Windows 7 experience

valryte · Post by **valryte** » November 11, 2009, 3:40 am

So far I love the OS. Most of my application actually run better on Windows 7 than XP, but I am having this one major issue that I can find plenty of reports with the same symptom, but no real answers.

Basically, Windows 7 seems to hiccup doing various things. Going from Computer to one of my drives in explorer, or accessing a folder on a network share, doing other IO operations, playing WoW, all seem to cause it to hiccup and most of the time, it has a cascading effect that eventually the video driver is restarted. I've searched all over, contacted my video card manufacturer, all points no where. The best answer I got was from the video card manufacturer, saying that they've seen the reports, but that restarting the video driver is just a default behavior of Windows when it starts to run into various issue. Another thing I found was regarding the disabling of HPET (high precision event timer) in the bios. I've done that and it has improved a great deal, but still occasionally restarts the video drive (causing the black flicker issue). FYI, this is all exactly the same hardware I ran under XP without any issues.

Another annoyance is that copy files to a remote server it's ridiculously slow to start. It goes through this stupid "calculation" that takes forever. Most of the time it takes longer than actually copying the files. Whatever it's doing is really stupid and the developers should be taken out back and shot.

Was nice to see the inclusion of the Snipping Tool (capture screen shots, where you can specify an area instead of the whole screen) is really nice (I'm a SnagIt fan), but like typical Microsoft, they don't go that extra step to make it really useful like automatically binding it to a key press combination like every other vendor out there does. I had to write my own utility to do that so it runs it when you press print screen twice. I just need to fix an issue when you have multiple monitors and then I'll release it.

I have more, but it's late so I'll post more later.

Bubba Grizz · Post by **Bubba Grizz** » November 11, 2009, 1:39 pm

I have had a few instances where my screen will freeze while playing WoW. I never had that before. I assumed it was a video driver issue and I needed to update the driver anyhow. I haven't been able to give it much of a test since I updated though.

miir · Post by **miir** » November 11, 2009, 1:47 pm

I used to have that problem with the video driver restarting... turned out to be a dying video card.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » November 11, 2009, 2:27 pm

We had that video driver restarting issue in a few HP laptops we had with an ati chipset. Turns out the problem is with the chipset itself. The only solution we found was to turn off Aero. One my my co-workers did that. I just dealt with the black screens.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » November 11, 2009, 3:40 pm

I installed 64-bit Home Premium or whatever last week. I like it, but still have one issue...

Basically, I lose my internet connection frequently. I resolve the problem by turning off IPv4, turning on IPv6, saving....THEN turning on IPv4 and turning off IPv6. This is my only workaround at this point. It is very annoying.

I have turned off all power management features, including those set from the nVidia control panel. Sometimes it even boots up without internet connectivity and I have to go through the turning off and on of IP protocols all over again.

NIC is built in to EVGA 790i ULTRA mobo... drivers are all updated per EVGA.

Anyone else having this problem?

valryte · Post by **valryte** » November 11, 2009, 4:33 pm

No, but I can tell you have IPv6 disabled as well, probably read about issues with it somewhere.

As for my driver restart issue, I've had an open ticket with XFX. I just told them I've tried everything, even on different computers and it still happens. I had another ticket open regarding video playback issues, so I'm thinking that the card may have been defective all along and have asked for a replacement. The warranty expires in like another month. Lets hope a replacement fixes my issue.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » November 11, 2009, 5:40 pm

Running Home Premium 64, no problems at all, everything works. Sadly enough that far exceeded my expectation for it.

Somewhat snappier than XP-64 was, though that may just be due to a clean install after ~3 years of abuse to the old build.

It's worth the $40 I paid for it, that's about it though. If they hadn't done the pre-order sale I'd have stayed with XP.

Jarori Bloodletter · November 11, 2009, 7:18 pm

Also running Win7 Premuim home 64, no issues except alt tabbing out from WoW its OMGIAMRETARDEDCAUSEALOTISTWOWORDS slower than with vista 64 for some reason.

valryte · Post by **valryte** » November 11, 2009, 9:31 pm

Also running Win7 Premuim home 64, no issues except alt tabbing out from WoW its OMGIAMRETARDEDCAUSEALOTISTWOWORDS slower than with vista 64 for some reason.

Alt tabbing? 4 words. Windowed Mode + Second Monitor

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 12, 2009, 12:19 am

Even with two 24" monitors I Alt-Tab all the time. But I'm on XP so no worries.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 12, 2009, 2:03 am

I always window my games now. Never full screen if I can help it.

Sargeras · Post by **Sargeras** » November 12, 2009, 3:50 pm

The downside to running games in Windowed Mode is that your computer has to redraw the game and your desktop (and anything that's on it). I notice that I lose about 10-25fps when I play games in Windowed Mode.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » November 12, 2009, 4:17 pm

valryte wrote:stupid "calculation" that takes forever. Most of the time it takes longer than actually copying the files.

The single most annoying thing in Windows 7 by far. Luckily if you use Directory Opus, you don't have that problem anymore..

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 12, 2009, 7:01 pm

Sargeras wrote:The downside to running games in Windowed Mode is that your computer has to redraw the game and your desktop (and anything that's on it). I notice that I lose about 10-25fps when I play games in Windowed Mode.

I suppose my PC is fast enough to not worry about that! I even window the games on the non primary monitor which usually gives another hit to performance. Brute force it with i7, 285, SSD!

valryte · Post by **valryte** » November 13, 2009, 1:30 pm

The downside to running games in Windowed Mode is that your computer has to redraw the game and your desktop (and anything that's on it). I notice that I lose about 10-25fps when I play games in Windowed Mode.

My gawd, what 90s computer are you running that you actually notice an FPS lose when playing in windowed mode?

Looks like XFX is going to replace my video card. Bad news is, I have to ship it. Sigh, going to have to get a temporary replacement. Oh well, guess the temp replacement will let me know if it's the card or not.

valryte · Post by **valryte** » November 16, 2009, 6:44 pm

I may have fixed my problem. I won't go into details yet because I just made the change one day before going out of town, but as soon as I get back I'll stress test the hell out of it and report my results, but yesterday looked very promising.

Jarori Bloodletter · November 17, 2009, 6:21 pm

Winnow wrote:I always window my games now. Never full screen if I can help it.

I never had before windowed any game, but after trying it (and useing keyclone) im happy 3 boxing WoW again.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » November 20, 2009, 2:25 pm

Canelek wrote:I installed 64-bit Home Premium or whatever last week. I like it, but still have one issue...

Basically, I lose my internet connection frequently. I resolve the problem by turning off IPv4, turning on IPv6, saving....THEN turning on IPv4 and turning off IPv6. This is my only workaround at this point. It is very annoying.

I have turned off all power management features, including those set from the nVidia control panel. Sometimes it even boots up without internet connectivity and I have to go through the turning off and on of IP protocols all over again.

NIC is built in to EVGA 790i ULTRA mobo... drivers are all updated per EVGA.

Anyone else having this problem?

So, this problem only happens when Windows starts. Once I mess with the IP v4/v6 switching, it is fine until I reboot. It does not drop until then. I still can't figure out why the protocol (v4) will not initialize properly at startup.

valryte · Post by **valryte** » November 22, 2009, 6:16 am

OK, looks like it's official. It's been about 3 days and the video driver restart has not happened once (normally it happens many times every day). It was the fucking jmicron drivers! I had my XP drives connected on the jmicron sata controller and the drivers are apparently shit on Windows 7. Running only with the Intel controller now. As soon as I disabled it and removed their crap the issue stopped happening. Guess I'll let XFX know for future reference.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 22, 2009, 2:47 pm

valryte wrote:OK, looks like it's official. It's been about 3 days and the video driver restart has not happened once (normally it happens many times every day). It was the fucking jmicron drivers! I had my XP drives connected on the jmicron sata controller and the drivers are apparently shit on Windows 7. Running only with the Intel controller now. As soon as I disabled it and removed their crap the issue stopped happening. Guess I'll let XFX know for future reference.

jmicron controllers have caused me all sorts of grief over the years. No matter what the platform...windows XP, Vista, linux, etc. Fuck jmicron...right in the ass!

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » November 23, 2009, 1:55 pm

Canelek wrote:
Canelek wrote:I installed 64-bit Home Premium or whatever last week. I like it, but still have one issue...

Basically, I lose my internet connection frequently. I resolve the problem by turning off IPv4, turning on IPv6, saving....THEN turning on IPv4 and turning off IPv6. This is my only workaround at this point. It is very annoying.

I have turned off all power management features, including those set from the nVidia control panel. Sometimes it even boots up without internet connectivity and I have to go through the turning off and on of IP protocols all over again.

NIC is built in to EVGA 790i ULTRA mobo... drivers are all updated per EVGA.

Anyone else having this problem?

So, this problem only happens when Windows starts. Once I mess with the IP v4/v6 switching, it is fine until I reboot. It does not drop until then. I still can't figure out why the protocol (v4) will not initialize properly at startup.

Yay! Finally fixed! Dontcha know, it was fucking Apple that was causing issue. Bonjour, to be precise.

This is the service:
##Id_String2.6844F930_1628_4223_B5CC_5BB94B879762##

Disabled it and all is well. Fuck you Apple! (not you, iPhone, I

you)

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » November 23, 2009, 1:59 pm

Canelek wrote:Disabled it and all is well. Fuck you Apple! (not you, iPhone, I you)

You can't have it both ways!

valryte · Post by **valryte** » November 25, 2009, 1:17 am

I swear, I have not even installed iTunes on my Windows 7 box (my music is so outdated). I is scared of Apple bloatware.

miir · Post by **miir** » November 25, 2009, 11:17 am

valryte wrote:I swear, I have not even installed iTunes on my Windows 7 box (my music is so outdated). I is scared of Apple bloatware.

It's actually pretty easy to strip the bloat after you install itunes. I've done it so many times I could do it wiht my eyes closed.

The only problem is that the morons at Apple can't seem to grasp the concept of patching thier shitware. When there's an update, it uninstalls and reinstalls the entire fucking program... so all the shit/bloat that you have removed/disabled (qttask, bonjour service, ituneshelper, apple mobile device support service, software updater, etc) has to be removed and/or disabled every fucking time they release an update.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 25, 2009, 12:14 pm

Hate iTunes as a music manager but must use it for the ease of use in podcast and iphone app management.

iTunes hasn't caused any issues with my Windows 7 64 install. I have the french bonjour service installed as well due to some ophone apps using it to transfer documents (comics, pdfs, etc)

Even with my new iMac, I use my PC for iTunes. I have no idea if it would help to use the iMac instead and get iTunes off my main PC...probably more of a hassle with moving/installing cracked apps etc. PC is so much easier to use than the Mac (yes you fucking Mac sheep, the PC is easier and more efficient than a Mac if you have a clue)

valryte · Post by **valryte** » November 25, 2009, 3:03 pm

It's actually pretty easy to strip the bloat after you install itunes. I've done it so many times I could do it wiht my eyes closed.

Sorry, but I'm talking about iTunes itself. It's gotten worse over time.

I've been using MGTEK dopisp (yeah, stupid name), on an XP box with Windows Media Player 11 and so far it's been great for managing the music on my wife's ipod. FYI, WMP 12 sucks ass as Microsoft decided to get rid of all the advanced tag editing that it had built in, but XP uses WMP 11. There's a post floating around that shows you how to get WMP 11 on Windows 7, but I haven't done it yet.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 25, 2009, 3:24 pm

valryte wrote:
It's actually pretty easy to strip the bloat after you install itunes. I've done it so many times I could do it wiht my eyes closed.
Sorry, but I'm talking about iTunes itself. It's gotten worse over time.

I've been using MGTEK dopisp (yeah, stupid name), on an XP box with Windows Media Player 11 and so far it's been great for managing the music on my wife's ipod. FYI, WMP 12 sucks ass as Microsoft decided to get rid of all the advanced tag editing that it had built in, but XP uses WMP 11. There's a post floating around that shows you how to get WMP 11 on Windows 7, but I haven't done it yet.

you could try this:

http://www.rlslog.net/mediafour-xplay-v ... aker-core/

or maybe this:

http://www.rlslog.net/wide-angle-softwa ... v9-35-lz0/

valryte · Post by **valryte** » November 28, 2009, 12:11 am

After reading some old posts and searching around, I finally gave Media Monkey a try. Best music media manager I've tried. The shit just works.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 28, 2009, 12:20 am

valryte wrote:After reading some old posts and searching around, I finally gave Media Monkey a try. Best music media manager I've tried. The shit just works.

You're welcome!

Post by **Sylvus** » January 4, 2010, 5:58 pm

Let's just say, hypothetically, that one were interested in checking out Windows 7 for him- or herself, but that it didn't fit in their budget right now. Would anyone else be able to point that hypothetical person in the right direction of what to SuperSearch for? This hypothetical person might have been burned by OS releases that had viruses or bad licenses in the past, and would greatly and hypothetically appreciate a solid, working copy (with as many bells and whistles as possible).

Please feel free to PM a hypothetical person with hypothetical search terms.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » January 5, 2010, 5:20 am

you'd probably look for something like this for 64 bit:

http://www.rlslog.net/microsoft-windows ... m-dvd-bie/

or this for 32 bit:

http://www.rlslog.net/microsoft-windows ... m-dvd-bie/

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » March 24, 2010, 3:50 am

Sylvus wrote:Let's just say, hypothetically, that one were interested in checking out Windows 7 for him- or herself, but that it didn't fit in their budget right now. Would anyone else be able to point that hypothetical person in the right direction of what to SuperSearch for? This hypothetical person might have been burned by OS releases that had viruses or bad licenses in the past, and would greatly and hypothetically appreciate a solid, working copy (with as many bells and whistles as possible).

Please feel free to PM a hypothetical person with hypothetical search terms.

How did your hypothetical search pan out in the end?

Post by **Sylvus** » March 24, 2010, 11:49 am

Ended up contacting a friend who works for Microsoft and being able to buy W7 Ultimate for like $50, so I went that route. I'm in the clear!

miir · Post by **miir** » March 24, 2010, 12:16 pm

If you know a student, you can get windows7 for like $30-$40

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » March 24, 2010, 12:17 pm

miir wrote:If you know a student, you can get windows7 for like $30-$40

Too bad my ex graduated from the University of Texas already...oh, and guess the fact she moved away and got married might make that one difficult too, huh?

miir · Post by **miir** » March 24, 2010, 12:18 pm

Boogahz wrote:
miir wrote:If you know a student, you can get windows7 for like $30-$40

Too bad my ex graduated from the University of Texas already...oh, and guess the fact she moved away and got married might make that one difficult too, huh?

You'll never know unless you try...

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » March 24, 2010, 3:29 pm

They'd probably have less piracy, and make more money, if they made one version and priced it reasonable like $99 or something.

Post by **Sylvus** » March 24, 2010, 4:07 pm

Aslanna wrote:They'd probably have less piracy, and make more money, if they made one version and priced it reasonable like $99 or something.

I would have bought it in a heartbeat at $99. The $300ish pricetag for Ultimate (what can I say, I want all the bells and whistles, even if I don't need them) led me to consider piracy. I don't know if it's just me, but I think any piece of software over $100 is just too much for me to pay, personally. Adobe should do the same thing with their suite.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » March 24, 2010, 4:16 pm

I could go with the Home Premium upgrade fairly cheap, but I am thinking that I want to go ahead and go with the 64-bit Ultimate version. The price is a definite factor, plus I am currently happy with my installs of Vista.

miir · Post by **miir** » March 24, 2010, 4:18 pm

They had a number of versions at price points between 100-200 on release.

There's no fucking reason whatsoever to spend the extra $$ on Ulitmate unless you absolutely need MUI support, UNIX app support and drive encryption. Home Premium is probably the best version for you, and that was only $120 at release.

So you really have no reason to not run a legit copy of windows.

miir · Post by **miir** » March 24, 2010, 4:22 pm

Boogahz wrote:I could go with the Home Premium upgrade fairly cheap, but I am thinking that I want to go ahead and go with the 64-bit Ultimate version. The price is a definite factor, plus I am currently happy with my installs of Vista.

Dude, there really is no reason to get Ultimate. Look at the feature set and you'll see that it's a total fucking ripoff.
The 'upgrade' versions can be used to do a fresh install.

Post by **Sylvus** » March 24, 2010, 4:28 pm

miir wrote:So you really have no reason to not run a legit copy of windows.

But I am running a legit copy of Windows! I still think it's overpriced. $99 is the sweet spot. Fortunately I knew someone that allowed me to get it for $50.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » March 24, 2010, 4:46 pm

miir wrote:They had a number of versions at price points between 100-200 on release.

How is that helpful after release? As in... The present? Not very.

miir wrote:There's no fucking reason whatsoever to spend the extra $$ on Ulitmate unless you absolutely need MUI support, UNIX app support and drive encryption. Home Premium is probably the best version for you, and that was only $120 at release.

I'd require at least Professional due to their stupidity with Remote Desktop host ability. This can currently be had for $140 or something at Newegg.. Which isn't too bad but it's for the OEM version which has hassles of its own if you upgrade components and have to call them up to reactivate.

miir wrote:So you really have no reason to not run a legit copy of windows.

I do.. It costs too much. Not saying it's a good reason or not but it's a reason.

Anyway, I stand by my original point. More people would probably be inclined to purchase it if they didn't have so many versions and it was more reasonably priced.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » March 24, 2010, 4:46 pm

I have a friend at Microsoft as well with the MS discount which is quite substantial as noted above. If I ever went legit, I'd go that route. Microsoft Employees have a certain amount per year that they can use on discounted software which is always much more than they need themselves.

I need remote desktop. That doesn't mean I need Ultimate but it also doesn't mean I want to wade through the differences of the lessor versions and find out later there's some small thing I wanted to use that wasn't part of the "package".

Ultimate at 100.00 would be a nice buy for the masses.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » March 24, 2010, 4:52 pm

miir wrote:
Boogahz wrote:I could go with the Home Premium upgrade fairly cheap, but I am thinking that I want to go ahead and go with the 64-bit Ultimate version. The price is a definite factor, plus I am currently happy with my installs of Vista.
Dude, there really is no reason to get Ultimate. Look at the feature set and you'll see that it's a total fucking ripoff.
The 'upgrade' versions can be used to do a fresh install.

Home Premium is good enough for me. Ultimate 64-bit would be a "if it fell in my lap" purchase. I am not holding out for either because I am happy with my Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate machines

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » March 24, 2010, 5:01 pm

Aslanna wrote:They'd probably have less piracy, and make more money, if they made one version and priced it reasonable like $99 or something.

Totally agree. Even if they had multiple versions that were priced reasonably.

That being said I got Ultimate, but it wasn't much money to upgrade to it through Dell so I figured why not.

miir · Post by **miir** » March 24, 2010, 5:05 pm

Aslanna wrote: I do.. It costs too much.

10¢ a day for an operating system that you'll be using daily for the next 3-4 years is too much?

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » March 24, 2010, 5:20 pm

miir wrote:
Aslanna wrote: I do.. It costs too much.
10¢ a day for an operating system that you'll be using daily for the next 3-4 years is too much?

Yes. Because you can't look t it that way. Perhaps if MS did microtransactions and charged you 10 cents a day you could. But you have to look at the initial upfront total cost. Whatever I know you dont agree with me even though three people have. Therefore the statistics are in my favor and you're WRONG! Moving on.

miir · Post by **miir** » March 24, 2010, 5:24 pm

You're not seeing the big picture!

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » March 24, 2010, 8:28 pm

If you bought it on the cheapo pre-orders it was a decent price. Retail is just stupid, I'd stay with XP until something forced me off had I not gotten it for $40.