# Upgrade to Windows 7?



## Smelge (May 9, 2010)

I've run on XP for years now. I'm used to it. However, my HDD is fucked, so I'm having to reinstall the OS and everything. Technically, if I was to upgrade, now would be the time.

Does it have any major advantages over XP? Reasons why I should pirate it buy it from a legitimate dealer?


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## Ibuuyk (May 9, 2010)

Windows 7 is better in almost every way.

But if you have a F2A Linker for some reason, it isn't compatible post-XP, so I suggest you keep VMWare handy & find a way to make your USB ports compatible with it.

If someone DOES know a way to make USB ports compatible with VMWare, please tell me, I haven't changed games on my F2A Ultra for years.


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## Willow (May 9, 2010)

You should upgrade to Windows 7 most definitely 

However, unless you want to pay like $300 for Microsoft Office, you should also buy the Microsoft Office software from a store when you upgrade


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## Ibuuyk (May 9, 2010)

WillowWulf said:


> You should upgrade to Windows 7 most definitely
> 
> However, unless you want to pay like $300 for Microsoft Office, you should also buy the Microsoft Office software from a store when you upgrade



Everything but Microsoft Works Processor *shrugs*

Damn thing crashes every time I paste something.


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## Smelge (May 9, 2010)

Ibuuyk said:


> a F2A Linker



A whatnow?

What about the talk about Win7 being pretty nasty when it comes to RAM, eating a lot of it just to run desktop. I've only got 2Gig.


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## Willow (May 9, 2010)

Ibuuyk said:


> Everything but Microsoft Works Processor *shrugs*
> 
> Damn thing crashes every time I paste something.


I couldn't stand Microsoft Works, but then again, Microsoft Word '07 gives me a headache at times too


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## Ibuuyk (May 9, 2010)

Voidrunners said:


> A whatnow?
> 
> What about the talk about Win7 being pretty nasty when it comes to RAM, eating a lot of it just to run desktop. I've only got 2Gig.



Just something people buy on an impulsion before looking for better GBA pirate cartridges.



WillowWulf said:


> I couldn't stand Microsoft Works, but then again, Microsoft Word '07 gives me a headache at times too



Yea, and my college's computers still work on Microsoft Word 2002, so I have to retro-save my files so it's compatible over there, ugh.  Two more clicks is a waste of time.


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## Apollo (May 9, 2010)

Go for it, one thing to keep in mind though is that unless you format your HD, it's going to be really fun to upgrade.


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## Runefox (May 9, 2010)

You'll have to get used to some things, like the new taskbar that doubles as a dock/quick launch, and nearly every setting is in a different spot, but just like the jump from 9x to 2k/XP, the differences are mostly for the better. Win7 has amazing multi-mon support, for one, and the performance difference on most modern systems is negligible (as opposed to Vista) and in some cases better thanks to SuperFetch. Windows Firewall has also been given some new advanced features, and everything just generally feels smooth.

Just make sure you've got a good amount of RAM (3-4GB of it is plenty, 2 is OK; 1 is scraping the bottom) so that you can run the OS nicely as well as take advantage of SuperFetch.


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## Smelge (May 9, 2010)

HenriW said:


> Go for it, one thing to keep in mind though is that unless you format your HD, it's going to be really fun to upgrade.



New HDD, so not an issue.

The current HDD has corrupted sectors so XP won't run right. Which is why Maxtor are getting the fucking thing back. It's the second one that's died. First one corrupted after 8 months of use, the warranty replacement has corrupted after 6 months.

I want my bloody money back.


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## Knaw (May 9, 2010)

Windows 7 takes a bit of getting used to when coming straight from XP, but once you get used to everything it's a dream.  A couple of features to note -

Your taskbar is different. Instead of just being a place to dock shortcuts it is now a hub for your programs. If you dock something to a task bar, for example, Internet Explorer then when you have your IE open if you hover over the taskbar icon a fanned-out window pops up that shows you a thumbnail of every IE page you have open, clicking on it will take you straight to it.

You can still get a taskbar shortcut dock, but it instead makes use of your desktop in taskbar format. Whatever is on your desktop will appear in this bar.

dragging a window to the left, right, or top will dock that window to that side. so if you're working on two different folders at once or reading instructions while working on something else just move one to the left and one to the right and each will take up exactly half of the screen. Very handy.

There are many other vast improvements over Win 7 and my favorite... I've YET to see a blue-screen O.O


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## Lobar (May 9, 2010)

Voidrunners said:


> New HDD, so not an issue.
> 
> The current HDD has corrupted sectors so XP won't run right. Which is why Maxtor are getting the fucking thing back. It's the second one that's died. First one corrupted after 8 months of use, the warranty replacement has corrupted after 6 months.
> 
> I want my bloody money back.



Literally every HDD death horror story I've ever heard has involved a Maxtor.

Personally I plan on sticking with XP until I need DirectX 10.  I ran the beta of 7 for a while and was irritated by UAC.


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## Knaw (May 9, 2010)

Lobar said:


> I ran the beta of 7 for a while and was irritated by UAC.


 
They've fixed that since beta. You can turn UAC completely off now.


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## Runefox (May 9, 2010)

Voidrunners said:


> ...Maxtor...


There's your problem. Least reliable hard drives on the market. Owned by Seagate, but even though they bought them out, they're still using the same factories - Seagate's own products have lately been seeing a lower reliability rate as a consequence. Western Digital sits along with Samsung as one of the better manufacturers out there, though make no mistake - Seagate is still good, too. Just read up on them first.



> They've fixed that since beta. You can turn UAC completely off now.


Actually, the beta had this feature, as well. You'll find it under Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Turn User Account Control (UAC) on or off. You can also place it in "Silent" mode (which I believe is the default for 7), which disables prompts for administrative users, but still requires certain legacy apps to run as administrator. I personally prefer it off, though this is probably not a good idea for most.

It's worth noting that the same option exists in Vista in exactly the same place - The only difference was that it was only on/off, not variable levels of verbosity.


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## Zontar (May 9, 2010)

Maxtor? Don't make me laugh.

I had a 1997 Maxtor that crashed and burned in six short years. 
I had a 2001 Maxtor that crashed and burned in four shorter years. 
I have a spare Maxtor that won't format beyond 200MB.
I have _another_ 2001-era machine still running, and it amazes me while simultaneously I know it's ready to croak on a moment's notice...because it's got a Maxtor.

Trash it and buy a WD.


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## ToeClaws (May 10, 2010)

Windows 7 is definitely more advanced from a technical standpoint.  Not having used it, I can't comment on much else other than make sure you read the EULA before running it and understand your rights (or general lack of them) in using it.  If you don't play video games, then I would suggest using a better OS.

As for Microsoft Office - why?  Use Open Office; it works better, properly supports the Open Document formate and export to PDFs and is free.


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## Smelge (May 10, 2010)

Zontar said:


> Maxtor? Don't make me laugh.
> 
> I had a 1997 Maxtor that crashed and burned in six short years.
> I had a 2001 Maxtor that crashed and burned in four shorter years.
> ...



The first computer I had, I bought a Maxtor for it and it's still running perfectly, which is why I bought another Maxtor.

But, this Maxtor is the second in this computer and is the warranty replacement of the first. So like hell am I trashing it, I'm sending it back and asking for a refund. It's still in warranty.

The one I ordered last night is a Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB. I have a WD external HDD which works damn well, so I'm sticking with them.


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## ArielMT (May 10, 2010)

Windows 7 does require beefier hardware than Windows XP, but less than Windows Vista.  I think it's the first version of any Microsoft product that can do more with less than its previous version, that Microsoft have ever released.



Lobar said:


> Literally every HDD death horror story I've ever heard has involved a Maxtor.



You've never had an IBM DeathStar fail completely on you in a matter of hours.  Thankfully, the only thing mine took with it was an easily replaced system image, no user data.

But yes, Maxtors have a decades-long history of tending to have the shortest life of all consumer brand HDDs across all their models.


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## net-cat (May 10, 2010)

Voidrunners said:


> I've run on XP for years now. I'm used to it. However, my HDD is fucked, so I'm having to reinstall the OS and everything. Technically, if I was to upgrade, now would be the time.
> 
> Does it have any major advantages over XP? Reasons why I should pirate it buy it from a legitimate dealer?


I'm going with "don't bother" unless you have a specific reason for it. 

Unless you've got a friend who has a corporate key they're willing to share.



Lobar said:


> Personally I plan on sticking with XP until I need DirectX 10.  I ran the beta of 7 for a while and was irritated by UAC.





Runefox said:


> I personally prefer it off, though this is probably not a good idea for most.


I gotta wonder what you people run that's throwing UAC prompts every 37.2 seconds. As long as I've been using both Vista and 7, I don't get any more UAC prompts from them than I do password prompts from Ubuntu or Mac OS X.


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## ToeClaws (May 10, 2010)

ArielMT said:


> You've never had an IBM DeathStar fail completely on you in a matter of hours.  Thankfully, the only thing mine took with it was an easily replaced system image, no user data.



I think I hold a world record - mine lasted a week and a few hours.



ArielMT said:


> But yes, Maxtors have a decades-long history of tending to have the shortest life of all consumer brand HDDs across all their models.



*nodsnods* In all my decades of PC stuff, Maxtors were consistently the worst, with Western Digitals being the most reliable.


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## net-cat (May 10, 2010)

I've never had a Western Digital drive that was under five years old actually fail on me.

I've also owned a good number of Seagate drives and have only had one fail on me.

Maxtor, I've never had one last more than three years.


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## Smelge (May 10, 2010)

Yeah, about the Maxtor drive...

I mentioned it was a warranty replacement. Well, I started looking for the packaging to send it back, when I remembered it was Seagate that warrantied it. So why the fuck is there a Maxtor in my PC?

Looks as if at some point between the replacement arriving and me installing it, and me returning from the toilet and putting the case back together, my brother stole it and put in my old formatted Maxtor.

How the fuck have I only just noticed this? My Seagate was a 250Gb, this Maxtor is only 150.

Gonna kick the shit out of him next time I see him.

Incidentally, I've decided against Windows 7. I was going to pirate it then actually purchase when I'm not poor, in a few months time. But I've heard a few horror stories about how Win7 is a favourite for the copyright people to track and prosecute over.

At this point, I'd like to point out that this is how I do most things. If I need a program or whatever, but can't afford, I'll pirate now and buy the legit copy when I can afford to. Often, it works well with the trial periods or whatever.

Possibly not the best way to go about it, but it's better than just stealing and never purchasing.


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## Runefox (May 10, 2010)

net-cat said:


> I gotta wonder what you people run that's throwing UAC prompts every 37.2 seconds. As long as I've been using both Vista and 7, I don't get any more UAC prompts from them than I do password prompts from Ubuntu or Mac OS X.



I don't normally get UAC prompts, especially if I've turned it into "quiet" mode, but the requirement remains to run certain apps as an administrative user is a major hassle for me. If an app requires admin privileges in Linux, it'll usually elevate up front or allow you to elevate from within the app. If an app requires admin privileges in Windows, it'll behave strangely, possibly error (or act like nothing is wrong), and require you to close it and reopen it as an admin. Not really all that fun.

This pretty much boils down to application design paradigms, where Linux-based apps are already aware of the need to elevate, while Windows apps generally don't give a damn and still have troubles even today.


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## wicket (May 10, 2010)

i bought me a new pc with win 7. at first i think win 7 is not better than xp, but after a short time i found out that win 7 have so many changings. at first the design is better and you more help with controll. the best thing is that you can use a "speaking controll". it looks funny when you talk with you pc, but this gadget help you and make you controll very easy. when you buy win 7 you will have a lot of fun, but you need a good pc.


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## ArielMT (May 10, 2010)

ToeClaws said:


> I think I hold a world record - mine lasted a week and a few hours.



I meant the time from first indication of a problem to total failure.  That Deskstar of mine failed in less than three hours after working great for more than a year.



Voidrunners said:


> Yeah, about the Maxtor drive...
> 
> I mentioned it was a warranty replacement. Well, I started looking for the packaging to send it back, when I remembered it was Seagate that warrantied it. So why the fuck is there a Maxtor in my PC?
> 
> ...



Seagate bought Maxtor back in '05.  Why, I have no idea, since it was known that a plague of manufacturing problems was one of the contributors to Maxtor's declining profits and mounting losses.

http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2005/12/5816.ars

And yeah, after being short-changed in the capacity department as well as being given an inferior brand as a replacement, I'd do the same.


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