# Windows 7, what's the verdict so far? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 5, 2010, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761 "2010-02-05T03:50:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/41 "2010-02-07T22:37:29Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Are people getting the OS disks with new computers? If not, what are you supposed to do in the event it dies and has to be re-installed? My system( 6 1/2 year old XP) has a recovery partition and the option to make a copy on CDs/DVD(once). ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/42 "2010-02-07T22:40:25Z")
> [@Apex\_Rogers](#): > > CTRL-N. Easier than clicking on the icon was, even. No, not easier at all. If I’m holding down CTRL with my left pinkie, I have to do a muscle-cramp-inducing stretch (literally the limit of my fingers’ span) in order to press the N key. Alternatively I could hold down CTRL with my pinkie and then press N with my right hand - arguably “easy,” except that it means I now have to put both hands on the keyboard and take my right hand off of the mouse. Realize that unless I am _typing out something_ while browsing the internet, I like to have my right hand on the mouse always. I realize how petty this seems. But, as I already said - here’s what it boils down to: a feature that I liked, and used all the time, was present in Vista (and XP) and not present in 7. I do not like that. ---
**Author:** ![gladtobeblazed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/43 "2010-02-07T22:51:56Z")
I tried 7 back when it was in beta. It wouldn’t let me turn off file sorting so I dumped it and went back to Vista. I should be able to arrange the icons in explorer windows any damn way I please. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Crap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.crap/32/3131_2.png) [@Dr.Crap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Crap)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/44 "2010-02-07T23:31:26Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Are people getting the OS disks with new computers? If not, what are you supposed to do in the event it dies and has to be re-installed? If you’re using Windows 7 and don’t have an OS disk or recovery disk/partition, you should at least have a sticker on your machine with a valid serial number that can be used on a downloaded copy of Windows 7. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/45 "2010-02-08T01:54:49Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > My system( 6 1/2 year old XP) has a recovery partition and the option to make a copy on CDs/DVD(once). Could you explain what you mean by recovery partition and how you would go about making a copy? I know someone who bought a new computer from a store “as is” and there were no discs. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/46 "2010-02-08T02:04:15Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Could you explain what you mean by recovery partition and how you would go about making a copy? I know someone who bought a new computer from a store “as is” and there were no discs. My hard drive has 2 partitions “C” and “D”. “D” contains the full OS(I think) and is used to re-install. You can make a one time copy to CD/DVD but I don’t remember the procedure as I did it almost first thing out of the box. ETA: This was in XP. ---
**Author:** ![Livardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/43a26b/32.png) [@Livardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Livardo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/47 "2010-02-08T02:43:05Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > No, not easier at all. If I’m holding down CTRL with my left pinkie, I have to do a muscle-cramp-inducing stretch (literally the limit of my fingers’ span) in order to press the N key. Alternatively I could hold down CTRL with my pinkie and then press N with my right hand - arguably “easy,” except that it means I now have to put both hands on the keyboard and take my right hand off of the mouse. > > Realize that unless I am _typing out something_ while browsing the internet, I like to have my right hand on the mouse always. > > I realize how petty this seems. But, as I already said - here’s what it boils down to: a feature that I liked, and used all the time, was present in Vista (and XP) and not present in 7. I do not like that. The Quick Launch is not available by default, but you can bring it back. This is what I’ve done and put a bunch of program shortcuts there. If I click once, I get a new instance, just like Vista or XP. ---
**Author:** ![Spectralist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Spectralist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectralist)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/48 "2010-02-08T12:12:19Z")
A heads up to anyone who dislikes font smoothing. It’s impossible to get it to go away completely in Win7 with Aero. You can turn it off in most content areas but it will still show up in the taskbar, most menus, in the control panel, and a few other places besides. You can only completely get rid of it by running windows classic theme. I sent some emails to Microsoft about it and they said they’d look into it but I wouldn’t hold my breath. > [@Livardo](#): > > The Quick Launch is not available by default, but you can bring it back. This is what I’ve done and put a bunch of program shortcuts there. If I click once, I get a new instance, just like Vista or XP. I have found that it’s less reliable than in previous versions though. It disappears almost anytime my computer crashes and I have to recreate it. And it also disappeared any time I rebooted my computer after installing Avast. Though I was able to fix that by checking “Delay loading of avast! services after other system services” in Avast’s options. That’s not something I had to do in previous versions of windows. I’m also not able to separate my quick launch bar from the taskbar and dock it on a different side of my screen like I was able to do in XP. Though I wasn’t able to do that in Vista either. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/49 "2010-02-08T15:14:16Z")
I’ll keep 7 on my laptop; I’m not in love with it, but it’s adequate. But on my desktop, I’m going to install XP. ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@Engineer\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Dude)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/50 "2010-02-08T15:55:15Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I do not want a new tab. I want a new window. Why? I don’t know. I just prefer it that way. I know why! It’s so you don’t click the X to close the window you have open, forgetting that there are tabs with other content also open in that same window. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/51 "2010-02-08T16:03:32Z")
> [@Engineer\_Dude](#): > > I know why! It’s so you don’t click the X to close the window you have open, forgetting that there are tabs with other content also open in that same window. Yes, that’s one reason, definitely. ---
**Author:** ![Headrush042](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Headrush042](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headrush042)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/52 "2010-02-08T16:06:53Z")
Windows 7 is worlds above Vista. Vista was _not_ fine, by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, they share the same code base – but 7 is everything Vista _should have_ been – performance, stability, resource consumption, compatibility, features, it’s all better across the board. Now, given the choice between 7 and XP, I’d say 7 is better on newer hardware, and XP for sure on older hardware; but XP is still a damn fine operating system, regardless. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/53 "2010-02-08T18:31:44Z")
I recently got a new computer with Windows 7 on it. My previous computer, which i still have, is almost 6 years old, and is running XP. I skipped over Vista completely. I always found XP to be a perfectly good OS. It was stable for me, i don’t think i ever got the dreaded Blue Screen of Death with it, and while it started to run a bit slow about a year ago, necessitating a reinstall, i think that was largely due to the fact that i download so many freeware programs just to play with (and usually forget about after a few uses) that they started to clog things up. Windows 7 so far seems perfectly fine, although i’m still getting used to how some things work, like the newer arrangement of files in the Libraries area. Figuring out the newer ownership and permissions issue for multiple users also took a bit of working out, although it’s really not too complicated for the most part. I like a lot of the little tools that make basic usage easier, like the Windows+Arrow function for docking a window on one side of the monitor. The Aero stuff is nice, although i could live without it if i had to, and it’s no more impressive than the Compiz i have running on my Ubuntu installation. It’s really hard for me to make any comments about the speed of the OS, because my new hardware is so much faster than my old computer. My XP box is a Pentium 4 3.0GHz with 2GB of memory, while Windows 7 is running on a Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5GHz with 6GB of RAM. Anyway, i’m pretty happy with it so far, but i’ve only really been using it for a few weeks, so we’ll see how it goes. ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/54 "2010-02-08T23:10:28Z")
had one computer with vista and another with xp. I didn’t really hate either of them but I definitely like Win 7 better. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/55 "2010-02-09T05:45:04Z")
> [@'\[Undecided](#): > > Adrian;12089058’]You can run an additional instance of a program with a middle click as well. …Why, so you can. I did not know that; thanks for the tip. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/56 "2010-02-09T08:34:52Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I realize how petty this seems. But, as I already said - here’s what it boils down to: a feature that I liked, and used all the time, was present in Vista (and XP) and not present in 7. I do not like that. Solution here: > **[Windows 7 question](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=546125)** > > Upgraded from Vista to Windows 7. All seems great except for one really annoying thing. In Vista, XP, 98 etc., if I wanted to open a new Internet Explorer window, all I had to do was mouse over and click (w/ touchpad) over the quick launch explorer... ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/57 "2010-02-10T00:41:49Z")
I haven’t noticed any significant difference between Vista and Windows 7 so far. (A few little things, good and bad, but nothing major.) Frankly, Windows 7 _is_ Vista, more or less. It’s more like a Service Pack upgrade than a new operating system. ---
**Author:** ![Apex\_Rogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@Apex\_Rogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apex_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/58 "2010-02-13T01:04:15Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > No, not easier at all. If I’m holding down CTRL with my left pinkie, I have to do a muscle-cramp-inducing stretch (literally the limit of my fingers’ span) in order to press the N key. Alternatively I could hold down CTRL with my pinkie and then press N with my right hand - arguably “easy,” except that it means I now have to put both hands on the keyboard and take my right hand off of the mouse. > > Realize that unless I am _typing out something_ while browsing the internet, I like to have my right hand on the mouse always. > > I realize how petty this seems. But, as I already said - here’s what it boils down to: a feature that I liked, and used all the time, was present in Vista (and XP) and not present in 7. I do not like that. There are two CTRL keys, you know. You could cross your left hand over and hit both buttons with your left hand. I’d bet this would be quite easily after a couple of tries. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/59 "2010-02-13T01:23:31Z")
I’m just about to do the upgrade. I’ve Ghosted my machine. I’ve saved all my files in multiple ways, including using MS’s Easy Transfer and I’m just about ready to take the plunge. Wish me luck. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761/60 "2010-02-13T08:09:03Z")
The upgrade can take a **very** long time. Just leave it going. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-7-whats-the-verdict-so-far/527761.md?page=4)