windows 7 has been reliable and it's snappier than Vista. Windows 7 sips laptop battery power so my 1-year-old Dell XPS M1530 runs longer under Win7 than it did under Vista. But what I really like about Windows 7 are the new or improved features it offers. Here's a list of my favorites:
#1 VIRTUAL LIBRARIES
With virtual libraries, the special folders like Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos have all become libraries. Instead of being a physical storage location, they're indexes that point to one or many locations on the computer you're using, as well as other computers you're networked with. In a home setting, where you're running Windows Home Server, you can now easily direct file stores to your server. When coupled with Offline Files & Folders (a features that the non-Home editions of Windows offers since XP), you can easily take your server data with you, even when you're in a disconnected state. Also in the home, housemates can easily see each others' data by including their respective folders in one another's libraries. When you search a library, you're searching your computer and any other computer that has folders you've added to your library. This is, for me, the single best feature of Windows 7, and is an excellent reason to upgrade.
#2 START SEARCH
The Start Search has been improved in Windows 7 so results appear instantly as soon as you click the Start button, and then either type the name of a program on your computer, or a task you'd like to perform (like, "change my display settings"). No more hunting folder hierarchies to find that elusive program, or spend time figuring out where Microsoft has placed something in the Control Panel. This is a tremendous time-saver.
#3 AERO SNAP
The Aero user interface has three new tricks -- Shake, Peek, and Snap -- but only Aero Snap is a major leap forward. Have you ever tried comparing the contents of two windows together, side-by-side? It's painful to do because you have to fiddle with resizing the two windows. With Aero Snap, now all you do is grab the title bar of one window, sling it to the left, and Windows 7 will automatically resize the window to fill-up one-half of your screen display. Do the same with a 2nd window by slinging it to the right, and it'll fill-up the right-side of your display. You can start comparing two windows in...an Aero Snap. Aero Shake and Peek are cute, but not nearly so helpful.
#4 TASKBAR
Gone is the Quick Launch bar that too many people didn't know existed. Now, the whole Taskbar is a quick launch bar -- drag and drop any program icon onto the bar, and you're one click away from starting the program. Also, it's so easy to move the taskbar around now. I keep it on the left vertical on my computer. Gone is the system tray, too -- Notification Area takes its place. The Action Center alerts you to anything you need to do to keep your computer working smoothly.
#5 PROGRAM COMPATIBILITY (including XP Mode)
Any program can be run in one of many compatibility modes now. Windows 7 has a wizard that will help you pick the right, earlier version of Windows under which to run an older program. You can do the same thing more quickly by right-clicking on a program icon, click the Compatibility tab, enable Compatibility mode, and select the earlier version of Windows you want. For truly stubborn XP programs, the Professional edition offers XP Mode -- a fully licensed, virtualized copy of Windows XP. Note that your hardware must support virtualization for this to work.
#6 STICKY NOTES
Less functional that the Vista Sticky Notes -- which nobody used -- but now I actually use Sticky Notes to put reminders on my Desktop. They're quick, easy, and work just like a regular Post-It note only you don't get fingerprints on your screen!
#7 JUMP LISTS
There are two kinds -- Jump lists that let you quickly pick a task to perform, and Jump lists to quickly select a document to open and edit in the associated program. These are nice time-savers.
#8 SAVED SEARCHES
In Windows Explorer, you can create filtered searches and then save them in your Favorites for later use. This is handy to find filtered data in the future. When you re-execute the search, it creates a dynamic results set (so your search is never stale).
#9 CONTENT VIEW & ARRANGING
Also in Windows Explorer, two new features. Now you can arrange a folder into subdivisions by date (great for your pictures folders!). You can use the Content view to combine thumbnails of files along with details that usually are found only in the Details view.
#10 USER ACCOUNT CONTROL
Most everyone hated UAC in Vista (even though it helped to keep your computer safe). In Windows 7, Microsoft tamped down the annoyance factor of UAC. You can change your date and time without setting off UAC, for example. You can also decide whether UAC should go into secured Desktop mode whenever it does get triggered (secured Desktop is when your screen darkens and you're forced to respond to UAC's dialog box asking permission to run a program or make a change to your system). You can easily turn-off UAC, too.
#11 PAINT, WORDPAD, CALCULATOR
All three of these utilities got updated. Wordpad and Paint have the Office-like "ribbon" now, and Calculator has a few new memory keys, touch sensitivity, and a Programmer view for those dealing with hexidecimals and binaries.
#12 HOMEGROUP SHARING
This is the easiest way to share data with others in your (home) network. HomeGroup creates a password that is shared among computers, and that takes care of all the issues with user accounts, file permissions and "access denied" problems. While not appropriate for corporate use, this is great for the home. I made this feature last because I'm not using it -- I just think it's a great idea for inexperienced users. Note: all the networked computers need to be running Windows 7 to make HomeGroup sharing work.
Upgrading advice: I went through the upgrade process twice. Here's what I learned to do before and after the upgrade: 1) Remove Adobe Reader and reinstall the latest version (9.2 as I write this) after the upgrade. Older versions of Reader won't render correctly in Windows 7 and an IE8 browsing session. 2) Remove your antivirus, anti-malware and anti-spyware programs, and reinstall them after the upgrade using the latest versions available. 3) Remove any virtualization programs (like VMWare Workstation) and reinstall following the upgrade. 4) After the upgrade, look for the latest video driver from the video card maker, not by your computer hardware vendor (in my case, it was getting a new driver from Nvidia rather than from Dell).
Looking to do a clean install using this upgrade disk? You can, but here's how. Insert the DVD and choose "Custom" to do the clean install. During the install, DO NOT enter your product id or activate Windows -- yet. Instead, you'll finish the clean install, reboot, then use your DVD to do an upgrade of the clean install of Windows 7. Yes, you're upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 7. After you upgrade, then enter your product id and activate Windows. I haven't tried this out personally, but others have and have done so successfully. Add a comment to my review to share your experience if you go this route. Final note: This tip isn't intended to circumvent the stipulations in the licensing agreement for upgrading your computer. If you're not entitled to upgrade (because, say, you're using Windows 95, 98, 2000, or ME), then you must buy the full version. As I tell my kids, "Just because you can do a thing doesn't mean you should do a thing." :-)
And finally, my few quibbles with Windows 7: My Dell XPS M1530 has always had sporadic issues resuming from a sleep or hibernate state under Vista. That still is the case, even with Windows 7. I'm not convinced, though, that the underlying problem is an operating system issue as much as a hardware/BIOS problem, so I can't knock Windows 7 for this problem. Not all my laptops have had similar power-on problems, even under Vista, so my advice to you is to NOT expect Windows 7 to solve any power-on problems from a sleep or hibernate state if you've currently got those problems with your laptop.
Lastly, if you like to periodically examine the Reliability Monitor in Vista, it's not as nice in Windows 7 -- there is no precise data value assigned to your machine's ever-changing reliability metric. And it's impossible to find in the Control Panel (but it's easy to do a Start Search on). The graph is still there, though, and it's updated hourly instead of daily. For most people, I'm guessing this is a complete non-issue.
In short, think of Windows 7 as Windows Vista done right.
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This review is from: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (DVD-ROM)
At the moment Vista Home Premium is running on my PC and several others in my family, all preinstalled by the manufacturer. I pre-ordered Windows 7 Professional upgrades for each back when they were being offered for a big discount. Today the W7 upgrades arrived and only then did I discover - as apparently many others have too - that "upgrading" from Vista Home Premium to W7 Pro actually requires a "clean install" instead of an in-place upgrade, necessitating a LOT of manual work to save the data from each, install W7, and then MANUALLY REINSTALL ALL APPLICATIONS as well as the data. And for some bizarre reason known only to Microsoft, this rude surprise only applies to certain combinations of upgrades.
Printed on the box:
"This version of Windows 7 is designed as an upgrade to Windows Vista. If you are upgrading from Windows XP, you will need to back up your files and settings, perform a clean install, and then re-install your existing files, settings, and programs."
OK, so they make it clear that you have your work cut out for you if you are upgrading from XP, but upgrading from Vista should be - well - an upgrade. But it is not, except for a few very specific versions of Vista. See the Microsoft site for the few lucky cases.
This restriction makes no apparent sense, especially since I am upgrading to a "better" version of Windows, and I can find no explanation from Microsoft. I find it most disheartening to say the least, because it will require hours and hours of work that I was not expecting - and that assumes that I can even find all of the install disks and downloads, plus be able to recreate all of the configurations and customizations.
I am reasonably computer literate so I expect that I will be able to get through this onerous task - eventually - but there is no way on this planet that my wife would be able to do this by herself, and she will not be alone.
Die-hard computer hobbyists who don't mind spending endless hours just tinkering with their computers to make them work to the pinnacle of perfection might find doing a clean install to their liking, but I do not. I have a computer because it is a tool to accomplish work other than maintaining the tool itself.
I hope that some day the pain of my having to do multiple clean installs of W7 on my family's computers will all be the past, but for now it remains in the future, and I do not know for how long because I will only be able to do it when I have many hours available during which I have nothing else to do and during which time I can afford to have my computer down. And of course, nothing will go wrong in the process. Thank goodness cars don't work this way!
I am very, very disappointed in both Microsoft and Amazon for not mentioning this little detail amidst all of the glow about the benefits of W7, and I strongly recommend to those who are contemplating purchasing the W7 Professional "Upgrade" to now be aware of this inexplicable hole in the Windows upgrade matrix and seriously consider whether you have the knowledge, time and patience necessary to deal with this.
UPDATE:
I have now completed the "clean install" upgrades on several machines. The whole process works well and reliably - it just takes a long time (4+ hours including the time to save the original data to a USB drive and then restore afterwards). The Easy Transfer utility provided by MS really works well and is the highlight of the process because it saves all of the user data and settings from the pre-Windows 7 machines and restores everything perfectly after the clean install of Windows 7. Without this, the upgrade would have been much more work, and much riskier. I have seen companies advertising migration products of their own, but you don't need them because MS's free utility does everything you need.
Now that the upgrade experience is behind me I am happy it is done, but I still stand by my original assessment, i.e. that this product is misleadingly labeled as a "upgrade" when that term only applies to the pricing and not the amount of work required to actually DO the upgrade in most cases.
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This review is from: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (DVD-ROM)
Like some other reviewers here I've been using Windows 7 since the release of its Beta and since others here have given good reviews I'm going to keep this review brief.
Windows 7 is the most refined OS Microsoft has ever released. Windows Vista brought a lot of new great new technologies to the table but all the new features seemed like they were all bolted together instead of seamlessly integrated.
Microsoft really listened to its customers about the problems they had with Vista and responded with Windows 7. Windows 7 is much lighter and simpler than any of its predecessors yet brings all the new technology of Windows Vista plus new innovations all wrapped up in a near flawless package.
Near flawless.
The one problem that Windows 7 has is what has been mentioned here in these reviews. Although I don't know for sure I imagine that Microsoft wanted to limit the number of people upgrading their ancient PCs with Windows 7 which could cause a chorus of complaints. So what Microsoft has done is limit the number of situations where an upgrade could occur.
While you can 'legally' upgrade from Windows XP or from Vista Home Premium you can't run the in place upgrade process. However the next best thing to an in place upgrade is to use the Windows Easy Transfer tool which will migrate all your personal data from any version of Windows XP or Windows Vista. This tool works really really well in transferring all your files and settings to Windows 7. The only thing it doesn't do is copy over installed programs. However, after you perform the Windows Easy Transfer and are up and running in Windows 7 it does give you a handy report that lists all the programs that you had installed on your old system. As you proceed to reinstall your applications the report will show a green check mark noting that the program is currently installed.
So my advice to anyone that is looking to upgrade to Windows 7 do the following:
-Run the Windows 7 upgrade advisor: [...]
-If you can't do an in place upgrade use the Windows Easy Transfer tool.
Bottom line: The OS is great and anyone that is using Windows would be wise and well served to upgrade to it. Unfortunately the upgrade process leaves something to be desired but it's an event that only occurs once.
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This review is from: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (DVD-ROM)
I feel the urge to review Windows 7 Professional 64bit so that I can warn potential buyers and let them know what they should plan on experiencing. I have lost lots of work hours in my experience with Win 7 Professional 64 bit so far, and have actually went to the Apple store in the mall 2 times and the Apple store online to price out a Mac Book pro after getting Win7 because I've been so frustrated. Keep in mind that no service packs have come out yet for Win 7 Pro 64 bit.
When Windows XP pro came out with SP1, I had to install it on about 20 systems, as we were involved in an IT startup operation for a company. I couldn't believe how stable XP Pro, SP1 was. But as XP has gone through the years, I guess all the updates have caused its stability to decline. I'm even suspicious that there might have been a few downgrades thrown in the updates to get consumers to want to move on. My experience with XP pro from about 2002 - 2007 was very positive.
But as XP started declining in performance, which seemed to coincide with the Windows Vista release, I started looking beyond, mostly beyond Microsoft. Finally Windows 7 came out and everyone was raving over it. Being the computer geek I am, I had to have it. I did do my research before purchasing the upgrade, which was only about $200.
What I like about it - the interface is nice. I deal with a lot of graphics and being able to see the large thumbnails in the folders is really nice. It seems like it's easier to navigate around to get to files. But it's a little bit like buying Blackberry's version of the I-phone. Apple came up with this. The OS really seems like it's got a better handle on security with the white listing feature, and the file permissions levels are more detailed, which would come in handy if I had many employees, AND IF THE OS WOULD WORK CORRECTLY. Microsoft does have a good positioning on the security features. Apple doesn't have to worry about security because they rarely get hacked into. Have you ever wondered why? And have you ever felt like you're playing a security game that you probably don't even need to be involved in if you switch to Mac?
What I Don't Like - It's really interesting that all of the sudden my Firefox installation simply disappeared. If that weren't suspicious, then I'd have to point to the fact that my taskbar icon for I-tunes keeps on disappearing. If those two things taken together didn't point to some unfair treatment of vendors whom Microsoft might deem competitors, then it's very interesting that my Adobe Flash (the program, not the viewer) doesn't seem to start or recognize files. In all of this, it seems to only be a problem with programs outside of Microsoft's realm. All of these programs mentioned are in direct competition with Microsoft products.
More about what I don't like - This 64bit OS (Win7 Professional) is making my laptop run so hot that I've had to rig up a way to prop it up and then kick on the room ceiling fan on the highest setting in order to cool my laptop so that the parts on the motherboard don't fry. I'm not over-exaggerating. I called my IT company about this and the guy I usually work with told me that he props his laptop up so that the fans can cool it better. That was his advice for mine. This is really interesting advice, and one of the reasons that I started looking into Mac Books. I'm getting tired of playing silly games. I feel like we're stepping back about 10 years.
Finally, the OS isn't loading any faster than XP. In XP's heyday, it blew away Win7 in startup time. Win7 64 bit is also showing programs as not responding quite often. I just had to shut it down because programs were acting like they were sleeping and I couldn't get them to get going. Not what you'd expect from Microsoft at this point in the game, right? Definitely not what I expected.
If I had a company with several employees, and I was starting from ground zero, I would go with all Macs. I have been looking at Macs since 2005, but the cost of migrating and the cost of Mac systems has kept me away so far. I currently have 4 work laptops for 3 of us. After this experience, I will definitely take the financial hit and move over to Macs because I can't trust Microsoft to play fairly, nor do I trust them to produce an OS that performs well enough for everyday workloads. It seems that they are really struggling with these new OS's for whatever reason.
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This review is from: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (DVD-ROM)
Bought it to upgrade wife's Lenovo laptop that came w/ Vista Home Professional 64 bit. Delivered on time. Thanks UPS. Tried the upgrade install first. Got error msg. stating, "Cannot upgrade Vista Home Premium to W7 Professional." Must perform a Clean Install. Great. Used MS Easy Transfer to move files to an external HDD. After doing a clean install tried moving files back to the laptop, but kept getting an error message, "Cannot open Transfer File." More great news. Spent 2.5 hours on the phone with a very nice MS Tech Support agent, to no avail. Files lost forever. Don't try to upgrade unless you're prepared to lose everything on the computer you're upgrading.
Only good news is that the Lenovo w/ W7 smokes as compared to Vista. Guess it should, as there's nothing on the hard drive now to slow it down...
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This review is from: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (DVD-ROM)
I've used every operating system from Microsoft since Dos. Windows 7 is pretty good and I'm happy with the performance and speed. However, the upgrade process from XP has been a nightmare, as reported by other users as well.
To begin with, I bought the downloadable version, which came in 3 files that took a long time to download but didn't work. No clear instructions were provided, and when I tried running that it didn't work. A great disappointment!
So, instead I got the DVD to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. That happily wiped out my XP hard disk and installed, but several days later asked me for an activation key. When I put in my activation key it didn't work, saying it was for an upgrade, not a clean install. So now I have Windows 7 that refuses to activate, and installed within is software (such as Office) that has activation keys that DO work. What SHOULD have happened was that when installed it could have checked for a valid XP installation, and if existed, allowed the activation key to work. But of course microsoft decided to make things quite complex and treat me like a bloody criminal instead.
Overall I am very dissatisfied with the upgrade process. Bottom line: I've paid good money for it, and I don't have an operating system that will activate.
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This review is from: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (DVD-ROM)
Recent Update: For the extra money, Win 7 Professional comes with a compatibility mode that runs Win XP software and a couple of other things. What Microsoft doesn't tell you (unless you dig deeply) is that XP Mode doesn't work unless you have a processor that supports Hardware-Assisted Virtualization. My household has 4 Dell dual core (Pentium or Core Duo) systems. None of them can run XP Mode. Sorry, dude, you got a Dell.
Unless you are a PC professional or your recreation consists solely in fiddling with computers (and you're not sure whether there is an opposite sex or not), you'd be better off staying away from Win7.
You will be doing Microsoft's integration testing and final QA. And you will pay for the privilege. I've been using Win 7 Beta since it first came out, and the Windows 7 Release Candidate (supposedly frozen code) for the last 6 months. Both were generally good OS packages, and fast, but the purchased version has features (and "inconveniences") not in the Beta or the Release Candidate. My guess is the code was frozen a few minutes before the first product disks were made.
Win 7 is a big improvement over Vista. But then, XP is a big speed improvement over Vista. Win 7 is much faster than Vista, it may be faster than XP. But it has big-company computer management clunkiness, not what I want in my very-own personal PC.
And Win7 is not ready for Prime Time. Nobody but Microsoft could get away with releasing such untested software.
Networking among Win7 computers is totally different from the Workgroup networking of 98 and XP. You will have to forget all you figured out over the last decade and start over. Vista concepts may be carried forward, but as I studiously avoided Vista, I don't know how Vista to Vista networking works.
If you understand and are competent with XP, you will find Microsoft support clueless. They can help first-time computer users set up Win7, but beyond the basics they are lost. Good, friendly people, eager to help, but in over their heads. And second-tier (higher level) technical support is buried. Not a good sign.
Overall Approach.
Windows 98 was for personal computers - your computer, you managed it, you (and only you) used it. It was your computer with your OS, your configuration, your file structure, your networking, and your software.
Windows NT and Win 2000 were for corporate PCs. The computer belonged to corporate IT. Corporate IT managed and controlled the computer: its configuration, networking, software, available services, etc. A Windows 2000 computer was just a terminal into the big distributed corporate computer, a terminal that had local storage for your personal work, but you, the user, were not to control it.
An environment (and need) that emerged about 10 years ago was the multi-user PC: your spouse, your kids (of varying ages), the baby sitter, your brother, and anybody else who happened to be in your house would use your PC, surf the web (porn sites), download software, introduce malware, and make changes that messed forced you to rebuild.
XP adapted to the multi-user PC environment, giving you, the owner, some control and giving each user his own logon and file structure. This changed where files were stored, even if you were the only user, pretending that the file system actually began with the Desktop (a la Apple; Bill Gates has a serious envy problem relative to Steven Jobs) rather than with the hard drive, the actual root. XP wants to force all your work into the "My Documents" folder which is OK, I guess, unless you want to put your work on a hard drive or partition other than C:\. My Documents is, of course, actually located at C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\My Documents, right next to where the Desktop actually is: C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Desktop. Everything Windows Explorer (Microsoft used to call this program "File Manager", when you were expected to manage files rather than simply explore) shows above "My Computer" is a fiction.
Win 7 combines the Win 98, WinXP, and Win 2000 approaches into one single package. Now, its may be your persona PC you bought from Dell, you may be the only user, but there are some things you can't do unless you are the Administrator. This is to protect you from people who won't be using your computer anyway and to ensure you use the PC in a corporate-approved way. If you follow Microsoft's advice and set up an Administrator account in addition to your user account, you will discover that, when you turned the computer on while you were making coffee, it didn't boot all the way up, but only half-way and waited for you to tell it who was going to use the computer: you or the Administrator (which is, of course, you). After you give it an answer, Win 7 will finish launching while you waste time watching it.
If you want your laptop to be ready to do work when you come back with coffee, don't set up an Administrator account. Just make sure you have all administrative privileges (easy to do) when you set up your user account during install. Or straighten everything out with the Users program in Control Panel. Vista is the same way, so if you've been suffering with Vista you already know about it.
Operating without full privileges actually makes sense in Linux, where you can accidentally do some serious damage very quickly, and when IT doesn't want you do change your PC, but it is unnecessary for a personal PC. (It's sad when PC no longer means "Personal Computer," so you have Corporate Personal Computers and Personal Personal Computers.)
Still, you will regularly be told you can't do things you want to do unless the Administrator approves. Click a button to approve (or turn the protection off, I don't remember how) as it is an opportunity to think twice before doing something really stupid - like installing and running eatsyourdiskforlunch.exe which you accidently downloaded).
When upgraded from XP, I discovered that I didn't have permission to install some of the utility programs I'd downloaded (and paid for). The upgrade conveniently saved the install files, but I couldn't run them. Changing the file ownership (file ownership - another new "feature") didn't help. Fortunately I'd copied all these programs to another disk and I could run them from there. Why Win7 would save an exe file then not let you run it is another entry in the growing list of Redmond Mysteries.
Networking
Somewhere along the way (98 or XP) Windows made networking a native feature of the OS and introduced the concept of Workgroups. Workgroups allowed you to set up logical subnets on your router so I could keep my computers and their associated storage and printers separate from my kids computers. You can give your workgroup any name you want, though the default was "Workgroup". You added individual computers to one workgroup or another. Certain resources could be shared among workgroups. Each computer selected files and folders for sharing, with or without passwords, and it was all pretty powerful; at least it did everything I ever wanted it to. Firewalls on individual computers provided added protection and flexibility.
Rather than building on the familiar, Win7 introduces a totally new concept: Homegroup. In a heterogeneous network (e.g., Win 7 and XP on different computers) Workgroups still exist, but became inoperative when I upgraded my XP to Win7. Now everything is "Homegroup". All homegroups are named "Homegroup". You can put in security and passwords, but you can't change the name. Perhaps that's not true, but Microsoft support doesn't know how to do it.
If it is possible to set up separate logical subnets on a router - with different passwords and sharing - and I'm not convinced it is - all the homegroups will have the same name: "Homegroup." Worthless.
Support.
The Microsoft website is about as organized as a library with all the books misfiled. There is a support Chat function, if you have the Win7 ID number (the one that appears in Computer Properties, not the unlock key that comes with the disk) you can "chat" with friendly, responsive people who seem to know less about Win7 than I do. I've been into chat 3 times, each time it took me 30 minutes to find it, and each time I somehow got there a different way. It isn't easy and obvious like other support sites like Dell and Computer Associates.
Like much that comes from Microsoft, the web site makes sense only if you already know so much that you don't need to go to the web site.
I spent 4 hours with three different first-level support people (nice folks) doing goofy things as they tried to figure out how Win7 networking worked. Microsoft is so inundated with Win7 problems that the second-level technical support is backlogged at least 24 hours.
When support is buried, you know the product has lots of problems.
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