Windows 7

Windows 7 RTM Installed via upgrade

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Windows7RTMWallpaper

Microsoft released the final RTM version of Windows 7 to partners via MSDN last week.  I have four computers, and I just finished upgrading all of them to RTM.  Microsoft recommends a clean install from the test version, but that is a LOT of work and I decided I would risk it and do the unsupported upgrade.  I've had a great experience with Windows 7 and I would recommend upgrading to at as soon as you can.  My experience, and benchmarks that I've seen, seem to indicate that it is even faster that Windows XP.  I have had very few issues and have been off of Vista and XP since the day the first Beta version of Windows 7 was available.

After finishing the last machine tonight, I wrote these notes up for a few people at Gold Systems who are also early adopters.  Remember, Microsoft recommends a clean install, and I recommend backing up your systems in case anything goes wrong.

I decided to upgrade all my computers to Windows 7 RTM, rather than do a clean install.  I found this website telling how to do it, and it really was easy.  Basically,

1.    Copy the DVD to your hard drive

2.    Edit an ini file to set the minimum version required to upgrade.  The file is 3 lines long and you just change a number

3.    Run setup from the hard drive

Here’s the link:

http://www.7tutorials.com/how-upgrade-your-windows-7-test-version-final-release

It seems to be working just fine, but here are the gotchas.

Because of patch Tuesday I think, my machines needed a reboot before I could install RTM.  The installer doesn’t check that until 5 or 10 minutes in, so you should start with a  reboot of your machines to make sure your patches are installed before starting the install.

RTM won’t install with McAffe virus software (my version)  installed, so uninstall it and reboot before starting.

On one machine I had an old SoundBlaster card that was listed as incompatible, but I went ahead with the install, and Windows update was able to find a good driver after the install was done, and it seems to be working now.

Once the installation gets going, you don’t have to do anything so you can just let it run.  I think it took 2 or 3 hours per machine.

The background wallpaper is new, and the stock tracker gadget has disappeared which is strange.  Other than that, I don’t see any difference.  Oops, I just noticed my printers on my laptop are gone.  And my homegroup is gone, which I’ve found to be useful, but it will be easy to set that back up.  Outlook, Communicator, etc. all seem to be working fine.

I hope this helps and saves you a few false starts.  Ned and Steve – THANK YOU for being so tolerant of me insisting on being on the bleeding edge!  J

Terry

P.S. – one of the computers is the FJ Car Computer, a strange piece of equipment if there ever was one.  The initial install and upgrade of Windows 7 worked flawlessly.   

Windows 7 RC first thoughts . . .

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I've got Windows 7 RC (Release candidate 1) running on my production laptop at work now.  No guts, no glory.  Actually it was an easy decision to do the upgrade as soon as RC was available because my experience with the beta version of Windows 7 has been so good.  I'm running Windows 7 on all but on of my computers now, and that includes the FJ Car Computer, and yes it runs Office Communicator just fine.  I've even done a video conference from the FJ.  (Safely parked, I promise!  And I don't have RC on the FJ yet.)

Windows7intheFJ 

Here's what I especially like in Windows 7

  • It's fast.  It boots very quickly and resumes from suspend within two or three seconds.  Lately I've noticed a lot of laptop users that always shutdown their machines completely.  I had problems in XP, and some in Vista with putting machines to sleep, but I haven't had that problem once with Windows 7.
  • I like the new look.  It isn't radically different, though the RC candidate release has a nice new login screen.
  • I LOVE the fact that when I open my laptop at home, it realizes I'm on a new network and gives me a new default printer which is actually at home.  With XP and Vista I was always trying to send things to the wrong printer.  Setup is as easy as telling it a default printer for each different network you really care about.
  • I LOVE being able to "peek" at running apps on the task bar.  Internet Explorer makes the best use of it, but other apps will pick up the ability in time.  Now when I have five windows or tabs (doesn't matter) open in IE, I can very quickly jump to the one I care about without cycling through all the others.  Outlook uses it effectively too.  You have to see it and play with it a bit to get it, but once you do you will curse Vista and XP for not having it.  This alone will drive me to upgrade my last Vista machine.  Here's a video showing Aero Peek, Aero Shake and Aero Snap – turn your speakers down if you are at work or the kids are asleep.  Aero peek
  • I've always customized my task bar and start menu with the apps I use the most.  Every version of windows makes this easier, but now it is dead simple and everyone will be pinning apps they really care about to the start menu and task bar.
  • In Vista the cool little app that became a part of my everyday work flow was the snipping tool. Snipping tool   With Windows 7, it might be the magnifier tool.  Magnifier tool
  • This may have happened in Vista, but the calculator now can server as a programmer's calculator.  I didn't care before, but now I do and I have no idea where my TI is anymore, though I'm sure I still have it.

Bottom line – It looks like Windows 7 is going to be a great upgrade.  I'll probably upgrade my last Vista machine soon, and then I'll buy my next new machine when I can get Windows 7 from the factory.  I realize this post is mostly about changes to the UI and apps, but I believe the real change is under the skins.  Windows 7 feels more stable and much faster.

Here's what I don't like, and all of these gripes have been around since even before XP.

  • Why is it that I can be working in a window, say typing happily along in a document, and then some other application can pop a window up and take the focus and thus my keystrokes until I notice that my window has been hijacked??  It always happens at the worst time too, like just as I'm about to type "yes, that would be a good idea" in an email, another application pops up and asks if I really want to cancel the download that has been chugging along for 20 minutes.  I hate it when that happens.  Many years ago I turned in a bug report as a beta tester of either Windows for Workgroups or Chicago about this behavior, but apparently I'm the only one who thinks this is a bug.  Do Apples do this too??
  • Have you ever noticed that when an error message does pop up, that you often can't copy and paste the error message into a document or email?  Why should I have to copy a message one character at a time into an email.  I often use the snipping tool to capture the error, but I can't always get to it.Error capture  By the way, I caused the error with the code I wrote, so I'm not complaining about the error, just that I didn't have an easy way to save the message.
  • Finally, why can't I sync notes back to Exchange Server just like I do email, calendar, contacts and tasks?  OK, that's not even a Windows problem but it still bugs me.

Win 7 to Win 7 via Live Mesh to Windows Home Server

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This just blows my mind, or maybe I’m just sleep deprived.

whs in fj win 7

It was cold in the garage, so I came inside and used my desktop machine which is now running Windows 7, to open up a Live Mesh remote desktop connection to the FJ Cruiser sitting in the garage.  (The computer is powered up but the FJ is dark.)  While checking out the Windows 7 install on the FJ Cruiser Car Computer, I opened up the Windows Home Server Console to make sure the FJ will get automatically backed up tonight. In the snip above I’m interacting with three different computers – 2 in my office, and one in the garage. 

I used the snipping tool to grab the screen capture and saved it as a jpg in a folder that is sync’d between all my machines via Live Mesh.  A moment later the jpg was sitting on my main desktop that is running Vista, and was ready to be popped into this post. 

OK, I need sleep.