Windows 7 experiences

[Blancofan1]

Thought I would just start a new thread on this since it's taking over the not bugging you thread.

 

Anyone have thoughts and input on the new Windows 7?

 

I've liked it well enough for most uses, but I seem to have some sort of connectivity issue with my new laptop with Win7. After the laptop hibernates at all it says I am connected to my router but I have no internet access. I know my router is working because I can still connect to the internet with other devices, but I have to reset the router to get internet access on the Win7 laptop each time. I've done some searching and have found that this seems to be somewhat of a common problem, but can't find a solution to it yet.

 

Hoping some of you out there with more tech savvy than me might be able to give me a suggestion on how to fix this problem, or if someone has found an update to fix it that they could share, I would appreciate it.

[bball123h]

You may want to check your router config, especially if you bought a cheapo laptop ($500 and under). I had to switch my parents from mixed mode (N and G wireless) to just G wireless. It solved all of their connectivity issues.

 

Also, if you are in an area with a ton of wireless activity (apartment complex, dorm, etc.), you may want to check the default wireless channel.

[T B0NE 10]

Once I installed windows 7 my bluetooth card hasn't been working.

I've been trying to install drivers and such and nothing works.

[Blancofan1]

Found a solution to my connectivity issues. Here is a step by step guide for anyone else having the same problem. You have to disable the homegroup on the windows 7 device if you are also using any other operating systems on other machines. Not an issue for me, since I only have the one laptop running windows 7, so being connected to a homegroup did me no good anyway.

 

I disabled the homegroup and homegroup listener early yesterday and it has solved all of my problems so far, hopefully everything continues to work smoothly.

[Invader3K]

Once I installed windows 7 my bluetooth card hasn't been working.

I've been trying to install drivers and such and nothing works.

I have had the same problem with my USB bluetooth dongle. It worked fine on my old desktop with Windows XP, but doesn't seem to want to work properly with Windows 7. I assume a driver or something will come out eventually. It's not critical for me, I just liked having it so I could surf the internet on my phone using the bluetooth network in house.

 

I'd like to add that my experience with Windows 7 has been overwhelmingly positive so far. Like I said in the other thread, it really does seem like they took all the positives of Vista and ditched all the negatives. And it's so much faster! I'm really not a Microsoft fanboy or anything, I swear.

[1992casey]

I've spent some time this week working on a new Windows 7 computer. It's slow. I haven't timed the startup, but it "feels" like it could be as long as a minute and a half. Tack on up to another minute for the WiFi to automatically connect. When I open some items, e.g. control panels, a twirly cursor comes up while I wait... it feels like I'm opening something that's on the Internet. Within applications, however, things seem to run fine.

 

The interface seems to be same old Windows, too. Microsoft has totally buried the ability to set a restore point, for instance. To do that, a Windows 7 newbie would have to:

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Be presented with a "category view" screen with all kinds of text to read--but no list of the actual control panels.
3. Break out of category view to see individual control panels.
4. Notice that text is beside the icons; that tells one to read in columns.
5. Realize that you have to read horizontally, then locate the System control panel.
6. Wait for the twirly cursor, then be presented with a big window with lots of text. Hit "System Protection" in the sidebar.
7. Here you'll find the button to set a restore point. I think at least one more twirly cursor is involved if you decide to create one.

Changing the mouse speed is another example. You repeat some of the steps above and get into the mouse panel. The slider to change speed should be on the first pane you're given. It isn't. You have to look for it.

 

I guess what bothers me the most about the Windows interface is all these big windows that look like web pages that are intermingled within whatever task you're trying to accomplish. They take you by surprise because they're not what you expect. It's not that these pages are without worth. But they should be separated into their own interface.

 

Anyway, about five minutes after I installed Safari, Windows popped up a box asking me how I liked it. That was amusing. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

I'm hoping that the computer is at least partly to blame for the sluggishness. But geez, it's brand new; you shouldn't have to worry about your computer being too slow for the operating system.

 

Hopefully, some of you can cheer me up with some more good experiences.

[Houlie24x]

For those of you that have used Windows 7, would you recommend upgrading from Vista? I can upgrade for free if I want but don't know if it's worth the hassle for the same crappy operating system.

[owbc]

I'm currently having issues with my new Windows 7 Dell laptop. I think there is an issue with the video card but I can not pinpoint the problem. One issue is that the computer tends to freeze when any type of video is played--either in firefox/IE or from a DVD. When the videos do work, some of the picture sometimes is missing, which I can not fix without restarting. The other issue is that I plugged my laptop into an external monitor and had problems with both the standard and the HDMI cable. The refresh rate seemed to be messed up with the standard cable (could see blinking) and the HDMI cable picture only covers about 21" of the 24" monitor with black space on the edges. Both the refresh rate and resolution settings are fine. It is especially strange because the laptop says the resolution is 1920x1080 but the picture is definitely not. I checked the video card driver and it appears to be fine.

 

Any ideas?

[1992casey]

Houlie, everything I read says that 7 improves on Vista and that on the same machine, 7 will out-perform Vista. So, yeah, I'd install it. There's no rush, though. Do it when you have time budgeted and after you've done some preliminary homework.

 

Do a Google search for your computer's model number and Windows 7, and see if people are running into anything like obsessed is. Check for things like your drivers, crucial applications, and oddball browser plug-ins. Also, check to see if you're changing from 32 to 64 bit. If you are, you'll want to research in that context, too. Chances are that if your upgrade came as the result of purchasing a new computer, everything is 64 bit.

 

If you have a good backup routine, there'd be very little risk in trying 7. All you'd really need is adequate time on your hands in case you decided to revert.

 

It could also turn out that you've done a 7 upgrade and decide that you'd rather have a clean install. I upgraded one of my Macs to Snow Leopard the second day it was out. It started using too much battery power during sleep, and a search indicated that this issue was generally resolved with a clean install. (I never bothered with the clean install; a system update seems to have fixed this.) I mention this because anytime one does an OS upgrade, a clean install occasionally pops up as a solution for certain problems.

 

obsessed, have you tried checking for the most current driver for your card? There might be something in Windows update, at Dell, or at the card manufacturer's website. Aside from that (and hopefully seeing some suggestions here http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif), push this hard with Dell; it's their responsibility to fix this. Also, search around the Internet to see if others are experiencing your problem.

 

Adding to my editorial above, experiencing things like slowness and wonky video isn't necessarily a surprise when doing an upgrade on an existing machine. But these issues shouldn't be happening on new computers out of the box. For stuff like driver issues, I think we can absolve Windows 7 from blame; that rests on the computer and device manufacturers. With slowness, the issue would be between the manufacturer and Microsoft. It could be that even though Microsoft has been telling people to be cautious with upgrades, their system requirements for new machines may not be high enough.

 

By the way, when I was working on that computer, it never crashed.

[Invader3K]

One minor problem I've been having: Internet Explorer 8.0 seems to freeze up and crash somewhat frequently on my Windows 7 desktop. Usually I'm able to recover whatever page I was looking at, so it's not a huge deal. I'm not sure what is causing the issue. I suppose I could install Firefox or something, but I am worried about further compatability issues. Anyone tried Firefox or Chrome on 7 yet?

[1992casey]

Firefox, Chrome, and Safari all ran great for me.

 

I don't think there should be any issues with the major browsers, or at least none that should prevent you from giving them a test drive.

[jwill535]

First off paint me stunned that 7 has problems. Like with anything from Microsoft, wait 3-4 months before installing any of their applications or at least till the second series of it comes out. Everyone of their platforms have troubles in the first run.

[mothershipconnection]

I only use firefox on Windows 7, and have had absolutely no trouble. Make the switch invader.

[strawbossisevil]

I am impressed with 7. Before I installed it my computer was freezing 2-3 times a day with Vista. I haven't had it freeze up on me since installing 7 a couple of months ago.

[Brian the Automator]

I've got Windows 7 running on a few machines now. I've had some issues with drivers not existing yet for my Printer/scanner/fax and a few other driver issues for my netbook (that really isn't supported by Windows 7, so that's my fault anyways). It runs like a dream. It's much faster than Vista on the exact same hardware. It's now my default "OS of choice" over win xp pro.

[ccbrew]

Just a quick 'thank you' to Blancofan for the post about disabling Homegroups.. was suffering from similar symptoms, and following the provided steps seems to have resolved the issue.

 

As far as overall user experience goes, no complaints for Windows 7 so far.

[Invader3K]

Also want to add that I installed Firefox and it's running much more reliably than IE was. No crashes for me so far, whereas IE crashed again this morning when I tried to use it.

[TheCrew07]

I really like Windows 7 and I'm still running the RC, not the production release of it. It blows Vista away in my opinion. I do however agree with Casey, I haven't liked the control panel or the menu changes since Vista, and it still irks me that they took away my Start, Run option which I'm addicted to from so many years working on XP.

 

Windows 7 is by far the most stable operating system from Microsoft I've ever encountered. I literally haven't had to shut down my computer in over a month and I haven't noticed any performance degradation at all. Initially I had some driver compatibility issues but those have gotten better over time and I consider that to be a non issue from my point of view now.

 

I only browse in Firefox, I highly recommend it.

 

All in all I give 7 a thumbs up.

[1992casey]

it still irks me that they took away my Start, Run option which I'm addicted to from so many years working on XP

 

You can put that back.

 

How to Enable Run Command in Windows 7 Start Menu

[TheCrew07]

Casey, you're the man.

[1992casey]

I've noticed that the search thing in the Start menu can function fairly similarly to the Run command. If all you want to do is run a program, type in whatever you'd put in the Run box. You'll get a list (probably containing one item). Double-click on that item. That's actually the same number of mouse clicks as using Run. I used the search the other day in a store that didn't make a web browser conveniently available. With Run, of course, you can go well beyond a simple search.

 

Here's another trick that some might find worthwhile:

 

How to Enable Windows 7 GodMode

 

This allows you to bring up close to 50 categories of configuration options in one window. Those who hate clicking through the interface four or five times to find something might prefer this. Of course, I'm sure a lot of users would decide that running Windows as God would be just as confusing as all the clicking.

[fstorm1]

Been running 7 for a couple months and I'm still astonished by how nice it is. I did a clean install, and have added a lot of the same progs/etc that I had before, but it's still smooth as all get out. Very, very few problems, shuts down in about 5 seconds, loads in about the same. So impressed with it and the job Microsoft did, especially after the absolute horror that was Vista when it first came out.

[1992casey]

Does Windows 7 do better with standard user accounts than previous versions? In the past, I've heard a lot of complaints that running Windows in a standard account limits users too much.

[owbc]

I should follow up on my problems. I called Dell service and they used remote desktop to fix the problem. I was very impressed and everything with Windows 7 works great now.

[UndraftedFA]

I bought a tablet right before the release of Windows 7, am I eligible for the upgradw too? I meant to look into this before the Spring semester started, but I didn't have the time. I purchased the computer on ebay. I am fine with the way it runs now, but I was told the battery life improves with 7. I was originally afraid of driver issues, but a good deal of time has passed since the release and I am not as concerned anymore. This is not my primary computer either in case a few small bugs hit in the conversion.