Some Windows 7 thoughts

I mentioned in this thread that I was looking to go W7. Having now done it I thought I'd post some thoughts. I moved from XP Pro.

I chose W7 Professional (64-bit despite my earlier comments about whether it was of benefit to me) as I reckoned I'd need IIS for various test web sites and for Windows XP Mode.

Before the move I browsed around to pick up any tips and found Windows Easy Transfer which I ran on my old system and saved it all to an external drive. As I don't keep most of my data on my C: drive and my whole system was anyway secured with Genie Timeline I intended to reformat the C: drive during the install.

The actual install was fairly straightforward though the path through the partition choice dialogues was slightly confusing, and the format option seemed only to do a quick format, I'd have preferred a full format. I got W7 up and running pretty quickly.

I had some issues with graphics and sound drivers but eventually seemed to have got it right. However I was getting various random BSODs (Driver Verifier and WhoCrashed pointed to a driver but not which one) so after 10 days I rebuilt it all last Friday. So far it seems much more stable.

Using Windows Easy Transfer to bring in my settings from the XP system was a real boon. All my cookies with, for example, forum logins, were there straight away. Full marks from me for a really useful utility.

Most software has gone on without problems. Some difficulty with Family Historian V2, Starry Night Pro V6 but got them both running. VB6 installed fine and my own VB6 programs installed and ran straight away. My DOS Basic programs run under XP Mode. Laplink Gold V12 works though always gives a warning message when started. My old Dreamweaver runs fine. MS Money V12 runs ok. My ancient Reminder program wouldn't run so I found this replacement. My HP Laserjet 1320 runs ok though there is no HP Toolbox for it so I can't monitor toner status. As I never use all my monthly broadband allowance I haven't installed Networx, my ISP provide a meter on their site that I can check once every day or so.

I didn't like the way Windows Explorer has removed features, e.g. status bar info, cut copy paste toolbar buttons but I found Classic Shell is an adequate substitute.

And the PC seems to be running faster, this may be 64-bit using things more effectively, it may just be the benefit of a fresh and clean Windows install. I haven't yet connected my XP Netbook but don't envisage any real problems.

After allowing a week or so to get used to the different look and feel I can honestly say that I like it.

Can't think of anything else at the moment that may, or may not, be of interest.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

the format option seemed only to do a quick format, I'd have preferred a full format.

There's no point. If you want to securely delete the contents of a drive you need something more thorough. A full format of an HDD is just a waste of time.

Any info or help you need you can find here

http://www.sevenforums.com/

Steve

It wasn't a question of securely deleting, I've other means of doing that if I want to, but refreshing the sectors and layout and giving the surface a 'once over' which, AFAIK, format does.

Indeed, I've browsed odd bits there but not yet joined.

They banned me for no reason. Terrible site.

In reply to a post by 12eason:

They banned me for no reason. Terrible site.

I must join!

A quick update.

Getting my XP Home netbook to connect and talk was a doddle. Busy swapping files as I write.

I also should have mentioned how easy it was to implement a PHP/IIS regime on W7 and set up my test web sites. Much easier than on XP Pro.

In reply to a post by 12eason:

They banned me for no reason. Terrible site.

the site is ok, but some rules are not productive eg. they ban all instances of talk about ad blocking. That includes diagnosing problems caused by an ad blocker.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

It wasn't a question of securely deleting, I've other means of doing that if I want to, but refreshing the sectors and layout and giving the surface a 'once over' which, AFAIK, format does.

Well it writes 0xF6 to every sector of the volume but that doesn't really prove anything. You might as well just fill the drive with data prior to quick formatting it.

The days when a full format used to do something special with a hard disk are long gone. The position of sectors is set during manufacturing. Low level formatting is still possible but it requires specialised software and would usually only be performed as part of a drive reconditioning process(**). Even the idea of writing to every sector just to check the drive doesn't really apply. If a modern drive finds a problem with a sector it will just silently(*) redirect the data to a spare. Of course if there are no spares available it will error but that's something of a corner case.

I think it's safe to say that a full format is a waste of time in 99% of cases

(*)They can signal the OS but not all OSes bother to do anything about it. From their point of view nothing changes because they continue to use the same sector address. The redirection is all behind the scenes inside the HDD.

(**)If the circuit board has been replaced.