Windows 7

[craigmash]

I am currently the only user on Vista. Everyone else is still on XP Pro.

My Vista has started running slow on a lot of things starting a week or so ago. I figured I would reinstall, but go ahead and order a copy of Windows 7. If I have to reinstall may as well.

Anyone else tried 7? How is it?

[Thorsten.Evans]

I used a beta on an older machine I have lying around. It boots very fast. Crazy fast compared to all other versions of windows. Drivers were not available for that machine, so I didn't get to do much with it. Some of our IT folks at work have run it and like it a lot. I will be ordering a WIN7 machine this upcoming weekend. Bestbuy has a $499 laptop that I will be setting up for my Pastor (after playing with it of course).

[Stuart]

Anyone else tried 7? How is it?

I've been using it for the last few months and love it.

As Thorston says it is crazy fast on older kit that appears to have slowed right down. I've now upgraded to the full release rather than the RC I'd been on and it has made no diff in the speed.

One thing I have found is that there appears to be a lot more disk activity. OK, so I know I'm an intensive user of multiple windows and different programs but under XP it was the usual sluggish response at times but I didn't notice the disk access activity. It's possibly more prevalent now because the machine also runs so much quieter on Win7 than it did under XP.

I'm amazed talking to colleagues about how much kit that was on XP or Vista now runs faster and quieter on Win7. It' the OS they should have released first.

[craigmash]

I have installed Windows 7 as a dual boot with Vista.

Win7 loaded on its own empty hard drive which was labeld my L drive in Vista. When I boot into Win7 it also shows that drive as the L drive. I guess I assumed Win7 would make its own drive letters and not honor Vista's, but I guess I was wrong.

My intention was to get up and running on Win7 and once I was happy, get rid of the Vista install. However, I am a bit nervous having the OS installed on my L drive.

Is it possible for Win7 to see the L drive as its C drive while Vista sees it as L?

If I leave Win7 on the L drive, can I change it at a later date when I dump Vista? If I can change it in the OS, will installed programs have problems with the change?

My other option is instead of dual boot, just disconnect the Vista Drive and reinstall Win7 on the empty drive. Then instead of a handy dual boot screen, I could just go into the BIOS and disable whichever drive I did not want to use and enable the drive I did. Little clumsy, but at least they would both be the C drive then.

Any ideas?

[craigmash]

I figured it out, thought I would post my solution.

You need to boot from the Win7 DVD and then install it on your empty drive. It will do a dual-boot but it will make the OS drive the C: drive on both OS installations.

[Stuart]

I figured it out, thought I would post my solution.

You need to boot from the Win7 DVD and then install it on your empty drive. It will do a dual-boot but it will make the OS drive the C: drive on both OS installations.

Thanks for the info - dual booting and drive lettering issues are not always for the strong of heart leat laone the timid! I've worked with computers professionally for >25yrs now and still get nervous when working out what to do.

I'm happier setting up a multi-drive raid systems for servers than making my own PC dual boot.