Windows 7 vs. Windows XP?

[noyb]

..I am sick and tired of having to re-install Windows XP every year just so that the computer is acceptably fast...

Your Other Option is to get an External Hard Drive and learn how to "Image" your system(s) for backup/recovery purposes.

I can recover back to a fresh install, mostly updated, loaded and running in about 15 minutes...
With the computer doing all the work.
Best Free Drive Imaging Program
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

I'm not too sure .. (It's a little early yet ) ...
If Windows 7 will need an occasional fresh install to tune it or fix it also.

 

[gregrocker]

If you're windows xp is working fine and meets all your needs in your computer works I suggest stick with it until this damn windows 7 is perfected.

I have two laptops with both windows vista, a 32 and 64bits had both upgraded to the much touted windows 7.

I am not happy at all, its unstable, text are overlapping, windows 7 media player wont play my files which I used to play with vista.

Please start a new thread for your issues to be resolved.

Start by right clicking your desktop to change Screen Resolution for overlapping text.

The issues you're experiencing are the install, not the OS.

We who beta tested it for over a year watched it being perfected.

 

[Pentium3 FTW]

Alright, this is very bad...

I installed Windows 7 successfully and it runs just as fast as XP, but the graphics card is not recognized. The greatest resolution I can run the machine at is 1024x768, the monitor just says "input signal out of range" if I try to go any higher. Does anyone know of a fix for the Radeon 9200SE card?

 

[MyWin7]

Installed driver?


there is the solution for you:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com...e/thread/712115f9-9416-42c1-9c7c-53b676692d3c

quite clumsy but seems to work

 

[Pentium3 FTW]

Installed driver?


there is the solution for you:
will my ati radeon 9200 se work with windows 7

quite clumsy but seems to work

I'd rather not be using a hacked driver; part of the reason I wanted to move to Windows 7 was because of the increased stability it offered compared to Windows XP. I'll try this and see if it works, but I'm still kinda pissed that the upgrade advisor didn't tell me my graphics card was completely unsupported; all it says is it will not support Aero. Nice trick for Microsoft to increase their sales no doubt.

 

[Zidane24]

Installed driver?


there is the solution for you:
will my ati radeon 9200 se work with windows 7

quite clumsy but seems to work

I'd rather not be using a hacked driver; part of the reason I wanted to move to Windows 7 was because of the increased stability it offered compared to Windows XP. I'll try this and see if it works, but I'm still kinda pissed that the upgrade advisor didn't tell me my graphics card was completely unsupported; all it says is it will not support Aero. Nice trick for Microsoft to increase their sales no doubt.

Please be aware that this is an issue regarding the manufacturer (ATI/AMD in this case) not providing AT LEAST a Windows Vista compatible driver...

I am just directing where to place your blame here...

 

[Pentium3 FTW]

Please be aware that this is an issue regarding the manufacturer (ATI/AMD in this case) not providing AT LEAST a Windows Vista compatible driver...

I am just directing where to place your blame here...

This is quite true, I'm not normally one to bash Microsoft... however, even if AMD prematurely dropped support for what is still a perfectly fine video card, the Windows 7 upgrade adviser failed to notify me of that. Sure, Aero won't run, but I don't care; even on my T400, I run Vista without Aero. But if it can't run above 1024 x 768 and the upgrade adviser said everything was kosher, then we have a problem.

I tried the graphics card hack, and at first it caused the OS to blue-screen (something which I have not seen since the days of Windows 98), then got it working for a little while, then had it blue-screen again when I tried to run Unreal Tournament 2004. I still need this computer to do some light gaming, so if it crashes in a 5-year-old game that is not too impressive.

I could buy a new video card, but I'd like to have DirectX11 support, and any decent one is over $80. I've already spent $64.99 on the hard drive (which I now consider to be a sunk cost) and $224 on Windows 7. I might just cut my losses, return Windows 7 to the store and have the Pentium 4 run Windows XP, like it was designed to do.

 

[scotteh]

this is the reason i cant have windows 7.
Cuz i have the same G-card as you, and it does not support Aero.
(which btw, are you getting that horrible grey tasbar instead of a clear transparent one?)

 

[MyWin7]

When you guys run a fairly dated piece of hardware then it would be unfair to blame anyone - looking up the Win7 Radeon driver support it starts with the Radeon 9500. It's quite inexpensive to just get a newer card and all is well and happy.

 

[Pentium3 FTW]

this is the reason i cant have windows 7.
Cuz i have the same G-card as you, and it does not support Aero.
(which btw, are you getting that horrible grey tasbar instead of a clear transparent one?)

Yeah, I have the grey taskbar, but I really don't mind it that much.

Anyways, my friend says he found an old GeForce FX5200 card in his basement. This is not the greatest card in the world but it should allow Windows 7 to operate at a decent resolution. I am not sure about Windows 7 support, but does anyone know if this card at least has Windows Vista support?

 

[pparks1]

I could buy a new video card, but I'd like to have DirectX11 support, and any decent one is over $80.

My question would be...why hold out for a DX11 card in an old Pentium 4 box? If you really needed DX11 for high-end gaming, you are going to have to replace the machine. So, why not just buy a light duty video card now which will support and run Windows 7 and provide aero support and just get a nicer video card down the line with a new machine???? I mean you can find a card under $40 that will easily support aero and will be way better than the 9200se that you currently have.

 

[Pentium3 FTW]

My question would be...why hold out for a DX11 card in an old Pentium 4 box? If you really needed DX11 for high-end gaming, you are going to have to replace the machine. So, why not just buy a light duty video card now which will support and run Windows 7 and provide aero support and just get a nicer video card down the line with a new machine???? I mean you can find a card under $40 that will easily support aero and will be way better than the 9200se that you currently have.

Yeah, plan's changed... now I'm trying to figure out whether or not my friend's GeForce FX5200 will work in Windows 7. This "upgrade" was done almost entirely out of my pocket and at this point I would really, really like to avoid paying more.

 

[MyWin7]

FX5200 has Vista drivers - try it under win7 and see what happens or google a bit about other people's experience

 

[Pentium3 FTW]

Alright, hopefully this works... theoretically everything that worked under Windows Vista should also work under Windows 7. I'll install the card on boxing day or something, since I'll be a little occupied with Christmas. I'll let you all know how it works.

 

[Pentium3 FTW]

The FX5200 works! I can't get Aero to run properly, but that's not the point. The graphics card does not crash the system and I can finally get my 1280x1024 resolution. I also installed my free upgrade of Windows 7 Professional on my Thinkpad, so I'm busily trying to re-install all my programs on both machines. Thanks for your help everyone!

 

[InternetLord]

Hi, this is my first time posting, so please bear with me...

I have a Pentium 4 Desktop that is currently running Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 3. My family is not so good with computers, and I am sick and tired of having to re-install Windows XP every year just so that the computer is acceptably fast. The OS itself is also beginning to look dated, and it has far more security holes in comparison to the new Windows versions.

I was thinking about upgrading to Windows 7 Home Premium Edition, but I was worried about the performance. The current system has a 3.0 GHz Pentium 4 w/ HT, 1.5 GB of RAM, and a 160 GB hard drive (soon to be replaced with a 250 GB one). The graphics card is an ATI Radeon 9200 series. Will Windows 7 performance be in line with Windows XP on this setup, or will it be noticeable degraded? Let me know your thoughts!

If you're windows xp is working fine and meets all your needs in your computer works I suggest stick with it until this damn windows 7 is perfected.

I have two laptops with both windows vista, a 32 and 64bits had both upgraded to the much touted windows 7.

I am not happy at all, its unstable, text are overlapping, windows 7 media player wont play my files which I used to play with vista.

if you are finding 7 unstable you did something wrong. 7 runs faster than vista ever did, 7 starts up and shuts down faster than vista ever did, 7 is far more stable and secure than vista. as far as windows media player you should always replace it with a third party app. one that does not insist on sending out all of you media files info to microsour.

 

[gregrocker]

if you are finding 7 unstable you did something wrong. 7 runs faster than vista ever did, 7 starts up and shuts down faster than vista ever did, 7 is far more stable and secure than vista. as far as windows media player you should always replace it with a third party app. one that does not insist on sending out all of you media files info to microsour.

I've been running a popular batch file on all new installs for several years which turns off the WMP sharing services so that it can't turn itself back on.

WMP actually runs better.

Don't use it if you stream over home network. Set a restore point.

 

[InternetLord]

i recommend not using wmp simply because it takes far more resources to run than competing players do.

 

[jradicle11]

I had w7 running on 1.5gb of ram with a pentium 4 2.8ghz cpu.