Windows 7

[Rip Rokken]

I have to admit, as much as I hated Vista, the only hope I had for Windows 7 was that it would be a bit quicker and less confusing to navigate thru. I planning on sticking with XP as long as I could.

I got the opportunity to switch over at the office about a week ago, and was so impressed that I've swapped to Windows 7 on my home PCs and laptop as well. I'm HIGHLY pleased with it. Wasn't quite sure when I saw it took just about as much disk space as Vista from a clean install (almost 8GB), but looks were deceiving. It's extremely quick and responsive -- even moreso than XP on each of my systems. My networked office PC (Core 2 Duo w/3GB RAM) boots up and is ready to go in 1:50, just under two minutes. My main home PC is a P4HT 3.0 with 2.5GB RAM, and my wife's is a P4HT 2.8 with only 1GB of RAM. It runs like a dream on both of them. Mine boots up and is ready to go at 55 freaking seconds -- that includes typing in both BIOS and Windows passwords, and I'm running Avast antivirus. Just got thru installing it on my laptop, an Intel Centrino 1.73GHz with 1.5GB of RAM, and aside from the fact the video chipset isn't compatible with Aero Glass, it's awesome.

Overall, it just has a much lighter feel, and proves that there was never a reason to purchase ungodly amounts of hardware just to smoothly run your O/S. And speaking of Aero Glass, it is smooth as it can be on each of my desktop PCs, including my wife's PC which is just running onboard graphics -- nothing fancy.

Several improvements overall, including a much smarter taskbar, MUCH better organized and easier access to your stuff (you don't have to navigate thru several levels of shell folders to find your freakin' hard drive or a network resource anymore). Also, they've done away with tons of pop-up interruptions, and give you an easy way to corral and control all the Notification Area (formerly System Tray) icons.

Another thing I notice right away is how much smoother multimedia content runs, especially while surfing the Web. For example, if I watch a YouTube video, it seems to stream much quicker and smoother than before, and if I jump ahead it loads quicker. Who'da thunkit?

Overall, it's quicker in just about every area, seemingly surpassing even XP in performance. They've reduced a bunch of headache by eliminating needless crap and endless mouse-clicks to get to where you want to go or do what you want to do. Windows 7 has really breathed new life into my existing equipment and made my 2-3 year old systems run like new. So I'm very pleased, but still give Microsoft a big F.U. for trying to force Vista on us for the past few years. What a piece of bloated, overcomplicated crap that was.

Anyone else running it yet?

[portland]

Yes well I am running Vista!! and yes it is a PIA!

[Rick]

I have to admit, as much as I hated Vista, the only hope I had for Windows 7 was that it would be a bit quicker and less confusing to navigate thru. I planning on sticking with XP as long as I could.

I got the opportunity to switch over at the office about a week ago, and was so impressed that I've swapped to Windows 7 on my home PCs and laptop as well. I'm HIGHLY pleased with it. Wasn't quite sure when I saw it took just about as much disk space as Vista from a clean install (almost 8GB), but looks were deceiving. It's extremely quick and responsive -- even moreso than XP on each of my systems. My networked office PC (Core 2 Duo w/3GB RAM) boots up and is ready to go in 1:50, just under two minutes. My main home PC is a P4HT 3.0 with 2.5GB RAM, and my wife's is a P4HT 2.8 with only 1GB of RAM. It runs like a dream on both of them. Mine boots up and is ready to go at 55 freaking seconds -- that includes typing in both BIOS and Windows passwords, and I'm running Avast antivirus. Just got thru installing it on my laptop, an Intel Centrino 1.73GHz with 1.5GB of RAM, and aside from the fact the video chipset isn't compatible with Aero Glass, it's awesome.

Overall, it just has a much lighter feel, and proves that there was never a reason to purchase ungodly amounts of hardware just to smoothly run your O/S. And speaking of Aero Glass, it is smooth as it can be on each of my desktop PCs, including my wife's PC which is just running onboard graphics -- nothing fancy.

Several improvements overall, including a much smarter taskbar, MUCH better organized and easier access to your stuff (you don't have to navigate thru several levels of shell folders to find your freakin' hard drive or a network resource anymore). Also, they've done away with tons of pop-up interruptions, and give you an easy way to corral and control all the Notification Area (formerly System Tray) icons.

Another thing I notice right away is how much smoother multimedia content runs, especially while surfing the Web. For example, if I watch a YouTube video, it seems to stream much quicker and smoother than before, and if I jump ahead it loads quicker. Who'da thunkit?

Overall, it's quicker in just about every area, seemingly surpassing even XP in performance. They've reduced a bunch of headache by eliminating needless crap and endless mouse-clicks to get to where you want to go or do what you want to do. Windows 7 has really breathed new life into my existing equipment and made my 2-3 year old systems run like new. So I'm very pleased, but still give Microsoft a big F.U. for trying to force Vista on us for the past few years. What a piece of bloated, overcomplicated crap that was.

Anyone else running it yet?

It's not available yet for commercial purchase yet, is it?

I beta tested it, and was happy with the performance of it. It didn't fully support my video card, and then when they came out with Release Candidate 1, it didn't support it at all. So I had to ditch it. When the RTM version hits the torrent sites, I'm going to download it and see if they fixed the problem with my video card before I run out and buy it. I'd hate to have to replace the video card. It was fairly outrageous when I bought it.

[Jeremey]

Running Windows 7 under Parallels on both my macs, which are running Snow Leopard. It's a vast improvement over Vista, which finally drove me to a mac. That being said, I'm only really using it for Quickbooks and Quicken.

[Aaron]

Thanks for the info. I bought a new machine last spring that has Vista on it. What a slow, unstable POS this thing is. It's running an AMD Phenom quad core at 2.2 Gz with 6 GB of RAM. The new machine is slower the 5 year old machine I replaced that used XP. I'm debating on whether to try Windows 7 now.

[G.I.Jim]

You guys are NERDS!

[Rip Rokken]

It's not available yet for commercial purchase yet, is it?

I beta tested it, and was happy with the performance of it. It didn't fully support my video card, and then when they came out with Release Candidate 1, it didn't support it at all. So I had to ditch it. When the RTM version hits the torrent sites, I'm going to download it and see if they fixed the problem with my video card before I run out and buy it. I'd hate to have to replace the video card. It was fairly outrageous when I bought it.

No, but we got it early via Microsoft. I'm running the Enterprise edition. Funny you mentioned the video card. My office system was the only one I upgraded directly (it had Vista Business on it). The upgrade kept failing until I removed my new nVidia card, then I reinstalled it after the upgrade was complete and it is fine. The rest of my systems had XP so I did a clean install on each. Win7 recognized all hardware on each of them, except my HP laptop which has an Intel 915x Mobile chipset. Had to experiment with a mix of Vista and XP drivers for video, sound, networking, mass storage, and Infrared to get them going and everything is stable. The only other thing I had problems with at first was my LaserJet 1012 printer -- HP claims it's not compatible with Windows 7, but on a tip from the Web I used a 1015 driver and it works perfectly. Now how hard would that have been to fix? I love my 1012.

[Rip Rokken]

Thanks for the info. I bought a new machine last spring that has Vista on it. What a slow, unstable POS this thing is. It's running an AMD Phenom quad core at 2.2 Gz with 6 GB of RAM. The new machine is slower the 5 year old machine I replaced that used XP. I'm debating on whether to try Windows 7 now.

Ain't that ridiculous? I also had a friend who'd purchased a new AMD loaded with RAM and it had Vista Home Premium preinstalled. It was SLOWWWWW. Pulling the bundled McAfee suite off of it helped, but that was one of the first experiences I had with Vista and it really turned me off. Give Windows 7 a shot if you can -- I don't think you'll be disappointed assuming the hardware is all compatible.

[Rick]

It's not available yet for commercial purchase yet, is it?

I beta tested it, and was happy with the performance of it. It didn't fully support my video card, and then when they came out with Release Candidate 1, it didn't support it at all. So I had to ditch it. When the RTM version hits the torrent sites, I'm going to download it and see if they fixed the problem with my video card before I run out and buy it. I'd hate to have to replace the video card. It was fairly outrageous when I bought it.

No, but we got it early via Microsoft. I'm running the Enterprise edition. Funny you mentioned the video card. My office system was the only one I upgraded directly (it had Vista Business on it). The upgrade kept failing until I removed my new nVidia card, then I reinstalled it after the upgrade was complete and it is fine. The rest of my systems had XP so I did a clean install on each. Win7 recognized all hardware on each of them, except my HP laptop which has an Intel 915x Mobile chipset. Had to experiment with a mix of Vista and XP drivers for video, sound, networking, mass storage, and Infrared to get them going and everything is stable. The only other thing I had problems with at first was my LaserJet 1012 printer -- HP claims it's not compatible with Windows 7, but on a tip from the Web I used a 1015 driver and it works perfectly. Now how hard would that have been to fix? I love my 1012.

Veddy interestink. My video card is nVidia. hmmmm..... I'll remember that procedure if it happens to me. Thanks for the info sir.

[yak]

Yes well I am running Vista!! and yes it is a PIA!

Yes, well so am I and it is a bigtime POS! Also a resource hog.

[bluejeangirl76]

So, Rip... Help me out a sec... I have a desktop and a laptop - both running Vista - if I upgrade from Vista, not clean install, will that suffice in making things better? Now, with the desktop - I have an issue with my printer... if I shut it off, I keep having to reinstall it every time because fucking goddamn piece of holy crap Vista keeps forgetting it's there... maybe this won't happen with W7? Damn printer has been on for about a year because I got sick of Vista not finding it.

I've heard decent things about 7 so far, and this is more good news. I cannot wait to stop dealing with this horsecrapular Vista mess.

[StoneCold]

Yes well I am running Vista!! and yes it is a PIA!

, I love PIA

[StoneCold]

You guys are NERDS!

Not Portland! She has the bestest av's ever!

Post Portland, Post!

[yak]

So, Rip... Help me out a sec... I have a desktop and a laptop - both running Vista - if I upgrade from Vista, not clean install, will that suffice in making things better? Now, with the desktop - I have an issue with my printer... if I shut it off, I keep having to reinstall it every time because fucking goddamn piece of holy crap Vista keeps forgetting it's there... maybe this won't happen with W7? Damn printer has been on for about a year because I got sick of Vista not finding it.

I've heard decent things about 7 so far, and this is more good news. I cannot wait to stop dealing with this horsecrapular Vista mess.

Reminds me of that old adage - If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Rick]

So, Rip... Help me out a sec... I have a desktop and a laptop - both running Vista - if I upgrade from Vista, not clean install, will that suffice in making things better? Now, with the desktop - I have an issue with my printer... if I shut it off, I keep having to reinstall it every time because fucking goddamn piece of holy crap Vista keeps forgetting it's there... maybe this won't happen with W7? Damn printer has been on for about a year because I got sick of Vista not finding it.

I've heard decent things about 7 so far, and this is more good news. I cannot wait to stop dealing with this horsecrapular Vista mess.

If I may...

Upgrading to 7 will give you all the benefits of 7, including a faster computer.

As far as your printer goes, you will need to go to the Microsoft website and look at the hardware compatibility list, when that becomes available.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compat ... fault.aspx

If your printer isn't on there, then you can do something like Rip did and use another driver that will work. That's going to be a tough one though, because not many people are tech savvy enough to pull that one off. Rip is, evidently. He's my new tech guru/idol.

[bluejeangirl76]

So, Rip... Help me out a sec... I have a desktop and a laptop - both running Vista - if I upgrade from Vista, not clean install, will that suffice in making things better? Now, with the desktop - I have an issue with my printer... if I shut it off, I keep having to reinstall it every time because fucking goddamn piece of holy crap Vista keeps forgetting it's there... maybe this won't happen with W7? Damn printer has been on for about a year because I got sick of Vista not finding it.

I've heard decent things about 7 so far, and this is more good news. I cannot wait to stop dealing with this horsecrapular Vista mess.

If I may...

Upgrading to 7 will give you all the benefits of 7, including a faster computer.

As far as your printer goes, you will need to go to the Microsoft website and look at the hardware compatibility list, when that becomes available.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compat ... fault.aspx

If your printer isn't on there, then you can do something like Rip did and use another driver that will work. That's going to be a tough one though, because not many people are tech savvy enough to pull that one off. Rip is, evidently. He's my new tech guru/idol.

Well, my printer came with an install disk for XP (and earlier). So I have to get the new Vista drivers for it. I believe I sent in for the CD from HP. The Vista drivers... hahahaha... forget it. I had SO many hardware issues with Vista. The makers of my wireless card never came out with a vista compatible driver BUT the card worked with the new Vista PC... for about 4 months... in month 4, out of nowhere, I started to get blue screen of death constantly. after another few weeks I discovered it was the stupid network card crashing it. I never suspected it because it worked fine for 4 whole months. Then it was the damn printer... Vista drivers or not, it still refuses to play nice with the printer. Vista is the biggest piece of shit ever.

[Rick]

So, Rip... Help me out a sec... I have a desktop and a laptop - both running Vista - if I upgrade from Vista, not clean install, will that suffice in making things better? Now, with the desktop - I have an issue with my printer... if I shut it off, I keep having to reinstall it every time because fucking goddamn piece of holy crap Vista keeps forgetting it's there... maybe this won't happen with W7? Damn printer has been on for about a year because I got sick of Vista not finding it.

I've heard decent things about 7 so far, and this is more good news. I cannot wait to stop dealing with this horsecrapular Vista mess.

If I may...

Upgrading to 7 will give you all the benefits of 7, including a faster computer.

As far as your printer goes, you will need to go to the Microsoft website and look at the hardware compatibility list, when that becomes available.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compat ... fault.aspx

If your printer isn't on there, then you can do something like Rip did and use another driver that will work. That's going to be a tough one though, because not many people are tech savvy enough to pull that one off. Rip is, evidently. He's my new tech guru/idol.

Well, my printer came with an install disk for XP (and earlier). So I have to get the new Vista drivers for it. I believe I sent in for the CD from HP. The Vista drivers... hahahaha... forget it. I had SO many hardware issues with Vista. The makers of my wireless card never came out with a vista compatible driver BUT the card worked with the new Vista PC... for about 4 months... in month 4, out of nowhere, I started to get blue screen of death constantly. after another few weeks I discovered it was the stupid network card crashing it. I never suspected it because it worked fine for 4 whole months. Then it was the damn printer... Vista drivers or not, it still refuses to play nice with the printer. Vista is the biggest piece of shit ever.

Agreed. It's probably worse then Windows ME, which was a huge turd.

[bluejeangirl76]

Vista is the biggest piece of shit ever.

Agreed. It's probably worse then Windows ME, which was a huge turd.

My ME system froze the hell up 3 minutes out of the box!

[T-Bone]

I agree that Win 7 is a HUGE step up from Vista. Although Vista had some cool features, it was a system hog and required too much from the processor, video and memory. The one downfall of Vista in my opinion was the folder setups. Instead of the My Documents like XP had, it had a different type in interface that I HATED with a passion. When i'd go into my 2nd or 3rd hard drive to check for something, it would open those drives in that folder setup. If I clicked on MUSIC, it went right back to the C Drive in the music section instead of staying in the 2nd or 3rd hard drive. I'd set the view to stay at LIST and then would set it so that ALL folders would stay like that, but every time I'd open the folder again, it was back to details and would have the tabs at the top with Date Modified, Size, Type, Artist, etc... I finally uninstalled it after 4 weeks of fighting with it. I had it dual booted with XP on my machine. I'd like to say I gave it an honest chance, but it didn't impress me at all other than a few cool features... I can't wait to get a real version of Win 7 on my machine and get rid of this trial version.

[Rick]

Vista is the biggest piece of shit ever.

Agreed. It's probably worse then Windows ME, which was a huge turd.

My ME system froze the hell up 3 minutes out of the box!

That was supposed to be a big transition version of Windows, bridging 9x to NT. They had a great idea, but it fuckin flopped.

So far, XP is the I-ching of all OS's as far as I am concerned.

[bluejeangirl76]

I'd like to say I gave it an honest chance, but it didn't impress me at all other than a few cool features...

I gave it a very honest chance, and I didn't mind it much at all until it totally screwed me 6 ways to sunday and back with the wireless card issue. The only feature I like about Vista - seriously the only one - is the Snipping Tool, which does away with the whole CTRL+Prnt Scr process for screen grabbing.

As long as Windows 7 has Snipping Tool, I'm sure I'll be happy with anything else it does as long as I can dump Vista in Shit River where it belongs.

[Rip Rokken]

It's not available yet for commercial purchase yet, is it?

I beta tested it, and was happy with the performance of it. It didn't fully support my video card, and then when they came out with Release Candidate 1, it didn't support it at all. So I had to ditch it. When the RTM version hits the torrent sites, I'm going to download it and see if they fixed the problem with my video card before I run out and buy it. I'd hate to have to replace the video card. It was fairly outrageous when I bought it.

No, but we got it early via Microsoft. I'm running the Enterprise edition. Funny you mentioned the video card. My office system was the only one I upgraded directly (it had Vista Business on it). The upgrade kept failing until I removed my new nVidia card, then I reinstalled it after the upgrade was complete and it is fine. The rest of my systems had XP so I did a clean install on each. Win7 recognized all hardware on each of them, except my HP laptop which has an Intel 915x Mobile chipset. Had to experiment with a mix of Vista and XP drivers for video, sound, networking, mass storage, and Infrared to get them going and everything is stable. The only other thing I had problems with at first was my LaserJet 1012 printer -- HP claims it's not compatible with Windows 7, but on a tip from the Web I used a 1015 driver and it works perfectly. Now how hard would that have been to fix? I love my 1012.

Veddy interestink. My video card is nVidia. hmmmm..... I'll remember that procedure if it happens to me. Thanks for the info sir.

At home I have an nVidia GeForce 8500 GT, and had no issues -- it installed the Microsoft WDDM drivers and I haven't messed with them since. At work I have a dual-head GeForce 9800 GT (it's a large card) running two monitors, and the upgrade would crash and roll back to Vista until I removed the card and used onboard graphics. After that, I added the card back in and it installed nVidia's drivers dated July '09. Haven't had a problem since. It did not detect my USRobotics PCI modem but that's not a big deal as I never use it anymore, and I'm sure I could locate some drivers for it if I needed to. Definitely check compatibility before you upgrade (it offers to check online and build a report before you do). My card showed to be compatible, so I might suggest pulling your card before upgrading for best results.

[Rip Rokken]

So, Rip... Help me out a sec... I have a desktop and a laptop - both running Vista - if I upgrade from Vista, not clean install, will that suffice in making things better? Now, with the desktop - I have an issue with my printer... if I shut it off, I keep having to reinstall it every time because fucking goddamn piece of holy crap Vista keeps forgetting it's there... maybe this won't happen with W7? Damn printer has been on for about a year because I got sick of Vista not finding it.

I've heard decent things about 7 so far, and this is more good news. I cannot wait to stop dealing with this horsecrapular Vista mess.

First, here's my personal history with Vista -- I waited a year after it was released to install it at work, and only did so because I thought I was going to need to be familiar with it. Truth is, it performed adequately on my Core 2 Duo, but it was so much more complicated that the only time I spent with it was in learning how do just do the things I could always do easily before, the bare minimum just so I could get my job done. Same with Office 2007, which was the first complete total interface redesign since the MS Office was invented. The net result was I use my word processor and spreadsheet much less than before, and when I do I get lost trying to find the features I used to use so easily.

As for my clients, I completely skipped Vista, and almost everyone I know has done the same in the workplace. Microsoft kept trying to retire XP but the public demanded they keep it available and my understanding is that XP will still be made available thru distributors for at least 6 months after Windows 7 is released. That's saying something. In just a few days Windows XP will be an 8-year old O/S. That's unheard of. I read a prediction once that Windows would end up collapsing under it's own weight, and I think that's exactly what happened with Vista.

What Microsoft lost touch with is that there is an ever-increasing society of people with A.D.D. like me, and my brain just jams up trying to make sense of the needless complexity. If I had the time to spend training on those products I would (and I do have great training materials, just not the time), but like most people, I just have too many other important things to accomplish besides re-teaching myself how to use my computer. What would we think if the government just announced one day that we would switch to driving on the left side of the road like they do in Europe? It's the same result here. My philosophy is that our technology is supposed to work for us, not put us to extra work. It shouldn't be the end-focus of our attention -- it's there to help us accomplish something greater. That's where Microsoft screwed up in continuing to pile on features, wizardy-choice mazes that necessitated several extra mouse-clicks to do just about anything, etc. And they especially screwed up in completely redesigning time-tested and familar interfaces such as Internet Explorer or Microsoft Office. They got their butts kicked for it -- notice that MS had their first layoff in history that I've ever known of just last year.

Anyway, sorry for the long rant... To answer your questions, as long as your hardware is compatible I believe you'll love it from every aspect above Vista, and you'll get your speed back. It also handles printers differently, but your issue there may not be the O/S but a physical connection issue. Does it do the same thing if you connect it to your Desktop and laptop?

Download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor utility here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

Your ability to upgrade your existing installation of Vista depends on which version you are running now. Here are the only options for direct upgrades without doing a clean install:

* Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium
* Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional
* Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate

For XP users, there is a migration tool MS provides which backs up your files and settings to something like an external hard drive, then can restore them after the fact. It mentioned you'd need to install software apps from scratch, and I'm not sure if it also restores the settings from those apps. I used the tool to prepare to migrate from XP on my main home system, but ended up opting for manually restoring my stuff. Just didn't want to miss anything.

Now here is the COOL news: Microsoft is offering Windows 7 FREE for computers purchased with a Vista license since June 26th, 2009 and all the way to January 31, 2010. You'll need to go to the manufacturer's website for details on how they are handling it. So far, I've checked HP's, Dell's, and Toshiba's sites and they all have the program in place. I also checked MS's terms and and this upgrade DOES apply to systems that came with the Windows XP downgrade pre-installed, because they do have a valid Vista license. Here are a few links to help people if they want to check them out:

ACER:
http://www.acer.com/windows7upgrade/

DELL:
https://win7.dell.com/
(this was harder to find and it appears to be down for maintenance now, but I did use it the other day for a client)

GATEWAY:
http://www.gateway.com/windows7upgrade/ ... =cphm_win7

HP:
http://www.hp.com/united-states/consume ... R1002_USEN

TOSHIBA:
http://laptops.toshiba.com/windows7upgrade-learnmore


I just realized Acer now apparently owns Gateway, eMachines, and... PACKARD BELL? They resurrected that crap brand?

Anyway... Good luck if you choose to upgrade! I think you'll be happy with it.

[Rip Rokken]

If your printer isn't on there, then you can do something like Rip did and use another driver that will work. That's going to be a tough one though, because not many people are tech savvy enough to pull that one off. Rip is, evidently. He's my new tech guru/idol.

Hey, your Kung-Fu is quite good man. If it wasn't for you, I might never have known what a "Commit Charge" was. I look at that regularly now.

[Rip Rokken]

Vista is the biggest piece of shit ever.

Agreed. It's probably worse then Windows ME, which was a huge turd.

My ME system froze the hell up 3 minutes out of the box!

That was supposed to be a big transition version of Windows, bridging 9x to NT. They had a great idea, but it fuckin flopped.

So far, XP is the I-ching of all OS's as far as I am concerned.

ME was the only other release of Windows besides Vista that I completely skipped. It was a buggy mistake, and one of the worst features was in doing away with command prompt mode. This was when spyware was just starting to become a problem, and it took a command prompt to delete some of the malicious files that you couldn't kill because they attached themselves to the Explorer process. I had to use boot disks to repair many infected ME systems.

Speaking of the command prompt, it's much improved in Windows 7. It does have the old CMD style command prompt, but you also have two versions of Windows Power Shell (even better), and the IME version is a multipaned GUI with some buttons. I love it!

[T-Bone]

I had to do a little research for my video card drivers as well, and found that the Vista 64 drivers for the Nvidia XFX GTX 260 Black Edition will also work with Windows 7. I see now that they've updated the drivers on the XFX website so that the Vista 64 bit also says Windows 7 to avoid the confusion

[trekman]

Will Windows 7 be a FREE upgrade for Vista users?

[Rip Rokken]

I agree that Win 7 is a HUGE step up from Vista. Although Vista had some cool features, it was a system hog and required too much from the processor, video and memory. The one downfall of Vista in my opinion was the folder setups. Instead of the My Documents like XP had, it had a different type in interface that I HATED with a passion. When i'd go into my 2nd or 3rd hard drive to check for something, it would open those drives in that folder setup. If I clicked on MUSIC, it went right back to the C Drive in the music section instead of staying in the 2nd or 3rd hard drive. I'd set the view to stay at LIST and then would set it so that ALL folders would stay like that, but every time I'd open the folder again, it was back to details and would have the tabs at the top with Date Modified, Size, Type, Artist, etc... I finally uninstalled it after 4 weeks of fighting with it. I had it dual booted with XP on my machine. I'd like to say I gave it an honest chance, but it didn't impress me at all other than a few cool features... I can't wait to get a real version of Win 7 on my machine and get rid of this trial version.

This may not apply to what you were experiencing, but here is an article that gives a fix for Vista's "amnesia" on folder views:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2332394,00.asp

Navigating Vista was a pain in the butt. I have friends telling me the new interface is incredibly similar to Mac OS X now, and it's divided up into easier categories. Best of all for me, if you click on Network (in a business version), you instantly see your domain/workgroup. Haven't been able to do that since Windows 98! Starting with Windows 2000, they added about 8-10 mouse clicks just to view your workgroup unless you chose the "Computers near me" option which was crap.

Here are couple of more features I dig:

1) The Start Button has a search field at the bottom, and whatever you start typing, it will quickly pull up results it find in applications, files, and even e-mails. I've used it and love it so far. Just typed in "Journey" and it came up with results categorized by Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos in about 2 seconds. It's an active search that guesses while you type, and you don't have to hit Enter. If you do hit Enter, it pulls up results in a separate Search window.

2) The new Taskbar eliminates the need for the QuickLaunch toolbar or minimized icons for running apps. You "pin" icons to the Taskbar that you want to see all the time, and whatever you are running shows up as just an icon. If you open multiple instances of one app (like several Word docs or Explorer windows), they all fall under the same icon. Better, if you are using Aero Glass which is now worth using, just pointing at an icon gives you previews of each instance open, and you can easily switch to or close them from there. If you just point at one of the previews, it gives you a full-size preview on your desktop before you select it.

3) Built-in Notification Tray icons are simple again, and are just greyscale in color. The speaker icon looks like the older style one for instance. I always hated the XP/Vista speaker icon, and it was not as distinguishable to me when I was trying to pick it out among the others. You also have full control over what is always visible in the Notification Area, and whether they show just notification alerts, icons and notifications, or neither.

4) Here's another killer and useful accessory -- the Snipping Tool. Anyone ever try to use PrtScn to take a screencap of a DVD or a streaming video? Try to paste that somewhere and you'll know what I mean. The Snipping Tool captures WHATEVER your screen displays, exactly as it appears, with choices for full screen, active window, or selection by rectangle or freehand tool. You then can save it instantly to a file, so there is no jumping between 2-3 other apps to do this. I used to have to use a frame capture function in either Adobe Premier Elements or in PowerDVD just to get a still of a video, and the quality was never what I hoped for. Don't have to do that anymore. I bet this tool will bug those sites that protect their images, such as IMBD or a pro photog's site because it gets right past that.

[Rip Rokken]

I had to do a little research for my video card drivers as well, and found that the Vista 64 drivers for the Nvidia XFX GTX 260 Black Edition will also work with Windows 7. I see now that they've updated the drivers on the XFX website so that the Vista 64 bit also says Windows 7 to avoid the confusion

I had mixed luck with my HP nc6220 laptop. Had to use some XP drivers, and only some Vista drivers would work. The toughest was my graphics, which is integrated with the Intel 915GM chipset. 7 kept wanting to just use Standard VGA (which at least allowed for 1024x760 and True Color). The XP drivers would fail, and the Vista package from Intel would stop after extraction saying it didn't support my version of Windows. What I did was manually update the driver by pointing to the Graphics folder under the extracted files instead of using the installer, and it worked. But that particular graphics card has no Aero support, and I noticed HP users really raising a stink about that. I don't really mind --I just use it in coffee shops or for travel, so my needs aren't that great. Heck, just pleased to be able to run Win 7 smoothly and quickly at all on that laptop.

People will need to be careful to select drivers that match their architecture, because Windows 7 also comes in 32-bit and 64-bit editions. I should have mentioned that the RAM specs for 64-bit are double than those for 32-bit, which is what I'm running. I haven't tested 64-bit at all.

[Rip Rokken]

Will Windows 7 be a FREE upgrade for Vista users?

If you bought (or will buy) a qualifying Vista PC between June 26th, 2009 and January 31st, 2010, you are eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7. See my post above for details.