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Happy Windows 7 Day

Bill Thompson

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Oct 23, 2006
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Happy Windows 7 Day Everyone!

I have been using it. I love how the superbar looks and acts. I love the feature where if you have clutter you can minimise all other windows by just shaking on the window you want.

It is not a bad OS.
 
Installed it yesterday (we got it early because of the postal strike) and there are no problems so far. Not massively different from Vista. Seems a little more responsive, but that may just be because it's a clean install.
 
I like it, so far, as well.

By biggest complaint, so far, is a superficial one: I can't stand the color schemes! There isn't enough contrast between the text and background, in many places, including the titlebars of windows. And, to make matters worse: The color of text in the title changes from black to white, depending on if the window is maximized or not.

Granted, Windows Vista had the same problem. But, Win7 takes to a new, disturbing level by making the Start menu text difficult to read, as well! (Depending on the color scheme.)

So, there is a trade off with Win7 that I did not have with Vista: Either consistently read the titlebars OR read the Start Menu. I can't do both very well, at the same time.

Other than that nonsense: Windows 7 has been fabulous! :)
 
I was able to get Windows 7 Professional a few weeks ago and install it on my laptop. (Being an IT student has it's advantages.) The only problem I had with it so far is that I bought a Bluetooth adapter and Win 7 couldn't use the Vista-based driver. Fortunately the adapter's manufacture released an updated driver and I was able to install it without any problems.

Otherwise it's been a blast!
 
Windows 7 has a new feature where you can maximize windows by dragging their titlebars to the top of the screen, and restoring them again, by dragging them downward.

Buy you know what I noticed: The "dragging down" portion doesn't work with any Microsoft Office 2007 applications that use The Ribbon.

See, let that be a lesson to those who insist on deviating from perfectly good GUI classes.
 
Wowbagger said:
Windows 7 has a new feature where you can maximize windows by dragging their titlebars to the top of the screen, and restoring them again, by dragging them downward.

Buy you know what I noticed: The "dragging down" portion doesn't work with any Microsoft Office 2007 applications that use The Ribbon.

See, let that be a lesson to those who insist on deviating from perfectly good GUI classes.
Click to expand...

Strange. I am running Windows 7 RC1. The only one of my Office 2007 apps that doesn't respond to the "dragging down" action is Excel.
 
Mark A. Siefert said:
I was able to get Windows 7 Professional a few weeks ago and install it on my laptop. (Being an IT student has it's advantages.) The only problem I had with it so far is that I bought a Bluetooth adapter and Win 7 couldn't use the Vista-based driver. Fortunately the adapter's manufacture released an updated driver and I was able to install it without any problems.

Otherwise it's been a blast!
Click to expand...

That doesn't sound right. I have yet to run into a Vista driver that Win 7 couldn't use. Was this an unsigned driver that was able to be shunted past the Vista roadblocks on unsigned drivers?

What I'm saying here is that a driver being written for Vista should by all rights work seamlessly with Win 7-- it was designed for that level of compatibility/transition between the two operating systems.
 
I have Windows 7. I love translucency and wanted Vista's things to be translucent when maximised...but it's distracting now that I have it. Of course, it's optional.

I like it so far.
 
lionking said:
For a normal household user, it the professional version worth the extra expense?
Click to expand...


I hummed and ha'ed about that - I've generally ran the "best" a.k.a. the most expensive version but this time I really couldn't convince myself that there was any reason to cough up the extra so I've paid £60 for a full version of Home Premium.

ETA: One of the reasons I was considering a "higher" version was to get the built-in "WindowsXP" mode, but I've found out you can get the same functionality in HP, it just takes a tiny bit more effort to set-up.
 
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Well, it wasn't worth getting Professional for me.

But if you're thinking of getting Professional, it might be worth getting Ultimate since the price difference between those is small.

There are ways to upgrade your version of Windows 7, if you don't end up liking Home Premium. I think it works out price-wise about the same as if you decided to just buy the more expensive one from the beginning but I am unable to confirm this. I know it was the case where I bought it from but I've heard of other people saying otherwise.
 
So Microsoft has finally learned to listen to it's users?

Is there a way to test it, so I can see if it can win me back from Ubuntu?
 
...I set Opera as my default web browser but when I try to open up links from other programs, it says that it can't find the application or just doesn't do anything. It hasn't moved and I'm able to use the browser.

This is what happens, except not in Vista, when it says it doesn't find the application: www winhelponline (dot) com/blog/fix-for-application-not-found-error-when-opening-an-url/

I go to set the default programs, browse through the folders there to get Opera, clicked on it...and it thought I picked iTunes. Even though I selected Opera and iTunes is nowhere near Opera. I tried again and it doesn't let me associate Opera with what I want to.

ETA:
Eddie Dane said:
So Microsoft has finally learned to listen to it's users?

Is there a way to test it, so I can see if it can win me back from Ubuntu?
Click to expand...
I'm sure there are ways to test it. In a store, at a friend's house and some ways that I don't encourage.

I've tried out Ubuntu but the Internet was always significantly slower on it for me. I'm not sure why but I know that I wasn't imagining it (it would time out). Do you know what might have been the cause?
I understand that the next Ubuntu version is coming out in a couple of days, which is exciting. I was going to wait until that and see if I liked it, but ended up just getting W7.
 
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Eddie Dane said:
So Microsoft has finally learned to listen to it's users?

Is there a way to test it, so I can see if it can win me back from Ubuntu?
Click to expand...

http://lifehacker.com/5387463/access-a-windows-7-installation-in-mac-os-x-with-virtualbox

That's a mac how-to, however virtulbox installed on ubuntu is the same basic steps. basically if you have a windows VM in virtualbox, these are the steps to upgrade and try for free.

For the record: use the virtualbox install from Sun, not from the ubuntu repos.
 
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Alan said:
...I set Opera as my default web browser but when I try to open up links from other programs, it says that it can't find the application or just doesn't do anything. It hasn't moved and I'm able to use the browser.

...snip...
Click to expand...

Have you tried a re-install? I installed Opera and it's worked absolutely fine for me from the get-go.
 
Thanks for the response. Opera was working for me, it's just that Windows wasn't letting me set associations with it so I didn't think of that.
Just a second ago, I associated HTTP with Internet Explorer and now they're opening in Opera (without a reinstall).

Odd.
 
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