What operating system are you running?

[Hobie-wan]

Sounds to me you never really used it and are just bitching because it's different. One day your new hardware will no longer work on XP and you will have to upgrade. Why you haven't already is beyond me. Hell you can even install new video drivers without needing to reboot among many other things. The breadcrumbs were added in Vista just so you know. Best invention ever.

I tried W7 for about an hour on my old laptop last year and at that time I could not find a way to turn off the bullshit either by right clicking or searching in windows help. I will admit it was a year ago so some things could have been changed or I might not have found some of the options in the hour I was playing with it on my own machine. I am aware that many of the items were added in Vista, which puzzles me why the ability to turn them off either wasn't there or was difficult to find after everyone got to beta test them in Vista for MS.

I remote in to customer's Windows 7 and Vista machines frequently, but of course I can't go changing customer's settings all the time, so I'm forced to suffer through the default settings and nanny bullshit all the time. That hasn't exactly helped my opinion, even if I'm probably pretty biased at this point. As long as a customer isn't trying to run a totally ancient machine, I'm relieved when I see an XP machine because the only nonsense I might have to deal with from the OS is booting into safe mode to check folder permissions if they're running XP Home instead of Professional.

Seriously, Hobie, like I said, I'm not a big fan of a change like the jump from XP to 7. But 7 really puts XP to shame. 7 is completely customizable. I made myself get use to the new Star menu, and customized it how I like it. You can do things MUCH faster. I don't even use Libraries or whatever the default directories are called.

Oh I know I will at some point. As I said, I do sort of use W7 regularly on customer's machines and the new start menu is definitely not faster for me. Maybe once I do have to change I'll be able to wrangle things into place. Using Vista and W7 on customer's PCs has made me hate it more as I use it though, as opposed to me 'getting used to it'.

[Ziggy]

Well you also gotta figure, most people don't know how to configure their computers good. Like I said, 7 is very customizable. It sucks that your customers have it on default settings, or worse, a third party like Dell or something configuration. If you ever make the switch, and figure out how to set it all up to your likings, I swear you'll eventually realize it's much better than XP.

I actually HATE most of the default 7 settings. So I know exactly what you're saying. I couldn't imagine using 7 the way it is by default.

As far as the start menu goes, it's a gazillion times better than XP once you set it up the way you want it and get use to it. It's MUCH faster too if you utilize the search box. For an example, I can hit the window key on my keyboard, type "notep" and hit enter in 2 seconds. On XP, it would take me WAY longer to get notepad opened.

[irixith]

For an example, I can hit the window key on my keyboard, type "notep" and hit enter in 2 seconds. On XP, it would take me WAY longer to get notepad opened.

Win+R, notep, enter. Opened notepad right up on XP in an instant (although to be fair, because it's already in my run history). :p

I don't understand the massive I don't know what to call it, back hatred of XP? XP is a fantastic operating system, and still would be if manufacturers continued to produce drivers for it. At best, people can claim in their personal opinion 7 feels better to them, but I think to claim that it IS better is a bit far fetched. For some of us and how we use our computers, XP is just wonderful. For a "power user" (barf), 7 just gets in the way.

[Hobie-wan]

For an example, I can hit the window key on my keyboard, type "notep" and hit enter in 2 seconds. On XP, it would take me WAY longer to get notepad opened.

Win+R, notep, enter. Opened notepad right up on XP in an instant (although to be fair, because it's already in my run history). :p

I don't understand the massive I don't know what to call it, back hatred of XP? XP is a fantastic operating system, and still would be if manufacturers continued to produce drivers for it. At best, people can claim in their personal opinion 7 feels better to them, but I think to claim that it IS better is a bit far fetched. For some of us and how we use our computers, XP is just wonderful. For a "power user" (barf), 7 just gets in the way.

Exactly Irixith. And yes, I use the keyboard for stuff too, so thankfully I just use Win+R for the run box since they removed it from the start menu completely. Going to search, then typing run, then choosing it from the things it finds is not faster than just still having it on the menu if you aren't in the habit of using the keyboard shortcut. My beef with the search box is that nearly all the time, I know where stuff is if I've already spent the time to organize it and I van get there faster than with all the 'helper' stuff.

[isiolia]

I don't understand the massive I don't know what to call it, back hatred of XP? XP is a fantastic operating system, and still would be if manufacturers continued to produce drivers for it. At best, people can claim in their personal opinion 7 feels better to them, but I think to claim that it IS better is a bit far fetched. For some of us and how we use our computers, XP is just wonderful. For a "power user" (barf), 7 just gets in the way.

Well, to be fair though, XP was new at one point too. It's less that XP is some pinnacle of OS design, and a lot more that people got used to it over a decade. Not saying it's -bad-, but more that Windows 2000 was nice too, or 95, or Mac OS 8, or whatever. Win7 is a more advanced OS under the hood. Usability is personal preference, but that can change given time to adapt.

I'm not keen on MS changing everything around every other release of Windows either...but I'm also content to not still be using NT 4 or Windows 3.11, despite needing to get used to new things.

[Hatta]

What Microsoft ought to do is separate the OS and the GUI. Let you run whatever GUI you want on your Windows 7 system. They kept 'progman.exe' available through XP, so why not make the XP shell available in W7?

[otaku]

ran ubuntu recently on a machine I couldn't get access to otherwise due to password forgotten etc. nice linux much easier than any other distro and free!! The machine now runs windows 7 though and sadly is in a pawn shop due to my current financial situation. Another laptop I have which now needs a new lcd is running windows 7 also. And one of my desktops is also. The desktop I'm typing this on is using vista

[Hobie-wan]

Well, to be fair though, XP was new at one point too. It's less that XP is some pinnacle of OS design, and a lot more that people got used to it over a decade. Not saying it's -bad-, but more that Windows 2000 was nice too, or 95, or Mac OS 8, or whatever. Win7 is a more advanced OS under the hood. Usability is personal preference, but that can change given time to adapt.

9X was a great improvement over 3.X and I liked it from the start. ME was a flaming piece of garbage that I skipped personally, but had to deal with it because of my work at the time. XP was a great improvement over 9X and I liked it from the start as well. I just turned off the Fisher Price look and had a few minor appearance tweaks to take care of.

Just to make the point that I'm not hating on change just because it is change. Just needs to be for the better.

[BoringSupreez]

Well, to be fair though, XP was new at one point too. It's less that XP is some pinnacle of OS design, and a lot more that people got used to it over a decade. Not saying it's -bad-, but more that Windows 2000 was nice too, or 95, or Mac OS 8, or whatever. Win7 is a more advanced OS under the hood. Usability is personal preference, but that can change given time to adapt.

9X was a great improvement over 3.X and I liked it from the start. ME was a flaming piece of garbage that I skipped personally, but had to deal with it because of my work at the time. XP was a great improvement over 9X and I liked it from the start as well. I just turned off the Fisher Price look and had a few minor appearance tweaks to take care of.

Just to make the point that I'm not hating on change just because it is change. Just needs to be for the better.

That's how I feel about it too. I've used Windows 7 plenty, but I find that it really hasn't made any improvements I can appreciate over Vista. But I can think of several things it ruined, most horribly Windows Explorer. Unless a service pack comes out that makes all kinds of beast improvements to 7, or a buttload of new PC games come out that only work on 7, I'm going to stick with my Vista machine. Vista didn't make any real big improvements over XP, but it's what my machine came with. I just customized it until it functioned as closely to an XP as posssible.

[DinnerX]

You guys know you can install other file managers right? If you really hate windows explorer you could look for a replacement. I don't know if there are any other good ones though.