Automotive Air Conditioning Information Forum (Archives)

Provided by www.ACkits.com

We've updated our forums!
Click here to visit the new forum

Archive Home

Search Auto AC Forum Archives

Windows 7 upgrade. Pages: 12

2005Equinox on Mon October 12, 2009 1:35 AM User is offline

How many people here are planning to upgrade their Vista machine to run Windows 7? I have had issues with this Vista machine since the beginning with it locking up and doing the stop error thing that I am considering getting Windows 7 and upgrading it. Any thoughts on this?

-------------------------
2008 Chevrolet Impala LS
1981 Pontiac Bonneville


2007 Sears Craftsman Lawn Tractor


1985 Chevrolet Caprice


1986 John Deere 165 lawn tractor

MikeH on Mon October 12, 2009 8:30 AM User is offline

I have one of my computers running a W7 beta and, so far, it runs great. As for Vista, I de-installed it from all of my client's computers because of stability and security issues. I plan to upgrade those same clients to W7.

NickD on Mon October 12, 2009 10:57 AM User is offline

How much does it cost for Vista owners? Course, I am use to paying for MS mistakes.

Edited: Mon October 12, 2009 at 10:57 AM by NickD

TRB on Mon October 12, 2009 11:01 AM User is offlineView users profile

Win 2000 pro and XP pro still working fine for me.

-------------------------

When considering your next auto A/C purchase, please consider the site that supports you: ACkits.com
Contact: ACKits.com

MikeH on Mon October 12, 2009 11:20 AM User is offline

So here’s the low-down on pricing for Windows 7. The estimated retail prices for upgrade packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:

* Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
* Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
* Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99

And the estimated retail prices for full packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:

* Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
* Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
* Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99

This means that Windows 7 Home Premium full retail product is $40.00 less than Windows Vista Home Premium today.

Matt L on Mon October 12, 2009 10:01 PM User is offline

I have an MSDN subscription, so I'll probably give it a try. It's included in the subscription, along with all the rest of the MS OS's. It would be nice to have a machine with processor virtualization features, which allows a real XP machine in a box, running under 7.

Karl Hofmann on Tue October 13, 2009 3:57 AM User is offlineView users profile

I diched Vista that was on my laptop for XP.. Everything seems to run smoother and quicker and a lot less of those dumb "Are you sure that you really want to do that" windows

-------------------------
Never knock on deaths door... Ring the doorbell and run away, death really hates that!

NickD on Tue October 13, 2009 6:40 AM User is offline

I was happy with WIN98SE after it took MS about three years to work all the bug out of it, could equally load DOS as well as Windows program, was easy to set up your program list and it way MY computer. But practically none of the new stuff will run on it so had to upgrade, no choice.

My major objection to XP and Vista is that PC no longer stood for a personal computer, but a public computer instead, it's like MS thinks the problem is in the inside of my home, but the real problem is that cable that hooks me up to the world. Least with XP whenever I load a new program, can use windows explorer to clean all that public crap out and move all the application data crap to my computer, can't do that with Vista. With my wife's Vista computer, was able to block all those crazy do nothing windows, you are about to execute program that may damage your computer, are you sure? Did that for even MS Office and just about anything else.

Wonder if Windows 7 gives the option to load it as a personal computer, dumping all that administrator crap. I did download the beta version of 7, but never found the 30 hours or so to play with it, took me long enough to work out all the bugs on XP. Only way I would do it is to buy a new box, but that's a lot of money to spend to test out there program and only could use it for a couple of months. It's frustrating enough to buy a new computer and spend a couple of days cleaning out all that so-called free crap they give. Nortons is terrible to remove. While Nortons was my favorite program for years, hate them now, slows a really hot box down to an 8086, System Mechanic is a lot cheaper, has virus and a firewall, finds stuff Nortons left behind and works tens times as fast. And only cost me five bucks a year per box on upgrades.

Biggest disaster for me is letting my kids use my computer, got my kids their own computer, if they wreck it, they can fix it with all those crazy sites they get on. Most frustrating part with Vista is the long boot up time, and every little thing you do to get rid of junk requires a reboot. Boring, boring, boring.

2005Equinox on Wed October 14, 2009 3:36 AM User is offline

I don't like Norton either. I have found the same thing with it that Nick D did. And it is hard to remove all of it. My downstairs computer still has a trace of it that I just cant remove. I have also dealt with Windows ME that was on the downstairs computer before I put XP in it. Vista is not as bad as ME was though. I may give Windows 7 a shot on mine for the $119. Just see how it works.

-------------------------
2008 Chevrolet Impala LS
1981 Pontiac Bonneville


2007 Sears Craftsman Lawn Tractor


1985 Chevrolet Caprice


1986 John Deere 165 lawn tractor

NickD on Wed October 14, 2009 8:44 AM User is offline

Have yet to find a good registry cleaner, seems like they should have one that checks the zillions of entries against whatever is loaded in the computer. I use CCleaner, Registry Mechanic, some parts of Nortons I still left in, do like their speed disk, System Mechanic Pro, but the real cleaner is Registrar Registry Manager with a good search engine to find any remnants of a previously installed program.

When I switched over to Iola anti-virus, wouldn't let me load it until I eliminated all traces of it using all the means above, first step is control panel add remove programs, that is and always was a bad joke. Next step is to go the Nortons site and try to find utilities to remove old versions, another bad joke. Registrar found thousands of Norton and Symatec entries, already went step by step through all instances using windows explorer to delete any traces left by the program only to get a message, can't delete, this program is in use, stop it first while nothing is there left to run it. It's very frustrating, Norton, Microsoft, and Adobe are the worse ones for really jamming up a registry. Did I ever say I hate that registry? Windows 3.1 didn't have it, that is the last OS I really understood.

This stuff "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Hewlett-Packard\{00F3791B-7A9F-41E9-92AC-9FE6EA96C48C}" is still Greek to me, thousands of those in the registry, doesn't say what it's for, what program, who owns it, nothing. So just leave it.

Last OS I purchase was XP Pro on a disk, tried it on an old machine first, had to fight with MS to use it on a new machine. Just been buying computers preloaded with the OS, first I pull the HD and back it up using another computer so I am free to play without screwing it up, can go to the backup. But they sure put a bunch of free crap on there, every computer company does that.

Use to spend hours reading about the best components, assembling them, and buying the OS, but for me, a computer is a tool, and if you spend more time fixing that tool than getting use out of it, it's worthless.

One thing is for sure, everyone, I mean everyone, has computer problems, if they claim they are not, they are liars. Usually spend a couple of hours every Saturday morning doing housekeeping on my box, have no idea where all that trash comes from. Windows Defender always says no problems, but other 3rd party software can find a ton of it.

What's the wholesale price of a Windows 7 upgrade? And can you run it in classic mode? Those cartoon characters in Vista tee me off.

I did change my, MY COMPUTER icon to Bill's Computer, it's not even mine.

MikeH on Sun October 18, 2009 1:39 PM User is offline

This is a pretty good, although short, review of Windows 7 from The Dallas Morning News
Worth the read

NickD on Sun October 18, 2009 3:16 PM User is offline

"Windows 7 should be on every Windows user's upgrade list. " That is the last sentence in this article, sounds kind of biased to me, and MS always had problems that were passed on to the users with a new OS. I checked with HP, if my wife wants 7, she is going to have to pay for it, only going back to June 26, 2009 for free upgrades.

We didn't have any of the hardware problems this guy is talking about, namely because we purchased all new hardware for my wife's system. She wanted all black, her old computer was that tan color. But I wasn't very successful in jamming a serial port mouse or a Centronics printer cable into those little USB connectors on her new computer, even with my largest hammer, a 13 pounder.

In regards to installing a new OS with older computers like this guy says you should do, he is full of crap, MS dictates to Intel and AMD what instruction set they shall have, then the chipset logic, the OS has to be compatible with the hardware, and going back even a couple years, it's no longer compatible. If someone uses a new program that contains an instruction code his old box doesn't have, crash.

The biggest problem we had with Vista, is that many of the programs we have for XP would not even load on Vista, I ignored their warnings and tried it anyway, Vista crashed the box, but did make backup's first.

Also never could get excited about a desktop, happy to type in a DOS command to run a program. An OS should just have the drivers for various components, take care of memory management, Acad was much better in that respect than MS, and run programs, ease in connecting to the net is also desired.

So is Windows 7 backwards compatible with existing software. Vista was not, that was kind of expensive, still the same old crap with all this new software, they all got the job done, it's just that your perfectly good software would not run on Vista, just like Netscape wouldn't run on Windows 95.

MikeH on Sun October 18, 2009 6:06 PM User is offline

Nick, I do not understand why you are so negative on Windows 7. Unless you have actually tried and tested the product then you need to stop slamming it. Vista sucked and did not really handle well all of the various hardware proliferations that are out there of which there are many. I don't think you really know just what it takes to recognize ALL of the different hardware. Having been a ROM and mainframe programmer, I am here to tell you that the task is Herculean in scope. XP did a better job of it than Vista only because you could mostly download drivers for the device that you needed. W7 is pretty seamless and does a much better job that Vista or XP. Plus, it has some really nice features. If you don't want to upgrade because you are satisfied wit what you have and maybe do not want to spend the $$$ then so be it. But, again, you really need to install and use W7 before applying a critique.

NickD on Sun October 18, 2009 10:47 PM User is offline

List one thing negative I said about Windows 7, outside of the fact that HP will not give us a free upgrade because we purchased our computer prior to June 26.2009.

I stated we did not have problems with hardware like that guy listed in his article, namely because we purchased all brand new hardware, but for the prime reason, these new computers do not have neither a serial nor a parallel output. This is experience, not a criticism. But did state we had to spend about 400 bucks on software, as Vista would not run our XP software, this is a fact. I did ask if Windows 7 is backward compatible, and that is a question, not a criticism.

Another thing I have observed about Vista is the long boot up time that is frustrating when you remove all that so-called free stuff everybody is putting on the HD where you have to reboot for each change. Wife has had some problems, but mainly due to e-mail junk her friends are constantly sending her, but was able to recover it several times with a complete reload. Also got rid of all that junk, but overall the reliability of Vista for us has been pretty good. I was able to disable all those warning signs like loading MS Office.

I do dislike the fact that since XP, MS thinks all computers are in a public setting, wish they would give the option to load Windows for private use. Is Windows 7 the same way? Got rid of most of that public stuff with XP, but can't do it with Vista.

MikeH on Mon October 19, 2009 9:18 AM User is offline

Like I said, Vista sucks. As for W7, everything I have tested so far says that it is "mostly" backwards compatable. You are right about new motherboards not having parallel or COM ports. My Gigabyte MBs have no ISA slots or PCI slots - only PC16/PC64 slots. Also, no COM or Parallel. Just about everything is going USB, Firewire or X16. Also, this is the first MB that I have bought that has only one IDE bus. So, my HDs are SATA. Still have the floppy bus although I do not understand why as I will never again boot from a floppy. There are still some new MB out there (Asus) that will not even come up if a floppy is not attached. Also, some MB (Intel) will not come up if a HD is not connected - go figure. Just a note for your future consideration - when I need to replace a MB today, I only use Gigabyte as they seem to have captured the market with high quality and persistent superior support. IWill and others failed because of a lack thereof. As for using AMD - NADA. I can only get AMD CPU's to last a year so I quit using them - only Intel. I won't use the new offerings because their cost is too high. I can buy a 2.7G Duo for about $80 and the Core 2 Xeon 3G has dropped from about $1200 to $170 in the past year. Of course you are going to pay thru the nose for the MB but if you want a 20 second boot then maybe it might be worth it. If you combine the Xeon with the new Solid State HDs that are available then boot time might be in the 8-10 second range. Imagine that!!

NickD on Mon October 19, 2009 10:12 AM User is offline

First thing I got when my wife wanted a new laptop last year, was an external USB floppy, can pick those up now for ten bucks. With that, I can full backup her computer to an external HD also using USB. Same old stuff, different connectors. With her docking station, she has eight working USB ports, can really go crazy.

I don't know how I could live with only one IDE port only supporting two devices, always add a backup HD in every computer, even two, but recall have an IDE expansion board, but was slow.

When we first got her Vista box, had no problems hooking it up to our LAN, then a couple of months later, Vista came with an upgrade that killed it, fool with it for several hours and gave up, using flash cards now to transfer files. Works will quick on my XP box, slow on her Vista box, just take a two week vacation and come back. Was the same history with XP upgrades, cure one problem, create ten more, so just going with history on my Microsoft comments. If Windows 7 does work out of the box, would be the first time that has ever happened.

ATX is another pain, so add a remote power switch to turn off all the system components with one click of the switch. Good practice during a severe lightning storm. ATX boxes getting rid of a real power switch are always hot and susceptable to lightning damage. Almost like they want you to fry your computer.

2005Equinox on Sat October 24, 2009 1:17 AM User is offline

Well, I now have 2 of the 3 Vista machines converted to Windows 7. I got the family pack at Wal-Mart for $150 and it is good for 3 computers. So Moms may get it tommorrow depending. Had a little problem getting the wireless to work on mine but it works fine now. The laptop did the CKDISK thing a few times but it runs fine now and that runs faster than with Vista. Startup with that is a little slow yet but mine starts quite fast. So overall so far so good.

-------------------------
2008 Chevrolet Impala LS
1981 Pontiac Bonneville


2007 Sears Craftsman Lawn Tractor


1985 Chevrolet Caprice


1986 John Deere 165 lawn tractor

NickD on Sat October 24, 2009 7:19 AM User is offline

150 bucks for that family pack seems pretty well standard checking around town and on the net. I played with it at our Officemax store on a new computer, sure is like XP, even runs XP software, wow.

I am sure the time is coming when Microsoft will figure out a way to obsolete XP and force us to buy Windows 7, I will wait until then. In the meantime, have shut on my MS auto upgrades, another trick they love to pull.

2005Equinox on Tue October 27, 2009 1:33 AM User is offline

They all are now running Windows 7. Mine did lock up again but it has only did it once so far. I do like Windows 7 so far though. They all seem to run quicker and I do like the arrangment of things better. Seems like the wireless is working better though. The laptop seems to have benifited a LOT. Moms runs well and starts faster than before. Overall so far so good. I do wonder if there is a little problem with the video part on mine that it feels the need to lock up every so often? The fun never stops.

-------------------------
2008 Chevrolet Impala LS
1981 Pontiac Bonneville


2007 Sears Craftsman Lawn Tractor


1985 Chevrolet Caprice


1986 John Deere 165 lawn tractor

Voyager97 on Wed October 28, 2009 9:04 AM User is offlineView users profile

I'm with NickD when it comes to using XP.

Boot up within 30 seconds (my sons Vista desktop can take 4 minutes !) and pretty stable.

Windows Auto-Update ? Stick it up your $%£$%. Only prob with that is the damn warning every time I boot/reboot "Your computer may be at risk" etc. I know you retard - I turned it off !

The best OS ? The long gone (R.I.P.) Commodore Amiga.

-------------------------
Vic @ Pennine AutoChill

NickD on Wed October 28, 2009 9:37 AM User is offline

Wife's Vista boots up in less than a minute, not too bad. I still have my Amiga 500, also had a 4000, but my kid got some high speed chips for it, put them in backwards and blew out the mainboard, I tried fixing it, too far gone so had to pitch it. Amiga was way ahead of Apple and Microsoft with a GUI and you could type in your own boot sequence, short and sweet, boot up was almost instantaneous as I recall. It was a shame that Commodore had to buy the and really screw up that company, they were lightyears ahead of everyone else.

I clicked on that inform me when upgrades are available to get rid of that crazy warning sign, your computer is no longer protected nonsense because of some hacker trying to get into my system. If they can get past my hardware firewall that is, never had a problem with that since I installed it. Nor do I use firewall software, something else to slow down your computer.

IBM also blew it by accepting a license from a high school kid rather than paying him a couple of bucks for that short program he essentially stole from his mentor and others. But the good side benefits, it broke the monopoly IBM had on the hardware. Buying a new computer today is far cheaper than buying the software to run on it, because the software is a monopoly. We are not suppose to have that in a free capitalistic society, we are suppose to have fair competition to promote the finest products at the lowest prices. Thank you Reagan for giving us what we have today. And no thanks to his successors either.

2005Equinox on Mon November 02, 2009 2:08 AM User is offline

True that Nick!!!

-------------------------
2008 Chevrolet Impala LS
1981 Pontiac Bonneville


2007 Sears Craftsman Lawn Tractor


1985 Chevrolet Caprice


1986 John Deere 165 lawn tractor

Back to Off Topic Chat

We've updated our forums!
Click here to visit the new forum

Archive Home

Copyright © 2016 Arizona Mobile Air Inc.