updating to win7

[Tikker]

99% the install on my upstairs media center. pretty fast and painless process on a semi modern machine (it's an am2 board)


going to 64 bit so i can add another 4gb of ram into this machine (it's eventually going to be the fileserver as I migrate to sagetv)

so far it's been pretty nice. the install was easier than XP (which was easy,just longish) really painless, and without any prompting it found all the other machines on my network, didn't have to fuck around with joining a work group, it just did it

i'm curious to see how it handles the HD-PVR when I toss it at it, but so far so good


1 down, 2 more to go

[Arlos]

Doesn't it require a full system wipe when upgrading from XP? Read somewhere that you can't do a graceful upgrade, it has to completelyw ipe the drive and start over. That the case?

-Arlos

[Tikker]

yup

but unlike XP (which I really liked, and never had any real problems with) I didn't have to go find codecs, or install each piece of hardware, etc etc

I think the most trouble I had was hauling a monitor up by the tv (tv wouldn't recognize the pc while i was in the bios)

really, very little issues with the actual install. I got home at 5:30ish, had supper at 6 until lets say 6:30 and now at 8:30 i've been watching the football game in HighDef for the last 30-35 minutes

I think if I hadn't had to reboot the machine 10-12 times for the stupid hauppauge box, I'd have been done 30 minutes earlier (it doesn't help that I turned quick boot off earlier to fiddle with the bios earlier)


but really, easily the most painless install I've ever had

ubuntu 6-8 months ago was also really painless, but this was even better

so far I'd highly recommend it to anyone on XP or vista.
I think i even found a way to integrate the hdpvr into windows itself, rather than having to toss sage on top

[brinstar]

i got a legit copy of win7 64bit for $16 (woot, student discount) but haven't slapped it on the laptop yet

think i'll wait until the semester's over (i graduate in 7 weeks WOOT) before fucking with my setup

[Arlos]

Given that my brother works at the evil Empire, I can probably get a free copy without difficulty, but I am going to wait until either SP1 comes along, or until such time as I decide to get a new hard drive to put it on as my boot disk, and just convert my current one into a data drive. I really don't feel like copying eveyr single piece of data off of the drive, then tracking down all of my installation disks for all of my programs and then re-install and re-patch everything.

-Arlos

[Drem]

unless it's different than rc1, when you install windows 7 it just upgrades your OS. all your old files go to c:\windows.old folder. they're past time-consuming shit like backing things up these days

[Arlos]

Last I read, Windows 7 does things differently. If you are upgrading from XP, you need to do a complete reformat of your drive from the ground up, so yes, everything on it before is gone. If you upgrade from Vista, though, it's much more graceful apparently.

So, unless my information is wrong (and I just checked it again), what you are saying is not accurate.

-Arlos

[ClakarEQ]

No you don't have to reformat and you can just do what Drem noted. It will essentially rename the current windows dir to windows.old and install itself into windows.
I had to get some custom drivers on my old dell d810 to enable Aero but other than that, I've been impressed with this version so far and for any MS product to really impress me, well last time was the jump from windows 3.1 to 95 :p
EDIT
Just wanted to clarify that it isn't an upgrade so you do lose all your apps and such but it isn't a clean format install either.
EDIT x2
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 6674(WS.10).aspx
Has several routes, vista to w7, xp to w7, etc

[Tikker]

XP to win7 requires a clean install. unless you're the type that doesn't partition the drive, chances are you won't have enough space on your OS partition to slap win7 on as well

[Gidan]

I still have my current version of Windows 7 for a few more months but then will need to get a legit copy

[Tikker]

the 3x home licence for 200ish bucks was a good deal imo

[Gidan]

I would go nuts without being able to RDP into the computer. That's really the only downside to the lower versions. I use so little of the Ultimate version I am running except RDP.

[Lyion]

the 3x home licence for 200ish bucks was a good deal imo

I preordered 3 for 49.99 each since I use them as my PVRs in my office, living room, and bedroom. I was lucky enough to win an Ultimate copy, so I'll ebay my third in a few weeks when the homers are done with their first rounds on ebay.

I have nothing but good things to say about Win 7 for Media Center. My only complaint is my 360 RROD over the summer, but I have a spare Linksys extender I'm using in place.

[Gidan]

Where in the world did yall find your copies so cheap. The cheapest I was able to find (Outside of through the MS employee store) was about $100 for Home

[Tikker]

I would go nuts without being able to RDP into the computer. That's really the only downside to the lower versions. I use so little of the Ultimate version I am running except RDP.

you can RDP into any version of windows7

[Lyion]

Where in the world did yall find your copies so cheap. The cheapest I was able to find (Outside of through the MS employee store) was about $100 for Home

In July MS had a promotion where one could preorder Win 7 Home Premium for 49.99

I jumped on that as I wanted to update all three of my Media Center PCs I have around my house.

[Tikker]

Where in the world did yall find your copies so cheap. The cheapest I was able to find (Outside of through the MS employee store) was about $100 for Home

the standard 3pack home premium upgrade here is 200 bucks in every store

not sure what that is in the states, but I suspect 200 or less

it came with both 32bit and 64 bit versions

[Nusk]

i am liking windows 7 very much so far. still hate the UAC always asking me if i really want to run certain programs, but it is definitely faster than vista

[Tikker]

so turn UAC off then

it's really simple to do so

[Lyion]

so turn UAC off then

it's really simple to do so

It's also a really bad idea. UAC is irritating, but a nice deterrent for things that go bump in the night. You shouldn't need to run it every time you run a program.

You'll appreciate it if you ever get a keylogger or other program that tries to execute in the background.

[brinstar]

made the jump thursday, liking it so far

upgrading from vista was great, it kept everything right where it was