What don't you like about Windows 7?

[CarlTR6]

Excellent advice.

 

[FerchogtX]

I think what Petey7 is saying, Windows 7 has been better than previous Windows operating system when it comes to loading drivers to get your computer up and running. At that point it's my job to go to the manufactures web sit and check for updated driver, i.e. Nvidia. If I'm wrong, well just smack me.

Thats exactly what I'm saying. I'll give another example. When I first load up windows 7 after a clean install, the speakers work. But, after finding the Sigmatel audio drivers, the speakers sound a little better and my mic works too. The driver also gives me a couple of extra features the default Windows drivers don't. If the sound didn't work at all, yeah, I'd feel a more urgent need to find the drivers, but with Windows 7 default drivers, I can listen to music while looking for the newest drivers.

Also, just as a general tip. It is a good idea to backup all driver installers to an external hard drive or a CD. That way, if you need to do a clean install for whatever reason, you already have all the drivers you need.

That's old history, some PC's, when migrating into XP, had luck and drivers for them from the OS itself... but the drivers are not always complete, and that's simple to figure out... for example, my Realtek soundcard has a 30+ MB driver and the ATI and nVidia are more than 120 MB big..., if you include the full drivers, the Windows DVD could get bigger, so they better include "partial" versions instead of full, it was like that since windows 98 I guess...

Is always better to update your drivers, you get improvements, stability and more functions...

 

[ShandyBass]

Nothing, Microsoft have sorted out their OS and moved well past Vista

(ex Vista user)

 

[typ911411and718]

When I said something, I meant if a driver is provided built-in to Windows 7, then something is better than nothing. As far as the manufacturer, yes, they should develop a full driver but they probably won't because there's no real money incentive for them to do so.

The incentive would be a switch to a different OS. as many believe, if you don't take care of workers/users you'll end up having far greater problems that can't be solved with money or discounts.

Dude or Dudette with the really long name, you do realize that the drivers are made by the hard ware manufacturers, not MS right? The drivers availability through Windows Updates is partially dependent on those hardware manufacturers. The drivers built into Windows and available through Windows Updates are meant to get the basic devices to at least function. It is the responsibility of the owner to find the correct drivers for their computers, not Microsofts. At least with Windows 7 most if not all hardware will function to some degree immediately after install. After reinstalling XP, most devices will not function properly, if at all.

For example, when installing XP on my computer, the display shows at a low resolution 4:3 aspect ratio and neither network adapter works, nor does sound, the memory card reader, or most devices I plug into the USB port. If not for the disc that came with the computer that has the drivers, the computer would be basically unusable. With 7, the proper display driver from Intel is installed and the resolution is automatically set to the maximum my screen can do. But, the driver that is installed is old, and has to be replaced to get some functions to work. Matter of fact, everything works pretty well, but to get full functionality and guarantee no BSOD I have to hunt down and install all the appropriate drivers. Any thing I plug into the USB port automatically starts working, unless it is some really old or unusual device.

1) you can just copy and type my SN, it will be easier. 2) i believe if someone or a company chooses to take on the responsibility of providing their users with driver updates then they are responsible for all the driver updates. 3) MS doesn't have to provide users with driver updates, they can simply provide an option where the user can go to all their drivers and select update drivers and have the update link to be directly towards the manufacturer of the driver/product, thus helping the user and limiting the OSs responsibility to the user (thus limiting the users complaint towards them as well, lol)

and a side note, punctuations are mostly very important. i have a slightly bad habit of using too many, but not enough would cause "the wrong em phasis on the wrong si label" (ha ha, austin power). also, i have no idea what BSOD is....

 

[typ911411and718]

I find the driver "issue" to be one of the most complained about "shortcomings" for pretty much every OS. Unfortunately, you can not continually improve and evolve an OS while maintaining 100% compatibility with the past...that would hamstring developments and improvements to far too serious a degree.

technically, they can offer all versions. for instance, win95 requires 5 things, 98 requires the same 5 things plus 2, and xp only requires 3, then these driver software should have all 3 (or atleast two since 95 and 98 has the same 5 things) versions to serve all three purposes, thus having a perfect compatibility. ofcourse this brings the issue of space, well then they can compress all three version until called upon.

As mentioned, hardware manufacturers are ultimately responsible for what their product will work with, and particularly for older gear, there may be insufficient incentive (financially) for them to continue to develop and release new drivers. Further, many hardware manufacturers actually woul prefer folks to eventually move on and purchase newer versions of their hardware anyways, and may deliberately decide to abandon support for newer OS's. For example, HP generally will have drivers for any given printer that carry across at least several versions of windows, but eventually, there will be models that they simply no longer develop drivers for the next generation windows OS. Hard to fault MS for HP's marketing decisions, yes?

1) i've known people with OSs old enough to be a bit ridiculous in this day-and-age but they've still got it. for really simple people, and i do mean really, change is not necessary for them, so it doesn't even matter if hardware developers stop developing for them in hopes they'd buy new things. 2) as far as stopping development on backwards compatibility for software, it doesn't even make sense for them to stop, if they stop developing compatibly, they're only limiting their market. 3) the thought is temporarily very complex and i have not yet solved it, but i believe, in some way, the bkwds cptblty issue only affects hardware. (Please, prove me wrong, or right)

At the same time, it is in any OS maker's best interest to attempt to retain compatibility with as wide a hardware set as possible, and to their credit, MS spends much time and energy informing major hardware makers of the parameters of their OS to make hardware compliance with the OS as easy as possible.

i was responding as i read cause i didn't want to go back to check what i've read, basically keep rereading. so i'm just going to leave that there.

Win 7 has a wider database of device driver compatibility than with almost any of their previous versions, but there is no such thing as 100% device compatibility. The PC universe is simply far too varied for that to occur, and even Apple, with a much more single-source approach has never been able to make that claim with subsequent OS releases either.

...i don't know, doesn't 100% comp. have to first be comp. hardware wise?
i mean, it's almost impossible to even fit something made now into something 7 years ago, so to have a driver for it would be retarded....


...man typing all this is too hard for me today, my brain isn't fully functioning...it took me almost 30 minutes to type all this....and in my non-fully functioning it seems as though i just pulled everything out of my @$$. but i assure yall, 85% would be the same had i been fully functional.

 

[Petey7]

1) you can just copy and type my SN, it will be easier. 2) i believe if someone or a company chooses to take on the responsibility of providing their users with driver updates then they are responsible for all the driver updates. 3) MS doesn't have to provide users with driver updates, they can simply provide an option where the user can go to all their drivers and select update drivers and have the update link to be directly towards the manufacturer of the driver/product, thus helping the user and limiting the OSs responsibility to the user (thus limiting the users complaint towards them as well, lol)

and a side note, punctuations are mostly very important. i have a slightly bad habit of using too many, but not enough would cause "the wrong em phasis on the wrong si label" (ha ha, austin power). also, i have no idea what BSOD is....

1) For me, typing what I did was actually faster. 2 and 3) How can you criticize my grammar when you write like that? I don't even understand half of what you were trying to say. As for the part I do understand, it is your responsibility, not Microsoft's, to find the third party software you need. You are one of a total of two people I have seen that is stupid enough to complain about their computer working immediately after reinstalling.

As for not knowing what BSOD is, it's called Google.

 

[Darician]

That's exactly why Microsoft includes generic drivers in a lot of instances, so they can have the user at least working. And what's even more interesting is that average Joe user may use this generic driver the whole time and not even notice a problem because its basic function works. That's why I say something is better than nothing and like the fact that Microsoft at least tries to provide some generic drivers.

As it was said here before, it could be like XP or 98 where almost nothing is recognized or only really, really old things are recognized. With Vista and 7, most hardware is recognized right off the bat and at least works. For example, my Realtek HD Audio works out of the box with Windows. Albeit, it doesn't provide me the full functionality of EQ, Karaoke and such but at least I get base functionality while I go out and get all the drivers I need. But look at it from the flipside, if MS didn't provide this functionality, people would still blame MS anyway because the way they see it, it was after the upgrade that the functionality was lost and they will believe this to be Microsoft's fault, not the manufacturer. So to Microsoft, it's quite advantageous to provide this out of the box.

You are probably the first person I've ever heard in my life complain about having out of the box functionality with Windows 7. Most people I deal with, including IT personnel love it. No more horrid driver hunting and if the manufacturer doesn't provide a full driver, at least basic functionality is there and the upgrade is not hampered nor does it require updated hardware.

A BSOD by the way is a Blue Screen of Death.

 

[WindowsStar]

Thread continued - http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...et-negative-2-windows-7-minor-annoyances.html