Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Soo, anyone considering upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7.....do it! :laugh:

Seriously, this was probably the smartest move I could've made with my laptop. The difference is amazing. My laptop was slow as heck before even at base factory install of Vista, and now it's blazing fast, it solved virtually every computer problem I've had so far. :)

If I can afford it I will switch, I so hate Vista,  It runs junk in the background.

I checked out Windows 7 (it's pre-installed on my mom's new laptop) and it seems pretty cool. I may  convert my laptop over to it from Vista but I got a few other things to take care of first.

Micro$oft in it's infinite wisdom does not make a migration path for XP->W7.  Only for vi$ta->W7.

I ran vista for about 30 seconds and retrofitted xp on my machine and have been running that way ever since.  Going to W7 will be a tedious task for me, I fear.

I would have run linux exclusively except my work-from-home software only supports windoze.

-Sandy

MS finally designed an OS almost as elegant as OSX, 10 years later...  I'm very much in love with it.

I'm not sure what 'migration path' is Sandy, but I upgraded from XP to W7 without a single problem.  I know people say you should reformat and start over, but I just put in the disc and let it do it's thing, and it works great- zero problems, and it even backed up all the programs and files it thought I would want, and guessed right pretty much.. and I can run most of the programs out of the windows.old folder.

Quote from: Jen on February 17, 2010, 11:31:49 AM
MS finally designed an OS almost as elegant as OSX, 10 years later...  I'm very much in love with it.

I'm not sure what 'migration path' is Sandy, but I upgraded from XP to W7 without a single problem.  I know people say you should reformat and start over, but I just put in the disc and let it do it's thing, and it works great- zero problems, and it even backed up all the programs and files it thought I would want, and guessed right pretty much.. and I can run most of the programs out of the windows.old folder.

I had heard that MS finally figured it out, but I had heard initially that W7 wanted a clean install if you were running XP so I just stopped listening.  If there is a way to drop it in and go, then I'll check it out again.

Migration means, to me, that settings of file folders, properties, registry values and program environments are migrated to the new OS. 

I tweak and twiddle a lot.

-Sandy

I recommend that upgrades are only done in the same family of OS. for instance, 95/98/me is all one family and could be upgraded with minimal problems. then there is XP/2k and now vista/7. you may be able to upgrade and migrate most of your programs from windows XP to windows 7 but I imagine it would be a major headache especially since windows vista/7 doesn't use the registry the same way, has a new home directory structure and in the case of 64bit uses a different program files folder and envorinment for 32 bit apps. you would wind up with some hybrid of windows XP's registry settings and folder structure on top of windows 7 new folder structure.
besides, many apps that ran on XP need a new version to run n windows 7 so I say use this as a chance for a fresh start (as far as the OS is concerned).

my 2 cents.

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Post Merge: February 17, 2010, 11:47:44 AM

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oh, and it's funny what microsoft can accomplish in the public's image with a simple service pack and cosmetic makeover.

Lol, well I don' t know about all that Sandy,  all I know is I put in the disc, and 30 mins later I had a new pretty OS and to my surprise the programs were still there, many of them working.  Some don't, but I didn't really expect anything to, since W7 is so majorly different from XP.

I did it "the bad way" and have had no headaches whatsoever.  I went from 32 bit to 32 bit, maybe that is why?

PS the difference from XP is more than cosmetic, Beth.  There are many changes that make using the OS easier for me.  Though as a designer I very much appreciate the cosmetic changes as well.  Beauty has value imo.

While I agree that it is, at last, a fairly competent job, I don't think I'll be ditching my OsX and Linux systems just yet.

One thing which didn't impress was when I upgraded a friends machine from Vista for him, to be confronted by the famous blank screen on startup bug that W7 originally shipped with! Fortunately I managed to fix the issue, but it wasn't a promising start. Though in fairness the machine in question has been rock solid ever since.

OsX I like because it is relatively reliable secure and pain free for when i'm feeling lazy, and Linux I like because I can roll up my sleeves and rewrite bits of it! W7 falls in between the two.

I'm no windows hater... and as someone with IT origins I'm perfectly competant in all the versions. I've just never felt the appeal so I've mostly used linux and various macos derivatives since 1994...

Quote from: Jen on February 17, 2010, 11:54:24 AM

PS the difference from XP is more than cosmetic, Beth.  There are many changes that make using the OS easier for me.  Though as a designer I very much appreciate the cosmetic changes as well.  Beauty has value imo.

oh, for sure. from XP to vista/win7 is drastic. I was referring to windows vista => windows 7. I find it funny that an OS that everyone hated can be praised by everyone with just a service pack and new taskbar. :)  (for the record, I like vista and windows 7 and both run fine on my machines)

Oh okay :).  I can't comment on Vista because I never hung that albatross around my neck :P.

the biggest problem (with a xp to win7 upgrade) is vista/win7 has enough kernel changes (from win server 2007) to break apps and services.

granted it's lazy on microsoft's part to not offer an in place path for xp users (just clean install) but since they are getting sick of the security bugs in xp, I suppose it was oversight to not do the highly difficult task of making a registry parsing tool so the xp users have an excuse to upgrade. :P

Quote from: Jen on February 17, 2010, 12:29:32 PM
Oh okay :).  I can't comment on Vista because I never hung that albatross around my neck :P.

I wear mine with pride. :P

Like Sandy, I also ran Vista for a very short while then bought an XP disc.

My wife uses Win7. It's a nice system. But having used XP for so long, I'm use to being able to search for specific things for example, which W7 seems to have a problem with. Also, finding folders can be a bit of a drag. I recall, when I upgraded from W98 to XP, these functions were drastically cut back. Not really sure what Microsoft is thinking about.

I'm sure W7 is a good OS. But XP is doing the job. I can't really see any reasons to upgrade. W7 doesn't seem to do anything more.

I just checked the M$ site again and the only way to go (not upgrade) to W7 from XP is through a clean install.

I ran the upgrade advisor and it said I had the proper hardware but it would be a custom/clean install.

Their so-called "easy" transfer method copies some files and the user accounts and settings to an external hard drive which can then be re-installed on the W7 side.

But, all programs must be re-installed from their original installation CD's or setup files. Their optimistic installation advice is that it could take as much as a couple of hours to go through the installation process.  How about DAYS instead of hours.

Honestly, I went through less hassle changing my gender!

I'll wait until I buy a new machine (not soon) and it will have W7 already installed on it and I'll bite the bullet then.

-Sandy(yuck!)

We bought two new laptops in the last two years.
Both came with Vista.
Vista was EXHAUSTING!
We even "obtained" a copy of xp to install instead when they crashed.

then 7 came out.. and we went.. "okay, lets try that, it seems like ppl are saying it's a step up"...

And I think this is my favorite windows so far.

Sandy I feel confused now.  When I upgraded, it copied all of those files onto the same harddrive for me, I know this because I subsequently decided to xfer them to a different drive to create space on my C:.  80-90% of the programs it retained work just fine and I def didn't have to reinstall most of them.  The only drivers I had to redo were the sound and video cards- everything else ...just ...worked.  Okay besides CS4, but what were the chances of that working?

Literally, my upgrade took 30 minutes, not counting reinstalling CS4.

Maybe my machine was more compatible for some reason?

Having built many systems over the years and done many hardware upgrades, the thing that bothered me almost as much as reloading all the programs when doing a clean install is the limits many programs, MS especially, have on how many times the program can be loaded.  Some of the programs I have are as old as 2002, MS Office for instance.  And I'm tired of calling them and getting the run around until I finally convince them I'm just upgrading my hardware.

Is there a way you can save the data that makes your programs "registered" without having to call the places that have loading limits?

Something I just learned...  I'm doing a new hardware upgrade cuz some of the old stuff failed.  I found out you have to reload Windows to make sure all the new stuff works.  One person at EVGA recommended deleting the Windows directory from the command prompt and then reloading Windows.  In the past I just changed out the hardware and booted it back up no problem.  Guess you can't do that now.

BTW, would that method qualify as a clean install when upgrading to Win7?

Quote from: Julie Marie on February 17, 2010, 02:21:48 PM
Something I just learned...  I'm doing a new hardware upgrade cuz some of the old stuff failed.  I found out you have to reload Windows to make sure all the new stuff works.  One person at EVGA recommended deleting the Windows directory from the command prompt and then reloading Windows.  In the past I just changed out the hardware and booted it back up no problem.  Guess you can't do that now.

Windows activation had hardware upgrading in mind where you can swap out 3 components before it will require reactivating.

I dumped MS Office when I moved to XP. It was slow, cumbersum and bulky.

I've used Open office ever since. It seems to do everything MS Office does but without the hassle.

And, it's free.

If you can, you should really try it out. Best place to download is direct from Sun Microsystems.

I'm pretty sure you can run both together while you get use to it.

Coming from a long history of Linux use, I'd have to say that I'm quite impressed with Windows 7. They took most of the desktop ideas KDE/Compiz have been using for years and made them work quite nicely. And they took a few ideas from Mac with the same results. In fact it's so nice, I decided to duel boot my new laptop between 7 and Ubuntu. That's a big step for me... Usually I just get rid of it all together!

Nice to see so many Linux users here... I wonder if we've maybe met before on another forum? ha ha ha!! That'd be too weird!!

~Jasmine :icon_chick:

Quote from: Jasmine.m on February 17, 2010, 03:59:49 PM

Nice to see so many Linux users here... I wonder if we've maybe met before on another forum? ha ha ha!! That'd be too weird!!

~Jasmine :icon_chick:

Linuxchix.org?

-Sandy

/me hangs up the windows flag to see the reaction from the linux nutters
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.allstates-flag.com%2Fimages%2Fcustom%2Fcustom_flags%2Fthumbs%2Fwindows_app.jpg&hash=2612dbb3363e4c0d79c3eaba65f9a57b134f93dc)
:P

Quote from: Jen on February 17, 2010, 01:45:36 PM
Sandy I feel confused now.  When I upgraded, it copied all of those files onto the same harddrive for me, I know this because I subsequently decided to xfer them to a different drive to create space on my C:.  80-90% of the programs it retained work just fine and I def didn't have to reinstall most of them.  The only drivers I had to redo were the sound and video cards- everything else ...just ...worked.  Okay besides CS4, but what were the chances of that working?

Literally, my upgrade took 30 minutes, not counting reinstalling CS4.

Maybe my machine was more compatible for some reason?

Any number of things could be different between your configuration and mine (probably a lot since I tinker).

All I know is that I downloaded MS's advisor and it referred me to the MS site that said I was pretty much screwed.

Not that I wouldn't take that on as a challenge, mind you.   ;D

But it just what the micro-stuff reported.

-Sandy

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Post Merge: February 17, 2010, 04:33:23 PM

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Quote from: FlanHusky on February 17, 2010, 04:26:55 PM
/me hangs up the windows flag to see the reaction from the linux nutters
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.allstates-flag.com%2Fimages%2Fcustom%2Fcustom_flags%2Fthumbs%2Fwindows_app.jpg&hash=2612dbb3363e4c0d79c3eaba65f9a57b134f93dc)
:P

You realize that to some, that is like waving a red cape in front of a bull...

Now before we turn this into a "My OS is better than your OS", remember to play nice like good little boys and girls.  And also the original poster (F/R) was just commenting on the wonderfullness of W7!

-Sandy

I wants me a Mac  :P

Personally whenever I upgrade I usually do a major time backup to an external HDD, and then wipe the slate and start fresh since I don't trust upgrades (know some people with some bad results of that), then I go on a reinstalling spree of all my programming. What was weird was that when I went to Win 7, it gave me the clean install upgrade option, which I expected it to just format my HDD and restart, which it didn't, it migrated all the old windows to a windows.old directory and installed this one. I would've used XP on my laptop instead cause I tried to install it clean before, but I think my laptop was rigged against it (don't buy Gateways; they suck ><). Since XP didn't have SATA recognition in it's setup without your BIOS allowing you to go into legacy IDE mode, it would not detect my hard drive. And my bios was designed to not allow you to go to legacy. So in order to install XP I had to use a splicing program to modify the XP setup CD with a SATA driver built in, and it eventually worked. But then my graphics adapter (ATI Radeon Mobility HD2600) did not have proper win XP drivers available for it. So in the end I had to give up and go back to Vista T_T. But now Windows 7 came out and it's been working absolutely perfect for me so far.

Quote from: Virginia Marie on February 17, 2010, 04:44:05 PM
I wants me a Mac  :P

Me too!  I'm so sick of wires and clutter.  The new iMacs look lovely.

I had Vista for like a week on my T400 and have rid my laptop of it! It wouldn't connect to our router and I remembered my sisters Vista experience. We had to zero out the drive two or three times and for some reason the defragmentation GUI was plain ridiculous. I mean instead of a graph to show you how much percentage you have left we get- "This may take a day or two... you can wait can't you???" I've since installed and dual boot XP Pro and Karmic on it now. A pretty good combination since I need MS for some school programs.

I do have the W7 7100 build on another machine I have... with Karmic again. It's working out nice so far. I like snazzy but I also like my machine to just get my work done without a GUI that wants to put a show on for me :)

Quote from: Jen on February 17, 2010, 07:05:47 PM

Quote from: Virginia Marie on February 17, 2010, 04:44:05 PM
I wants me a Mac  :P

Me too!  I'm so sick of wires and clutter.  The new iMacs look lovely.

I love my new macbook pro :)
/me pops collar

I want one of the new imacs too, but I just can't justify the purchase right now with so many other expenses. (read:new macbook pro, lol)

Quote from: Mia B on February 17, 2010, 07:38:48 PM
We had to zero out the drive two or three times and for some reason the defragmentation GUI was plain ridiculous. I mean instead of a graph to show you how much percentage you have left we get- "This may take a day or two... you can wait can't you???"

1. people still defrag? it really isn't necessary anymore like in the windows 9x days in fact it's thought to be detrimental to your overall drive health.
2. I suspect that was lenovo's reimage disk since that sounds noting like a windows defrag utility and they wouldn't allow you zero out your system volumes.

Quote from: beth~chella on February 17, 2010, 08:30:44 PM

1. people still defrag? it really isn't necessary anymore like in the windows 9x days in fact it's thought to be detrimental to your overall drive health.
2. I suspect that was lenovo's reimage disk since that sounds noting like a windows defrag utility and they wouldn't allow you zero out your system volumes.

The zeroing out is using Killdisk to overwrite all data in the HDD in zeros. It's just a habit I do before reinstalling an OS especially if reinstalling from an Recovery Disk. I have heard something about defragmenting being a thing of the past but I've noticed that a HDD that haven't been scandisked, cleaned and defragged eventually will run slower. It's totally a MS thing for sure! Which is why I also use a Unix-type OS also :)

we got a new computer & it's got windows 7.  dunno what most of the junk in the background is for yet  :D :D :D but yep its cool.

(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi990.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faf30%2Fdadancindude%2Fsusansorg.png&hash=045728557bedb1bcda8a1d35b4a135a123dfa8e4)


I like firefox better though  :D :D :D

Quote from: findingreason on February 17, 2010, 05:37:09 PM
Since XP didn't have SATA recognition in it's setup without your BIOS allowing you to go into legacy IDE mode, it would not detect my hard drive. And my bios was designed to not allow you to go to legacy. So in order to install XP I had to use a splicing program to modify the XP setup CD with a SATA driver built in, and it eventually worked.

That was my experience also.  When I attempted to boot my XP partition on my new SATA machine, it BSOD'd.  I persisted and eventually got everything to work.

Ah well, I may approach the issue again later, but I am in no real hurry.  If the issue is forced I'll switch to my beloved linux and run windoze in a VM partition as an application.  There is some justice in that...

-Sandy

I gave Linux a real good go.

I tried several different versions. I spent ages on each.

But my own experience is that it is so specific to certain cards and motherboards that it was not worth the effort.

Asking various Linux forums I was left feeling like I had a bad smell. (I do since I smell like a male, but they didn't know that). :D

I installed and played with Windows 7 on a class machine a while ago, and I can't really say I'm a big fan. It wasn't slow or anything, but they just seem to keep taking their OS in a direction completely opposite to what I like and want (demand!  :laugh:) in an OS.

Quote from: Sandy on February 17, 2010, 11:02:31 AM
I would have run linux exclusively except my work-from-home software only supports windoze.

Have you considered using a VM? Edit : Never mind... That'll teach me to walk off mid-post ;)

I needed a Windows box around for class (Same reasons - not all apps have Linux ports or decent alternatives) so I just installed XP to a VM. I've found it to be a fantastic solution.

I know that VMware works fine under LFS, should be fine if you're using a major distro. I think they do nice little packages for those, too.

Quote from: findingreason on February 17, 2010, 05:37:09 PM
Since XP didn't have SATA recognition in it's setup without your BIOS allowing you to go into legacy IDE mode, it would not detect my hard drive.

XP lacks the chipset drivers to support SATA drives, you have to integrate them beforehand using nLite.
http://www.nliteos.com/ (http://www.nliteos.com/)

Windows 7 is what Vista should have been.  Having said that, I recently brought myself a laptop "acer extensa 5635" to be precisely and it came with Windows 7 Pro.   I tried it and it seemed quite nice.  However, as usual, I installed the latest version of Fedora over the top of it.  Oh what a feeling when I did that.

I work in a environment where everyone uses windoze and I have to use it as well. Oh well that's life sometimes, you have to do things that you do not want to do.

Kind Regards
Sarah B

Quote from: Sandy on February 18, 2010, 05:44:15 AM
That was my experience also.  When I attempted to boot my XP partition on my new SATA machine, it BSOD'd.  I persisted and eventually got everything to work.

Ah well, I may approach the issue again later, but I am in no real hurry.  If the issue is forced I'll switch to my beloved linux and run windoze in a VM partition as an application.  There is some justice in that...

-Sandy

Maybe that's the problem I'm running into right now.  My puter has been down for almost a month.  I've replaced everything but the HDD and the graphics card and when I boot up I'm still getting the BSOD.  It's been like owning a boat, a hole in the water into which one throws money.

Maybe Win 7 is where I need to consider going?????

Quote from: Julie Marie on February 18, 2010, 12:52:06 PM
Maybe that's the problem I'm running into right now.  My puter has been down for almost a month.  I've replaced everything but the HDD and the graphics card and when I boot up I'm still getting the BSOD.  It's been like owning a boat, a hole in the water into which one throws money.

Maybe Win 7 is where I need to consider going?????

Been there, done that!

Julie, if that is the same machine that you and I worked on oh so many moons ago, it could be a bit cranky.  But I thought that all the drives were already SATA...  But my memory could be failing.

If you are using a new computer and you are trying to boot and if there are SATA drives on it and XP has not been "spliced" to handle the new drives, it will crash and burn.

SATA was developed after the XP was released and the upgrades to it have to be installed before it boots.  A kind of chicken and egg thing.

Google SATA and XP and there should be a wealth of information.  But it is real nutz and boltz things.  PM or call and maybe we can figure something out.

-Sandy

Quote from: Julie Marie on February 18, 2010, 12:52:06 PM
Maybe that's the problem I'm running into right now.  My puter has been down for almost a month.  I've replaced everything but the HDD and the graphics card and when I boot up I'm still getting the BSOD.

another bug of windows xp, if you go from a single core CPU to multi core, you have to reinstall.

Quote from: FlanHusky on February 18, 2010, 01:15:42 PM
another bug of windows xp, if you go from a single core CPU to multi core, you have to reinstall.

Yeah, but with a multi-core cpu a simple install will take care of it.  With SATA you actually have to create an NEW installation CD with the SATA drivers pre-installed.

It is a bit of a hassle.

-Sandy

Quote from: Sandy on February 18, 2010, 01:27:52 PM
Yeah, but with a multi-core cpu a simple install will take care of it.  With SATA you actually have to create an NEW installation CD with the SATA drivers pre-installed.

It is a bit of a hassle.

-Sandy

yeah, that's probably why Microsoft switched from the old NT installer to WinPE (windows preinstall enviroment) for vista and Win7, so that install would be faster overall since it's (vista and 7) based on an install image that self configures during OOBE. (out of box experience)

If I wanted to lose a good period of my life, I could boot the vista partition that came with the machine and then integrate my xp environment THEN upgrade to W7.  When I was younger I would enjoy challenges like this, now I find them tedious.

Give me Linux where I can tweak *anything!*.  It is an OS that doesn't assume you are an idiot.

-Sandy ("We are Microsoft, prepare to be assimilated")

Quote from: Sandy on February 18, 2010, 02:54:54 PM
-Sandy ("We are Microsoft, prepare to be assimilated")

(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fiml.jou.ufl.edu%2Fprojects%2Fstudents%2Fpurdy%2FGates_of_Borg.jpg&hash=842e78df53fef5e86c8105cd1d750437fb58b68a)

Quote from: Sandy on February 18, 2010, 02:54:54 PMGive me Linux where I can tweak *anything!*.  It is an OS that doesn't assume you are an idiot.

-Sandy ("We are Microsoft, prepare to be assimilated")

I don't know how many times I've said about MS programs, "Why does this program think it knows what I want to do?"

One of the things I love is the little icon Excel places next what it sees as a problem.  When you click on it it gives you options, none of which are "This is intentional" so you have to click on "Ignore this error" to make it go away.  Word does this with its squiggly underline.  The message sent is "You screwed up even though you don't believe you did.  We are Microsoft and we know best!"