The Anything Related To Windows Thread

[dmauro]

I needed to reinstall Windows because I was having some problems burning DVDs. I figured I would upgrade to Windows 7 while I was at it since the word on the street is that it's not the hog Vista is, and who knows, maybe I'll get to take advantage of this DX10 nonsense.

I really like the new taskbar, but the moved the show desktop button to the right side, and it can't be moved around. To make up for that annoyance, if you mouse over it, it will show you the desktop without actually hiding anything, so you get outlines of all open windows. I'm not sure what the point of that is since you could simply click it twice in the time it would take for the mouse over effect to activate. :?

So far the impression is good though. The default themes are very nice and swap through a few different backgrounds by default. Having widgets by default is nice, simply because I like having the weather up and a something monitoring CPU and RAM. Everything looks a little nicer too. Not as nice as OS X, but I do like it better than XP. I can't find a way to make the taskbar and window borders less transparent though. It would be nice to have the option to go opaque like OS X does (it's kind of weird to see the desktop coming through above and below your current full screen window).

Had some trouble getting CS4 installed, still trying to work that out.

I'll keep you guys posted how the compatibility is, and any annoyances that pop up.

[FortNinety]

Wait, so it came out already?

Anyway, as noted during my MS open house wrap up, I was shocked to hear that many of these improvements are simply shit I've been able to do on OS X for years now. Hate to sound like an Apple snob and all, but... Though the core issue is how Vista was such a colossal mess, plus I get the impression that most of these "new" features are already possible in XP, albeit with some modifications.

And once again, I'm kinda amazed that power up and down time is such a big hassle. I do recall XP taking a little while longer to shut down when compared to OS X on my Mac, but then again, perhaps I just didn't have that much installed?

Anyhow, not gonna lie... I'm really looking forward to the Windows 7 launch party later this week in hopes of snagging a copy. I'm actually following everyone's advice and waiting for that before buying a copy of XP. Let's see how 7 runs Touhou Project!

[dmauro]

My mac mini doesn't boot as fast as my PC. I think everyone cares about boot time, it's not just a Windows thing. Yeah a lot of this stuff is similar to what you get in OS X, but now it's all done in Windows style (aka better). Imagine an OSX which had it's window style all application instead of window based, and that's kind of what Windows 7 is like.

I've run into a small problem with moving My Documents to another location. It's still kept a My Documents under my username and programs put stuff in there instead of the new location. I'm gonna have to google this one.

[dmauro]

Mostly got that my documents thing worked out. Windows Vista and 7 keep track of all that stuff in a more mac like way (music, pictures, and video are not sub folders of my documents anymore).

Now I'm trying to VNC into OS X and I'm hoping someone has some VNC experience to help me out. I've tried a few clients and RealVNC seems to work the best, but they're all a little too slow. The screen refresh rate is pretty bad, and this is over my local network. Reducing the color palette and other bandwidth related stuff does not help either. Any suggestions?

[dhex]

re: vnc - i've never gotten a vnc environment that works all that fast. it was ok as a stopgap measure for some rip issues i was working around a while back, but if your machines are physically close, why not use a kvm or just km switch? they're not perfect either, of course, but it seems simpler than fussing with lag and whatnot.

[dmauro]

I moved the mac to the living room because I thought it would be nice to have out there for internetting on the TV.

[dmauro]

I ran a touhou game (Shoot the Bullet) today without any problems if that makes you feel any better Matt.

[isfet]

i assume it's like i figured:  most games are probably going to run fine.  and i assume if some games don't work, it will be a short while before people get around to patching them.

[FortNinety]

Kotaku just wrote a piece on Windows 7...

http://kotaku.com/5384543/windows-7-what-happened-to-gaming

... But since I'm not much of a PC person, many of its points are lost on me, so maybe you folks can tell me if the author knows what he's talking about and the such.

[dmauro]

This is their only point:

The problem I have with Windows 7, though, isn't its failure to vastly improve the gaming experience, it's Microsoft's failure to take advantage of the attention brought by the launch of a new operating system to once more thrust PC gaming into the spotlight.

So if you're a PC gaming evangelist, yes, you might not be happy with Microsoft right now. :/

[dhex]

yeah, i mean...backing off of games for windows live in particular is a good thing. it was totally fucked up and completely unnecessary. steam eats it for lunch, for starters.

[dhex]

speaking of windows and games:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/10/20/surfacescapes-dd-on-microsoft-surface/

wow.

[dmauro]

Sidenote: I got my arcade PC set up with VNC to make things easier to set up (I have a keyboard and mouse tucked away inside the cab) and it runs so much smoother than it does on the mac mini. It looks like I'm right in front of the computer, with just a bit of lag. It's connected via a shitty wireless hub as opposed to the Mac Mini which is hard wired..

[FortNinety]

After watching this...

http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/25197/Microsoft+Japan.html

... I gotta ask, what's the general consensus thus far? Does most folks like it? Does it actually work? Did people actually get it?

[dhex]

most folks i know who got the beta were very happy with it, but most of them were also going from vista.

i'm sticking with xp until my soundcard dies. so hopefully another 3 or 4 years.