Occasional Observations

Here we are on Day 7 with Windows 7 - time for a GBU* update.

The good: Stability and functionality. The "keep the lights on" cost has fallen to well below 1GB of RAM. The gains are boosted by disabling most of the unnecessary services (take a bow, Windows Time sync), deleted others (farewell, Apple Mobile Device Sync, I don't have an iPhone so I don't need you) and switched a bunch more to manual. I've also switched back to the Windows Basic look - who needs Aero? No visible performance gain but a slightly blockier appearance, in fact I'm reminded of the Windows 2000 Pro look. As a result of lower system resource usage, the fan isn't blowing so hard any more ... going back to a near-silent notebook is a bonus. Another real boon has been that BlackBerry software finally works with Bluetooth sync ...

The bad: My anti-virus solution of choice didn't install across the network despite it claiming to be Windows 7-ready. I'm investigating. Meanwhile using A.N.Other anti-virus solution and the trusty ol' Windows Firewall. And Outlook 2007 SP2 is playing games - I'm getting occasional system freezes for up to a couple of minutes, but this could also be something to do with a plug-in that I'm watching with Eagle eyes.

The ugly: TrueType on my notebook panel. Just fuzzy. On my desktop monitor it looks OK ... and there's no way I'm tuning it every time I make the switch. I'll probably turn it off. Also - my favorite button on the entire desktop has moved house: I'm talking about the Minimize Desktop button that used to sit bottom left in my tray. Bottom right isn't intuitive just yet.

Despite lower internal fan use, battery life still seems to be down, although I'm using the vanilla settings right now instead of the more tuned drivers for my notebook ... this has just been a case of getting A Round Tuit. I've got a second battery in the notebook DVD drive in any case. It could also be that the excellent Battery Bar is still fine-tuning its power lifetime calculations.

So what's on my machine now I've had the luxury of a clean install? Here's my list:

* Anti-virus (like, doh)
* CCleaner
* Roboform
* GoodSync
* Office 2007 SP2
* Google Desktop
* Adobe Acrobat Reader
* Adobe AIR
* Revo Uninstaller
* Skype
* ICQ
* Firefox and various plug-ins, numero uno being Delicious.com as ever
* Freemind
* Mozy
* BlackBerry Desktop Manager
* Picasa
* Spotify
* iTunes - but NOT Bonjour. I said "au revior" to that as soon as iTunes had installed
* Various admin tools

And that's it except to say that I'm also testing O&O's Clever Cache, as a replacement for an SD card that I used to use with Vista for ReadyBoost. Although it worked with Vista, Windows 7 said "nein danke" and after I actually resourted to RTFM (definition here if you don't know what this means) I dumped the hardware and am testing a software solution.

It claims to be saving around 130MB of memory that would otherwise be used by File Cache. However, I'd tried Clever Cache with Vista and couldn't tell the difference. I think it's one of those subtle pieces of software that you never really know you need until it's gone ... but I won't know that for another 21 days.

* The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly - abbreviation as used by CAR magazine since time immemorial

Labels: tech, w7, Windows7

The mass-market beta test worked ... I handed over cash this morning for a full version of Windows 7. Although I'd planned to get the 32-bit Pro edition, the store was out except for Ultimate - which is quite nice as it's got the language pack built-in.

We are officially in the honeymoon period - the install was painless, everything works, and a few things that never worked now do... for example Bluetooth sync on BlackBerry. This should never have been an issue, but it was one of the many things wrong with Vista.

Maybe in 30 years someone will work out the true cost to MS of Vista. For now, I'll be generous and say I am very relieved to be in a Vista-free zone personally, that I pledge to get my friends and family out of that space asap, and I hope the honeymoon lasts for years.

Labels: w7, Windows7

My notebook is jittering with excitement - it's getting a Windows 7 makeover this weekend.
It's a production machine but I'm not going in blind: it passes the minimum spec (ie it can run Vista) and I'm counting the cycles til I can rid my life of V***a.

Since we don't quite live in an Orwellian world I've not gone back and rewritten my original posts on how exciting it was to get Vista in the first place ... but this time around I am wiser and ready.

Watch this space for updates, but no promises on how fast - and no update does not necessarily mean it was a disastrous fail and I'm off da grid. Just busy.

Labels: w7, Windows7

Thinking of upgrading to Windows 7? Then take a look at Amazon.de's crazy Windows 7 pricing.

The idea of upgrading from XP or the wretched Vista certainly has my stamp of approval - but if you're thinking about going to Amazon's website to choose your upgrade package, choose carefully, or you'll end up spending a lot more than necessary.

According to amazon.de this morning, they're offering all 16 of the standard packages.

First come the lowly Home Premium editions - choose from a 32/64-bit combi, a 32/64 upgrade, or individual 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Next come the more useful Pro editions - and the same choice of versions.

After that, the Ultimate editions ...

And finally, the version upgrades, from Starter to Home Premium, from HP to Pro, and from Pro to Ultimate.

Now look at Amazon.de's pricing and you'll see that they will probably have a hard time shifting those version upgrades. Who in their right mind would pay EUR167.99 to upgrade from HP to Pro when they could buy a stand-alone Pro license for EUR50 less?

The combined 32- and 64-bit versions are also much more expensive. Who the heck would lay out EUR298.95 for the Windows 7 Pro 32 and 64-bit version when they could buy individual licenses for both a 32-bit version AND a 64-bit version and still save EUR66? It just doesn't add up!

The most ludicrous deal of all has to be the upgrade paths. Anyone who is unfortunate enough to buy a new Windows 7-enabled PC or notebook that comes with the Starter edition, and wants to upgrade, is probably better off either choosing a different model in the first place, or wiping the pre-installed software and doing a clean install. Why? Because anyone who pays EUR72.99 for the Starter to HP upgrade, then lays out a further EUR167.99 for the HP to Pro uplift, just has to be cuckoo crazy.

If you do choose Amazon.de as your provider of the shiny new Windows7 software, select your version carefully.

Labels: amazon, rant, Windows7

It might sound dramatic, "removing the roadblocks to living with Windows 7", but I'm not ready to sacrifice access to a bunch of network drives just to get away from Vista.

Therefore, getting my "toaster" (the Netgear / Zetera SC101 network drives) running is an important step in migrating away from Vista. Although the set-up program is able to install, - after a fashion, anyway - it won't actually run under W7, even via any compatibility mode.

Thinking back, Netgear was pretty slow to put up drivers even for Vista, so there's no hope that the company is going to be proactive with a niche product like the toaster ... as confirmed by the forums, where in Jan 2009 the official moderator wrote: "Please wait until Windows 7 is fully out".

Since then, nothing - not even any hints that Netgear might be developing drivers etc and looking to benefit from those tens of thousands of beta testers. What a huge missed opportunity: Netgear doesn't strike me as a very progressive or customer-friendly company any more. Shame... While I'm on the subject of customer care, Netgear still hasn't even bothered to certify its Vista / XP drivers for the SC101.

The same thread, however, does offer plenty of information from enthusiastic users. Better still, there are step-by-step instructions that actually work. They involve exporting registry keys from XP or Vista, and importing into Windows 7.

This worked, to a point. After I'd started the z-san service, the network drives just popped up in Explorer. I got asked if I'd like to format one (of course not) as it was mounting. But the anti-virus software didn't like this and I got my first 7 bluescreen. A reboot, reinstallation of the a-v software and things stablized.

Note to Netgear: I'd love to test an official beta of any SC101 software for W7. I'd even sign an NDA... But I am not holding my breath waiting for you to actually do anything for at least nine months.

Labels: toaster, w7, Windows7

The arrival of something like a new smartphone, laptop or even car often means a splurge on extras, too - making sure the new baby is properly pampered in the thrill of the first weeks of ownership.

That's what I'm going through with Windows 7 - because to make the Release Candidate really useable I've installed my favorite software (a good subject for another blog post, perhaps). Under the skin it doesn't appear to be much different from its bastard sibling Vista, except that it runs faster, lighter, smoother...

Now it's up and running, and it's got enough software installed to be useful, I'm wondering: now what? How long before I hit problems? In fact, the first ones have already come up: something minor, which is that an old webcam doesn't work (big deal, rarely used that one), and something more major, which is that the Toaster (Netgear storage central) won't install properly.

Remembering all the aggro I read about in getting Netgear to update the software at all, I'm not exactly optimistic that they'll be rushing to update the toaster for 7. There must be plenty of other work-arounds, such as installing new NAS software on the drive itself. Further investigation needed.

To come back to the question, though: will W7 fall victim to the classic Windows slowdown problem after a few months? Will my drives get filled up with useless log files that record the time and date I opened, closed or resized windows? This is the sort of stuff that needs to be disabled by default - nice to have it, but you don't need it running.

One more thing: My XP virtual machine - which ran like molasses on Vista - is fairly hopping along with W7. No other changes, just the host OS.

Labels: tech, w7, Windows7

Installation complete: When it comes to Windows 7 I can see what the fuss is all about. It's a modern version of Windows that looks like Vista, but works like XP.

Having followed the debate about whether or not 7 should be "just a Vista service pack", I've had to wait until now to chime in. Logically, it's Windows 98 to Win95, but emotionally, it should be issued as a free service pack by way of apology to long-suffering Vista users.

Let's delve into the process of getting W7. As my system has dual hard drives, I didn't bother wasting plastic by burning a DVD, instead I used WinRAR to unpack the ISO to a spare drive, and then instigated the upgrade.

It didn't work. The upgrade process got stuck twice in the process of importing / converting all my files ... the rollback to Vista (couldn't it have been nice, and rolled me back to XP?) worked.

Next step was to create a DVD and boot from this, installing W7 on a different partition of my primary hard drive. This worked ... but be warned, you need a LOT of space - the initial 15GB was enough to get W7 installed but not enough for transferring my profiles. After adjusting the partitions (let Vista or W7 do this for you, it's the easiest way) I was ready to roll again with a 60GB "C" drive.

Installation takes about an hour, it's largely unattended until you pump in the licence key (this step can be skipped for the first 30 days too). Once the system is up and running, the differences are immediately clear. It uses less memory than Vista. It starts applications faster. It's cleaner, smoother, and perhaps more intuitive too.

The key tool is the transfer settings wizard, which has again been updated for the new operating system. It's now called Windows Easy Transfer and is almost idiot-proof, but thankfully there's a manual mode ... allowing me to select only the files from the soon-to-disappear Vista C drive for transfer. This tool works pretty well, transferring all account settings ... but not installed programs, which is a disappointment. I guess licensing issues put paid to that.

Our system is now dual-boot ... as both partitions are on the same physical hard drive. Windows gets confused if you have two bootable partitions on separate drives.

The next steps: giving everyone a chance to get used to W7 and enjoy the greater speed and functionality ... usability is improved because it does respond way faster than Vista could ever manage. I've also got to ponder the Office 2007 licensing issues ... is it worth installing and registering the suite on my RC version of W7 only to have to then re-install and re-register when (if) I buy a license for the full version?

Questions, questions.

Labels: w7, Windows7

A while back I wrote about abandoning the Windows 7 beta, because of the obvious flaws of running it in a virtual machine on Vista.

Since then, our home PC has been getting cranky running Vista. The main problems are that the cooling fan is running more and more - and disk usage is up ... classic signs of an aged Windows installation that needs attention. The fan blades are clean, the heat-sync connection is good, and the disks are well defragmented. I've also cleaned out all unnecessary files and still my 18-month-old Vista installation has slowed down.

The inevitable solution is usually a clean install ... but really I can't face it this time. The machine has five user accounts on it, all five are used, and it's a heck of a lot of work to rebuild five profiles. All are backed up of course, but even so ...

Therefore - and probably against my better judgment - I'm going for the Vista-to-Seven upgrade program this time. It's a mighty slow process: one hour in, it's still only 63% of the way through gathering files, settings and programs: I'm informed that there are 585,000 of these! However, at least I don't need to do anything apart from sit and watch (and write this post).

I was going to have to reinstall Vista (or perhaps XP) anyway. That's how I'm justifying this little experiment.

Labels: Windows7

I'm abandoning the Windows 7 Beta. It's an inevitable decision and has probably been obvious all along as there is simply no point in using a host machine running Vista for *any* feature-rich VM if it has only 2GB of memory.

It's certainly possible to use Vista and VMware Player for a lite Linux distro, or an XP installation that is content to work with 512MB. But expecting a new MS operating system to run fast and mean on a Vista host ... well, that's a leap of faith.

And since Vista is my host OS, it pretty much kyboshes the idea of running W7 at all in Beta. I'm most certainly not going to install a time-bomb OS on either of my production machines, and my sandbox machine is currently awaiting a new hard drive. Actually, scratch that, it has only 1GB of RAM.

It's not a difficult or heart-wrenching decision to abandon the W7 Beta. I liked the wallpapers, if that's any consolation. Had it been an OS that looked like it would make up for all the many, many things that are evidently wrong with Vista, like being able to run with 1GB of memory as I originally assigned to the VM, then I'd have been ready to invest time and effort in installing software, playing with the OS and getting a feel for how it could change my life.

Instead I'm just frustrated. And I still don't think a Mac is the answer either.

Labels: tech, virtualization, Vista, w7, Windows7

Okay, it was my fault: no way could W7 detect disabled VMware drivers. So I enabled the drivers and booted from the ISO. Under an hour later, Windows 7 was up and running, complete with network connectivity!

Here's a glimpse of the desktop. No doubt we'll eventually get as sick of the sight of that fish as most people are of the tree and hillside in the XP default wallpaper.

Labels: Windows7

After Friday's fiasco, with supply unable to meet demand, Microsoft managed to get the public beta of Windows 7 under way, making the software available for download quietly on Sunday. After an overnight download (the ISO is 2.43GB, which takes a couple of hours on a 2meg DSL connection) and burning the DVD, I was able to successfully install the 32-bit version into a virtual machine without problems.

However ... where's the beef? At first glance, 7 is little more than SP2 for Vista. It's got some extra wizards, which may or may not be a good thing, moving forwards. At least the dreaded User Account Control seems to be less intrusive. I haven't come across it yet.

One nice touch that's already impressed is the opportunity to change desktop / display / screensaver / theme settings all in one.

Regarding the greatest bugbears, bloat and performance, it's quite hard to tell straight away in a VM if 7 is going to be any better. On the positive side, the fact that it ran and was usable at all with 1GB of RAM is an achievement, this was never possible with Vista. Of course the downside was that by sharing half my RAM, the host Vista machine became unusable ... but then during my test sessions it will be only that: a host.

More soon.

Labels: tech, virtualization, Windows7

Windows 7 isn't in Beta phase, it's in Beta farce! Blaming unexpectedly high traffic to their website, Microsoft pulled the plug on the 2.5 million public Beta downloads of W7 yesterday. Hardly a great start.

It clearly shows there's pent-up demand for a better version of Windows. XP was OK, but Vista was supposed to be better. In some ways it is, but it's also bloated and over-complicated. So Microsoft has wisely decided to cut bait, even before Vista SP2 is upon us, by pushing through the next-generation OS, Windows 7.

At least I hope it's the next-generation and not a poorly-disguised Vista SP2.

Disappointing to have to wait a little longer for the public Beta of 7. Let's hope it is worth it.

Labels: virtualization, Vista, Windows7

I'm taking the bait and will be trying to download the first public beta of Windows 7 once it's available later today. My first installation will be within a VM enviroment, since it's taken me ages to work towards a very functional, stable version of Vista.

I'll post some updates in the coming days.

Labels: virtualization, Vista, Windows7