V.T. Eric Layton Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Psssst... Don't tell anyone, but Win 7 is pretty darn COOL! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tushman Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 (edited) Psssst... Don't tell anyone, but Win 7 is pretty darn COOL! I agree Eric. The best Windows OS released to date. Interesting how the pattern has been.Windows 2000 - great. rock solidWindows ME - horrible. worse than the black plagueWindows XP - rock solid. Still going strong after all these years.Windows Vista - right up there with ME (not nearly as bad) bleh....Windows 7 - awesome.+, -, +, -, + hmm..... anyone care to guess the next in sequence? Edited October 29, 2010 by Tushman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 It actually goes back further than that, though it doesn't always keep the same order. In fact, overall they actually have a fairly good track record...MS-DOS - Rock solidWindows 1.0 - A clunky but cool new implementation of the Xerox/PARC design.Windows 2.0 - A simply horrifying messWindows 3.0 - Still clunky and glitchy, but a huge improvement over 2.0Windows NT 3.1 - A solid server systemWindows 3.11 for Workgroups - an actual stable system suitable for business desktopsWindows 95 - a clunky but cool new implementation.Windows NT Workstation 4.0 - An excellent business desktop platformWindows 98 - an abominationWindows 98 Second Edition - what Win98 should have been in the first place Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Golden Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 (edited) I think one of the things I like best about Win7 was MS's decision to release the beta and then the RC to us unwashed masseswell before final release.The beta was the most stable and feature complete beta I've ever worked with.Of course MS got a lot of great feedback from us unofficial testers.I had already made up my mind to buy the final by the time I installed the RC.On the 28th Oct. 2010 (day before yesterday) MS released the RC of SP1 for Win 7.The final is due in 1st quarter 2011.The SP is mostly a rollup of updates with no big changes.The 32 bit version is a little over 500 MB (the 64 bit is quite a bit larger ~800 MB)It took about 25 minutes to install on my machine (I made a Clonezilla image just before installing the SP)and went without a hitch.Some impressions the SP added about 1 GB of data to my HDD and seemed to increase my boot time by about 25 seconds.The disc space issue isn't a biggie but the increase in boot time from ~32 to 37 seconds to ~57 to ~62 seconds is a bummer.I will have to investigate further.I hope the final doesn't impact boot time so dramatically.http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Service-P...tefx,11541.html Edited October 29, 2010 by Frank Golden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tushman Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 (edited) It actually goes back further than that, though it doesn't always keep the same order.LOL. Really? You mean Microsoft started making Windows before 2000? *wow* I'm quite shocked.I started with W2K on purpose. Particularly considering that anything pre windows 2000 is ancient h-i-s-t-o-r-y to me. We can debate on what is considered to be "ancient history", but the Win9.x family is really not worthy of mention in my post above. (with the exception of Win ME). Edited October 29, 2010 by Tushman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 I'm one of those OldFarts for whom DOS was the hot new technology - a wonderfully feature-rich improvement over CP/M. Back in those days, Microsoft was the savior, not the evil empire. Being able to type commands into a keyboard was a HUGE improvement over booting the old PDP-8 with a circuit board full of hand-soldered diodes! Though it was pretty much impossible to infect that sort of boot with a virus... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 My first experience with MS Windows was with 3.1 back in '93 or so. Prior to that, I thought computers worked from a command line or a black/green phosphorus screen of some sort (unless they were those cool Commodore machines ). I didn't have anything to do with computers again until 2000, at which time I inherited one with 98SE on it. I LOVED 98SE. I was very, very reluctant to go to XP. I finally did go to XP, though... sometime in '03, I think. While I did get to LOVE XP also, I probably had the most frustrating issues with it than any other MS experience prior. I never had Vista on any of my machines. Now, I'm running Win 7 on my laptop, but I've been a hardcore Penguinista (Linux user) since June of 2006. That's pretty much my Microsoft WIndows history in a paragraph. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbdietz Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Some impressions the SP added about 1 GB of data to my HDD and seemed to increase my boot time by about 25 seconds.The disc space issue isn't a biggie but the increase in boot time from ~32 to 37 seconds to ~57 to ~62 seconds is a bummer.Does a follow-up defrag of the drive have much affect?I also wonder if your boot times won't improve after Windows has had a chance to adjust the contents of the prefetch folder to take notice of the new/changed files? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Golden Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 (edited) Does a follow-up defrag of the drive have much affect?I also wonder if your boot times won't improve after Windows has had a chance to adjust the contents of the prefetch folder to take notice of the new/changed files?You are absolutely right, after several boots the machine settled down to it's normal 32 to 37 boot times.I'm thinking the prefetch thing is the culprit also.The SP1 RC produces a watermark in the lower right corner declaring that this is an evaluation copy.A google search turned up a patch to remove this watermark.I forgot about a follow up defrag. Edited October 30, 2010 by Frank Golden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted October 30, 2010 Author Share Posted October 30, 2010 So, is defragging still a requirement of Windows these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patio Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 I still do it///weekly/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b2cm Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 computing was, for me, as simple and complete as just dos, wordstar and microstat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 computing was, for me, as simple and complete as just dos, wordstar and microstatWow! Did you know that Microstat is STILL available? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Golden Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 (edited) So, is defragging still a requirement of Windows these days. It's still recommended and Win 7 schedules it by default.Although the claim is that Win 7 handles fragmentation better than previous versions it like chicken soup, It can't hurt.At any rate I've disabled the scheduled defrag, as a matter of fact I've disabled all scheduled tasks in Task Scheduler (about 60 or so) because I like more control over my system.I also don't use the native defrag utility because it messes with the prefetch folder, slowing down bootup.I use a free defrag utility called Auslogic's Defragger.It is very fast and doesn't touch the prefetch folder.http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/download/BTW, Task Scheduler can be accessed using the "search program and files" feature visible when the Start button is pressed.Just type Task Scheduler in field and click the result.This "search program and files" feature is a handy addition to Windows.There are dozens of scheduled tasks many enabled by default. Edited October 31, 2010 by Frank Golden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patio Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 I also use Auslogics... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tushman Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 (edited) I also use Auslogics...Auslogic seems like it goes through a lot of rigomoral for nothing. I've installed it on a lot of computers, and I'm done with it. Really a watered down program that accomplishes very little. If you must defrag, check out MyDefrag instead. It's much more effective and has a couple of more features Augslogic doesn't. Edited October 31, 2010 by Tushman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tushman Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 (edited) So, is defragging still a requirement of Windows these days. I've been defragging my hdds since the Win98 so it's sort of ingrained into my habit. At first it was hard for me to believe my system wouldn't be better off with a regular defrag. I've been hooked on Diskeeper since WinNT/2000.... definitely enjoyed using that program. (highly efficient & effective).However, times have changed and so has my attitude towards many of the defrag programs out there. First of all, Diskeeper is no longer the program it once was. Secondly, hardware has become faster, CPU, RAM etc. Most importantly Windows prefetch helps a great deal in terms of "speed" so that the user doesn't feel the effects of a slow disk so much.My own reading on line (places like ArsTechnica) and several comments related to defragging tells me it's not necessary at all. After I installed Win7, I went for 2 months without defragging any of my hdds. I decided to see if I could notice any difference with a defrag program (using MyDefrag). Honestly could not really notice a huge diff. Edited October 31, 2010 by Tushman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted October 31, 2010 Author Share Posted October 31, 2010 This time around with MS Windows, I'm kinda' letting the chips fall where they may. In other words, I'm doing very little in the way of customization or tweaking. I'm trying to see how the Windows out-of-box experience has improved over the years. So far, I'm pretty impressed. UGG! Me big Linux command line junkie, so shhhhh... but that Win 7 GUI stuff is pretty COOL! As I get older (and life seems to be shorter and shorter), I become a bit lazier. That click and go GUI stuff is definitely a lazy man's way to do stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 You have been outed Just kidding, I also have a Win 7 partition. Of course I only use mine for gaming and keep it off the net but it does its job nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted October 31, 2010 Author Share Posted October 31, 2010 ARRRRRRRRRGH! Busted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 I do love Windows 7 best of all Windows to date.I also really enjoyed the Beta and RC. It really was a wise move on Microsoft's part to open that up to us tinkerers. Helped with its reception in the end, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Golden Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Auslogic seems like it goes through a lot of rigomoral for nothing. I've installed it on a lot of computers, and I'm done with it. Really a watered down program that accomplishes very little. If you must defrag, check out MyDefrag instead. It's much more effective and has a couple of more features Augslogic doesn't.I don't know, seems to work fine for me.Running the Win 7 native defrager (analyze mode) after running Ausoligics tool shows 0% fragmentation and it leaves my prefetch files alone.I do love Windows 7 best of all Windows to date.I also really enjoyed the Beta and RC. It really was a wise move on Microsoft's part to open that up to us tinkerers. Helped with its reception in the end, I think.Plus providing them with valuable feedback as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patio Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 (edited) MS pre=releasing the BETA of Win7 to the general public was IMHO a brilliant strategy...look at the acceptance #'s... Edited November 1, 2010 by patio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 I think Windows 1.0 was included with a Microsoft Program years ago, but can't remember for sure. I didn't buy it but it was included with something. Maybe even Ventura Publisher. May have come with both Win 1.0 and GEM versions in the same package. Ventura Publisher worked better under DOS/GEM at the time.At that time, I was using DOS version of WordPerfect Office which was so much more powerful at that time. The Corel WordPerfect Office version today is buggy in the extreme.Another GUI extension that rode on the DOS PC platform at the time was GEM. Very Mac 0S 8.5ish, but at that time, when everything was DOS CLI or ASCII pseudo graphics like QEMM (another great interface, BTW) that allowed you to open more programs. Before GUIs in general were available, Quarterdeck's QEMM was the cat's meow. :DGEM was what Xerox's Ventura Publisher used in the DOS days, long before it was bought by Corel and became Corel Ventura Publisher. It was much more powerful than PageMaker. It was more like PageMaker on steroids. I continued to use it after it was purchased by Corel and released as Corel Ventura 7 for the Windows 3.x platform. GEM/4 included the ability to work with Bézier curves, a feature still not common outside the PostScript world.(From the wiki article)Did you know that GEM/XM source code is now freely available under the GNU General Public License. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 After buying my wife a new rig with Win 7 64Bit pre-installed, (Now I have a 7 year old Compaq to put another Linux Disto on ) I must admit....I was impressed. Ahhh the days of 1200 baud modems, 128 megabyte hardrives and creating batch files in DOS to do some REALLY cool stuff. (well, it was cool back then )Think the first Windows program I installed was 3.1 which coming from command line world seemed really cool to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted November 10, 2010 Author Share Posted November 10, 2010 Yup... my MS Windwoes adventure started with 3.1 also. --> http://noctslackv2.wordpress.com/2010/11/0...ore-linux-user/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 After buying my wife a new rig with Win 7 64Bit pre-installed, (Now I have a 7 year old Compaq to put another Linux Disto on ) I must admit....I was impressed. Ahhh the days of 1200 baud modems, 128 megabyte hardrives and creating batch files in DOS to do some REALLY cool stuff. (well, it was cool back then )Think the first Windows program I installed was 3.1 which coming from command line world seemed really cool to me. Yes, it was cool, and still is cool ... Windows 7 is likely their best OS to date IMHO, especially the 64-bit version which is where everything needs to go.Now, my Jim has been known to say that Windows actually set us back many years in innovation on computers. That it would be so much longer before AI and other true innovations would come to the computer world. I agree. And you can see that has played out correctly. People have been 'satisfiied' more or less with what is given to them, or they buy in the Windows or Mac worlds. Linux on the other hand has continued to be truly innovative in the embedded environment and although they are not the largest on the Desktop computers, Linux is on more 'systems' and 'embedded systems' than any other OS.Much of that is due to its Open Source nature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted December 20, 2010 Author Share Posted December 20, 2010 *sigh*I installed MS Essentials last night. It trashed my Win 7 installation. Win Updates stopped working. Win Defender conflicted and wouldn't update anymore. MS Essentials wouldn't update. Restore did not fix. Probably Reg errors at that point.Reinstalling Win 7 now. Gosh! This seems so familiar for some reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted December 20, 2010 Author Share Posted December 20, 2010 My WIn 7 is all better after a reinstall. Isn't that always the case? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Golden Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 (edited) *sigh*I installed MS Essentials last night. It trashed my Win 7 installation. Win Updates stopped working. Win Defender conflicted and wouldn't update anymore. MS Essentials wouldn't update. Restore did not fix. Probably Reg errors at that point.Reinstalling Win 7 now. Gosh! This seems so familiar for some reason. Yeah Eric, if I remember this was how I first met you.An update trashed your XP install and you had the nerve to bitch about it to Patty over at Computer Haven. BTW, I don't miss Patty one bit if you know what I mean.Maybe now would be a good time to create an image (Clonezilla or otherwise) for future disasters. Edited December 21, 2010 by Frank Golden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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