Windows 7 is out, have you upgraded?

[vcdlover]

Popular imaging software is Symantec Ghost. Most new retail drives come with imaging software on an enclosed CD. Shareware and freeware imaging software is also available.

Windows sometimes requests reactivation if it sees a hardware change. Worst case you call them. An image restore should not trigger reactivation.

Thanks edDV

I'll do more research on this.

[jg0001]

Not yet.

I need another option - Using vista because it works - not because its crap.

I have vista on my dual core amd 2.7ghz pc and xp on my older single core 2.66ghz emachine that is still kicking - in fact I'm typing on it right now and its got to be 5 years old or more. THough it has had transplants

If you decide to try it, perhaps consider my route--

I bought the Win7 Home Premium Family Pack upgrade, good for 3 PCs (and costs only $150! that's $50 per PC!)

In Vista, I 'shrank' the partition of the OS drive (leaving it about 30 extra GB). I then installed the Win7 'upgrade' to the other partition -- it automatically adds in the boot loader selector. Now I have BOTH and can slowly transition from Vista to Win7, using the same data for each (I keep data on a completely separate drive). I had no issues whatsoever doing this -- I wasn't sure it would be possible with the upgrade disc, but it went in just fine.

All together, the switch from Vista only to dual boot with Win7 took about an hour. Mind you, I keep almost nothing but the OS and main programs on my C: drives.

Also, it is worth noting that in this dual boot setup, whichever OS you choose (at boot, each time) gets the C: label in that version of windows, and you can label the other OS partition as you like. For me, the OS that's loaded gets C: and the other is G:. My data is on F: regardless. (So when I select Win7, it shows up as C: and Vista as G: -- when I select Vista at boot, it shows up as C: and Win7 as G.

If you're like me and you keep data separate from the OS drive, this is an easy "do", with ready access to the old setup.

[MOVIEGEEK]

I won't be upgrading my desktop for awhile because my printer and scanner aren't Win7 compatible, my laptop is too old to be upgraded.
Since XP will be supported until 2014 I think I will wait until my desktop dies.

[ron spencer]

yep..2014 for me. I really like XP. Not sure what the benefits of 7 are over XP.

[paulw]

I am using W7 RC on one PC here but and the $$ in Micro$oft is to the for where I live I'll be giving it a miss for the next 6 months or so.. No family pack installs, no good student discounts and most retailers are advertizing upgrades only as they look cheaper..

[yoda313]

I bought the Win7 Home Premium Family Pack upgrade, good for 3 PCs (and costs only $150! that's $50 per PC!)

I don't know. My vista is an oem version that came with my hp. THat doesn't count for an upgrade version does it?

Also I recently had to splurge on a replacemnt xbox 360 when my other rrod'd again (red ring of death) so I'm not in a hurry to spend that type of money this soon.

[Constant Gardener]

I had intended to put Windows 7 on the computer I'm rebuilding, but then I ran the update tool. Win7 does not approve of my video card, printers, scanner, backup software, partition utility, and a few others. So the rebuilt machine will get XP3, at least for now.

[jg0001]

I bought the Win7 Home Premium Family Pack upgrade, good for 3 PCs (and costs only $150! that's $50 per PC!)

I don't know. My vista is an oem version that came with my hp. THat doesn't count for an upgrade version does it?

Also I recently had to splurge on a replacemnt xbox 360 when my other rrod'd again (red ring of death) so I'm not in a hurry to spend that type of money this soon.

My Vista was an OEM version (purchased that way from Newegg). As was my XP installation. No problems with the upgrade. I even had to reinstall my Office 2007 program (home/student edition) and it went it without complaint (even though that technically was the '4th' install, if you count the version installed under Vista).

[edDV]

The Win7 upgrades work with any authernticated XP or Vista.

[handyguy]

I looked for a new W7 computer & they aren't very impressive compared to what I have with XP at the moment. I thought with Moore's law we would have 300ghz computers by now.

[yoda313]

I looked for a new W7 computer & they aren't very impressive compared to what I have with XP at the moment. I thought with Moore's law we would have 300ghz computers by now.

@handyguy - they are now shooting for multicore machines rather than sheer speed. Sure speed is important but they are bunching them up so they can multitask more.

Don't forget they are starting to do the gpu processing on certain graphics cards so you can get an additional performance boost.

It's quality not just quantity remember

[mrswla]

The Win7 upgrades work with any authernticated XP or Vista.

I have a question about the win7 upgrade. I had XP running on my machine but than formatted the HD and installed win7 RC about 6 months or so ago. If I buy the upgrade will I have to reinstall XP or what?

Thanks.

[SingSing]

The answer is not now. Even I get a stable windows 7 to run, I still see I will run copy of XP, for pratical reason.

[SingSing]

they are now shooting for multicore machines rather than sheer speed. Sure speed is important but they are bunching them up so they can multitask more.

Don't forget they are starting to do the gpu processing on certain graphics cards so you can get an additional performance boost.

It's quality not just quantity remember

Multi-core CPU only help a bit. Wave and C## are not taking over the world.

Nearly all the power computing software only run single core.

[jagabo]

I looked for a new W7 computer & they aren't very impressive compared to what I have with XP at the moment. I thought with Moore's law we would have 300ghz computers by now.

@handyguy - they are now shooting for multicore machines rather than sheer speed. Sure speed is important but they are bunching them up so they can multitask more.

Keep in mind that, as a general rule, and other things being equal, power consumption goes up with the square of the clock speed. So going from 2 GHz to 4 GHz will quadruple power consumption. Going from 1 core to 2 cores only doubles power consumption. This, coupled with the fact that manufacturing processes haven't been able to reduce power consumption by decreasing the voltage and component size the way they used to, has led to the current situation.

[miss]

Yes i use windows 7 x64 and fedora this rock !!!

[zzyzzx]

I just upgraded from Windows 2000 to XP last week, and yes it's better. Also have Fedora on my other hard drive so I can boot to that too.

[Noahtuck]

No offense.... but most of us knew that 10 years ago

[zzyzzx]

None taken, I've waited because I hate the whole 3 change thing my Miscrosoft, etc.

[zoobie]

Who dug this up?
I don't run out and buy every new OS...

PS - Kinda foo nee...I once accidently posted to an several years old thread in a coding forum. People started responding to it. Then I realized my mistake, went back, and was able to delete my post. I came back a few weeks later and found the next poor schmoe who responded to my post being flamed to death...

[Noahtuck]

Who dug this up?

zzyzzx

I don't run out and buy every new OS...

Me either, took me a while to upgrade to XP, Vista, W7....

But not 10 years to upgrade to WXP!!!
LOL!!!

More like a couple of years, and i thought i was like eons behind for that amount of time!!


I hated reinstalling W7 to my new system because i knew i would have to transfer all my files (mad GB's) from my old system to my new system, reinstall all my programs, set everything up, etc......

Oy Vey!!!!!!!

[leghorn]

Win7 Pro 64bit student upgrade...yet I'm quite content

[handyguy]

I like it. But it won't boot with my printer on. So have to have that off or not connected.

[Constant Gardener]

Perhaps we should be asking who has installed Win8. I have that prebeta running as a virtual machine, but it's not doing anything useful yet.

[lacywest]

I've answered this question B4 ... but it's 2012 now ... I still do a dual boot with XP Media Center on it and WIN 7 SP-1 Ultimate.

I keep XP because some programs wont start or crash on WIN 7 ... mostly video editing programs by TMPGEnc But TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works ... is working okay in WIN 7.