Windows XP 32bit - Windows 7 64bit problems...

iv-tecman

iv-tecman

iv-tecman

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Has anyone gone to Windows 7 and then not liked it and gone back to Windows XP? I purchased Windows 7 home premium. I had little choice, I upgraded to 4GB of memory, not a chance my Windows XP 32Bit O/S would see all the memory, not with a 1GB GPU installed as well.

So, forked out for Windows 7 home premium, I didn’t need domain support, and I’ve still got a valid license to Windows XP so been using this for Win XP mode therefore Premium 64Bit was obviously a good choice of O/S for a 4GB system…

Sadly, I’m not getting on too well with it… I’ve been a Windows XP guy for over 8 years, I installed XP pretty much as soon as it came out actually…. So, I guess I’ve become very used to the O/S and the way it works…..

Windows 7 seems to have changed a lot… The taskbar, explorer everything is just so – well I’m really not taking to this…. Its been less then a week so I’ll maybe get used to it.. I just don’t remember it being this way when I went from Win 98 to WinXP.

Anyone else installed Windows 7 and thought – wow can’t get used to this but finally got a hold on the O/S and found it to be quite good?

If it wasn’t for the 4GB issue and better direct X support I’d have not upgraded yet…. Not sure at this point if I’m glad I did… It does look very pretty though…!!
 
Just stick with it! You can't really judge an OS after a week, especially with 8 years of XP bias behind you! :p

Read up about the new features; superbar, jump lists, libraries and the new Windows hotkeys for window management. There are also the features from Vista such as Aero, flip3D etc.

Play around and keep at it. XP to 7 is a bit of a culture shock as the interface is quite a lot different. Whereas 98 to XP the GUI was virtually the same, just more colourful and chunky in XP :D

Aside from the looks and GUI features, 7 performs better, uses your hardware better and is far more secure than XP will ever be.
 
Lol ok I’ll keep chugging away with it… I’m not known for being one to accept changes without a fight. And this is quite the change.

As said, Win98 to WinXP wasn’t such a drastic change in the way it all worked and felt etc…. The taskbar in Win98 – WinXP was chunkier..!! And bubblier looking, however in time I’m sure Windows 7 will grow on me.

I’ll give it more time. Its nice to hear though that it uses my hardware more efficiently. I’d already read this, and I do know latest Direct X support was a very big plus for me and my decision.

I’m sure I’ll get used to the change. It was just a complete shock once I’d got it up and running.. I’d not even used Vista before Windows 7. Talk about culture shock.

I was like OMG – where is everything…..!! lol
 
To be honest, dual booting will just be skirting the issue. Whatever MS's next OS is like, it'll be more like 7 than XP, so you'll have to learn it eventually.

And I originally didn't like it as well. The fact that MSN hides itself away on the task bar rather than the system tray, for example. But I didn't bother with the workarounds, I keep it like it is, and I prefer it to using XP now.

The search bar on the start menu is another great feature I use quite a lot.

In short, you just need some time to let it grow on you. Things haven't just been changed because they could, there's reasons behind it all, which you'll find out with time.
 
iviv said:
The fact that MSN hides itself away on the task bar rather than the system tray, for example.
Click to expand...

I don't like this myself, but it is easily fixed. Find and then right-click the msnmsgr.exe [ usually here: C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\msnmsgr.exe] and click Properties. Then click the Compatability tab. Choose to run this program as Vista SP2. Click OK

Messenger should behave as it should by being in the system tray. :)
 
I really struggled with Win7 for a few weeks, but I've got the hang of it now and prefer it to XP. Just takes some getting used to :)
 
I did consider dual booting whilst I was imaging my existing Windows XP partition off – in case I didn’t like Windows 7 or messed up something and needed to do a restore of something…

The installation of Windows 7 was by far the easiest to date… However, that’s not where my problems lie… Its leaning the complete new interface and desktop GUI that I’ve ….. erm hmm not quite got my head around..

I have however found some of the new imaging tools quite useful. I managed to find with some google searching Win PE tools that can be burnt to CD or put on a USB stick allowing for image X to be ran without the need for booting into DOS mode (Ghost book CD’s are a thing of the past for me now), its kinda like a stripped down Windows boot, quite good and it allows you to image off your HDD to another HDD, such as a USB portable HDD.

So that’s quite handy, so I’ve ran an image X copy off and I’ve now got a backup and I can mess about with this, and if I mess it up too much I can just restore..!!

I’ve got Virtual PC running with WinXP but honestly don’t see the point. I’ve got pretty much all the functionality I had before, hopefully when I learnt to use some of the newer features of windows 7, I’ll have even more then before..

I’ll just have to give this more time…….. I’m just an old die hard Windows XP guy..!! lol
 
iv-tecman said:
Anyone else installed Windows 7 and thought – wow can’t get used to this but finally got a hold on the O/S and found it to be quite good?
Click to expand...

Yes. I dual booted the release candidate (exactly the same as the retail I'm now using) when it came out with XP64. I intended to use the release candidate fully straight away, but went back to XP64 for a good 4-5 months before making a go of W7.

Didnt like that I had to ditch my (free) AV and firewall software. Didnt like how it handled files. Didnt like the fact I was going to go and have to reinstall loads of stuff like (free) image manipulation software, ftp, mail client, codecs and so on. Basically I was feeling lazy.

I remember moving from Xp32 to 64 that I couldnt use Sygate firewall anymore. Couldnt find anything else that gave a graphical view of data throughput by each app/service. However W7 does this through its resource monitor - which is very nice btw - and I hadnt noticed this until months later.

Still got the XP dual boot, in case I want to fire up any old games.
 
You don't need firewall software on Windows anyway. Unless you have some very specific need that the built-in firewall doesn't currently do. There is no reason why your AV wouldn't work in Windows 7, unless it was really and/or really crappy! :p
 
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