Windows 7: How Long Will It Remain?

[jagabo]

Turn off transparency effects in Win7 and the UI is very close in speed to Win8. I ran a few x264 encoding benchmarks when I had Win7 and Win8 installed on the same computer. Encoding under Win8 was a tiny bit faster. Less than a 1 percent difference if I remember correctly. One thing to keep in mind is that Metro applications don't shut down when you close them. They just minimize. So they "restart" faster.

[Seeker47]

make no mistake about it, this is videohelp.com, which means everybody that comes to this forum comes here primarily because they have some interest in video; consequently when avx2 starts making an appearance in video editing apps, probably the first will be in x264 and main concept's codecs, and people see the benchmarks and the performance improvements avx2 (and TSX) brings to the table, everyone at some point will look to upgrade to take advantage of it. that means they will look to buy processors that support this new SIMD, first will be intel and eventually amd will offer cpu's with avx2 and then they'll realize that they need an OS that supports avx2 and since win 7 does not and will not support it, even though we won't like it at first, we will all upgrade to Win 8, or it's successor if it's out by the time we upgrade cpu's.

we are not going to have a choice, either we stick with older hardware that is incapable of handling the UltraHD resolutions (and trust me, we don't have cpu's fast enough to deal with 2k, 3k and 4k resolutions) as well as the latest codecs (h265 is supposed to be a bear to encode and decode) or we bite the bullet and buy the newest hardware and the newest OS.

It sounds to me like this is falling on the other side of the divide between consumer / hobbyist grade and professional grade apps. The more commonly used apps featured and discussed here more than cover my needs -- now, or as far out as I can see at the moment. And there's no good reason why I can't continue using them for a long time, under Win-7 or even XP. (Even if I'm forced to avoid the latest gen hardware to continue doing so.)

Take a poll here on how many of us are still working with DVD video and the tools used for that, vs. Blu-Ray video format, and I suspect that it may prove my point. 2K, 4K, and beyond I'm happy to leave to Peter Jackson and James Cameron. Doubt I'll be needing that anytime soon.

Turn off transparency effects in Win7 and the UI is very close in speed to Win8. I ran a few x264 encoding benchmarks when I had Win7 and Win8 installed on the same computer. Encoding under Win8 was a tiny bit faster. Less than a 1 percent difference if I remember correctly. One thing to keep in mind is that Metro applications don't shut down when you close them. They just minimize. So they "restart" faster.

How easy is it to do that ? I've really been tempted, almost every day. The distracting Aero eye candy and transparency adds very little that is truly useful. Your mouse wanders a bit, and you find that something that had the desktop has "disappeared", or switches to something else. 'Where am I now ?' Oh, right, move the mouse back. The Previews and faster snap-back of minimized items is a 50-50 tradeoff.

[fritzi93]

Right-click My Computer -> Advanced system settings. That brings up System Properties -> Advanced -> Performance. (Visual Effects, etc.)

Select Settings -> Visual Effects. Then select "Adjust for best performance". That will turn Aero off entirely. Or use Custom and turn off options individually.

Anyway, I intend using Win7 for a long time. I'm used to it, my programs work fine, and I like it as well.

[Seeker47]

Right-click My Computer -> Advanced system settings. That brings up System Properties -> Advanced -> Performance. (Visual Effects, etc.)

Select Settings -> Visual Effects. Then select "Adjust for best performance". That will turn Aero off entirely. Or use Custom and turn off options individually.

Anyway, I intend using Win7 for a long time. I'm used to it, my programs work fine, and I like it as well.

Thanks for that info !

[jagabo]

Transparency effects for window borders can be controlled separately by right clicking on the Desktop, selecting Personalize, clicking on Window Color, then disabling the Enable Transparency option.

[yoda313]

Right-click My Computer -> Advanced system settings. That brings up System Properties -> Advanced -> Performance. (Visual Effects, etc.)

Select Settings -> Visual Effects. Then select "Adjust for best performance". That will turn Aero off entirely. Or use Custom and turn off options individually.

Anyway, I intend using Win7 for a long time. I'm used to it, my programs work fine, and I like it as well.

I'd like to second the thank you from Seeker 47.

I'm running Vista and wouldn't mind turning off aero to boost performance a touch.

However it is set to let Windows choose best appearance and everything is selected. If I choose best performance everything is deselected.

Which is exactly is "aero" in the list? I don't know that I want to turn off ALL of the graphical niceties of Aero just a few to save on system resources.

Is there a list of which ones use up the most power? (please note I only have 2gb ram and thats all I can put on my motherboard).

Thanks.

Edit - just saw jagabos post and I am on (correction I'm running WINDOWS VISTA BASIC but Aero is not selected at all) WINDOWS BASIC not AERO after all - looks like I'm not running Aero afterall. Thanks everyone