calculatedChaos Gaming

1) Do I need to verify my current copy of Windows to get it? (I'm on a hard drive clone of a hard drive clone, so I doubt I'll pass.)
2) Will my TF2/Other steam stuff work properly? Is there a list of games/applications that don't work?

Might post some more stuff if I remember it.

I never really looked into it before. Funny how they say
'You love XP and we listened'

It's like they know Vista is the bastard child and if they don't mention it it will just go away.

I'm pretty dissapointed in Vista and it would suck to buy a new vers of windows but I may have to. The Pro vers has XP runtime or whatever, would be great to be able to use all those programs I can't get to work with Vista.
I also have to send of for a 64bit vista disc (if I still can after a year+) to use all my ram.
But with 7 you get both discs, so I could run 64 (xp programs work, see above vista issue?) and use all my ram, that would be nice. I'd get an extra 1.5 gigs right there, plus I could drop another 4 gigs of dual channel in.

I'm pretty sure I've heard that TF2 and Hammer run fine, although I did read someone was having a hard time with it, someone else said they did it fine. I didn't pay too much attention because I wasn't looking at it.

dammit Riftoff, you're better at making me spend my money than a wife would be.

Vista was necessary in between XP and Windows 7. There were many fundamental changes to how the operating system works behind the scenes that were completely redone for Vista and windows 7 builds onto that.

It's like Vista is the beta for Windows 7. I am fairly confident that Windows 7 will replace XP eventually.

I read into it a bit.

Hammer issues...sounds like the main issue is you need to run tf2 once before starting Hammer.

XP-Vista I think will both be replaced with 7. If you buy Pro 7 you get XPMode, in which you can dl a free full pro version of XP to instal and instal programs that ran fine in XP, then in the start menu there is a list (XP Mode) in which all those programs will be listed in.
It's not a virtual runtime thing, supposed to be better.

7 is a direct replacement for Vista from what I can tell, same basic features without all the bugs. Makes me think I should get a free upgrade, I almost bought XP in the first place DOH!

However basic home doesn't have the xp mode option.

Seems like most games and programs run fine, some driver updates to vista version might be needed. A few games like Bioshock tend to give some people issues or need run in windowed mode.

I think I'm gonna DL the release candidate this week and give it a try. Fully functional until March when it starts 2 hour shutdowns until june 2010. I think I'll decide pretty quickly if I wanna get it.

Tried to DL it (W7 RC ) tonight. Had to go through all the windows get info crap/verify email.

Then the Dl page comes up, have to enable active X. Then after 5-10 secs it goes back to download button page. Nothing. But gives me a new key to write down.
Click DL, same thing. Tried about 10 times. Damn MS.

if you really want you can try it free you know... download the release candidate here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... nload.aspx just back up your system before you do of course

This is totally nooblicious, but will I have to format my hard drive to install the Windows 7 RC?

Crimson13, one of the guys i work with, has been involved with the beta testing of Win7 since very early in dev -- hes been really impressed by it. i got to see the driver handling in action -- his video driver crashed during operation, the os reloaded it automatically with no BSOD and no interruption in workflow. he said to me that they way the OS handles drivers is much more modular and has much more fault tolerance in the case something goes wrong.

vista is a real peice of garbage, but Win7 is looking like its got real potential to be a decent windows OS.

Riftoff wrote:This is totally nooblicious, but will I have to format my hard drive to install the Windows 7 RC?

possibly. how familiar are you with hard disk partitioning?

if you have Partition Magic or something similar (like bootable gpartd), you could use that to resize partitions to make room for Win7.

It says if you have XP you gotta do a clean instal, Vista is just an upgrade.
That's why I think they should just upgrade anyone who bought that crappy OS. (like sad ol me, I coulda had an XP)

Anyway, ever since I did the 'windows live signin' to get the rc DL the Dl page says it doesn't work with windows live and I can't DL it. Imagine that, another vista wndows/ doesn't work with Microsoft stuff. It's getting old.

And before that the Dl never started, it just didn't, that's the only way to explain it.

I'd love to know if anyone else has even been able to get the DL.

Well, after about 5 tries to get the Dl to start to no avail I tried at work and it DL'ed right away. Got an ISO on disc so I'll be trying it this weekend most likely.

OK, W7RC installed and working.

I had Kbuntu on my spare HD for awhile but couldn't get my Creative X-Fi gamer sound card to work. You have to compile the drivers and that's beyond me.
Couldn't get any help on a linux forum to uninstal but I figured it out. Thought I lost all my recent work but Vista recovery worked.

Unplugged my main HD and used the 7rc disc to instal over the linux partitions.

Got steam running and played last night. The discs I have with drivers for my sound card don't work (Vista and XP) so I'm running onboard sound which probably effects the game a bit. Can't say it's any faster but I do have a full 4 gigs of ram now.

Plugged in my regular HD to reboot, thought it would start in Vista but it started in 7 and I can access everything that is in my Vista installed HD.

I got one program to instal and run correctly, it installed in Vista but always crashed. So that's a good sign, but still get the annoying 'Program didn't instal right' with the option for me to tell it that it did. WTF.

Working on getting other old programs installed now...

Original wrote:OK, W7RC installed and working.

I had Kbuntu on my spare HD for awhile but couldn't get my Creative X-Fi gamer sound card to work. You have to compile the drivers and that's beyond me.
Couldn't get any help on a linux forum to uninstal but I figured it out. Thought I lost all my recent work but Vista recovery worked.\

you probably just needed to update ALSA, then run alsaconf (never used kubuntu tho, so cant be sure). i just did this today. its relatively easy.

http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/2009/ ... aunty-904/

Got steam running and played last night. The discs I have with drivers for my sound card don't work (Vista and XP) so I'm running onboard sound which probably effects the game a bit. Can't say it's any faster but I do have a full 4 gigs of ram now.

nice to get full use of your RAM!

maybe drivers here: (??)
http://support.creative.com/kb/showarti ... ?sid=61105
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Creative-So ... -2319.html

dont take my word for it tho -- might want to try searching around for 'beta' drivers. since win7 is still technically in testing quite a few companies have released beta drivers.

I did actually instal the beta drivers after that post.

Bad news I think. I locked up TF2 about 10 times in one session. At one point alot of people were talking and it seemed like it was gonna lock up everytime someone spoke, it would kindof glitchy hang for a sec then resume, then hang, resume...

The onboard sound wasn't doing that and I never had sound problems with Vista.

can you disable the onboard sound in BIOS? the onboard and the expansion card might be trying to use the same resources.

Ask zamboni, he has been on in 12 days because of windows 7

Turns out my on chip sound was on in BIOS. Didn't have a crash like before during last nights playtime so I consider that fixed
Funny, with Vista I had to uninstal the driver for onboard sound for my card's driver to work but I had never installed it for 7. So I didn't think it would even work or try to, but it was working fine before I installed the card driver.

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Another issue I'm having now is that is I let me computer sleep (settings must be like 20 minutes) then it'll start back up to desktop, but it refuses to do anything, click web browser - spin..., click steam, task manager or adobe reader - spin...
It even makes it hard to shut down, if I restart it'll do the same as before, but at least then I can use the power button to shut it down. After that it's fine on reboot.
If I shut it down and don't let it sleep there are no issues.

I've got the most recent 7 updates too.

So far it seems better than Vista in alot of cases but it's only been a few days. They deffinately got rid of some of the annoying auto-pop-ups Vista has.

I'm thinking about getting Windows 7. I'll probably wait till I get a new computer though.

As soon as I buy my processor and new hard drive AND stop being lazy and actually put my new computer together I'll be running windows 7 too.

Seems to be an issue with 7/Google Earth.

Installed but it just wont work. Could find no info on web.

Every time I read about some new feature in google earth I get excited and download it, and then I remember that the entire application is useless and boring. Then I uninstall it.

What you don't want to look at pictures of the ocean or the moon?