Official Windows 7 Discussion

[Angry_Gumball]

I recently got Windows 7 on a new computer at work so this is my first experience with it. For the most part (navigating through our network and stuff) it's much faster. Better than Vista. At work, I'm running Adobe software such as Photoshop, Premiere, and Encore (DVD authoring software), often 3 of them at once, granted that I have 16gb of memory on it. Occasionally it throws it's "Not Responding" fits but usually lasts about 15 seconds, and maybe happens once or twice a day...or not at all. I've been considering getting the student discount version while I can (I mainly need a 64-bit OS so I can add more memory) as it's only $30. My only other peeve is the ginormous desktop icons. I don't have bad vision, I'm not old, so I don't need them to be 3x their size. Minus those minor annoyances, I'm liking what I'm seeing from it. It has this "Mac" vibe to it while being a Windows OS.

[ginzo]

I can't say I've had many major problems with Windows 7. I do get a few application hangs every now and then, but nothing horrible. In my experience, Firefox is less stable in general than Win7.

 

I still run XP at work, but really should not. We're going to be using IPv6 more and more VERY soon and XP only has "experimental" IPv6 support.

 

We're down to the last 5% of the IPv4 address space. It's time to start switching over to software and hardware that supports IPv6 NOW because one day you're just going to wake up and your ISP won't have any more IPv4 addresses to assign/lease to you.

[robbalvey]

Occasionally it throws it's "Not Responding" fits but usually lasts about 15 seconds, and maybe happens once or twice a day...

This is how it started for me as well. I'd get the "not responding" thing a couple of times a day, and the program would almost always come back again. Overtime that happened more and more and programs got unstable. By the time I gave up on using Windows 7 for all my main tasks and switched to the Mac I was getting the "not responding" error about 15-20 times per day and it was a 50/50 chance that the program would just totally crash. I'd say at least once every other day the entire OS would totally crash as well. It just seemed to get more and more unstable as time went on.

 

In fact, just read this entire thread. You can litterally see how I went from "Wow! Windows 7 is great!" to "Uh, oh...I'm starting to have a few problems" to "OMFG SCREW THIS!!!!"

[Angry_Gumball]

While I may have a positive review with my Windows 7 experience, my coworker's had a few glitches where Photoshop or Encore would fully crash out on him, giving the Adobe Send Error report. I guess I'll just keep using it at work (as it's my primary computer) and see what the future brings. I did however have a bad boot up this morning where it hung up on the animated Windows logo...perhaps installing a new font the cause of it?

[Wes]

The one thing MAC has going for them is they limit and control the creation of software for their OS's ensuring that the programs are tested, retested, and certified for use. I can say that model has worked well for them, but in someways limits the ability of people to make stuff for their computers.

 

Um, no. Apple puts controls on iOs, which runs on the iPhone, iPod and iPad. Apple *does not* put any limits or controls on OSX, which runs on all their desktop and laptop computers. Robb is running OSX on his Macbook. OSX works like any modern desktop based operating system like Win7 or Linux. The main reason for the previous lack of gaming was Apple using PowerPC architecture for it's processors (which required a significant rewrite of code to run, usually not worth it for smaller games) , but since switching to Intel in 2006, more and more games have been ported.

 

Also, it's Mac, which is short for Macintosh, not MAC.

[chadster]

My only other peeve is the ginormous desktop icons. I don't have bad vision, I'm not old, so I don't need them to be 3x their size. Minus those minor annoyances, I'm liking what I'm seeing from it. It has this "Mac" vibe to it while being a Windows OS.

 

you can fix that, right click on the desktop > view > use small icons

 

also, to reduce the size of the taskbar icons, right click on the start bubble, > properties > taskbar tab > use small icons

 

then

under the start menu tab (in the same window open above) click customize, scroll to the bottom, and uncheck use large icons.

 

to customize more like old school windows, again using the same menu, click on the task bar tab again, and under taskbar buttons, choose "combine when taskbar is full"

 

that should solve the gigantic overpowering large icons, default from the manufacturer. If you can get 64 bit, do it.

[chadster]

The one thing MAC has going for them is they limit and control the creation of software for their OS's ensuring that the programs are tested, retested, and certified for use. I can say that model has worked well for them, but in someways limits the ability of people to make stuff for their computers.

 

Um, no. Apple puts controls on iOs, which runs on the iPhone, iPod and iPad. Apple *does not* put any limits or controls on OSX, which runs on all their desktop and laptop computers. Robb is running OSX on his Macbook. OSX works like any modern desktop based operating system like Win7 or Linux. The main reason for the previous lack of gaming was Apple using PowerPC architecture for it's processors (which required a significant rewrite of code to run, usually not worth it for smaller games) , but since switching to Intel in 2006, more and more games have been ported.

 

Also, it's Mac, which is short for Macintosh, not MAC.

 

 

I've been in the IT proffession for over 10 years and hold numerous certs, allbeit in the microsoft world. I only spent about a year in the apple world, there was more money in the MS world to be made at the time for my location, besides, really never cared for apples. Oh, and no need to be a smart a$$, I know what mac is short for, thank you.

[Wes]

Apologies, that came across as far more rude than I intended.

 

All good in the hood.

[chadster]

^ no worries man.

[robbalvey]

Ok Windows 7 experts, see if you can figure this one out...

 

About every other day or so Windows seems to just "run out of memory" on me. I'm not sure if this is what is actually happening or not, but for example, all of a sudden I'll go try to copy/paste a photo from the forum into Photoshop, and it just won't do it. It's like there is no more memory left to copy something to the clipboard. And then I'll start to try to open programs and they'll fail on me. Eventually restarting the computer totally solves this problem.

 

I've never had this happen on any of my XP machines, only Windows 7. And it seems to happen on all 3 of my Windows 7 machines.

 

Is there a memory leak? Is there a way to check for this?

 

I will often check the task manager and there aren't any unusual processes that are running, and usually it tells me that the memory being used up is 50% or less.

 

So what gives?

[ginzo]

^Process Explorer will show you all kinds of groovy things that standard Task Manager will not, like hidden malware processes. Though I highly doubt you have three infected machines that happen to be Win7.

[robbalvey]

^ I doubt it too, but I'll absolutely check that out!

[Angry_Gumball]

Ok Windows 7 experts, see if you can figure this one out...

 

About every other day or so Windows seems to just "run out of memory" on me. I'm not sure if this is what is actually happening or not, but for example, all of a sudden I'll go try to copy/paste a photo from the forum into Photoshop, and it just won't do it. It's like there is no more memory left to copy something to the clipboard. And then I'll start to try to open programs and they'll fail on me. Eventually restarting the computer totally solves this problem.

 

I've never had this happen on any of my XP machines, only Windows 7. And it seems to happen on all 3 of my Windows 7 machines.

 

Is there a memory leak? Is there a way to check for this?

 

I will often check the task manager and there aren't any unusual processes that are running, and usually it tells me that the memory being used up is 50% or less.

 

So what gives?

 

Ok, so I'm not the only one that's happened to...I thought I was going crazy or my keyboard wasn't working. I also tried copying something from the web and pasting into PS to no avail. Works sometimes, others not. My solution was to put the 2 windows (Browser and Photoshop) and drag the photo from the browser into PS. Yes, it is kind of a pain. Memory is not an issue on my machine to my knowledge...have 16 gigs, and have a 2TB hard drive that's only 10% used if that. I think it's just the windows glitch gremlins at their old tricks again.

[robbalvey]

Memory is not an issue on my machine to my knowledge...have 16 gigs, and have a 2TB hard drive that's only 10% used if that. I think it's just the windows glitch gremlins at their old tricks again.

Yeah, same with my machine. I notice it quite a bit when I try to print screen and then paste it into photoshop. It works up to a point, and if I've been using the computer and doing lots of stuff for a while, it's almost guaranteed it doesn't work and I have to re-boot.

 

I also notice that I have trouble copy/paste with gmail also. Even simple text won't copy from an email to the TPR forum for example. Even if I right click and choose "copy."

 

It's just weird.

[chadster]

you know robb, I'm starting to think more and more it's an Adobe doesn't like Win7 issue, but, I'm gonna give it one last go.

 

1. If you haven't already, run PS in XP mode (right click shortcut > properties > compatibility > run in XP SP3

while your at it, place a check in the box that says "disable desktop composition

 

2. Check page file/increase memory right click computer > properties then on the left side, choose advanced system settings > performance settings > advanced. under virtual memory, click change. If windows is automatically managing, un check the box click custom, set the max custom settings to the reccommended amount, the currently allocated is probably less that than the reccommeneded amount, and the min to 1000.

 

come to think of it, that might also help the not responding issue.

 

That's about all I have up my sleeve that's left in it to try. If i had a personal subscription to gotomeeting or the likes, I could link up to it and tweak it out, but I don't have a subscription I can use for it.

 

**edit ** if the drive is parted out, might try moving the pagefile to a different partition.

[Angry_Gumball]

I wonder if the compatibility can be an issue with some of the bugs I came across earlier using the Adobe Encore software. I was trying to work on a menu template for our DVD transfer stuff we do and have it set up that the menu has animated images on it. As soon as I attempted to render the menu, Encore gave me the finger though it looked like it was an Adobe-related error as it referenced something with Photoshop.

[chadster]

^ possibly, the strange thing is I have CS5 and no issue, but then again, I think Robb said he had CS4 (could be mistaken) I'd be curious to find out if you could set it to run in xp sp3 mode and see if it continues to give you fits. if you try it out, let us know.

 

**edit* the one thing I don't like about adobe is that even if you are not using the product (closed) it still runs background processes, some are update checkers, others are program processes for ie, etc.. I typically use msconfig and kill those at startup. BUT, when you start the programs, those processes fire up, and don't leave until you manually kill them, or reboot.

[Angry_Gumball]

I'm using CS4 as well. I guess I'll try it out tomorrow when I come back into work and if I'm not doing a whole lot.

[FeelTheFORCE]

Memory is not an issue on my machine to my knowledge...have 16 gigs, and have a 2TB hard drive that's only 10% used if that. I think it's just the windows glitch gremlins at their old tricks again.

It works up to a point, and if I've been using the computer and doing lots of stuff for a while, it's almost guaranteed it doesn't work and I have to re-boot.

 

I hear you on that one. I have been having that type of problem since Windows 95. It's almost a given that if I leave my computer on all day, by the end of the day I can barely do anything because it's running so slow, and nothing seems to be working. It's not as bad now, because restarting isn't a chore like it used to be (it's still very annoying, don't get me wrong), but It used to REALLY irritate me way back when, because it took my computer 8 years to restart.

[ginzo]

Our home machine will be an iMac after Christmas. I'll give Liz this Win7 laptop and toss her horrible Acer netbook into the Ohio River.

 

Even though I've had few problems, I'll be using Win7 for just a few more months because I like the Mac hardware and OS more. I'm no Steve Jobs fanboy, but I was a HUGE fanboy of FreeBSD before Jordan Hubbard went to Apple.

 

Most of my work cohorts have already made the switch. I feel late to the party.

[robbalvey]

^ I'm no Apple fanboy either. If anything, I'm a fanboy of "whatever seems to just work." For years XP was it as far as operating systems go. Never had a problem. Much like I've finding with OSX now. In fact, just about 15 minutes before reading this thread I had been on my Mac pretty much all day today, for about 12 hours on and off. Not a single problem at all. About an hour or so ago I switched over to the Win 7 machine because I needed to email a document that I had in Word, opened up Word...it crashed on opening... re-start, get Word opened, make the PDF, it crashed on saving it. re-started again, opened the file, made the PDF, closed Word...it crashed on closing! LMAO!!!

 

I instantly switched back to OSX...not a problem since.

 

Again, it "just works." And when/if I start having problems with a later Mac OS update...I might just make the switch again...who know. But for now, my main computing is done on the computer that "just works."

 

--Robb

[robbalvey]

In my ongoing amazement of how terrible Windows 7 is, I just find it fascinating how new things seem to crop up almost every day. Today I had something just awesome happen...

 

For whatever reason...I am no longer able to copy/paste from a PayPal Transaction screen to my Gmail Compose Mail box using Windows 7 and IE 8. Now, keep in mind, I used to be able to do this all the time. Not sure what one of the recent updates might have messed up, but no matter what I tried, I was unable to copy and paste text from these two websites.

 

I re-started IE, I re-booted the machine, nothing worked.

 

I had to copy from the PayPal transaction screen in IE and paste into my Gmail email in Firefox.

 

Note that before I posted this rant, I tested this on two different Win 7 machines and got the same result. I went ahead and tested this on my XP machine in IE, and it worked just fine.

 

I just don't understand how on operating system can be with so many little flaws and still be so well received. I guess over the years Windows users have come to lower their expectations of the product?

 

--Robb

[jray21]

I just don't understand how on operating system can be with so many little flaws and still be so well received. I guess over the years Windows users have come to lower their expectations of the product?

 

--Robb

 

I think you nailed it right there.

[chadster]

I don't understand why you keep having all of these issues. I have Win7 deployed on 100 nodes and none of the issues you've been blessed with have cropped up. Maybe Bill Gates found out you had an IPhone.

 

serioulsy, if you go to a command prompt type

 

sfc /scannow

 

if that doesn't fix the issue, you've got something going on in the install process or some program that's common between the two computers that's latched on and provided you with some less than desired fun.

 

malwarebytes is the best program (free) out there to clean up less than desired fun.

[robbalvey]

^ No malware or anything of that kind. I just think that the things we do hit the operating system a lot harder that the "average" user. Sure this is a very freak and weird problem, but how many users do you think you have that are copy/pasting things between PayPal and Gmail. Both websites use a lot of really heavy formatting, and for whatever reason IE just kind of "stopped responding" to it. When I tried to copy/paste the details, it would paste one graphical line into the email.

 

And seeing how this happened on both my Windows 7 machines, and it was specifically IE, and it was specifically two websites, and specifically a certain function in both websites, I'm sure it's just a freak bug that no one has found.

 

I have actually had very little problems with Windows 7 on my netbook, but all I use that for is browsing the web, copying files, and a few kids games for KidTums. I really get the feeling that Windows 7 is really made for your average person that doesn't do anything "outside the box" with their systems.

 

--Robb