How well does Windows 7 run?

[NT1440]

Terrible. It's slow and bloated. Windows 98 is far less bloated than it or even XP. I tried installing it once and it crashed my computer and fried my motherboard. My friend actually died from installing it.

It was the last sentence that got me

MS (finally) did right with Vista 2. It runs very well on modern machine and even ok on some old computers I fixed for my friends and family. By old i mean 2003-2005 and 768 MB or RAM, though the aero is turned down.

 

[elgrecomac]

Well...

I think I have some basis of knowledge regarding OSX and Win 7 since I have been using both for over a year now.

First, Win 7 is a terrific OS...the best MS have ever made. It is fast, stable and has a significantly smaller footprint that Vista. The UI is an upgrade from Vista and has many new features that even Mac bigots on this board have commented favorably on. I am running Win 7 under VMware Fusion on my MBP with 4gb of ram and it works great. I also have it installed on a 4 year old Sony Vaio with 1 gb of ram and an OLD processor...and it is fast and stable on that platform as well.

Is it better than OSX? Subjectively, no. But it is damned close to being comparable. And for those of us who need windows for work or if you need a gaming computer, well, Win 7 is where you'll need to go.

There is a lot of hype about Win 7 vs. Snow (Snore?) Leopard. Vista to Win 7 is a big deal due to the speed and stability that was lacking in Vista. OTOH, from an end user perspective only, 10.5.8 to 10.6 is not that big a deal regardless of what the Mac zealots say. It is an OS that has a grea amount of internal improvements to build upon but no big improvements in UI or performance except for the start up time.

 

[aerowave]

I'm running Windows 7 on my first gen 2.0GHz Macbook Pro (Core Duo). Was good with 1GB of RAM but recently added another gig, and it's much better now. I haven't found any signs of it slowing down, I find it much much better than Vista.

 

[reservedegotist]

I've got it running on my Macbook. The only thing to be aware of is that it does run significantly hotter than OS X, and that battery life is less.

So in other words the backlighting always on is also an issue in Win 7? Meaning that driver support in general has been more or less the same as Vista?

 

[Stridder44]

Vista to Win 7 is a big deal due to the speed and stability that was lacking in Vista. OTOH, from an end user perspective only, 10.5.8 to 10.6 is not that big a deal regardless of what the Mac zealots say. It is an OS that has a grea amount of internal improvements to build upon but no big improvements in UI or performance except for the start up time.

The thing is, 7 isn't that much faster than Vista in most benchmark tests. 7 is aweome, no doubt, but it's just a few steps up from Vista. I know most people just read the name Vista and automatically associate hate. But I find it amusing when people think it's so vastly different and better. Vista (post SP1) was, and still is, a great OS.

As far as 7 being better than OS X, that's purely subjective. Apples and Oranges and whatnot.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

So in other words the backlighting always on is also an issue in Win 7? Meaning that driver support in general has been more or less the same as Vista?

I'm not sure what backlighting you're talking about (screen backlight or keyboard backlight) but if there are driver issues, that's an Apple issue, as Apple is the company that writes the drivers for the all Macintosh computers, not microsoft.

And yes, Windows 7 really is that much better.

 

[techmonkey]

Put your Leopard DVD in and install the Boot Camp drivers. Then get the Boot Camp 2.1 update (64-bit here, 32-bit here. Yeah, it says Vista I know but they work fine in 7). Install that. Then get the latest Nvidia driver from the official Nvidia site. Then run Windows Update. Windows Update will find anything the Boot Camp drivers missed and/or is out of date.

I get all sorts of errors when installing Boot Camp drivers from my Leopard disc. A couple of things failed and I had to skip. After the install finished, I tried running the 64bit update you posted above. Its telling me that no application is installed to update.

Any ideas whats going on? I have Win7 Pro 64bit installed.

 

[Boesky]

Damn Windows 7 sucks.

Back on Windows XP SP3.

 

[ElijahPost]

When I ran the Public Beta, It ran surprising well. No real lagging or errors.

 

[techmonkey]

When I ran the Public Beta, It ran surprising well. No real lagging or errors.

The errors I am referring to is the BootCamp Drivers install, not Windows 7 itself.

Anyone else have this issue? BTW, my Leopard DVD does not have the 64bit bootcamp drivers. Ive read that these were added in later builds of Leopard. I see these on the torrent sites but why doesnt Apple offer the download themselves?

 

[Bill Gates]

I get all sorts of errors when installing Boot Camp drivers from my Leopard disc. A couple of things failed and I had to skip. After the install finished, I tried running the 64bit update you posted above. Its telling me that no application is installed to update.

Any ideas whats going on? I have Win7 Pro 64bit installed.

The drivers on the disc, and the 2.1 updated drivers are not well-suited for Windows 7. The Snow Leopard disc contains Boot Camp 3.0, with much-needed updated drivers for Windows. If you plan on upgrading I would wait until then.

 

[steve knight]

it blows xp out of the water. the dell my mac mini replaced always had problems playing videos with xp. the voices could not keep up with the video. my drafting software was a bit slow when showing the preview. PI put 7 on it and it is like a new computer video is great my cad program runs about as fast as it does on my mac mini now. so far I have not had one crash in it.
I use my mac mini at home with parallels and at work my pc with 7. it works great though it is like vista in it's looks and all. this is a first for ms a new os faster then the old one. hell the one before the last one even.

 

[umiwangu]

I'm not sure what backlighting you're talking about (screen backlight or keyboard backlight) but if there are driver issues, that's an Apple issue, as Apple is the company that writes the drivers for the all Macintosh computers, not microsoft.

And yes, Windows 7 really is that much better.

I have the backlighting issues with Windows 7 and an '06 Macbook. You can try to dim the screen (and it does dim), but after a couple seconds it goes right back up to full brightness. I assume this is the backlighting they are talking about.

 

[Stridder44]

The drivers on the disc, and the 2.1 updated drivers are not well-suited for Windows 7. The Snow Leopard disc contains Boot Camp 3.0, with much-needed updated drivers for Windows. If you plan on upgrading I would wait until then.

I'm assuming you have a copy of Snow Leopard then? Does Boot Camp 3.0 mention anything about officially supporting Windows 7? I mean I don't see how it wouldn't, just curious though.

 

[techmonkey]

So has anyone successfully run Windows 7 64bit on their MacBook Pro? If so, how did you get the drivers to install?

 

[Stridder44]

So has anyone successfully run Windows 7 64bit on their MacBook Pro? If so, how did you get the drivers to install?

Many, many people have. We just simply ran the Boot Camp installer, updated to 2.1, installed a video/sound driver (because the one's on the DVD are older than sand), and ran Windows Update to get any newer drivers that were missed.

 

[Bill Gates]

I'm assuming you have a copy of Snow Leopard then? Does Boot Camp 3.0 mention anything about officially supporting Windows 7? I mean I don't see how it wouldn't, just curious though.

I've installed the Boot Camp 3.0 drivers floating around on the net.

(I don't have any ethical problem with this considering that I have a copy of SL on order)

 

[techmonkey]

Many, many people have. We just simply ran the Boot Camp installer, updated to 2.1, installed a video/sound driver (because the one's on the DVD are older than sand), and ran Windows Update to get any newer drivers that were missed.

Did you get errors when installing the Boot Camp drivers? Did you have 64bit Boot Camp install on your Leopard disc?

 

[Stridder44]

I've installed the Boot Camp 3.0 drivers floating around on the net.

(I don't have any ethical problem with this considering that I have a copy of SL on order)

Fair enough (I certainly don't have a problem with it ). Is it in fact labeled Boot Camp 3.0? I guess I could probably find them myself but I don't feel like messing with my already set up Windows 7 partition at the moment.

 

[Bill Gates]

Fair enough (I certainly don't have a problem with it ). Is it in fact labeled Boot Camp 3.0? I guess I could probably find them myself but I don't feel like messing with my already set up Windows 7 partition at the moment.

Yes, it is. You can simply uninstall the old Boot Camp software and any drivers that aren't automatically uninstalled through the Control Panel, and then install the Boot Camp 3.0 driver package. There is a problem with the Nvidia driver package that prevents the installation from completing successfully; simply delete the Nvidia driver from the Boot Camp driver folder after having installed it and it will skip over it after you've re-run the Boot Camp installer following a required reboot.

 

[TeamRetic]

Dude. I installed 7 on my desktop and it made my power supply explode and kill my cat. I called MS tech support and they just told me to reboot

That is nothing compare to my experience. I installed it on my computer and then it burst into flames and then my room got possessed by something. I had to call the priest to do an exorcism and pour holy water on the burn out computer.

 

[ranson]

Windows 7

Its hard for me to tell before I buy at the moment, so any advice from those that are already running Windows 7 would be appreciated.

 

[Venkman90]

Quick question:

If I install the RC client on my macbook (to use for work for a few months) then when retail hits all I have to do is backup all my data to an external drive, delete the bootcamp partition and re-install retail then put my date back on, correct?

 

[TBi]

My friend actually died from installing it.

My friend died too, and his dog! We should set up a class action lawsuit.

On topic though. 7 is great and should run fine on your hardware.

EdIT: Why did i say Vista? (Even though i do actually like Vista)

Quick question:

If I install the RC client on my macbook (to use for work for a few months) then when retail hits all I have to do is backup all my data to an external drive, delete the bootcamp partition and re-install retail then put my date back on, correct?

Yes Peter! As easy as that.

 

[Venkman90]

:d