Solved Windows 7...why?

[gregrocker]

If one isn't so stuck in his ways he'd notice that while Win7 is beautiful, it is its functionality that recommends it as the best OS ever by far.

Only those so stuck in their Dodge Dart that they won't consider the Lexus ignore instantaneous, feather-light performance, zero hangs, and modern features such as a multi-functional task bar (pinned = rightclick>history), Aero snap and preview, Start search box ease, not to mention dragging files into folders or sub-folders all within one window - and all without the XP glitches.

Some of these advances were developed for Vista, but it's Win7 that trimmed it all to perfection.

Welcome to the future. Holler at it all you want. The Dart is in the garage.

 

[apogee07]

Hello apogee and welcome to Seven Forums. You can still search in one folder. Use the search box it the top right of Explorer.
View attachment 183588

Ok thanks, that works.

I'm not actually anti upgrade. I would not want to use W95 these days with some of the software I now rely on, but I want the option to run the old stuff. They charge you $$$ for the next OS so you don't expect it to detract from your way of working.

apogee07

 

[gregrocker]

Older programs or drivers that balk in Win7 should be tried in Win7 Compatibility Mode
which virtualizes the old OS to trick the installer into thinking it's installing to XP, 2000, etc. I'm able to get Win7 to run on 10 year old hardware regularly utilizing this feature (another one!).

 

[Tarka Dal]

The thing is Windows 8 will be out next September and people moan about Windows 7. The vast majority of people who have changed over to Windows 7 have been happy with it for the last 2 years and were happy to let go of Xp. But, it is very reflective of life. Some things just get worse and most things just get better.

 

[kado897]

The thing is Windows 8 will be out next September and people moan about Windows 7. The vast majority of people who have changed over to Windows 7 have been happy with it for the last 2 years and were happy to let go of Xp. But, it is very reflective of life. Some things just get worse and most things just get better.

I don't think anyone over 10 will like windows 8 if the developer preview is anything to go by.

 

[apogee07]

If one isn't so stuck in his ways he'd notice that while Win7 is beautiful, it is its functionality that recommends it as the best OS ever by far.

Only those so stuck in their Dodge Dart that they won't consider the Lexus ignore instantaneous, feather-light performance, zero hangs, and modern features such as a multi-functional task bar (docked = rightclick>history), Aero snap and preview, Start search box ease, not to mention dragging files into folders or sub-folders all within one window - and all without the XP glitches.

Some of these advances were developed for Vista, but it's Win7 that trimmed it all to perfection.

Welcome to the future. Holler at it all you want. The Dart is in the garage.

If you can tell me how to get W7 to bring up recently used folders and files when trying to open one in an application then I might abate some of my (justified) "hollering".

apogee07

 

[seavixen32]

We're not mind readers.

Telling us which application would be a start.

Personally, I'm just bemused at this Windows 7 sniping. The people in Redmond have really got their act together on this one.

As one who started with Windows 3.1, loved XP and choked on Vista, I find Windows 7 to be the best. Each morning I get to a working desktop within a minute of switching on, I have tweaked nothing and never will, and have got to a stage where it's going to take something pretty special to wean me off this fine operating system.

And no, I have no connection with Microsoft whatever. I'm just commenting as a satisfied user.

 

[pincushion]

We're not mind readers.

Telling us which application would be a start.

Personally, I'm just bemused at this Windows 7 sniping. The people in Redmond have really got their act together on this one.

As one who started with Windows 3.1, loved XP and choked on Vista, I find Windows 7 to be the best. Each morning I get to a working desktop within a minute of switching on, I have tweaked nothing and never will, and have got to a stage where it's going to take something pretty special to wean me off this fine operating system.

And no, I have no connection with Microsoft whatever. I'm just commenting as a satisfied user.

Perhaps this is why you are eminently satisfied but many do want to tweak and always have so perhaps that explains why many have issues. I certainly will agree W7 is one of the best OS to be produced so far.

 

[seavixen32]

Point taken, pincushion, but I just fail to see the sense in putting yourself (not you personally) through a lot of hassle just to shave a couple of seconds off the startup up time or see a window open 2 milliseconds quicker.

As I said on another thread: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[gregrocker]

If you can tell me how to get W7 to bring up recently used folders and files when trying to open one in an application then I might abate some of my (justified) "hollering".

Your most recently used folders are available by rightclicking the file icon on taskbar.

In an application, all history is also available by rightclicking it's icon on taskbar providing you pin it to taskbar. Rightclick the program .exe to Pin to Taskbar. This is a feature of the new Win7 taskbar.

 

[pincushion]

Point taken, pincushion, but I just fail to see the sense in putting yourself (not you personally) through a lot of hassle just to shave a couple of seconds off the startup up time or see a window open 2 milliseconds quicker.

As I said on another thread: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I just see an overall strategy of trimming and tweaking where necessary to make a system quicker and safer if that doesn't imply breaking anything in the process. And the more one tweaks then the more one learns - even if it is sometimes painful.

W7 can be used out-of-the-box and I have no quibbles about it most of the time but it is perhaps a little harder to manage than XP for the tweak brigade (pincushion is an honorary member).

 

[gregrocker]

How long have you been with Win7, pincushion?

Many of us who were with Win7 through beta learned the hard way that the old XP tweaks are counterproductive and not well tolerated by Win7, which is already as lean as an OS can be.

To this day, the only clawback tweak I do is to edit Visual Effects of sliding, fading, animations and dragging intact on older hardware. This was habit in XP and the only habit I've carried over because it is barely noticeable visually (unless you accidentally uncheck Visual Style and everything suddenly looks like a file cabinet :huh but usually eliminates the only hangs I've seen in Win7 with more than 512mb RAM.

 

[pincushion]

How long have you been with Win7, pincushion?

Many of us who were with Win7 through beta learned the hard way that the old XP tweaks are counterproductive and not well tolerated by Win7, which is already as lean as an OS can be.

To this day, the only clawback tweak I do is to edit Visual Effects of sliding, fading, animations and dragging intact on older hardware. This was habit in XP and the only habit I've carried over because it is barely noticeable visually (unless you accidentally uncheck Visual Style and everything suddenly looks like a file cabinet :huh but usually eliminates the only hangs I've seen in Win7 with more than 512mb RAM.

I've been using it for about 15 months and I'm quite happy with it but I still think some things can be trimmed or altered. My XP system was on its last legs but still struggles along - doesn't get connected to the Internet much these days, even for updates. In W7 I disable a few services and can't stand the indexing or search stuff. I never do any searching much anyway but Agent Ransack does it for me when I need it. I like to know what is connecting to the Internet and for what reason and I also like to know why my disk is thrashing about if it does this. So I tend to disable a lot of things that are software-related too. I must admit I've not felt the need to do any registry cleaning although I do use CCleaner after every browser session partly from the space issue but also from the safety aspect. I also am not a convert to Restore having used Ghost, Acronis and now Macrium to do the same thing but more reliably in my view.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I just see an overall strategy of trimming and tweaking where necessary to make a system quicker and safer if that doesn't imply breaking anything in the process. And the more one tweaks then the more one learns - even if it is sometimes painful.

You are missing one major point, and one that has been stressed for two years, but is still often missed. "Tweaks" aren't going to yield more performance in Windows 7. That's why the best tweaking advice is to leave it alone. Disabling services, altering OS settings, etc will yield no benefit.

If you separate out "customizing", then yes, there's plenty of room for that. But out of the box, aside from loading the latest drivers, Windows 7 will tune itself to run optimally. That's also why it doesn't need to be reloaded every so often.

You always have to remember that Windows 7 is a different animal than XP, and should be treated as such.

 

[legacy7955]

I will say that one thing you CAN get quicker boot performance from is disabling your unnecessary start up programs, it does sometimes save a few extra seconds or more.

Totally safe tweak no bad side effects.

 

[apogee07]

If you can tell me how to get W7 to bring up recently used folders and files when trying to open one in an application then I might abate some of my (justified) "hollering".

Your most recently used folders are available by rightclicking the file icon on taskbar.

In an application, all history is also available by rightclicking it's icon on taskbar providing you pin it to taskbar. Rightclick the program .exe to Pin to Taskbar. This is a feature of the new Win7 taskbar.

Thanks, that's handy. But I also spend time inside My Computer so as to have access to different file types across folders. A "Recent history" in My Computer would save a lot a endless repetitive folder actions especially when they have several branches to find a commonly used file to launch from.

apogee07

 

[apogee07]

We're not mind readers.

Telling us which application would be a start.

Personally, I'm just bemused at this Windows 7 sniping. The people in Redmond have really got their act together on this one.

As one who started with Windows 3.1, loved XP and choked on Vista, I find Windows 7 to be the best. Each morning I get to a working desktop within a minute of switching on, I have tweaked nothing and never will, and have got to a stage where it's going to take something pretty special to wean me off this fine operating system.

And no, I have no connection with Microsoft whatever. I'm just commenting as a satisfied user.

See my reply to gregrocker above.

apogee07

 

[apogee07]

And while we're at it has anyone a solution to enable the "input device" in Audacity 3.1 in W7. Works ok in XP. According to what I found scouring the net on this, apparently W7 does not support an "input device".

apogee07

 

[logicearth]

Input devices...you mean these:

 

[pincushion]

I just see an overall strategy of trimming and tweaking where necessary to make a system quicker and safer if that doesn't imply breaking anything in the process. And the more one tweaks then the more one learns - even if it is sometimes painful.

You are missing one major point, and one that has been stressed for two years, but is still often missed. "Tweaks" aren't going to yield more performance in Windows 7. That's why the best tweaking advice is to leave it alone. Disabling services, altering OS settings, etc will yield no benefit.

If you separate out "customizing", then yes, there's plenty of room for that. But out of the box, aside from loading the latest drivers, Windows 7 will tune itself to run optimally. That's also why it doesn't need to be reloaded every so often.

You always have to remember that Windows 7 is a different animal than XP, and should be treated as such.

I think you'll have to define 'benefit' since performance is not the sole issue.

I'll agree that most of the things I've done have been more customising than tweaks but if disabling some services gives me more memory for other things then that is what I'll do. I was down to about 35 before adding the ones I wanted to run.

One of the few things I have done is to remove Libraries from Explorer and dialogues but my major gripe is the one I can't do and that is remove the Recycle bin completely. Perhaps I am just more organised than most but I very rarely inadvertently delete something that I later regret and I have more than enough back-ups of any saved data. I would just like it to be made easier to remove all the things that you don't particularly need from whatever area e.g context menus. It makes things snappier and you are less likely to make mistakes by inadvertently choosing a wrong item from a menu. If it doesn't exist on the menu then you can't choose it.

Apart from that I do really like W7. :shock: