I thought about installing the 64-bit versions but I just didn't want to deal with the hassle.
I see it as less hassle to just do the clean install. Also, moving to 64-bit means I can use all 4 gigs of my RAM. Also, my experience so far is that Windows 7 64-bit is just as fast as Ubuntu. Of course, that's probably just because it's a clean install. I'm sure, like all Windowses, it will slow down over time.
My policy is whenever installing an OS to always do a clean install. Upgrades usually just make things worse. However, I understand that the reasons this policy works for me is because I also have two other compatible policies.
One is that my desktop computers always have multiple drives. I always put the OSes on separate drives/partitions so that I can very easily swap them out. I keep all of my data, documents, media, etc. on the other drives. I actually unplugged my data drives when installing Windows 7, just to be safe.
The other policy is that when I have a computer that can not have multiple drives, like my laptop, I never store important data on it. I act as if it is ready to crash at any moment. All of the things I do on my laptop, I store the data in the cloud, on a USB stick, etc. Thus, I can do clean installs of new Ubuntu versions on my laptop whenever they come out.
Clean installs are just such a better experience than upgrades. The only downside is that you have to spend some time re-installing applications. The thing is, I just install apps as I use them. That way I don't go installing a bunch of stuff I don't actually use. You wouldn't believe how many things I had installed on Vista that I never actually used. Now because I did a clean install they are all gone!
Windows 7 has this really neat feature. If you drag a window to the edge of the screen, you can get it to snap and take up half the screen. Then you put a window on the other side of the screen, and you can do some side-by-side productivity. Very nice.
It doesn't work with two monitors. I can make something take up the right half of the right screen or the left half of the left screen, but not the inside halves.
Windows 7 has this really neat feature. If you drag a window to the edge of the screen, you can get it to snap and take up half the screen. Then you put a window on the other side of the screen, and you can do some side-by-side productivity. Very nice.
Also, shaking the currently selected window minimizes all other windows.
Windows 7 has this really neat feature. If you drag a window to the edge of the screen, you can get it to snap and take up half the screen. Then you put a window on the other side of the screen, and you can do some side-by-side productivity. Very nice.
It doesn't work with two monitors. I can make something take up the right half of the right screen or the left half of the left screen, but not the inside halves.
Fail.
Have you tried dragging it to the top of the screen? I'm not sure if it only maximizes it to one screen or both, but it's worth a shot.
I'll bet it will of you logically offset them. I always place my second monitor's logical position in the upper or lower corner, so that I still have screen edges against which to bounce my mouse and dock things. I'll bet even a slight offset would work.
I'll be it will of you logically offset them. I always place my second monitor's logical position in the upper or lower corner, so that I still have screen edges against which to bounce my mouse and dock things. I'll bet even a slight offset would work.
I'll bet it will of you logically offset them. I always place my second monitor's logical position in the upper or lower corner, so that I still have screen edges against which to bounce my mouse and dock things. I'll bet even a slight offset would work.
Hmmmmm, is 7 $110 better than Vista for my netbook?
I paid $50 for home premium upgrade for my desktop. I think that's about what it's worth. Try to get an academic license, or maybe get a family pack and split it between people to save money.
Multiple monitors are treated as one large monitor. For example, if you have two monitors (A-left and B-right), then the far left side would be on the left side of monitor A and the far right side would be on the right side of minitor B. If you want the window to snap to the side that crosses over to the other monitor, then you can only use the keyboard shortcuts above to do so.
I paid $50 for home premium upgrade for my desktop. I think that's about what it's worth. Try to get an academic license, or maybe get a family pack and split it between people to save money.
Where did you procure your home premium for $50? I'm game for $50.
EDIT: also, no academic anymore, I have a real job.
Found a family pack not too far away. Pulled the trigger on that. It's against my normal policy to get Windows upgrades, but at $50 a computer it's hard to pass up. I can do my netbook, my desktop, and my mom's netbook.
I just realized that I should have bought the normal Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit since I'm only running XP 32-bit. I want 64-bit so I can have the capabilities of having more than 4gb of RAM. Boo.
At least Newegg is having a promo until tomorrow for Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit for $99.99 until tomorrow. I'll probably either sell my upgrade for the same price or give it to Jeremy. Bah.
Nevermind. It's the WIndows 7 for System Builders. Sigh.
I've successfully installed Windows 7 64-bit by using the upgrade disc while only having XP 32-bit. I basically reinstalled XP, change the boot order on my BIOS to CD-ROM and had the 64-bit DVD in the drive and rebooted my computer. Instead of choosing "Upgrade", you have to choose the other option.
I'm so not used to this OS. It is very new and foreign to me. Now to install all my commonly used programs.
Is it possible to reinstall 64-bit over 32-bit with the same key? I'm thinking about doing that on one of my machines.
Try it. Can't hurt. In my experience the Windows DRM is actually more permissive than you think it is. As long as the key you put in is valid and matches the product it came with, it's usually very happy.
For some reason I'm having issues with iTunes and Windows 7. I have iTunes on my other hard drive because that's where I keep all my mp3s, podcasts, and videos. I tried to install iTunes and I specified using that hard drive location, but it still kept on installing the program on my C drive where the OS is. I can't figure out why it is doing this.
Since my extra drive of 250gb is getting low on space, I'm going to buy a 500gb HD and transfer all my files there, wipe the 250gb HD and install the OS on there.
For some reason I'm having issues with iTunes and Windows 7. I have iTunes on my other hard drive because that's where I keep all my mp3s, podcasts, and videos. I tried to install iTunes and I specified using that hard drive location, but it still kept on installing the program on my C drive where the OS is. I can't figure out why it is doing this.
Most computer problems are caused by people trying to fight against the defaults. Ever since I stopped trying to heavily customize my computer, and just started going along with the defaults, everything has been awesome.
The few things I do that are not default are the ones that cause me some problems. For example I moved my Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, etc. folders to another drive. This is a supported Windows feature. Just right-click on the folder and go to the location tab. However, bittorrent was not smart about this. It was saving it's files to C:\....\Downloads\ even though the downloads folder was moved to F:\Downloads\ It took me quite a few minutes to find that file. That's the price you pay for going against the grain.
Just install iTunes on your C:\ drive and then set your iTunes music folder to another drive.
I did that and tried copying my library to iTunes on the C:\ drive and it still wasn't working. I did that before when I used it on XP and it worked. I wonder why iTunes doesn't have an import library function. That would make things so much easier.
Regardless, I need to buy a new hard drive because I'm running out of space. I should have done this before installing Windows 7. Ah well, it really didn't take that long to do.
Comments
I thought about installing the 64-bit versions but I just didn't want to deal with the hassle.
My policy is whenever installing an OS to always do a clean install. Upgrades usually just make things worse. However, I understand that the reasons this policy works for me is because I also have two other compatible policies.
One is that my desktop computers always have multiple drives. I always put the OSes on separate drives/partitions so that I can very easily swap them out. I keep all of my data, documents, media, etc. on the other drives. I actually unplugged my data drives when installing Windows 7, just to be safe.
The other policy is that when I have a computer that can not have multiple drives, like my laptop, I never store important data on it. I act as if it is ready to crash at any moment. All of the things I do on my laptop, I store the data in the cloud, on a USB stick, etc. Thus, I can do clean installs of new Ubuntu versions on my laptop whenever they come out.
Clean installs are just such a better experience than upgrades. The only downside is that you have to spend some time re-installing applications. The thing is, I just install apps as I use them. That way I don't go installing a bunch of stuff I don't actually use. You wouldn't believe how many things I had installed on Vista that I never actually used. Now because I did a clean install they are all gone!
It doesn't work with two monitors. I can make something take up the right half of the right screen or the left half of the left screen, but not the inside halves.
Fail.
I want to split each screen in half, for a total of four apps. That does not work.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/487-snap-window-side.html
EDIT: also, no academic anymore, I have a real job.
At least Newegg is having a promo until tomorrow for Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit for $99.99 until tomorrow. I'll probably either sell my upgrade for the same price or give it to Jeremy. Bah.
Nevermind. It's the WIndows 7 for System Builders. Sigh.
I'm so not used to this OS. It is very new and foreign to me. Now to install all my commonly used programs.
Since my extra drive of 250gb is getting low on space, I'm going to buy a 500gb HD and transfer all my files there, wipe the 250gb HD and install the OS on there.
The few things I do that are not default are the ones that cause me some problems. For example I moved my Downloads, Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, etc. folders to another drive. This is a supported Windows feature. Just right-click on the folder and go to the location tab. However, bittorrent was not smart about this. It was saving it's files to C:\....\Downloads\ even though the downloads folder was moved to F:\Downloads\ It took me quite a few minutes to find that file. That's the price you pay for going against the grain.
EDIT: Is it possible to move your user folder to another drive? The image has a lock on it and I can't seem to change it's location.
Regardless, I need to buy a new hard drive because I'm running out of space. I should have done this before installing Windows 7. Ah well, it really didn't take that long to do.