To Windows 7 or not to Windows 7

kmmr

Hi,

OP back again! I have been reading this with interest, and I think the general impression is that it's better than Vista, but perhaps not worth it unless there are actual problems with Vista.

The only real problems on the laptop are mainly around overheating when I have a few applications running. This has improved a bit with new drivers, but I sense that the system just struggles if I want to watch a movie, and do anything else. Which I often do - just have the movie running in the background as I work on other things/play games! :-)

Would W7 help at all with that? And how do they check if you are a student? I am a student of life!

I have a HP laptop, about 18 months old.

kmmr

I was going to re-install Vista anyway, which is why I was looking at this. The HP came with a lot of bloatware, and I am tired of waiting for it to start or shutdown, though a fresh install might help.

jaydeeuk1

kmmr wrote: »

Hi,

OP back again! I have been reading this with interest, and I think the general impression is that it's better than Vista, but perhaps not worth it unless there are actual problems with Vista.

The only real problems on the laptop are mainly around overheating when I have a few applications running. This has improved a bit with new drivers, but I sense that the system just struggles if I want to watch a movie, and do anything else. Which I often do - just have the movie running in the background as I work on other things/play games! :-)

Would W7 help at all with that? And how do they check if you are a student? I am a student of life!

I have a HP laptop, about 18 months old.

Win 7 is supposed to have better powersaving features when not idling, but assuming drivers for vista and 7 work in the same way then it will do anything to the heat output when your laptop is under load. Try clearing the vents and fans, or purchase a decent laptop cooler.

kmmr

It's not overheating to a problem level - it just runs the fan more often which I find a tad annoying. Especially when used on a lap, as I guess the vents must be below the machine.

Inactive

Andy_L wrote: »

Assuming you play games then DX 10 & 11

No games.;)

Inactive

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

What is so much better about XP than 7? I'm struggling to think of anything factual.

Not sure anyone said that XP was better than 7 ??

As 7 is going to cost money, I asked what was so much better about 7 over XP.

I still havn't seen any significant improvements to convince me.

[Deleted User]

Inactive wrote: »

No, but do I need to?

Will it make any significant difference?

Yes, it's a fundamental aspect of any security policy that you don't use administrative privileges for any longer than you need too, especially not on a day to day basis. Running with such privileges significantly exposes your computer to the damage malware can do because it is permitted to have unrestricted access to settings & files and folders. This potentially could mean that whatever security software you have installed can be rendered ineffective, so basically you cannot consider your computer to be secure at all.

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

What is so much better about XP than 7? I'm struggling to think of anything factual.

Go have a read; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_7

Richie-from-the-Boro

Win7 is what Vista should have been, even the international 'box shifters' could not sell Vista.

Vista, once installed and with most of the bloated services crippled is a very good O/S, but still not as good as WinXP. Win7 is the best modern per CPU cycle O/S outside of Linux.

It's not expensive, apart from 'imgburn' most of the other apps we paid for are free from Mr Gates - put 'wlsetup-web' on and it just works out of the box, and you don't need any other app / virus checker / video encoding / etc !

pcombo

Well i say windows 7 is just an expansion of windows vista its not like they developed a whole new OS, instead of releasing services packs for vista microsoft thought lets make some more money since vista has failed *o i know lets release windows 7 but really its vista *

joeypesci

Windows 7 to Vista is like what Windows XP is to ME.

Both Vista and ME were crap, Windows 7 is much better, same as XP was miles better than ME.