Windows 7
Sunday, November 15, 2009
I upgraded my PC recently to Windows 7 Professional. The upgrade went pretty smoothly and as expected. Since I had been running XP, I had to do a clean install. First I backed up all of my files and settings to an external hard drive, then after I finished the install I copied the settings and files back again. Since my computer turned out to have a Windows experience index of 4.6, I am able to run all features in Windows 7 including the Aero interface without any problems. Actually my score would have been even better if it weren't for my graphics card. Everything else was in the six range. I was a bit surprised that my graphics card only scored 4.6, although 4.6 is acceptable. It is an ATI Radion 3470 with 256 MB of dedicated memory. I guess that I should have gone for a card with 512 MB, but that's water under the bridge now.
Anyway, my system seems to be very fast, even faster than XP was, and that's with Aero enabled. Startup is a bit faster and shutdown is much faster, so I am really happy about that.
As far as the Windows 7 interface goes, it takes some getting used to but it is starting to grow on me. At first I didn't like the new start menu, and the fact that you are not able to revert to the classic start menu as you could with XP, but after some tweaking I can live with it.
I had two software titles that I had used for years which are not compatible with Windows 7. Forte Agent 4 and Cool Edit Pro 2.1 won't run on Windows 7, even in the compatibility mode. That's too bad. I especially miss Cool Edit. To upgrade to a compatible version which is now called "Adobe Audition," it would have cost me about $300, so I think I will pass on that. Instead, I am evaluating an alternative, Goldwave, and so far I am satisfied with it but I have not decided if I want to make it my permanent WAV editor or not.
This is a screen shot of my new desktop using the Aero interface.
Anyway, my system seems to be very fast, even faster than XP was, and that's with Aero enabled. Startup is a bit faster and shutdown is much faster, so I am really happy about that.
As far as the Windows 7 interface goes, it takes some getting used to but it is starting to grow on me. At first I didn't like the new start menu, and the fact that you are not able to revert to the classic start menu as you could with XP, but after some tweaking I can live with it.
I had two software titles that I had used for years which are not compatible with Windows 7. Forte Agent 4 and Cool Edit Pro 2.1 won't run on Windows 7, even in the compatibility mode. That's too bad. I especially miss Cool Edit. To upgrade to a compatible version which is now called "Adobe Audition," it would have cost me about $300, so I think I will pass on that. Instead, I am evaluating an alternative, Goldwave, and so far I am satisfied with it but I have not decided if I want to make it my permanent WAV editor or not.
This is a screen shot of my new desktop using the Aero interface.
