Just had a copy of Win 7 (the final job, not some release candidate) dumped on my desk.
I'm trying to convince myself that it will be great, and I can't keep XP forever, but it's not working yet.
Anyone got anything good to say about it? Unlike vista is it actually possible to navigate the file system without constant whinging and whining about permissions? Any good websites detailing how to configure it for non micky mouse use?

easy answer is "Yes, you will end up crying"

I'm using the release candidate and am getting on well with it. In fact I'm sure the RC is a lot more stable than many final releases that MS have released.

In fact I'm that impressed with it that it's the first version I've paid for (pre-order) since Windows 3.1!

It is basically Vista (which I've struggled to get on with) with all the annoyances reimplemented with usability in mind. You still get prompted to authorise system activity but it's done in such a way that it's not as annoying. I think it's even possible to disable it but I've found it unintrusive enough that I've not bothered to do it.

Gizmodo's take on it is here…

I used to see the OS as a tool to let me run my applications but Win7 actually seems to increase my productivity. Loads of features that I like and so far I've found the RC very fast, stable and impressive.

I skipped Vista but Win7 is leagues ahead of XP.

Some tips:

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/50-seriously-useful-windows-7-tips-528483?artc_pg=1

http://lifehacker.com/5254211/windows-7s-best-underhyped-features?skyline=true&s=x

I'm also contemplating the move to 7 as my graphics drivers keep crashing on vista :(, all my mates seem to like 7 so I might give it a whirl soon. The permissions thing can be disabled in vista too, it almost caused several laptop>window interfaces till someone told me how to turn it off

I run Windows 7 on a VM here, and haven't had any problems. It runs faster than Vista on comparable hardware. It's the best version of Windows I've used. I would recommend it above Linux too.

Only pain in the a*se is that you can't seem to "upgrade" a previous version of windows to 7. You have to do a fresh, clean install wiping everything. Not sure if I've just not found the right option, but I read something about this was due to microsoft not being able to include a pre-installed version of IE in the build.

Unlike vista is it actually possible to navigate the file system without constant whinging and whining about permissions

eh, i don't get this! i switched it off 🙂

though i am considering win7 – does this get rid of the weird HDD chugging away for ages for no apparent reason??!

Yep.

File handling seems to be much quicker. It doesn't stick at 20 seconds remaining for about half an hour any more when copying or moving files about.

I'm still on XP I've managed to avoid Vista, Win 7 is meant to be what Vista should have been so I'll get a Win 7 machine off work soon….I'll keep hold of my XP machine though 😉

I tried Windows 7 on my laptop.

If you want to have a computer that's slower than it would be on XP, with some bullsh*t graphics then Windows 7 is exactly what you have been waiting for.

We're just about to buy a laptop with Vista on it. For 28 quid we can get a 'free' upgrade to Windows 7 when it's released. Is that a good idea or not?

If you want to have a computer that's slower than it would be on XP, with some bullsh*t graphics then Windows 7 is exactly what you have been waiting for.

My laptop (1.8ghz Single-core CPU & 1gb RAM) was running like a dog under XP- it had been installed about 4 years ago and was gradually grinding itself to a halt. Since putting Windows 7 on it feels lightening fast by comparison 🙂 Although just reinstalling XP would probably have had that effect too.

Due to the ageing specs of the laptop a lot of the snazzy new GUI effects are disabled by default, but I would probably have switched them off anyway.

I miss DOS 5 it was so good compared to DOS 3.3 🙁

Verses – your laptop would have become slow due to the junk that was starting up each time you booted*, and maybe due to hard drive fragmentation** if you haven't kept it in check. With a re-install of XP your laptop would be faster than it currently is.

*Ccleaner will sort this out for you
** Diskeeper is your friend

Cranberry, you don't state the spec of your laptop that was struggling with Windows 7. I'd be interested in finding out.

My experience of Win 7 running on a virtual machine running on an Intel D 3Ghz with 3Gig of RAM (So effectively running two operating systems at once, each with 1/2 the spec) is that it's significantly faster than Vista, and about the same, if not a little quicker than XP (all fresh installs) It's entirely subjective though, as I never actually bench marked them.

Also your experience goes against the benchmarks I've read online (see here for example http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3187)

Only pain in the a*se is that you can't seem to "upgrade" a previous version of windows to 7. You have to do a fresh, clean install wiping everything.

Depends which flavour you already have.

Thanks for that. Looks like I was unlucky with my upgrade path for Vista, but there's no way to upgrade XP.

DOS 6.1 was the clear winner for me.

My laptop is a Core 2 Duo T7200 with 2Gb of RAM. I didn't do a strict benchmark, and didn't get further than putting a browser on top of the OS. Just browsing seemed to be noticeably slower and there was no benefit that I could see to outweigh that, and so I kicked Win 7 into touch.

Re the benchmarks – booting time was perhaps slightly quicker on my laptop, but what did MS do to Vista between RTM and SP1 to make it run like a 3 legged dog?

Fixed broken stuff 🙂

I run Vista SP2 at home and it is much faster than SP1. Turning off that stupid Areo interface helps a lot too.

Verses – your laptop would have become slow due to the junk that was starting up each time you booted*, and maybe due to hard drive fragmentation** if you haven't kept it in check. With a re-install of XP your laptop would be faster than it currently is.

*Ccleaner will sort this out for you
** Diskeeper is your friend

I do regularly run CCleaner and defrag, but there are performance degradations with Windows that even their magic can't resolve 🙂

Just twigged that this is an RTM version of Windows. I think I might wait till October now 🙂