I'm sure I will continue to use XP until I buy a new computer which comes pre-loaded with Windows 7. But it's such a huge PITA to reinstall software...

I never reinstall an OS. I always buy a new hdd, remove the existing boot drive and replace with the new one. I then install to that new drive. If it all goes T*ts up or i've forgotten to remove anything from the previous hdd its just a matter of swapping it back and everything is then back as it was! Simple...just like me

Paul

Mine's on the way - and the state my machine seems to be in, a clean install is just what I need!

But setting up all my programs again, finding codes for downloaded stuff etc is a PIA.

I've got four computers at home running Windows 7 RTM (Not pirated, I'm an MSDN member). It is leaps and bounds ahead of both XP and Vista. Lightroom & photoshop work well on it.

I've got my laptop with 4GB of RAM running 64 bit Ultimate. My wife's netbook is running 32bit Home Premium, my son's is running 64bit Home Premium, and our seven year old desktop is running 32bit Home Premium. The seven year old desktop runs extremely well with Windows 7, it runs considerably faster than it did with XP even.

And for those of you upgrading from Vista, do yourselves a favor and do a completely fresh install. Installing Win7 over Vista is asking for problems in the future.

Justin - I don't have a lot of in-depth experience running photoshop or LR on Windows 7 because i have my licensed versions on vista still and I dual boot to windows 7. I'll reinstall them when I put the final version of Windows 7 on, the beta and release candidate versions will stop running in July next year. I used trial versions for a while, just to see how they run and they appear to run great, but the 64 bit OS may be responsible for that as much as the actual OS upgrade (I have vista 32, 7 64)

It does seem like all those routine things you do (boot up etc.) are MUCH faster. The suspend feature finally works on my laptop too, I had problems with vista, so that's pretty slick.

It's different though, and different takes a little getting used to.

EmigrantMtChri wrote:
I've got four computers at home running Windows 7 RTM (Not pirated, I'm an MSDN member). It is leaps and bounds ahead of both XP and Vista. Lightroom & photoshop work well on it.

I've got my laptop with 4GB of RAM running 64 bit Ultimate. My wife's netbook is running 32bit Home Premium, my son's is running 64bit Home Premium, and our seven year old desktop is running 32bit Home Premium. The seven year old desktop runs extremely well with Windows 7, it runs considerably faster than it did with XP even.

And for those of you upgrading from Vista, do yourselves a favor and do a completely fresh install. Installing Win7 over Vista is asking for problems in the future.

I'm glad to hear that Windows 7 has been such a positive experience for you. I have Vista 64 bit on both my desktop and laptop and have been considering installing Win 7 on top of Vista, i.e. not a fresh install. What sort of problems are you referring to?

I'd like to avoid a fresh install, if possible, as it's such a pain to reinstall all my software and reconfigure everything, especially on two computers.

IMHO there's only one thing worse than re-installing : troubleshooting a problem on a new OS, and not knowing whether the old OS is part of the problem

I normally do clean installs. But, surely there has got to be a better way and Win 7 said it was totally possible. So, I tested Win7 64bit upgrade install on my test machine last night and it was like magic. It installed right over the top of Vista 64bit while Windows was running. I got tired, went to bed and when I woke up this morning, the install was done, and with in a few minutes, it was up and running and installing some updates to drivers. Petty slick. I hate reinstalling all of the programs I have and it now appears that only 4 will require reinstallation, iTunes, EOS Utility and two other minor programs.

Just to be safe, I backed up some critical data, like my .pst file, etc, but the upgrade went without a hitch.

How long is it taking you guys to get in and do all the registry and windows services clean up?

Still have those really annoying "what would you like windows to with this?" pop ups when you put a CD in?

clean installs and no issues.

Does MS still make you jump through hoops to activate Windows?

if you are referring to activating it yes it still requires activation and that takes entering the code and pressing the activate button. its really hard for those thst are challenged with chewing gum and walking at the same time.

I was referring to that over the phone activation they used to make people do to activate XP.

i never had to phone activate XP and i had a fairly large user base i installed. if of course you were at maybe 3-4 times in less then a month that can occur. i did have to call in about office 2007 once. it then took about 10 minutes to resolve.

there is a pattern of use they generally work with. the cycle per product is roughly 120 days and in general 3 reloads and after the 3rd load and +120 and the install clock zeros out. so essentially if you load it up a lot they are going to take some interest.

Been running Win7 as a RC for the past few months on a 5yo P4 3ghz laptop w/2GB Ram. No issues. Did not see a performance hit between XP and W7. Just finished "upgrading" the laptop to the Retail version via clean install. Runs lightroom and CS3 just fine. Not lightning fast but fast enough for now till I can build a new machine.

running on a dual 2.4 and 64bit it sure makes a little difference. win7 can revive a few old laptops though.

http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/windows-xp-vs-vista-vs-7/

Has anyone used an upgrade version on an XP machine? Trying to figure out the process for when I get a new computer. I'm thinking of getting the $30 EDU thing mentioned earlier in this thread, but If I have to install XP and 500 updates for it to believe I own it, I'm not sure it's worth the hassle. Also, when you do the upgrade version, can you still use XP on another computer or does it deactivate the key?

If you go the EDU route do it over the phone 1-877-696-7786. You can get the full install version as opposed to the upgrade version for the same price if you ask for it. I got the full version of win 7 professional and the total cost was 32.09 after tax. Just make sure you have a valid .edu email address.

Ah that's great! That solves that problem, thanks.