Unofficial Windows 7 Discussion Thread

Well ive been using windows 7 64-bit for about a week now ish..
(also recently upgraded to 4gb ddr3 1600mhz ram & vista 64-bit)...

ok so
Performance first: comparing the 2 64-bit versions, i would say Windows 7 uses my ram in a more efficient way leaving enough spare for programs, while caching ram for regularly used programs. This seems like a big wooo in my book. For example, i can play music, play an mmo(lotro), have a few IE windows open and be chatting on msn with webcams, and theres really hardly any slow down. COMPARISON: While doing the same thing in 64-bit vista, I would say the performance is kinda identical, but if i had to guess a 8% increase in performance overall when mutli-tasking but does feel kinda fast hmm idk left wondering split between which is better. performance in everyday things like opening folders and stuff, win 7 when ya click stuff its boom instant, vista maybe 1% slower if that big whup.

Ease of Use: I'd say Windows 7 is very easy to use, got some getting used to though as i have never used something that resembles a Mac OS X dock etc.., but this new superbar in 7, i agree is lots of fun to use and increases productivity, while havinh many things going on at once. although a niggle i had was, i may have 3 tabs open, why would i want to look to the bottom of my screen to change the windows, when i can just click the tab, less time used that way..

Game Performance/Compatibility: I've installed Crysis:warhead and lord of the rings online so far, both installed easy no problems, both run fine, id say lotro = 10-15% better fps/less lag but i think thats down to my recent ram upgrade, Crysis runs like a dream but i also think thats down to my new ram, so im thinking 7000 build windows isnt a huge step in games = kinda more of the same performance so far..

Features I like: The new mini-window thing for the taskbar, the fact u hover over a window and it pops up on the screen fully, then u move ur mouse away and it goes back to minimized is great, and the hovering across multiple windows is cool too then just click on the window you want. The every XX mins background wallpaper feature for random shuffling of wallpapers is great addition, theres many new performance monitoring. The new action center which i think is kinda a overhauled security center is class, tells you if theres any problems and what solutions to get installed/downloaded. Theres a new lil tool so you can check compatibility of a device/program whatever and also helps you install things with recommended settings.

Everything so far if it runs on vista, runs on 7 which is obviously a clear advantage ( although think about it, if it wasnt for vista laying that foundation down, win 7 would be in the same boat AS EVERY OS RELEASED, BUGS @ FIRST and then some.., but what ive noticed is, yes im wowed by its new interface and new features / new memory usages, But im not sure it should be hyped so much seeing as how its still beta, yes it seems to run FLAWLESSLY, and i know that most consumers just want something to work without having too much trouble, and i believe..

windows 7 is what xp users and most vista users will eventually move onto, but until its sp1, i think im gonna stick with vista, because its basically the same thing tweaked, new shell.

end impression:

vista = focussed on security and everything under the sun, windows 7 = focussing on performance, builds on vista's foundation, makes it better, and most of all more fun to use Also thinking xp users will jump ship to win 7 on its release..
Edited by jameschisholm - 1/29/09 at 7:21pm

Just found a jink in win 7's idea for memory management: when i check task manager in win 7 it displays, total ram, cached, available, free. In vista it shows the same except the one called available, yet when i do a system health report it says in vista 3000mb ram available does that mean in vista they have just hidden the word available in the task manager, and win 7 is trying to fool us into thinking its new memory management?

So far I dont like the majority of the changes in Windows 7 the 2 things i found in it that i like is the show desktop button on the bottom right, and the glow around the start button when you hover over it. So far its been horridly laggy the start bar is like a matte light blue? The install CD wouldn't work at all (burned at 2x, verified data) also downloaded it twice. so eventually i just mounted it to a flash drive. I haven't actually used it to play games since it freezes if you launch IE ow WMP. I'm not one that didn't want to leave XP, I'm one that fell in love with vista the moment i saw it.

So far so good...up and running as of about 30 minutes ago.

I'm going to install some programs (3DMark series for now) and run some benchmarks.

Does the beta support sli?

I'll let you know on Monday or Tuesday

ya know what i also noticed, people say win 7 is faster than vista, but in the 64-bit editions of both they perform for me exactly the same, i can run what i detailed in my games section in an above post on both os's and the multitasking speeds are reletively the same after doing some more testing.

features are nice, but i think M$ should show win 7 off as VISTA SP2 and implement the new UI and features in a sp2 vista instead of a whole new OS. Also maybe do something like if you want a feature seen in windows 7 then in the sp2 vista instead of win 7 even being released have it so you can just download that feature, nuff said for example if you want that wallpaper shuffle thing, but just make vista sp2 = the new UI and action center and the performance tweaks, show it all off to the customers, and if they just made the changes they done in win 7 and applied it to vista sp2 guess what people with lower end systems be singing vistas praises.

I've had zero problems with W7 so far. I've been using it for about 2 months, and all still runs great without a hitch.

I just hope MS doesn't charge us a fortune for W7 when it's out! But I'm definitely going to buy Windows 7.

Agree'd Windows 7 works great, I just hope they don't slam us with a hefty price.