Retiring Windows 7 Anyone Else?

[Xzaviar]

Well, after a lengthy trial of Windows 7 I've decided to retire the blessed OS and use it on my testbed only. This is a personal decision and I'm not dissing 7, these are just my opinions.

I've been using 7 from RC 7100 (I even purchased 7600 about a week after the release) and to tell you the truth I love 7. It's beautiful and feature packed, but it's no match for XP as far as what I want in an OS.

I want ease of use, familiarity, dependablity.....

I know I'm opening myself wide up for vicious attacks here but here I am; cut my heart out.

Seven is about (in my estimate) a year away from proper driver support and technical fixes. My Hybrid sleep won't work despite all the latest drivers. It's wonky with any type of multiple hard drive configuration. Why on earth does 7 need to write to the boot sector of all HD's on a system, even just storage drives, and USB Drives. What a stinking mess this makes. It leaves a system with no versatility what-so-ever!:shock::mad2:

Programs that run flawlessly on XP either won't run on 7 or take a "geek of the year finalist" to get them to run; Crysis...:huh:

Games, at least on my system, (and mine is, while not an i7, pretty high in performance) run about 20% slower, with studer.(d)

In my opinion RC 7100 was better than the RTM.

My scanner is not compatible with 7. This wouldn't be such a big deal if 7 wouldn't totally invade my other hard drives. It's as though 7 lives and the longer it mingles with other HD's the more it owns them. Eerie:devil::devil:

Even Linux distros aren't as pervasive.

I have eight computers in use at my house. One with Vista running solid. Seven with XP Pro running solid. I also have a testbed built into a workbench in my basement that I use for computer repair troubleshooting. I have multiple HD's with different OS. I will run my 7 from this unit so I can become more familiar with the OS and try to determine when it is mature enough for me to use as my main OS.:sarc:

So, in a nutshell; Windows 7 is not something I'll use for some time to come.

I repair computers as a side job. No storefront or anything like that but I have about forty customers. For those that have asked if they need to upgrade to 7 I tell them no. Honestly they will receive no benefit from upgrading. We're talking people who surf the web, face book, email... I tell them to wait till it's time for them to buy a new computer and it will be preloaded with 7. What on earth is the sense for them to spend $150.00+ for a new OS on old hardware that will most likely be problematic because of the hardware?????

I know this post will be ripped to shreds and I'll be staked to an anthill, covered with corn syrup and left to die an agonizing death. So I offer myself to you to stomp on...:roflmao::devil2:

But I would like to know if there are any others out there that have gone back to a previous version of Windows after using 7 for a while and what your reasons are.

And come on, those of you in love with 7 no matter what comes your way; let the people who have switched back tell their stories and direct your hate towards me. I'm not scared, bring it on!

 

[Lordbob75]

Most, if not all of those issues are not MS' fault. They are all from hardware/driver errors or incompatibility.

Don't blame Seven, blame the manufacturers.

~Lordbob

 

[logicearth]

It's wonky with any type of multiple hard drive configuration. Why on earth does 7 need to write to the boot sector of all HD's on a system, even just storage drives, and USB Drives. What a stinking mess this makes. It leaves a system with no versatility what-so-ever!

There should only be one boot sector on a system that is active, and only the active boot sector is written with the new boot manager. I've never seen Windows write to every drive or USB drive, I have several myself plugged in while installing.

Programs that run flawlessly on XP either won't run on 7 or take a "geek of the year finalist" to get them to run;

Obvously Windows 7 is not Windows XP, there is going to be an age cut off. So what applications are you trying to run?

Crysis..Games, at least on my system, (and mine is, while not an i7, pretty high in performance) run about 20% slower, with studer.

I find that really strange, on my system which is....crap to say the least. Has about the same performance (for gaming) as it did with Windows XP. What problem are you having with Crysis? Its running flawless on my crap box...

My scanner is not compatible with 7. This wouldn't be such a big deal if 7 wouldn't totally invade my other hard drives. It's as though 7 lives and the longer it mingles with other HD's the more it owns them. Eerie

I'm not sure what you mean by this. How is it invading your other HDDs?

 

[Tews]

Enjoy XP!

 

[GEWB]

I feel your pain. I only have five computers running - just retired the Win 98SE box last month but it is still in storage (along with the Win 95 box) just in case.

My lappy is new and came with Win7. My connection to the company is with a Vista Business box and my primary workstation is multi-boot: Win7, two installs of XP (one for work, one for play) and Mandriva Linux. Test bed box is XP and one or two flavors of Linux.

While the multi-boot workstation is behaving OK, I can't say that I'm bowled over with Win7 and I don't use Win7 for my work - that stays on XP. Most of my personal computing is through Linux and I kept one XP install just for the four games I have that don't run in WINE.

Like you, when I'm asked if a person/company should "upgrade" from XP to Win7, I first ask "What problem are you trying to solve?" then I ask "Does your budget allow for the hardware/software purchases you'll need to make Win7 run as well as the XP you have?"

My best-guess for when a company (or most casually home users) should upgrade from XP will be the NEXT major version of Windows.

I have owned most versions of Windows (except ME) as my work demands I keep on top of current developments so I'll keep my Win7 Pro for just that reason - but that doesn't mean I'll actually use it very much.

Regards,
GEWB

2.0
3.0
3.1
3.11
Bob
95a / 95b
98 / 98SE
NT 3.51
2000
XP
Vista
Win 7

 

[Pantz]

my System runs windows 7 flawlessly, same hardware i had on my XP
OS: Windows 7 Professional X64
Windows Experiance 5.9 /7.9
Root Drive: C:
Physical Memory: 4095 MB
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-8500C5
GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 - 55nm
Hitachi SATA 1TB Hard drive
CPU Speed: 3291 MHz
all my games which are from 2009 installed with no problems
in myExperiance windows 7 is far superior to XP

 

[Xzaviar]

Invading HD's

After installing 7 I disconnected the drive that 7 was on and reinstalled XP on the other 500Gig Hd so that my whole system would be new and fresh. All went well and after I got XP just the way I wanted it I made a couple of images of the XP drive with Ghost and stored it to a storage drive on my computer. It was working fine and as usual I inserted the Ghost disk and restored the drive using one of the restores that I had made. I used all the usual settings and expected everything to work just fine. It didn't!

First thing was that when the computer rebooted to a Windows 7 error screen asking me to insert the 7 disk and repair the boot code or something like that. I thought this was strange and looked to make sure the 7 drive was still disconnected, and it was.

I couldn't understand what was going on. I tried the Ghost restore again and again, changing the settings in Ghost and using the different restores that I had made. Still with the same results.

It was then that I searched the problem that I was having on the web and sure enough, I found on the Microsoft site itself that 7 will write to it's on HD boot code and all the drives attached to the computer an indexing type of code so that it can track and control the boot thorough it's own loader.

To test this I went to my computer and set it to boot from a HD that I've only used for storage and the same 7 error screen. I also tried to boot from an attached USB drive and the same 7 error screen.

It wasn't till I used the WD DLT and reset the MBR and then installed XP, used Ghost to create an image that I was able to restore XP as I have done for years.

 

[MacGyvr]

After installing 7 I disconnected the drive that 7 was on and reinstalled XP on the other 500Gig Hd so that my whole system would be new and fresh. All went well and after I got XP just the way I wanted it I made a couple of images of the XP drive with Ghost and stored it to a storage drive on my computer. It was working fine and as usual I inserted the Ghost disk and restored the drive using one of the restores that I had made. I used all the usual settings and expected everything to work just fine. It didn't!

First thing was that when the computer rebooted to a Windows 7 error screen asking me to insert the 7 disk and repair the boot code or something like that. I thought this was strange and looked to make sure the 7 drive was still disconnected, and it was.

I couldn't understand what was going on. I tried the Ghost restore again and again, changing the settings in Ghost and using the different restores that I had made. Still with the same results.

It was then that I searched the problem that I was having on the web and sure enough, I found on the Microsoft site itself that 7 will write to it's on HD boot code and all the drives attached to the computer an indexing type of code so that it can track and control the boot thorough it's own loader.

To test this I went to my computer and set it to boot from a HD that I've only used for storage and the same 7 error screen. I also tried to boot from an attached USB drive and the same 7 error screen.

It wasn't till I used the WD DLT and reset the MBR and then installed XP, used Ghost to create an image that I was able to restore XP as I have done for years.

Please provide a link to the article you refer to on Microsoft's site...

 

[mushroomboy]

After installing 7 I disconnected the drive that 7 was on and reinstalled XP on the other 500Gig Hd so that my whole system would be new and fresh. All went well and after I got XP just the way I wanted it I made a couple of images of the XP drive with Ghost and stored it to a storage drive on my computer. It was working fine and as usual I inserted the Ghost disk and restored the drive using one of the restores that I had made. I used all the usual settings and expected everything to work just fine. It didn't!

First thing was that when the computer rebooted to a Windows 7 error screen asking me to insert the 7 disk and repair the boot code or something like that. I thought this was strange and looked to make sure the 7 drive was still disconnected, and it was.

I couldn't understand what was going on. I tried the Ghost restore again and again, changing the settings in Ghost and using the different restores that I had made. Still with the same results.

It was then that I searched the problem that I was having on the web and sure enough, I found on the Microsoft site itself that 7 will write to it's on HD boot code and all the drives attached to the computer an indexing type of code so that it can track and control the boot thorough it's own loader.

To test this I went to my computer and set it to boot from a HD that I've only used for storage and the same 7 error screen. I also tried to boot from an attached USB drive and the same 7 error screen.

It wasn't till I used the WD DLT and reset the MBR and then installed XP, used Ghost to create an image that I was able to restore XP as I have done for years.

Ummm you should be able to boot from an external device. Only if you install windows 7 with the drives attached will it write the boot code to it. and that's not always true.... I've used daemon tools in a winxp install (my DVD drive is shot sadly) and it didn't install boot code to the drive I had win7 on! It installed to the currently active drive (which was winXP on IDE and the SATA wouldn't boot). Infact even Vista did all of this, since they use the same loader.

[edit] I know this is true because I dual boot with Linux, though because of my distrust for MS I always detach the drives I don't want windows on, I never trust MS. NEVER!

 

[GEWB]

After installing 7 I disconnected the drive that 7 was on and reinstalled XP on the other 500Gig Hd so that my whole system would be new and fresh. All went well and after I got XP just the way I wanted it I made a couple of images of the XP drive with Ghost and stored it to a storage drive on my computer. It was working fine and as usual I inserted the Ghost disk and restored the drive using one of the restores that I had made. I used all the usual settings and expected everything to work just fine. It didn't!

First thing was that when the computer rebooted to a Windows 7 error screen asking me to insert the 7 disk and repair the boot code or something like that. I thought this was strange and looked to make sure the 7 drive was still disconnected, and it was.

I couldn't understand what was going on. I tried the Ghost restore again and again, changing the settings in Ghost and using the different restores that I had made. Still with the same results.

It was then that I searched the problem that I was having on the web and sure enough, I found on the Microsoft site itself that 7 will write to it's on HD boot code and all the drives attached to the computer an indexing type of code so that it can track and control the boot thorough it's own loader.

To test this I went to my computer and set it to boot from a HD that I've only used for storage and the same 7 error screen. I also tried to boot from an attached USB drive and the same 7 error screen.

It wasn't till I used the WD DLT and reset the MBR and then installed XP, used Ghost to create an image that I was able to restore XP as I have done for years.

Yup, you pretty well got it right.

First "problem" is common: with Ghost you must specify the switch to back up the MBR - it does NOT do that by default thus when you restored the XP image it did not restore the MBR. Win 7 adds a boot loader to the MBR and "indexes" the other HDs in the system (much the way a Linux boot loader does, too).

Now that you wiped the MBR and re-installed XP, make a new Ghost image but add the MBR backup switch!

As a side bar, don't be surprised if other software package exhibit similar problems. Adobe RoboHelp is one such example: it writes the license registration to the master boot record! If you Ghost the installation with the default settings (as it sounds like you normally do) then restore to a new HD, RoboHelp will not work - but backup the MBR, restore to the new MBR and all is well.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[mushroomboy]

Well we both got parts of the thread covered! lolz I don't ghost anything, as it only takes 20 min to install I usually just do it when I sleep. =P And as far as installing programs, it never bothers me I've got patience. lolz

 

[GEWB]

[edit] I know this is true because I dual boot with Linux, though because of my distrust for MS I always detach the drives I don't want windows on, I never trust MS. NEVER!

I too learned that lesson (the hard way) many years ago. My multi-boot systems has a couple HDs and I use the BIOS boot HD selector to control which is the primary boot drive. When I loaded Win7, I unplugged my "personal" drive (Linux and XP), loaded a "work" installation of XP, dual booted it with Win7, then reconnected the other Linux/XP drive.

Now when I want to use my "personal" version of XP or my Linux every-day-use installation I make that drive primary at bootup.

Regards,
GEWB

 

[pparks1]

I want ease of use, familiarity, dependablity.....

But didn't you say you were running Vista and it was solid. Ease of use and familiarity between Vista and 7 are just about the same..in my opinion.

Seven is about (in my estimate) a year away from proper driver support and technical fixes.

Guess it's really dependent upon your hardware because almost everything on my box at home, my laptop and my test lab machines have worked pretty much flawlessly with 7.

Even Linux distros aren't as pervasive.

What Linux versions have you used that you found "pervasive"?? That doesn't seem to be my experience with the distros that I use (CentOS, Fedora, or Ubuntu)

I have eight computers in use at my house. One with Vista running solid. Seven with XP Pro running solid.

Seems that if you already have 7 computers running XP...I cannot really see what you would want another one. I'd really want to mix things up a bit.

Honestly they will receive no benefit from upgrading. We're talking people who surf the web, face book, email... I tell them to wait till it's time for them to buy a new computer and it will be preloaded with 7. What on earth is the sense for them to spend $150.00+ for a new OS on old hardware that will most likely be problematic because of the hardware?????

I guess the question would really depend upon what hardware they had and what version of Windows they were coming from. I'd say there are plenty of advantages to 7 over XP for home users. #1). system image backup #2). Aero features like snap. #3). jumplists #4) Security features like not running as an admin.

But I would like to know if there are any others out there that have gone back to a previous version of Windows after using 7 for a while and what your reasons are.

I left Windows XP on my old machine because it's nothing special. AMD 4600+, 4GB of RAM, Nvidia 7600 GT.

I plan to leave Vista on my wife's laptop because it runs fine, I'm licensed for it and I have the recovery/restore system tools that came from HP which make it a breeze to reset back to the day it was new. My wife has no use for any of the functions of Windows 7.

For my primary rig, well, I built that in July around Windows 7 64-bit. That's what is on there now and I have no intention of moving back to Vista or XP.

And I do have multiple drives on my box. SSD system drive and 1TB storage drive and I haven't noticed Windows 7 doing anything strange with my multiple drives.

 

[Lordbob75]

I guess the question would really depend upon what hardware they had and what version of Windows they were coming from. I'd say there are plenty of advantages to 7 over XP for home users. #1). system image backup #2). Aero features like snap. #3). jumplists #4) Security features like not running as an admin.

Done forget Homegroups. I had to setup a home network (file and printer sharing) at someones house yesterday on XP. Took me 3 hours longer than it should have because XP was stupid. Seven made that SO much easier.

~Lordbob

 

[Mercurial]

one of the unlucky people... how sad ;(

 

[harpua]

Hell no. I love 7 and XP by comparison feels archaic and antiquated to me now. I have absolutely no reason or need to go back into the past with my computing. Everything I want to use or run works flawlessly with W7 x64.

 

[Lordbob75]

Hell no. I love 7 and XP by comparison feels archaic and antiquated to me now. I have absolutely no reason or need to go back into the past with my computing. Everything I want to use or run works flawlessly with W7 x64.

Exactly how I feel.

I had to work on some XP computers yesterday (setting up sharing) and it just felt old and archaic and hard to use. I also had to jump through extra hoops to set it up. Seven is so much easier.

~Lordbob

 

[pparks1]

Done forget Homegroups. I had to setup a home network (file and printer sharing) at someones house yesterday on XP. Took me 3 hours longer than it should have because XP was stupid. Seven made that SO much easier.

~Lordbob

I didn't mention it because it's something that I don't use. With Vista and XP machines as well as Linux hosts on my network...I'd just rather do networking the old fashioned way. But then again, that is what I do for a living as well...so that kinda makes sense.

 

[Frostmourne]

While we are at it lets install 95 and 32MB of RAM and a copy of Wolfenstein 3D.

I would never go back to any previous Windows OS unless I had no choice - I'm still looking for some card reader drivers but I'm 99% per cent sure that SP1 will fix the majority of issues. XP? Dead Vista? Obsolete 7? Good enough until 8 comes along.

 

[gregrocker]

I know how you feel.

I once had a great Dodge Dart. Now all I got is my surfboard and a sportscar.

That Dart could kick sportscar butt, and man would the Betty's swoon.

So now when I want to drive my trusty old Dart, I fire up the XP and take it for a spin.