Maximum PC article Windows 7 - Vista - XP

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 9:42 pm

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/review ... page=0%2C0

Not so much to show the performance differences, but the beginning give some nice highlights on some of the new features of 7.

TonyT · Post by **TonyT** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 7:59 am

I like the "shake window" feature.
Grab the window with the mouse, shake it, it maximizes.

I just wish that the taskbar was more customizable. One should be able to set its transparency, colors, etc, as in most Linux window managers.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 8:11 am

Yeah the "shake" feature is neat...wonder why they came up with that though, as it's easier (less effort) to just double tap the top of a window to max it.

I miss the "Show Desktop" button in the quicklaunch bar we always had in the past...even back to Win9X.

Bummer there's (at least I haven't found a way yet) to bring a classic desktop back. For home users, no problem. From for a business network environment...supporting end users, it's important to use to be able to walk end users to managing my computer, or managing network connections..in the easiest manner.

I'm happy they improved the wireless network configuration, as Vista was a huuuge step backwards there.

J-high · Post by **J-high** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 2:51 pm

Fyi.. the shortcut to view your desktop is on the right of the taskbar past the date/clock. Hover the mouse and shows you the desktop, click it goes to desktop.

TonyT · Post by **TonyT** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 4:00 pm

I miss the classic menu that was still available in Vista. I absolutely hate the new start menu. I wish there was at least a tweak to "always show" the programs menu w/out having to click "programs".

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 6:55 pm

TonyT wrote:I wish there was at least a tweak to "always show" the programs menu w/out having to click "programs".

There is, but I can't find it. Maybe changed from the Beta to RC?

I've gotten use to keeping the 12 I want on that first part.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 7:12 pm

J-high wrote:Fyi.. the shortcut to view your desktop is on the right of the taskbar past the date/clock. Hover the mouse and shows you the desktop, click it goes to desktop.

Ahh cool..there she is. Just as handy over there.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 7:16 pm

TonyT wrote:I miss the classic menu that was still available in Vista. I absolutely hate the new start menu. I wish there was at least a tweak to "always show" the programs menu w/out having to click "programs".

Agreed...I like to show them all up front, and the "jump list" doesn't seem to be adapting to my habits.

And wish the Run box was there by default...gotta hit a checkbox to turn that on. The run box is another useful feature to have when supporting end users.

I've made it my fulltime OS on my primary laptop, I had read battery performance was supposed to be improved...but so far it has a much shorter runtime than Vista did on this laptop. Could be a coincidence that my battery is starting to go..but it sure seemed to start immediately after doing the install. Or that Lenovo's Vista drivers don't work so well with Win7 yet.

24giovanni · Post by **24giovanni** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 7:24 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Ahh cool..there she is. Just as handy over there.

If you want to put it back where it was here you go

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-get-the-goo ... windows-7/

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sun Sep 20, 2009 7:35 pm

24giovanni wrote:If you want to put it back where it was here you go

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-get-the-goo ... windows-7/

Ahh yeah...I remember that, more than once I whipped up that shortcut by hand just as in that article.

I see Eset NOD32 version 2.7 on those screenies....apparently it runs fine in Windows 7.

TonyT · Post by **TonyT** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 8:12 am

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Agreed...I like to show them all up front, and the "jump list" doesn't seem to be adapting to my habits.

Or that Lenovo's Vista drivers don't work so well with Win7 yet.

While Intel and other manufacturers recommend using the notebook manufacturers' drivers, I have never run into any problems using hardware manufacturer drivers. For example, a lenovo laptop may have an ATI video driver at the Lenovo site, but the ATI site also has the same driver, usually newer. Most of the time the only differences are branding names.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 8:41 am

TonyT wrote:While Intel and other manufacturers recommend using the notebook manufacturers' drivers, I have never run into any problems using hardware manufacturer drivers. For example, a lenovo laptop may have an ATI video driver at the Lenovo site, but the ATI site also has the same driver, usually newer. Most of the time the only differences are branding names.

Typically I agree. The FireGL V5200 256 meg in my case, last time I did a rebuild on this laptop w/Vista, for some reason the ones from ATI/AMD didn't settle in. Lenovo often doing a touch of proprietary...such as with their Intel Wireless NICs.

But what I was referring to about Lenovo's Vista drivers was the "System Drivers" (required for the hot keys to function properly with OSD as well as other system specific functions), and "Power Management" drivers. With laptops, the laptop vendors site is the only source of those drivers.