Good things about Windows 7?

I went from XP to Vista. Didn't notice any difference for a while then went back to XP it was slow, often stuttered, and just felt old. I still use XP on an old system but hate using it.
 
I went from XP to Vista. Didn't notice any difference for a while then went back to XP it was slow, often stuttered, and just felt old. I still use XP on an old system but hate using it.

Sounds like you had a problem with your machine tbh. There shouldn't be any obvious difference between them. Of course it depends on the machine you are using it on and what you are doing.
 
Since when has Aero Glass been "gimmicky"?

It's half the reason Vista/W7 are so damn fast. GPU accelerated desktop (with nice animations and transitions for absolutely free, zero cost)? Yes please.

Superfetch? Yes please, I'll have that too.

The OP sounds like one of those "thinks he knows it all but doesn't" types. Hope I'm wrong :)
 
It's half the reason Vista/W7 are so damn fast.

Superfetch? Yes please, I'll have that too.

Pretty much the 2 most important points of new windows (im still amazed people are on xp considering its now 2010)

I think the best thing about w7 is it finally gives up on the older windows styled task bar and is allowing for visual innovation, where vista was just a prettyer xp (visually, internally it was one of the best windows copies iv ever bought and only left to repartition my mac and take up that student price on w7)

But yeah companies are right when it comes to os changes, newer does equal better really (and running older stuff for specific reasons, like old games, isnt a reason to bash a new os as thats what its not really designed for....)
 
It might be nice for people who forget what apps they are running to have visual previews of what apps are running and documents. Like the guy in our office who has about 30 documents and apps open at one. Personally I kinda know what I'm running and just need to get to it without a song and dance along the way.

Like wise maybe on a new machine with a high spec you see a night and day difference between XP and Windows 7. But on a older machine I don't see much if any difference at all.

One thing I do like about Windows 7 its that it finds a lot more drivers and installs much faster than Vista, or XP for that matter. Which is nice and I'd switch for that alone.
 
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Taskbar previews aren't exclusively for people with memory loss - that's a silly comment to make, disastrous even!

Taskbar previews goes hand in hand with productivity, it decreases time taken to minimise/maximise grouped windows and adds to this efficiency because you can simply middle click a preview box to instantly close it or click the icon thumb to open a new process of that application (or explorer window if it's explorer/browser).

I think people aren't actually looking at the benefits of such a new taskbar system like on 7 and instantly dismissing it as a gimmick when it clearly is much more which is pretty obvious to those who have actually read about it and used it.
 
It looks nice with all the fade stuff and preview windows when you move over a taskbar item. (I would personally love to turn all this gimmicky crap off)

It's not gimmicky at all, use to pin files etc. it is extremely powerful and useful once you start using it properly. it's just people say, ohh I got on fine with xp system, why do I need it. use it for a few weeks and you wont want to go back. it makes life so much easier.
 
Taskbar previews aren't exclusively for people with memory loss - that's a silly comment to make, disastrous even!

Taskbar previews goes hand in hand with productivity, it decreases time taken to minimise/maximise grouped windows and adds to this efficiency because you can simply middle click a preview box to instantly close it or click the icon thumb to open a new process of that application (or explorer window if it's explorer/browser).

I think people aren't actually looking at the benefits of such a new taskbar system like on 7 and instantly dismissing it as a gimmick when it clearly is much more which is pretty obvious to those who have actually read about it and used it.

Very few people need to (or should) open documents and applications en masse, fewer still so many that they need to manage them in groups. Even if their machine has the resources to do so. From what I can see people seem to always need to hunt through their "groups" to find what they are looking. Productivity boon it isn't.

With a high res monitor and multiple screens if you run out of space on the task bar for apps and docs, what are you doing? Doesn't make sense on a smaller screen either as it will be less powerful PC/laptop.
 
It's not gimmicky at all, use to pin files etc. it is extremely powerful and useful once you start using it properly. it's just people say, ohh I got on fine with xp system, why do I need it. use it for a few weeks and you wont want to go back. it makes life so much easier.

I don't see how pinning is much different than dropping shortcuts where you want them.
 
Very few people need to (or should) open documents and applications en masse, fewer still so many that they need to manage them in groups. Even if their machine has the resources to do so. From what I can see people seem to always need to hunt through their "groups" to find what they are looking. Productivity boon it isn't.

With a high res monitor and multiple screens if you run out of space on the task bar for apps and docs, what are you doing? Doesn't make sense on a smaller screen either as it will be less powerful PC/laptop.

I'd disagree, this is the OcUK forums where we have 8GB of RAM and big 24" screens so making use of what we have is the most logical and optimal way to compute on a daily basis.

I have multiple applications/documents open all the time and i will use them throughout the day and close them off once I am done with them. Below is a video to demonstrate this that I have recorded quickly just to show how easy it is using the middle mouse button and taskbar previews to navigate applications and documents - something ALT+TAB or window minimising and maximising would not be as swift at.


Sure, for the "average" user it might be a bit much but we're not average users here, we're gamers and power users and our collective system specs show this, our systems are fast enough to be able to handle leaving documents and applications open in the new taskbar without a performance hit and it simply means we can return to them throughout the day in bitesize chunks when needed and close them off at the end of the night when they're done with.

Now I don't think you've re-built your daily workflow around the new OS hence your negative opinion of it, that's fine, it takes different lengths of time to adapt for different people but I find it easy to adapt to new things quite quickly and as I hope my reply and video show, it is more convenient and logical to make the most of your hardware and OS features and spreading out the two over a convenient daily routine.
 
I don't see how pinning is much different than dropping shortcuts where you want them.

for a start you can't sub pin files in xp. It is a much more efficient way of dealing with navigation and is a very powerful and excellent addition.

Now I don't think you've re-built your daily workflow around the new OS hence your negative opinion of it,

This is very true and I expect the reason for most people on why they think there is nothing new, good or gimmicky.
 
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IMO since going to Windows 7 I don't really look back at all, Windows 7 x64 is just as snappy as XP but still miles faster in general tasks compared to XP.

The UI is amazing aswell especially with the Win7 blend tweak, stick with Windows 7 for a while I'm sure you will learn to like it.

I guess for people with pretty old systems or people with less than 3GB in their systems then XP is a solid OS, but for people with fast systems which want to make the most of their hardware then theres one choice, Windows 7 :).
 
I'd disagree, this is the OcUK forums where we have 8GB of RAM and big 24" screens so making use of what we have is the most logical and optimal way to compute on a daily basis.

I have multiple applications/documents open all the time and i will use them throughout the day and close them off once I am done with them. Below is a video to demonstrate this that I have recorded quickly just to show how easy it is using the middle mouse button and taskbar previews to navigate applications and documents - something ALT+TAB or window minimising and maximising would not be as swift at.

Sure, for the "average" user it might be a bit much but we're not average users here, we're gamers and power users and our collective system specs show this, our systems are fast enough to be able to handle leaving documents and applications open in the new taskbar without a performance hit and it simply means we can return to them throughout the day in bitesize chunks when needed and close them off at the end of the night when they're done with.

Now I don't think you've re-built your daily workflow around the new OS hence your negative opinion of it, that's fine, it takes different lengths of time to adapt for different people but I find it easy to adapt to new things quite quickly and as I hope my reply and video show, it is more convenient and logical to make the most of your hardware and OS features and spreading out the two over a convenient daily routine.

I see no reason why this subject is exclusive to OcUK forum members, or games or power uses. Besides those types of users are not mutually inclusive, theres plenty of people here who don't play games or don't have machines with 8GB of ram etc. Besides the OP said it was his work machine, which is a more useful context. What serious gamer is going to run a load of other stuff while gaming? Besides we've been talking about older machines earlier in the thread. So it not exclusive to high end machines.

Leaving documents and applications open, not using them, so you can go back to them later in the day, while playing a movie in the background while you read 5 documents at the same time or play a game on steam is not a workflow. Thats just running as much as you can because you can. That got nothing to do with productivity. If you like working then cool, but thats a different thing entirely. Most of my day is spent in the same handful of applications. My workflow is in the applications not the OS. All my apps are on the the taskbar of the specific monitor they are running on. (thx UltraMon) No groups required. Fair enough thats probably not typical for many.

I have no idea what sub pinning is. Google was no help either. Any hints? Thinking about it if you have 3GB+ your only choice for Windows is W7.
 
Since when has Aero Glass been "gimmicky"?

It's half the reason Vista/W7 are so damn fast. GPU accelerated desktop (with nice animations and transitions for absolutely free, zero cost)? Yes please.

Superfetch? Yes please, I'll have that too.

The OP sounds like one of those "thinks he knows it all but doesn't" types. Hope I'm wrong :)

No, I dont know everything, which is why I am posting questions about Windows 7 and what it has to offer

Is Aero Glass the same as Aero Peek? What else is it used for other than moving the mouse over show desktop on the right so you can see the background?

I have turned off minimise/maximise animations because its running slow when doing it (sometimes stuttering) Office work machines generally dont have GPUs as standard

I am using a brand new Optiplex 780 machine

I'll look into what 'Superfetch' is. At a guess its the way Windows 7 'learns' what you use and presumably stores this info in cache somwhere
 
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