Windows 7

[GoodOlBoy]

We received our site license copy of Windows 7 on Monday. I dropped it onto a dvd (it is WAY to big to fit the installer on a cd) and ran it on a new Dell 2.8ghz with 4 gig of ram and 150gig HD. It took 18 minutes from the time I repartitioned the drive until I was logging into windows 7. So far security is so tight that would be a nightmare for our domain users (we are working on that but tight security is actually a good thing) and everything is running smooth as silk at this moment. Much better performance than vista on the same boxes we have tested it on so far. Looks like Microsoft's every other OS is junk rule is standing true.

Examples

Windows 3.0 - junk
Windows 3.1 - good
windows 3.11 - junk
windows 95 (original 16 floppy rev) - decent
windows 95A (the first cd release) - junk
windows 95B - (decent but became 950C in three days after release to beta testers so it doesnt REALLY count)
windows 95C - good
windows 98 - junk
windows 98 SE (second edition) - good
windows ME - JUNK (althought if you didnt install any drivers or updates it was usable. . . . . . yeah)
windows XP - good (great after service pack 2)
windows vista - JUNK
windows 7 - good (so far)

Yes I know I left out NT 3.5, 3.5.1, 4.0, and 2000. That is because they were actually part of the NT server/workstation series of OSs NOT the desktop series of OSs. XP was also in the workstation line, but was a good stable OS after service pack 2 (assuming the installer and user were not completely brain dead)

Just thought you would like to know

GoodOlBoy

[captain2k_ca]

On my home box(es) I have ran 95, 98, 98SE, ME, XP, Vista Business.

It seems to me that as long as you are really good at tweaking settings you can make any of them run good.

My special pet was ME...put it on and thought what a POS...took quite a bit of tweaking and boom! I had that sucker running smooth and stable, rarely any hiccups!

I have Vista Business on my laptop now, and no problems...there are a few things I dont like, and there are a few bugs on some of the apps, but overall I dont have any problems!

[buckhunter]

We use XP Pro at my job and my home system. Really haven't had any problems other than my grandson downloading stuff on the home machine and screwing it up. Nothing that a rebuild and a grand kid proof password wouldn't fix.

[fabsroman]

From what I have been reading, Windows 7 is a pretty good improvement. I am getting sick and tired of XP, and I do have some issues with it here and there. The big PITA with Windows 7 is that you cannot use it to upgrade XP. Essentially, the hard drive needs to be formatted and partitioned (i.e., wiped), and then Windows 7 can be installed on it. I'll probably make the switch in November/December before tax season gets here, or I'll just make the switch on one of my non-work computers and see how that goes and then make the switch to the office computers after tax season. Plus, my wife needs a new laptop and we are trying to hold out to October 22nd so that she can get one with Windows 7 on it and I can try it out before actually buying the OS for the rest of the computers.

[skeet]

:D Send me a copy!!:D:D I'll give you a real comment on it's usefulness esp in relation to using for HC :eek:;) An I've never even heard of any body in Texas that uses the moniker of GOB:confused:

[Rocky Raab]

I tend to leapfrog software anyway. Annual updates of things like Quickbooks can be expensive with little gain. So I've been lucky to use Windows 95, 98 and XP while skipping the dead dog versions.

I'll keep XP on all our computers (wife and I each have a desk and a lap) until they die. As long as I'm going to have to re-load all my working software anyway, it might as well be on a new machine.

Rocky Hint 21B: Make a list of all the software you have loaded, especially those you seldom use. Remembering what to put on a new machine can be a booger. It wouldn't hurt to keep all the install packs in one place, either!

[GoodOlBoy]

Hey Captain, the problem is that on several of those versions the next round of updates could, and often did, undo all the tweaks. Besides there is quite a difference between tweaking your home machines and keeping 14K machines tweaked across a college campus at the same time :p Active Directory domains has made it easier, but it still ain't perfect.

GoodOlBoy's hint #3: Keep electronics copies of all your cds on a external drive source. Thataway when you drop one, it warps, or just stops reading because it has been installed 27 times a month for the last year you can run a electonic backup instead of rebuying the product. However keep the originals so you arent in violation of copyright.

GoodOlBoy

[Jack]

If you think ahead enough to get a new 'puter before the old one totally dies, the new systems have a nice feature. Vista, and I'm sure 7, too, are set up to transfer all your stuff from the old PC to the new one. Just plug in a USB cable to connect the 2 machines, check the stuff you want to transfer, and you're done. Neat feature, I think.

[captain2k_ca]

GOB, I know that! its pretty easy to keep one machine working and tweaked properly, but when U can have 2 identical machines that wont run with the same settings, then U need the most stable platform U can find!

Its amazing what u can do when you start playing with some of the settings on ur computer!

[Rocky Raab]

The MOST amazing thing is how thoroughly and utterly "up-phooked" you can get them in no time at all! About like taking an old-fashioned clock apart to see what makes it tick - and it never ticks again.

[GoodOlBoy]

Yeah that's why we have a standing rule amongst the techs. If it takes you more than three hours work to fix it, flatten it. The reasoning is that not only are you not spending two days trying to fix oddball issues on a single machine and backing up work orders (yes I have still done it with a particularly odd issue or three) but also at that point there is a chance the machine is so "dorked" up that it won't stay repaired anyway.

GoodOlBoy

[fabsroman]

I have a different way of accomplishing that. I use a removable hard drive to keep all my data on. That takes care of that problem. Plus, it makes backing things up pretty easy.

Now, the programs are a different matter.

[GoodOlBoy]

Yeah until your removable hard drive dies and you want your data. If you mean you keep a second copy that's one thing, but never single source data you intend to keep. Unless you just like disappointment.

GoodOlBoy

[fabsroman]

I currently use a WD Passport hard drive to keep my data on. It is small enough to throw in my laptop bag. Once a week, I copy everything on that drive to another USB hard drive, a 500 gig 3.5" WD Caviar IDE drive in a USB enclosure. I rotate among three of those drive/drive enclosures and keep one off site about 40 miles away from here that I rotate out once a week and another in a safety deposit box at my bank. I've had my own practice for 7+ years now and I definitely do not want to lose all that work to a stupid computer disaster, an issue with mother nature, or some thief that actually gets through my door, my dog, and my gun.

Edited to add:

I'm probably going to upgrade around Christmas time and go with a 2.5" Sata WD drive and eSata/USB hard drive enclosure and I am going to upgrade all the backup drives to 3.5" Satas in eSata enclosures. Backing stuff up is just taking way too long nowadays.

I also do a mirror backup of my operating system hard drive to another local hard drive inside the machine. Not the best backup, but the programs themselves can always be replaced, the data cannot.

[Rocky Raab]

Fabs, have you looked into Carbonite or the other online backup/storage service? It seems like a good tertiary safety for you - even though yours is THE most serious backup plan I've ever heard of.

[GoodOlBoy]

I dunno I keep a backup at home, plus one on a raid 5 server at work. Anything I don't want to lose but that won't be changing (IE pdf books, reloading data etc) also gets burned to a cd or dvd and filed.

GoodOlBoy

[fabsroman]

Fabs, have you looked into Carbonite or the other online backup/storage service? It seems like a good tertiary safety for you - even though yours is THE most serious backup plan I've ever heard of.

Rocky, my one hang up with online/off site backup is that I have some confidential information of my clients that I don't want to put at risk. From what I have read, most hackers go after the big guys with tons of data versus some small guy like me without a lot of data that they can steal. Until I feel really, really safe about the online backup stuff I am going to steer away from it. I know they should be hack proof, but I also know that my credit card number has been stolen 3 times by hackers hacking into credit card processing companies.

[Rocky Raab]

That's what I expected to hear, Fabs. And rightly so.