[SOLVED] Is Windows 7 better than Vista/XP ?

[mamali]

If you tried Windows 7, or currently using it, please kindly answer the following simple questions. It will hugely help the people who want to migrate to the new OS:

Is it better than Vista or XP?
Did you upgraded from the previous OS, or used a fresh installation?
If you upgraded, did you require to reinstall any of your software packages?
Do you have a 32bit or a 64 bit system?

I also keen to know if EDA software, especially CST Microwave Studio and Ansoft HFSS can work in Windows 7.

Thanks in advance,
.m

 

[pakitos]

when a new os is released no advanced testing will be performed. it takes too much time. so they release it and try to fix bugs using the send report way. everytime a bug is detected and reported they try to fix it.
the problem with vista is that the level of defects were too high.
to answer your question i think we should wait

 

[ChrisC]

when a new os is released no advanced testing will be performed. it takes too much time.

Not true. In addition to all the test builds released to the official testing teams, Microsoft also released a beta test version to the public back in January, so Microsoft was able to gather quite a lot of info about Win 7 prior to its RTM date. There was also the release candidate made public in May, but that was so close to the RTM date that I doubt it would have contributed much to fixing any bugs prior to RTM - what it has done however is boost the number of machines running Win7 in the period immediatelly following the commercial release, thus giving Microsoft more of a chance to, sooner rather than later, pick up on any bugs which slipped through the beta test programme.


Bear in mind all the negative reaction generated by the sub-par Vista release and the length of time it took Microsoft to address even just some of them - do you honestly think they'd put themselves in the same position again with Windows 7, and give people already fed up with the whole Vista shambles more of an incentive to consider jumping ship to Linux or OS X?

Whether you like them or not, and personally I think Microsoft have still been more of a force for harm in the personal computing world than a force of good, you'd need to be completely hostile towards them to claim that they haven't tried a hell of a lot harder with the Windows 7 release than they've ever done with any other version of Windows. Over the years I've used almost every non-server version of Windows since 3.1, and despite my dislike of the Vista-esque appearance of Win7, I've been nothing but impressed by the core performance and stability of this initial release - it's a significant step up over the initial releases of every other version. Would I buy a copy of Win7 once the RC version expires next year? Probably not, I'm quite happy with the performance of XP on all of the PCs I'm responsible for, so I can't justify the expense and hassle of upgrading any of them. On the other hand, if I were to buy myself a new pre-built PC which came with Win7, I wouldn't be in a hurry to reformat the drive and stick XP on instead - something I've done with every Vista PC I've had...


So as far as the OP's question goes. Based on my experience of using the public beta and RC versions of Win7, compared to pre-installed versions of Vista Home/Business and personally installed versions of XP Pro/MCE, I'd say this:

The choice between Vista and Win7 is simple, I'd pick 7 every single time. It feels smoother, most of the annoying prompts that were turned on by default in Vista seem to have been turned off by default (or removed entirely) in 7, and whilst it might still look like Vista, it's a sufficiently significant upgrade of the underlying code to make it a more pleasing OS to work with.

The choice between XP and 7 is far less clear. If you've bought a new PC and it came with 7 pre-installed, I'd be tempted to stay with it (although depending on how much third-party crap was installed by the manufacturer, I might be tempted to wipe the drive and reinstall a clean copy of 7 instead...). But if you're currently running XP and you don't need access to any Vista/7-specific software (e.g. anything requiring DX10/11) then you'd need to weigh up the few genuine advantages 7 offers over XP (quicker startup times, somewhat better stability, support and updates guaranteed for several years to come etc.) and decide if they're worth the financial cost of buying the most appropriate version of 7, and then the time and hassle required to migrate across.

 

[s_cihan_tek]

For me, 7 is better than Vista. It's faster and less buggy, but lacks good driver support atm.

I tried both of them, however none of them were better than XP in my opinion, therefore i'm still using XP. Vista and 7 are full of useless features most of which are targeting casual users with very little or no knowledge about computers. These lead to unnecessarily high space/memory requirements and therefore to poor performance in lots of different areas.

Currently, i cannot see any reason to upgrade from XP to Vista/7, unless, as stated above, you need to use Vista specific features, drivers, software etc...

 

[mamali]

what about 64bit? Is XP 64 also so good. Btw, I also think XP is better for an expert. I have 3GB RAM, and with Vista, not much remined for my software!
However, please also inform if u did upgrade from Vista to XP, and could have still used your installed software.

 

[sebmaster]

Hi,

I love Windows 7 so will always be up for putting in my $0.02


I ran Xp 32bit for many years and went straight to 7 skipping Vista entirely.

Windows 7 I find has better performance than XP in pretty much every way. The compatability is good; all the development packages I work with work well on 7 though I havnt had much of a chance to play many games yet.

The biggest advantage I see over XP is that XP 64bit had terrible driver issues (the main reason I never used it) and so 7 can take full advantage of 64 bit PCs (which is pretty much every remotely modern PC).
I will also say 7 hasn't crashed once since I installed the beta 6 months ago (retail has been on for a month). I am finding it more stable than XP.

7 has moved a few things around but beneath the surface things like the Administrative tools are all still there in their original form and will be familiar to XP users.

A list of packages that Ive used on 7 and can say are working (64bit) that would be of interest to this forum:

Proteus ISIS 7
Proteus ARES 7
Altera Quartus 9 & 9.1*
AVR32 Studio 2.2 & toolchain
PureBasic
Sun VirtualBox
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
RealVNC server & client

XP Mode is excellent and though I have used it quite a bit so far I haven't acctually found a program that doesnt run under 7 natively with a couple of settings changed.

*One thing though, with regards to Quartus, the ByteBlaster parallel cables don't work as Quartus LPT driver doesn't run on Windows 64bit OSs.
As I understand it as Windows operating systems get more advanced the harder it is for programs to be able to interact with the hardware directly so this is likely to be symptomatic of many devices like the ByteBlaster.

In response to the questions:
Is it better than Vista or XP? YES
Did you upgraded from the previous OS, or used a fresh installation? FRESH
Do you have a 32bit or a 64 bit system? 64

 

[mamali]

Good, thorough replies. As you may know, Microsoft provide a huge student discount for upgrade to windows 7 (29US$, 39 CAD$), therefore, please share your experience as soon as possible, the offer will end Jan 3, 2010.

 

[Vandal S]

for me, Windows 7 is definitely better than xp. also, in some versions is integrated a windows xp (but is not suitable to run games in xp mode). But is it better than Vista? I got used to it, it worked for me pretty good, windows 7 has too much change (no classic task bar, the task bar itself is different,etc)

 

[ArJunaBug]

Bear in mind all the negative reaction generated by the sub-par Vista release and the length of time it took Microsoft to address even just some of them - do you honestly think they'd put themselves in the same position again with Windows 7, and give people already fed up with the whole Vista shambles more of an incentive to consider jumping ship to Linux or OS X?

I have been working as a computer engineer since long before Windows version 1 was released. I have worked very closely with Windows from the beginning and I can assure you that Microsoft has always and will always put out crap software before it is ready. They owe their success to people like me who spent countless hours (more like days, weeks, and years) figuring out the problems, or circumventing them so that the user base did not throw their garbage s/w back in their face. There is no reason to think Windows 7 will be any different.

 

[ve1alq]

What was windows 1........I remember 3 & 3.1 or has someone had a night mare.
I have windws VISTA (CRAP) and Win7 not much better, and everyday have to revert back to XP to get something done.....Hope MS enjoys another FLOP

Windows 7 is designed for gamers and imaging, as a productive platform for engineers it is a complete FLOP...like a Vitus

 

[microKernel]

it's time microsoft make a version for engineering software to be successful in this sector. If there are many windows 7 (basic, ultimate, professional blah blah blah), then why not have a Windows 7 Engineering.

Regarding comparison with Vista, it's UI is more responsive. The awkward UAC, is managed in a little better way. The ugly copy problem with Vista doesn't look present in Win7. I read somewhere it has a little better peripheral support especially USB but that isn't much better than XP.

Win7 is new so driver supprot with be poor as of now but will mature with time.

 

[Enlightenment]

In response to the questions:
Is it better than Vista or XP? YES
Did you upgraded from the previous OS,
or used a fresh installation? FRESH on new C drive
Do you have a 32bit or a 64 bit system? 32

Rule#1 I never install Windows as upgrades because you don't know what types of problems your are going to drag along with it.

My primary computer is a 1.5 year old laptop that has an Intel Penryn CPU with 3GB RAM and two 7200 RPM internal drives. It was very responsive under Vista and even more with 7.

I have a second computer that is a very low end CPU and embedded video with 1GB RAM and Windows 7 is amazingly response for the low-end system. Windows 7 is better than Vista for lower-end systems.

I have used almost every version of Windows 3.1 and later except the last 2 servers flavors.

As typical when you ask a questions of whether some flavor of Windows is better...you get lots of ignorant idiots giving responses that are completely wrong or bogus (from Apple-only and Linux-only users).

>>Win7 is new so driver supprot with be poor as of now but will mature with time.

WTF? Windows 7 is based on Windows VISTA, so almost everything that worked with VISTA then works with 7. Some vendors didn't create drives for their older hardware for VISTA and still haven't for 7, but that isn't Microsoft's fault, it is lazy cheap-ass peripheral company fault.

Using external USB drives on XP drags your computer down to almost a halt and can't do anything else thus it SUCKS hard. With Vista you could watch a movie from an external USB drive without any problems, and I'm not sure about 7 (almost seems like it takes too much resoures from video player when running from USB still TBD). This USB issue is the #1 reason why I kick XP to the curb long time ago.

Yeah Windows 7 doesn't look like XP, but so what, STFU and quit whinning like a little girl.

 

[ChrisC]

Using external USB drives on XP drags your computer down to almost a halt and can't do anything else thus it SUCKS hard.

Sorry, but that's just plain wrong (and, coming from someone who criticised others for posting bogus comments about Windows, somewhat ironic too...). All 4 of the PCs I have at home are running either XP Pro or XP MCE. Two of them have external USB drives permanently attached, the other two have used them as and when required. None of these PCs exhibit any performance issues when reading from or writing to the USB drives.

One of the PCs with a permanently attached drive is my mediacentre PC, which uses the external drive to store all of its audio and video files, so if XP were as bad at handling external drives as you claim, you think I'd have noticed something by now. Yet I can be watching a hi-def MKV file from this external drive whilst another PC on the local network is busy copying new files onto the same drive, and the playback is consistently glitch-free.

Add to these 4 PCs the numerous others belonging to friends, family and companies I've worked for, which have all behaved equally well when attached to external USB drives.

So I'm sorry, but I really don't know what you're talking about here - in my experience XP and external USB drives get along just fine.

 

[sigint]

I use my computer 90% for engineering and Win 7 Pro has worked flawlessly for virtually everything, as opposed to Vista - which, when it functioned at all had problems too numerous to number, I couldn't be happier - not to mention a 50% greater download speed over XP - yes I still use XP but when I can afford it they will all be upgraded to Win 7.

SiGiNT

 

[VSMVDD]

the straight answer is no

use the level of windows applicable to the level of computer and moreover
video system you own

if you dont have a touch drag screen etc forget windows 7

its just xp in a smaller wrapper than vista

7 =( (xp - vista) ++ (more video clutter data services) -- (vista crap))

 

[Tahmid]

Hi,
I have a mind to test Windows7(haven't used it yet).
I used Vista for quite some time. I realized, during this time that on my PC (with 3GB usable RAM), I found it quite well. No problems. But it was horrible on my brother's PC(1GB RAM).
I've heard so much about Vista but never faced any problem, except the UAC, which I later turned off. It was quick, responsive, didn't crash. I don't get why so many people complained. Maybe there was lack of memory in their PC configurations.
Anyway, hoping to try out Windows7 sometime. I'll be going to the 64-bit version as I'll be upgrading my PC soon.

 

[ctownsend]

For me, 7 is better than Vista. It's faster and less buggy, but lacks good driver support atm.

I tried both of them, however none of them were better than XP in my opinion, therefore i'm still using XP. Vista and 7 are full of useless features most of which are targeting casual users with very little or no knowledge about computers. These lead to unnecessarily high space/memory requirements and therefore to poor performance in lots of different areas.

Currently, i cannot see any reason to upgrade from XP to Vista/7, unless, as stated above, you need to use Vista specific features, drivers, software etc...

My thoughts exactly. I bought a laptop that came with VISTA (I had no choice at the time) which was nothing but one big MIGRANE headache! BUGGY,BUGGY,BUGGY,BUGGY,BUGGY!!!

Numerous times in one hour I would have to restart explorer, or CTL,ALT,DEL. This happened right out of the box! You would think by now, Micro$oft would have learned from the windows ME B$! I was given NO SUPPORT from M$ at all! Well that isn't true, if I would have given them my credit card number first, they would have HELPED me.

M$ knows they screwed up, which is why they released another operating system so soon. You'd think by NOW they would know better!

I installed windows 7 on the same laptop and it seems the problems are gone.
If the drivers were available, I would have just installed XP. No need for the "extra" (useless, memory hog) "features".

The good thing about windows 7 (ultimate) is that it comes with "Virtual Windows XP". That is, you can run windows XP from within windows 7.

Some of my microcontroller simulator programs do not run with VISTA at all and have some issues with Windows 7, however with Virtual XP, they all run fine.

IF you can get by with windows XP, stick to it. DON'T UPGRADE. Most new PC's leave you with no choice because you can't get the drivers.

 

[Jolie Robert]

I have used both the operating systems and in my opinion windows xp is the best as its more user friendly, nice features, nice layout, display everything. So my vote is with windows Xp

 

[mars_snow]

vista can't use protel 99se!

 

[Debrah.h48]

Windows is without a doubt the most popular operating system out there today. With the release of Windows 7 just around the corner I thought why not compare all three operating systems to each other. I’ve taken all three operating systems and put them through their paces in a rather large series of tests comparing everything from video rendering to CPU and memory performance. I’ve got some rather interesting results for you, not quite what I expected, and I’m sure not what most people expected either. Continue on to learn how these operating systems stack up to one another…

I’ll start off with the specs of my system for you.

CPU: Intel Q9650 (3ghz)

RAM: 8gigs OCZ Fatal1ty PC2-6400

Motherboard: EVGA NF-680i

Video Card: Sparkle Nvidia GTX260 (896mb ram) –Main Monitor 22” 1680×1050 Res

Video Card2: EVGA 8600GTS (for PhysX)

Video Card2: ECS Nvidia GTS250 –Dual 20” 1680×1050 Res

Check out some more detailed information here: **broken link removed**