Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[The long Build]

Clean Install every Time.. Only problem is is the backing up, however if & when I get W7 i will be installing a second drive , 1 smaller one to run the os and then all files on the larger second one. As i assume like .Vista you can redirect where My documents etc save to.

Just out of interest I downloaded a log report from a website
out of 186 users

108 were XP
66 Vista
3 Windows 7
1 Win Nt
1 Win 2003
1 Win 2000
4 Macosx
2 Linux

[dodgy geezer]

Never ever under any circumstance do an upgrade from vista to 7, i guarantee you will be wasting your time and your PC will take a major performance hit. Its a well documented fact that upgrades leave way too much legacy code behind which slows down your PC. Clean install all the way. If it works in Vista it will work in 7, if it doesnt work just disable digital driver signing and then it will work.

Gavin

Doesn't everyone use Ubuntu nowadays? What is this 'clean install' you speak of? Surely a decent operating system doesn't need a reformat and a rebuild once every two years...

[Colin Bishop]

For those in the UK, PC Pro Magazine December edition out today has a review of Windows 7 to which it gives an emphatic thumbs up.

Colin

[The long Build]

Doesn't everyone use Ubuntu nowadays? What is this 'clean install' you speak of? Surely a decent operating system doesn't need a reformat and a rebuild once every two years...

Looking at the statistics I would say no regards Ubuntu.

[dodgy geezer]

Looking at the statistics I would say no regards Ubuntu.

Wait until Micro$oft start licensing the O/S per year - we will see a sudden change to Linux then....

[portside II]

Not a pc buff , but i have had to take mine to the dr (poorly ) . Anyways rung him up mon night to see how the job was going and he has offered me windows 7 as an upgrade , licenced for 9 months , all it will cost me is the instalation and a few bit's and bobs .
At the moment i am working of the laptop on vista and since i have  been i have had no problems with printers etc and it's fine to me .
daz
Just to add there has just been a report on the system on the BBC this morn and they think it's going to be ok, we will have to see.
   

[jabba]

Hi all.
   can't wait to try new windows
i've been a computer geek over 10 years,
usually repair or build for friends,don't like vista nothing but trouble,
i hear new windows 7 is awsome,a mix of xp and vista.gonna download and try on spare pc.
will post results later.
     jabba.

[dreadnought72]

You'll love it Jabba. I'm being bombarded by people at work (I do IT) for it, in exchange for their (generally hated) Vistas.

Andy

[andyn]

I quite like Vista, though it uses far too much memory, I play games on this laptop, which has 4Gb ram, two 160 gig hard drives, two dual core processors and a prototype Ati graphics card, yet Vista manages to suck up as much of it as it likes causing some nasty lag at times, the OS itself is taking up a few gig, and right now just on idling Vista's system processes are using up about 80mb of ram. I here Windows 7 is much alike. How they're managing to waste so much memory is beyond me, Xp only ever used about 10mb max on idle. How is 7's resource consumption?

I would go Linux, but hardly any of the programs I want support it

[dodgy geezer]

I would go Linux, but hardly any of the programs I want support it

Games are interesting on Linux. Quite a few companies have ported their games to it, but they then keep quiet about it! Mainly because most Linux games are open source, and their distributors do not want a free competitor. Of course Microsoft won't do anything. See http://whdb.com/2008/top-25-linux-games-for-2008/

For running standard windows software under Linux there is WINE - I don't use it but I understand it's got quite good now...

[portside II]

 
boo hoo cant have it  it apears my pc is too old too slow and wont handle the system without an upgrade .
So i will have to wait until i get a new set-up .
daz

[theberengersniper]

I here Windows 7 is much alike. How they're managing to waste so much memory is beyond me, Xp only ever used about 10mb max on idle. How is 7's resource consumption?

The way Vista and Windows 7 handle memory allocation is fundamentally different to previous Windows operating systems. They're doing the exact opposite of wasting it, they're intelligently pre-filling it with applications the system has learned you're likely to use so they load quicker when you do want them. They treat system memory like cache rather than storage, which from a developers perspective makes far more sense than leaving huge chunks of super-fast RAM empty.

Of course, should you need that RAM for other things the operating system will release it, emptying the appropriate amount of cached data.

Working for a software development company has meant we've been using Win7 since it was made available to the Microsoft Developer Network and I have to say I like it. The new task bar is a step backward in my opinion but there's no denying it's MUCH quicker than Vista.

[Colin Bishop]

I like the idea of Windows 7 but the upgrade process from Vista on an existing machine sounds a bit of an effort and a trifle risky (even worse if you already have XP!). I may change my PC over the next six months and get a clean install that way.

Colin

[The long Build]

Regarding upgrades , I'm intriged by the fact that to me an upgrade is loading the new package over the old, However when you read the blurb on the Ms upgrade packs it says a clean install would be better ?  So to do this do you then actually have to , as in my case reload Xp first and then load W 7  ?

[Colin Bishop]

Just found this very useful article on the BBC website. Well worth a read.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8317005.stm

Colin

[theberengersniper]

So to do this do you then actually have to , as in my case reload Xp first and then load W 7  ?

Howdy.

XP users are in a slightly different situation as there's no upgrade path from XP directly to Windows 7 so you're not in a position to be able to buy an upgrade license, unless you also happen to have a copy of Windows Vista...

The installs are actually the same, i.e. the files on the DVD are identical, the license key dictates which variant you'll be installing and also whether you're doing an upgrade or a clean install. Just to muddy the waters a little, you can't upgrade any old Vista variant to any old Windows 7 variant either. The upgrade paths are fixed, you can't upgrade Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 professional for example.

Edit: I should add that the actual installer won't stop you from doing an unsupported upgrade, but your key won't activate.


Microsoft, it seems, have learned the lession of Vista whereby people were buying upgrade licenses at half the price and doing clean installs anyway.

[Martin (Admin)]

As a hardware engineer, my advice would be to buy a new hard drive if you are thinking of upgrading, especially if it's your only
PC / laptop. I like to replace my Hard Drive at least once every two years or so as after that, you are really on 'borrowed
time'.

By buying a new Hard Drive I can then do a "clean" install on the new drive and preserve EVERYTHING on the old hard drive and
have a backup too. The old hard drive can be fitted as a 'secondary' in a tower or desktop case or as an external for both desktop
or laptop. A clean install should also run faster than an up grade as upgrades try to import as many files and settings from Vista as
possible which may slow down your system.

 Opinion provided - That will be Tuppence please!

PS. 7 seems slow starting up I'm told, must be in-line with theberengersniper notes.

[barriew]

I've decided to solve the problem by buying a new PC, but if I was upgrading from Vista I would certainly want to do a clean install.

I ran the release candidate for a while and certainly didn't notice it being slow to start. Compared with my rather long in the tooth XP installation, its very quick. But there again the XP was due for a 'spring clean'

Barrie

[The long Build]

I'm Reading a lot of conflicting reports at the moment this being 1.


Windows Vista can be upgraded to Windows 7 with an in-place upgrade if the processor architecture, comparable edition, and language version are the same. Windows XP can only be upgraded to Windows 7 via a clean install. However, in some countries, Microsoft has recommended a clean install regardless of whether going from 2000, XP, or Vista, with reasoning which has not been made clear.

 

[The long Build]

Looks to me that No , you can not do a direct upgade from XP , however you can do a custom install instead , basicly wipes everything.

[FullLeatherJacket]

The Third Law of 50D says:

Why pay money I don't have to a company I don't like for software I don't need - just because it's NEW? If you want a headache then go and head-butt a wall - it's cheaper.

We run XP - with a little help now and again from ACTionWeb Huw - and I have no intention of upgrading until Microslop stop supporting XP..............or Huw tells me to!

FLJ

[The long Build]

2014   apparently .. Only thinking about upgrading as I can get W7 Ultimate it for £60.00

[Colin Bishop]

Dear me FLJ! With that attitude you'd still be promoting microswitches....

[gondolier88]

Ok Techies,

I have a 11month old Dell Inspiron 1525 with Dual Core2 running Vista- should I think about buying a new hard-drive and upgrading to W7 now, or in a years time?

I use quite a lot of memory with pics and add-ons- however Vista just seems to have had glitches in from day 1- freezing, re-setting internet pages at will, not blocking pop-ups, and is getting slower to boot up- however it seems to get slower after every MS update- surely the wrong way round there?

Wish I could have ordered with XP!!!!

Greg

[FullLeatherJacket]

Dear me FLJ! With that attitude you'd still be promoting microswitches....

We sell 'em if you want 'em, Admiral!