Windows 7

[function]

I've found that the Windows Classic theme allows you to fit more stuff in the same space. For example, my Firefox bookmark menu fits on screen with Classic with room to spare, where as with Windows 7 and Windows 7 Basic they go piling off the bottom of the screen and I have to scroll around.

There's no need to waste screen space like this!

I had a go with Windows 7 32 bit last night. Most interesting things to note were that third party menus like the nvidia control panel and steam were snappier (they are dog slow on my 64 bit install, Steam often hangs for 20 or 30 seconds), and that while doing the same things it used about 200 MB less memory (sometime more sometimes less). Also, CPU limited game benchmarks were a couple of percent faster.

So, in short, the 32 bit version was a bit faster and used noticeably less memory. I'll be sticking with 64 though, because I want to used all the 64 bits.

 

[Npl]

I've found that the Windows Classic theme allows you to fit more stuff in the same space. For example, my Firefox bookmark menu fits on screen with Classic with room to spare, where as with Windows 7 and Windows 7 Basic they go piling off the bottom of the screen and I have to scroll around.

There's no need to waste screen space like this!

Yep, the bad thing is that you will lose the Thumbnails for the Task-Switcher(Alt-Tab) if you use the classic theme (the only useful thing Desktop Compositing brought up). Wonder why those things cant be en/disabled separately from the theme.

 

[Malo]

How is it not obvious which icons represent running programs and which don't?

It's easy to tell which programs and running and which are in focus just from the taskbar.

Yeah I find it quite easy to tell, and it's relatively easy at a glance which have multiple windows open as well. Definitely a great change to the taskbar, especially with status bars built-in to the taskbar icon as well.

 

[neliz]

Yeah I find it quite easy to tell, and it's relatively easy at a glance which have multiple windows open as well. Definitely a great change to the taskbar, especially with status bars built-in to the taskbar icon as well.

Don't forget the preview for multiple documents, it's a lot faster than alt-tabbing through your multiple word docs etc.

 

[Broken Hope]

I honestly think people just have to give the new taskbar time, once you do you realise how nice it is. I don't like using the old style task bar now when I have to use a Vista machine and wouldn't switch back.

It's like the ribbon interface in Office, takes some getting used to.

 

[Kaotik]

I honestly think people just have to give the new taskbar time, once you do you realise how nice it is. I don't like using the old style task bar now when I have to use a Vista machine and wouldn't switch back.

It's like the ribbon interface in Office, takes some getting used to.

And just like putting the superbar to left side of the screen on widescreens

 

[Scott_Arm]

I have to turn off the translucency in Vista and Win7. It makes me queasy.

Not a fan of the translucency either. I find it distracting. I'd prefer if they just made the window panes extremely narrow and have small efficient menu bars.

 

[Malo]

And just like putting the superbar to left side of the screen on widescreens

I tried this briefly and put it back fairly quickly but a couple of decades of habit tends to be difficult to break. What would you say the main advantages are with the left side in regards to the new taskbar?

 

[swaaye]

I don't want to turn this into some flame war, but I think I like the look of Gnome more than Aero. I've been playing with Ubuntu 9.10 lately. I've also been running Win7 on a few PCs for months, including the new taskbar. This new Ubuntu is a pretty impressive package IMO.

I'm not saying that either is clearly superior, but I do like how configurable Gnome is. Font rendering is great. The theme options and their configuration options are good. The two taskbars are spiffy. You get lots of choices, unlike with Windows.

I'm not messing with the goofy over the top desktop animations, just the default "normal" setting. I really am not a fan of animated windows / fades etc.

 

[hoom]

I was at my Dads' place yesterday, trying to make his ancient PC take up less space on the C: & speed it up a bit, remembered this little doozy http://support.microsoft.com/kb/121007 & just enabled it on my Win7 with great success in speeding up loading large directories.

Why is this not set by default at least for the x64 versions where no 16bit programs is guaranteed???

I honestly think people just have to give the new taskbar time, once you do you realise how nice it is.

Just wait until you have to frequently change between different windows of the same app.

 

[Kaotik]

I tried this briefly and put it back fairly quickly but a couple of decades of habit tends to be difficult to break. What would you say the main advantages are with the left side in regards to the new taskbar?

It just feels more natural in general windows usage after you get used to it, when for 'full' windows of for example browsers or photoshop etc fills the screen for top to bottom, and just leave small portion in the left side unfilled.

 

[3dcgi]

Just wait until you have to frequently change between different windows of the same app.

What's the complication with this? I do it all the time. I don't have window grouping enabled though.

 

[hoom]

With the grouping its two clicks + a scan of the thumbnails vs. one without grouping.

With grouping off but still using taskbar pinning, the location of your launch icons moves all the time & you have to stop & look where the icon you want has moved to.

 

[Arwin]

At worst you need to re-do your boot system, as I don't think Vista/Win7's support Linuxes and the upgrade will probably overwrite the bootsector

Ok, will have to look into how to do that then. Upgrade is in progress now by the way, the shipping was much faster than I expected (got it two days after confirmation!)

I also bought and read some magazines with tips on Windows 7, which contained some good explanations of the various toolbar options you guys are discussing, optimisation options, shortcut keys and other stuff. Before the upgrade I had to uninstall ATI Catalyst Manager and Installer, VMWare Player, eSobi2 (never used it), and a VPN tool (forgot the name, but I know from experience it's an annoying one). All of them except eSobi2 were marked as tools I could safely reinstall after the upgrade.

By the way, files, settings and programs: 513095! And this install is only a few months old. Crazy.

 

[neliz]

ATI Catalyst Manager and Installer

WAH?!.. seriously?

By the way, files, settings and programs: 513095! And this install is only a few months old. Crazy.

Yep, I think it counts every file on your harddisk. .including cookies etc.

 

[Kaotik]

ATI stuff doesn't even "survive" Win7 > newer Win7 build upgrade, let alone Vista > Win7

 

[Blazkowicz]

WAH?!.. seriously?



Yep, I think it counts every file on your harddisk. .including cookies etc.

that's on par with a buggy IE5 included in windows 98 : runaway cache files, growing unrestricted. I've seen it hardcore : the filesystem was so fragmented that under bare DOS it was as slow as a 8088.
If windows 7 runs well with so many files, then I can only be marveled at their I/O susbsystem

 

[neliz]

ATI stuff doesn't even "survive" Win7 > newer Win7 build upgrade, let alone Vista > Win7

My Mobility Modded Cat 9.3 begs to differ. (Vista 32 > 7 32)

 

[3dcgi]

With the grouping its two clicks + a scan of the thumbnails vs. one without grouping.

With grouping off but still using taskbar pinning, the location of your launch icons moves all the time & you have to stop & look where the icon you want has moved to.

My workflow must be different then as I haven't noticed the icons moving around.

I've left pinning enabled, but I don't think this feature has improved my experience at all.

 

[Arwin]

I"ve got grouping on, and I've pinned all the applications I regularly use. Works really well.

So far I'm quite happy with everything, except maybe that the pinned icons don't look all that hot - could have been snazzier, I think. Also, not all programs have that useful right-click menus yet (in my list, most notably Skype), but I'm sure that'll change - enough do have useful menus now already.