Real time to get Windows 7 functioning as XP install

Did you guys forget this was intended as a troll post?

But so far, I have to say I have had a great experience with W7. Very few errors and such.

~Lordbob

Wow, funny discussion...

Duke of Alinor, I used Windows since Windows 3.1, 3.11, NT 3, 95, NT 4 (Client/Server), 98/SE, ME, NT5 (Windows 2000 Client/Server) <-- Got MS Certifications on both 2K server and client and Windows networking certification, XP, Windows 2003 Server, Vista (for a very brief moment, then back to XP), 2008 Server, and now 7. I haven't tried 2008 R2, I assume it doesn't differ that much from 2008.

Back then whenever I move from one Windows version to another, I'd need around 2 days worth of time to settle things down. After several years of computing (and few intense months of Linux usage), I finally got the "idea" of moving my "Home" folder to a separate partition in Linux, then I tried the same trick in XP, didn't work quite well, but that leads me to another big "OH I SEE" moment when preparing for a re-install.

I installed 7 in around January, took around 30 minutes to install. Then I imported my user profile from my old XP to the new 7 install, took about 15 minutes or so. Another an hour (or so) to install all my basic apps/server apps. Drivers took me no less than 15 minutes to install for all of my devices (I got all of them in advance, and store them on another data store). Networking, that was the easiest part, it just works in no time, though I never bothered Homegroups (I still believe in SMB/CIFS classic authentication scheme). As for network browser (the one in "Network" part of Explorer), I never used them, so I don't know much about it (it never work reliably for me). The time for me to finally settle down on Windows 7: almost 3 months. That means the little bits, tweaks and quirks here and there, but 99% of the system is up and running. I'm talking about my primary rig, a fully functional production system.

I cursed a lot when I found out that Apache/PHP/MySQL doesn't quite like Win x64 <-- that went to a VM. Some of my old games can't run in x64, that went to VM also. Other than that none consumed my time over re-installs. Heck, my XP was running solidly for 3-4 years for each installations. A reinstall was mandatory for new hardware, gotta do the spring cleaning anyways, but then back in XP I have my custom install DVD with all of my software setup. It's like those DVD you got from Dell/Toshiba/Acer laptops, auto install ALL APP I need along with Windows installation process, VERY HANDY.

So... I dropped my jaw when I read your post, 3 re-installs in 61 hours...? That's just WOW... Kudos to have such extreme patience and perseverance.

CommonTater: I'm curious on your point 2 comment, the " Win7 networking is a flaming nightmare" one... What/why/how? And for point 4, I had several issues with my own USB storage device too. It hinders boot up/wake up, it's a Vantec USB to IDE/SATA adapter connected to a DVD ROM drive. I finally found out, for whatever reason, my BIOS can't enumerate it, so - off it goes whenever I shutdown/sleep, problem partly solved.

zzz2496

zzz2496 said:

Wow, funny discussion...
Networking, that was the easiest part, it just works in no time, though I never bothered Homegroups (I still believe in SMB/CIFS classic authentication scheme). As for network browser (the one in "Network" part of Explorer), I never used them, so I don't know much about it (it never work reliably for me).

CommonTater: I'm curious on your point 2 comment, the " Win7 networking is a flaming nightmare" one... What/why/how?

In late November 2009 my hard drive died and with it my XP died. Fortunately I had about 80% of my data, photos, and music backed up. I installed a new hard drive and received Win 7 Ultimate and Office 2007 as a gift.

I installed Win 7 32 bit as my hardware will not support 64 bit. In retrospect, I'm glad I have 32 bit. Then I started encountering freezes - no BSOD's, just freezes. Sometimes every 10 minutes, I could run for 8 hours without a freeze. All diagnostics pointed to the graphics card. This was not Win 7's fault; but it was a result of installing Win 7.

I bought a new graphics card and had it installed. I could have easily done it myself; but I am glad I took this route. With the new graphics card, I couldn't run more than five minutes without a freeze. I could only run in the safe mode. I tried every driver Nvidia had for the 7600 GS unstalling each drive, rebooting, and installing the next driver. Nothing worked.

I took my computer back to the shop that installed the card. After week of testing all of the hardware and two overnight memory tests plus trying a new power supply, the techs concluded it was the card (which I had told them from the get go). They replaced the card with another 7600 and, bingo, no more freezes. I did have to try three drivers to get the video working as it should. It is rock solid now. Of course none of this can be blamed on Win 7.

Next I encountered the nightmare of setting up a net work. I had both my Win 7 desktop and my wife's XP netbook connected to the internet via wi-fi. So I decided to group these together so that my wife could use the printer connected to my machine.

Due to my ignorance of groups, I tried to set up a homegroup. What a freaking nightmare! I did not understand that homegroup was designed for all Win 7 machines. Setting up groups is needlessly complicated in Win 7. Things are not made clear in the help series. And homegroups was devised by some engineer working in a lab with all state of the art hardware and running Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit on all the computers he was grouping. It appears MS did not try homegroup in a real world environment of varying machines running varying peripherals.

This is my only real criticism of Win 7; networking is needlessly complicated for the average user. And I am not alone in this judging from others who post here with the same problems. MS could have at least written some decent guides geared toward network neophytes. Fortunately, we have some great folks here that helped me and showed me how to get the XP computer into the homegroup.

Wow, to know that the one that saved my arse was my ignorance about Homegroup, and the fact that I never even tried it... a part of me cried a little... (GOD BLESS LINUX FOR THIS decision !!!).

zzz2496

CommonTater said:

Duke of Alinor said:

thanks ZZZ and Carl,
Hopefully my time spent will be the most you ever see for an install.
And hopefully MS will get the hint to put a warning in Homegroups setup.

They could fix this Soooo easily and they could do it during install.

All they have to do is embed a trademark response in Win7... Enumerate the machines on the local network... if even one of them does not respond with the TMResponse, disable homegroups entirely.

This should not be user torture... it should be an automatic function of either installation or early setup.

It is certainly frustrating and torture to a network group neophyte!!