Windows 7

[Art Blade]

Heh, yeah  :) I remember me programming the zx81, almost like mandru, and the power switch, in an instance, killed the hours of typing code into that thing.

My first assembler code would create a scroll text in the border of the C64, using sprites to show text, if my memory doesn't fail me. Oh yes, we've come a long way :)

[PZ]

lol, your comment reminded me of the storage media I used on my Heathkit computer - a cassette tape (the same kind you could use for recording music)

[Art Blade]

"Datasette" we used to call those :) I hated them  ;D That's why I bought a floppy disk drive 5 1/4 " floppy disks lol... costed around 1,400DM (700€) a price which now would get you an almost decent PC.  :)

[PZ]

Here's an interesting list of 67 tips/tricks/secrets for W7 users:

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/67-windows-7-tips-tricks-and-secrets-643861?artc_pg=4

[Art Blade]

if you download stuff and want some security, try http://www.virustotal.com/ (although it is in German, there are other language options -- albeit English not working, at least for me) Basically it's upload a file as you would with our gallery, and the file gets scanned by 40+ virus scanners. :)

It works now in English, too :-X

[GPFontaine]

The progression of Microsoft's products confuses a lot of people because MS doesn't number their OS's in a consistent way that makes sense.

When considering the Windows Desktop OS families it is important to note that there are two of them and they are not related to each other.
Family 1:
Windows 95/98/Me

Family 2:
Windows 3.x - Version 3
Windows NT 4 - Version 4.x
Windows 2000 - Version 5.0
Windows XP - Version 5.1
Windows Vista - Version 6.0
Windows 7 - Version 6.1

Family Tree

Modern Windows OS's will tell you what version they run when you run the following command at the command prompt:

Code Select Expand

winver

It is important to realize that each major version change equates to massive backend adjustments.  The front end of the product that we see regularly hasn't changed very much since Windows NT 4 and Windows 95 was released.  It has become prettier, but we still all use Windows and a bar at the bottom of the screen.

What is the point here?

Windows 7 is really just back end service packs to Vista along with a front end makeover.  This is similar to what XP was to 2000.

Expect that anything that works in Vista will w@&k in Windows 7, however know that if you shift from 32 bit to 64 bit, all bets are off.  Also, most applications that run in Windows XP can be made to run in Windows 7 or forced to w@&k through emulation.

At this time I would advise anyone who is running any computer made in the last 4 years with at least 512MB RAM to consider Windows 7 as their best OS choice.

[fragger]

Terrific and very helpful info there, GPFontaine, thank you very much :-X

Sorry, I think I was away when you joined OWG, so - hi, and glad to have you aboard! Your knowledge and technical nous is very welcome.

Love the w@&k you've done on the wiki, btw :-X :-X

Hope you have heaps of fun at OWG :)

[GPFontaine]

Hey guys, there is a great article on using Windows 7's new features.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/freeware_files_5_apps_pack_windows_more_awesome_features

I think many would appreciate some of the shortcut commands on the first page.

[Art Blade]

cheers GP, might come in handy  :-X (why does that always make me think of JC2...)

[PZ]

That will come in handy - thanks for posting, GP  :-X

[fragger]

Thanks for passing on those links, GP, very helpful, even though I don't have 7 - yet :)

[GPFontaine]

Thanks for passing on those links, GP, very helpful, even though I don't have 7 - yet :)

You will soon enough ;)

[Art Blade]

Alright, people, I've installed windows 7 ultimate 32 bit now on the same machine that runs XP professional 32 bit, now a dual-boot system (first time I did that).

Looks a little like vista when I first got that, but installation and configuration of w7 is smoother. On top, I am extremely happy because I now have got an OS that features English as its default language, which makes installing software and picking updates etc a lot easier for me since I don't have to fiddle with optional settings any more just to find out if there is an English version available (which I prefer). Hopefully this comes in handy when installing games, because telling a game that it is going to be installed on a non-German system will in a number of cases prevent me from facing censored content as Germany loves to cripple almost every game there is as long as there is gore or swastikas involved, which means literally every WWII game and shooters in general.

However, I've still got some stuff to do here :)

[PZ]

Good luck with it, AB  :-X

[Art Blade]

cheers :) going to do some patch w@&k rather than seamless progress because there are some other chores. But I should get JC2 up and running this evening  ;D

[fragger]

Good luck with it, mate - hope it goes well,  and I wish you much gaming goodness (read "ripping up Panau") :)

[Art Blade]

thanks for the reminder, it did go well in any aspect  :)

[PZ]

I've W7 Home on the new home office machine and I love it.  It is similar enough to Vista so I already know how to run the thing, and it does appear to be very fast when compared to Vista.

[Art Blade]

I have one PC on Vista (home premium) and another with dual boot XP and W7. I really like W7 :)

[fragger]

I set up a PC recently which my Dad purchased for himself (he's finally getting into computers at 82!) and it came with W7 Home Premium. Admittedly there's not much on his machine as yet as he primarily wanted it for e-mail and internet, but it still seemed to me that it fired up and ran much quicker than my Vista did when it was new.

[Stryker7]

I agree with fragger about the "If it aint broke" wisdom. ;) Im on XP(sp2) which i got just before XP was removed from the market in favour of Vista, which i wanted to avoid at all costs.'

I agree. I just got Win7, havent installed it just yet. Am going for a complete re-install of WinXP, Win7, and an updated version of Linux.

I've read good things about Win7, but unless i suddenly discover a stash of cash hidden somewhere so i could upgrade my GPU and memory, i see little point in updating the OS to W7 at this time. Maybe in a few years, when i get my next rig...of course by then we'll be into Win7.57676876544532.2345. ;)

The only reason I am upgrading, is DX10 - 11. I really want to try FC2, Assasins Creed, and all the new games coming out with the new DX.

Yeah, I am falling for the MS BS upgrade scam. I held out for a while, but if I want DX 1?, I have no choice. :D

And I would love to see how well 8Gig + of RAM works on my gaming rig.

[Art Blade]

I've seen w3.11, w95, w98, xp, vista, w7. Real crap were w3.11 and vista, the best so far is w7. W7 is easy to install, easy to set up (configure), and quick.

[Stryker7]

I've seen w3.11, w95, w98, xp, vista, w7. Real crap were w3.11 and vista, the best so far is w7.

I take exception with one part. Win 3.11 was great as it was my first Windows. DOS 6.22 before that. The real SOBs were Win98, before the Win98SE, I never owned either of these but Windows ME was infamous for being total crap, and Vista ..... Well, I just waited for Win7.

W7 is easy to install, easy to set up (configure), and quick.

Easy to install ?  ;)

Cool, maybe you can help me out. I have been searching the internet all night, and just about have it figured out, I think, maybe you (ART) or anyone else could help me out.

I am moving all 3 of my SG SATA 149GB disk to the last 3 SATA ports. Currently they are 1,2,3. They will be my RAID0 Gaming drive.

My first 3 disk will all be Seagates 300GB, 320GB, and 500GB.

This is the basic layout I would like on all 3 of these disk.

     Part1       |          Part 2                |       Part 3             |      Part 4

Linux Swap  |   Windows Pagefile     |    Windows XP     |      Linux  /


     Part1       |          Part 2                |       Part 3             |      Part 4

Linux Swap  |   Windows Pagefile     |    Windows 7        |      Linux  /home


     Part1       |          Part 2                |       Part 3             |      Part 4

Linux Swap  |   Windows Storage (get to it from linux too)      |



Now all 3 would have the linux Swap partitions at the very front of the disk, where all the speed is. The Windows Pagefile on at least 2 different disk, so that Windows XP and Windows 7 would have the PF on a different actual drive. In the case of the 3rd, that would allow the OS to be moved down one partition space. and the existing Windows OS would become a Windows storage.

The 2 of the linux partitions would be used as "  / " (root where the actual install is, " home " where all the home files for users are.

And then the last partition would probably be turned into a Windows partition, for more storage   

I found out how to hide the pagefile partition from both Windows XP and 7. And then link to it from the Windows dir. That way it never shows up in Explorer and never assigned a drive letter in Explorer.

My real problem seems to be, will Windows, either one, complain about being on the 3rd partition, and just to make it more interesting, how to get around Windows 7 creating the 100MB boot partition for itself.

Any construtive thoughts ideas or suggestions are really welcome.

[Art Blade]

Windows (at least 7) won't complain, you can install it on any partition you assign it to. However, when it's installed, it will alwas think of its own partition where it is located being "C:\" no matter what, hence "shift" all other drive letters around, to make things more interesting.

Then there will be the little problem with how w7 handles its users and their files, like "common user." Especially w7-folders or -files of a dedicated user called "Stryker" (as for "my music" etc files) can't be accessed by XP when that is fired up (it will tell you that you have no rights to read those directories). At least I don't know of an easy way to w@&k around that, and I just let it be. Stuff that should be accessible by any OS simply shouldn't be in w7's dedicated folders.

As to the 100MB boot partition, I don't know if you can get around that. W7 still needs to create a place for its file system and such, the MBR (MasterBootRecord).. as far as I know, you can't run the OS without.

[Stryker7]

Windows (at least 7) won't complain, you can install it on any partition you assign it to.

That sounds just like MS and Bill Gates. We wont complain, we will install just fine, then screw everything up/

However, when it's installed, it will alwas think of its own partition where it is located being "C:\" no matter what, hence "shift" all other drive letters around, to make things more interesting.

I thnk I found a way to hide the partitions from each other in Windows. I found a problem too about XP killing all the Win7 restore_points and shadow_copy files. But I think I found a workaround for that too.

Then there will be the little problem with how w7 handles its users and their files, like "common user." Especially w7-folders or -files of a dedicated user called "Stryker" (as for "my music" etc files) can't be accessed by XP when that is fired up (it will tell you that you have no rights to read those directories). At least I don't know of an easy way to w@&k around that, and I just let it be. Stuff that should be accessible by any OS simply shouldn't be in w7's dedicated folders.

Actually, the only folders that will be used in Both XP and 7, would be that Gaming RAID, and  storage files for pictures, MP3s, and stuff like that.

You didnt mean that Windows 7 will add permission to all the files accesable, even on other partitions, you just meant the Win7 system and user folders and files?

As to the 100MB boot partition, I don't know if you can get around that. W7 still needs to create a place for its file system and such, the MBR (MasterBootRecord).. as far as I know, you can't run the OS without.

I found some directions on how to disable the creation of the 100 MB partition, by editing the install files on the DVD, and then reburning the DVD. I asked a couple of questions over there, just waiting for a response.

Someone also suggested that if you go into  advanced settings when you are in the partitioning part of Win7 install you can disable that as well.

But thanks for the info, you gave me a little more to think about. and research before I start this process.