Windows 7 User Submissions

Windows 7 64 Bit experience so far :D

by Simon
(Edinburgh, Scotland)

This is my first ever beta/RC OS, so I took the chickens route and installed Windows 7, 32 and 64 on a separate drives,

I went this route as I expected at least some driver issues with 64, so thought I could use the 32, whilst working through the 64 issues, both installs were flawless, took just over an hour for both to get to first run, before other programs installed etc, so a little over 30 minuets each.

My thinking was flawed, 64, although had two hardware issues initially until the first update which installed the required 64 bit drivers, I have had virtually no issues with 64 and none with 32.

Although I will very likely spend most time with 64 as it runs so well, it has been interesting to see the performance difference between 32 and 64 with some programs, most notably Photoshop which is a lot faster in all aspects.

I am not a gamer, so cant make any judgments there, my main use is large image files and recourse hungry imaging applications.

Still early days, but so far have had one program that wouldn't install without running XP compatibility mode, but have two older quirky apps that 7 offered compatibility mode on by default, both of these will not run with Vista 32
I still have a few programs to load, but don't expect any problems.

I have thought for a while, 64 bit is the way to go, in time we wont have the option and for me might as well get it over and done with and potential issues worked through before its hand in pocket time, for me I was right, I don't want to go back to a 32 bit OS now.

I had more problems with XP (live release-retail) and indeed Vista before SP1.

Machine
Athalon 64 X2 5000+
MSI K9 NeoF AM2
4GB RAM
SB Xfi PCIe
Gforce 9600
More hard drives than I care to count
Windows 7 32/64 RC1 Build 7100
Boot time to desktop approx 45 seconds, including AV, calibration profiles and start-up programs etc.
Quicker than both XP 32 and Vista Home premium 32