Modern Vespa

I'm a Mac user but need to run Windows for 2 programs. I use XP running through Parallels at the moment but have what I call 'issues' with it.

Can anyone give me insights into how Windows 7 installs and deletes hardware and programs? I don't want to spend the money on upgrading if it works in a similar fashion as XP. As an example, I bought a new printer the other day. I plugged it in. OS X recognized it immediately and I could print from it view all the pertinent info such as ink levels etc. Literally all it took was the time to plug the USB cord in. XP took 40 minutes to install it.... XP also took about 10 minutes to uninstall a program where in OS X all I do is drag it to the trash.

In short has Windows 7 simplified these tasks or is it still a 'process'?



Thanks,


Dave

You are thinking of running Window 7 in a virtual machine? If so, keep with Windows XP. Windows 7 does not speed up anything over Windows XP in a VM (parallel).

Problem is that when you install hardware in a VM, it usually takes longer than if it's a native OS. In your case a OSX.

No, go find drivers, load drivers, hope drivers you found work, they don't, go find different drivers, hope they work.

Wayne B

I've found Windows 7 to be MUCH faster then Vista which I've been running since June 2008. I upgraded to Windows 7 about 2 months ago. The upgrade was VERY simple and relatively fast (less then an hour). All my apps and settings remained as I had them set in Vista.

NOW... XP to Windows 7 is much more complicated. There is no "upgrade" path from XP to Windows 7. You have to backup all your user data, install Windows 7 as a fresh OS, reinstall your apps and reinstall your user data. A lot more work. I'm waiting to update my wife's system from XP to Windows 7 to see if someone comes up with some tools to simplify the process.

I haven't installed any new hardware since installing Windows 7 so I don't know how easy the driver installs go.

-Craig

Thanks for the replies... I'm probably better off sticking with XP for the time being..... I may end up buying a low budget laptop sometime in the not too distant future for my Windows needs.... Less mess in the long run.


Dave

Gotta say that I have been really impressed with W7 so far - mostly because it incorporates so many OSX ideas!

Dave, if you are going to upgrade your virtual machines to Windows 7, VMWare Fusion 3 will be needed rather than older version of Fusion in order to do so as it have been optimized to run 7 and Snow Leopard. I've been holding off upgrading to Windows 7 because XP has been OK for running my medical software at work.

That's good info Benny. The more I think about it the more I think a dedicated Windows machine is the way to go.

I tried VM Ware but went back to Parallels.... I'm trying to remember why I wasn't pleased....

Dave

I did just the opposite, went from parallels to vmware for XP. now on vmware v3 which has native 64bit support which means it takes full advantage of the extended architecture of snow leopard. Win7 Ultimate (32 bit) on vmware v3 runs great when configured with 1.5MB of ram, it's a little slow with only 1 MB. I tried it with 2MB but it slowed down snow leopard a bit so I went back to 1.5MB.

Win7 handles drivers way better then any previous version of Windows. Depending on the device, it should be plug and play.

Win7 is great OS, getting a dedicated laptop with it pre-installed is the way to go for the best experience and there are some killer deals on them right now for the holidays. While you can upgrade from Vista, I've done enough Win7 installs over the last year to recommend a clean install every time. Don't bother trying the save/restore utility from your old machine, just reinstall the apps if you still have the original media. Clean installs == fresh start == happy happy

I have used every windows OS going back to DOS and with maybe the exception of 2000 Windows 7 is by far the best. Is what Vista should have been.

I loaded Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit onto my workstation (clean install) a couple months ago and have loved it so far. No problems yet with finding drivers and once I was on the domain it automatically configured my Outlook account with our exchange server. It is also way faster than vista or xp but some if that could be the fact that the 64 bit version allows full use of all 4 gigs of memory I have installed.

That's basically my experience too.

W7 is faster to install than Vista or XP and adding new hardware is nice and quick - it has a lot of drivers already on there and good support for downloading extra products from windows update.

Once on there it's much faster than Vista on the same hardware and a bit faster than XP.

I wouldn't recommend an in-place upgrade from either OS though - I'd always back up data and do a clean install.