New to Windows 7

[Crewman47]

Decided to get a new computer today with Win7 on it and so far I've had no problems with the set up except that I wasn't able to install my printers, an HP 1020 Laserjet and a Lexmark 3120 All-inOne. Checked the web site for each and seems that HP and Lexmark are still working on updating there software and drivers for Win7. I knew I would get some kind of problem but I take it the printer thing is something that was to be expected and I could expect the same with other programs I might have?

BTW I went straight from XP so I only have that to compare to as I never experienced Vista and the only big difference just now is the interface and menus.

 

[Jadzia]

Most pre-existing hardware will have not been tested with win 7, so may or may not work properly. This is mostly limited to things using (manufacturer made) drivers, such as printers, graphics cards, sometimes cd/dvd drives, and other miscellaneous PCI cards. For example, my scanner didn't work when I updated my OS. (not win 7, this was some time ago).

As time goes on, new drivers will be made available to allow this pre-existing hardware to work as intended with win 7. This does of course depend on manufacturer support: The smaller the company, and the older the product, the less likely there will be a new driver for it any time soon.

 

[Uplink]

What does it do when you try to install it?

 

[regemet]

Well I recently bought win 7 and my Epsom Printer had an online upgrade

 

[Tomato]

Win 7 is amazing!!!

Anybody have any tips/tricks?

How do I get it to stop beeping everything time I push back/forward when I scroll through windows? I want the old default sounds.

 

[TheGodBen]

Checked the web site for each and seems that HP and Lexmark are still working on updating there software and drivers for Win7.

Win7 uses the same driver model as Vista, so if they have Vista drivers out then you should be able to download and install them. If they don't have Vista drivers out almost three years after Vista's launch then I'm afraid to say that they probably never will and this is HP and Lexmark's moneygrubbing way of getting you to buy a new printer. I see that HP has Vista drivers so you can try those, as for Lexmark... never buy a Lexmark.

I knew I would get some kind of problem but I take it the printer thing is something that was to be expected and I could expect the same with other programs I might have?

Win7 was designed to be as compatible with Vista as possible, and most modern drivers and software are Vista compatible at this point. There might be one or two obscure or dated items which wont work, but for the most part you should be good. In my experience of using Win7 the only compatibility problems I've had is because I'm using the x64 version.

 

[Crewman47]

What does it do when you try to install it?

I can get through most of the setup but when it comes to finding the drivers the computer says it can't find them. The printer are connected and switched on at the time but the computer just doesn't recognise it.

Win7 was designed to be as compatible with Vista as possible, and most modern drivers and software are Vista compatible at this point. There might be one or two obscure or dated items which wont work, but for the most part you should be good. In my experience of using Win7 the only compatibility problems I've had is because I'm using the x64 version.

As to the version of Win7 mentioned above, I just noticed that the version I have is the 64bit and I've also found that I couldn't install two games, Voyager Elite Force and Max Payne. That's only two out of the seven that I have, which is not bad.

 

[Starbreaker]

I love the new shortcuts. Win+Arrow keys and Win+P = awesome.

 

[judge alba]

windows 7 was the first os I've bought seperate from a pc and I have to admit I kind of like it. got it as a second boot os to vista at present until I get used to it.
anyone know how I can import my music from the media player in vista to the one in the w7 partition?.

 

[Brent]

What does it do when you try to install it?

I can get through most of the setup but when it comes to finding the drivers the computer says it can't find them. The printer are connected and switched on at the time but the computer just doesn't recognise it.

Win7 was designed to be as compatible with Vista as possible, and most modern drivers and software are Vista compatible at this point. There might be one or two obscure or dated items which wont work, but for the most part you should be good. In my experience of using Win7 the only compatibility problems I've had is because I'm using the x64 version.

As to the version of Win7 mentioned above, I just noticed that the version I have is the 64bit and I've also found that I couldn't install two games, Voyager Elite Force and Max Payne. That's only two out of the seven that I have, which is not bad.

What does it do when you try to install the games?

On the printer issue, is it that it can't locate the driver or it can't locate the printer? If it is the driver, have you tried pointing the printer to the exact driver folder?

 

[Crewman47]

What does it do when you try to install it?

I can get through most of the setup but when it comes to finding the drivers the computer says it can't find them. The printer are connected and switched on at the time but the computer just doesn't recognise it.

Win7 was designed to be as compatible with Vista as possible, and most modern drivers and software are Vista compatible at this point. There might be one or two obscure or dated items which wont work, but for the most part you should be good. In my experience of using Win7 the only compatibility problems I've had is because I'm using the x64 version.

As to the version of Win7 mentioned above, I just noticed that the version I have is the 64bit and I've also found that I couldn't install two games, Voyager Elite Force and Max Payne. That's only two out of the seven that I have, which is not bad.

What does it do when you try to install the games?

On the printer issue, is it that it can't locate the driver or it can't locate the printer? If it is the driver, have you tried pointing the printer to the exact driver folder?

Exact error message for the games:

Now I know my OS is 64 bit and I have been able to install other 32 bit programs (there's two Programs folders, Program Files(x86), where alot of my old programs are, and just Program Files) but I'm not sure what to do in this case?

Managed to get my HP printer installed using Vista drivers but still no joy on the Lexmark, with that it's not just the Drivers, it's also the software for it that doesn't install.

 

[Meredith]

I can get through most of the setup but when it comes to finding the drivers the computer says it can't find them. The printer are connected and switched on at the time but the computer just doesn't recognise it.



As to the version of Win7 mentioned above, I just noticed that the version I have is the 64bit and I've also found that I couldn't install two games, Voyager Elite Force and Max Payne. That's only two out of the seven that I have, which is not bad.

What does it do when you try to install the games?

On the printer issue, is it that it can't locate the driver or it can't locate the printer? If it is the driver, have you tried pointing the printer to the exact driver folder?

Exact error message for the games:

Now I know my OS is 64 bit and I have been able to install other 32 bit programs (there's two Programs folders, Program Files(x86), where alot of my old programs are, and just Program Files) but I'm not sure what to do in this case?

Managed to get my HP printer installed using Vista drivers but still no joy on the Lexmark, with that it's not just the Drivers, it's also the software for it that doesn't install.

That is because the installer program, Install Shield, etc.... I s written in 16bit windows code. You could install to a VirtualPC instance with a program to track file and registry changes and then replicate it on the x64 bit machine but this can be risky.

 

[USS Mariner]

^Would using the XP mode in Win7 Pro solve that problem?

I'm just about ready to purchase a new laptop, and I'm torn on whether or not to get Win7 Home Premium or Professional. I'm leaning towards Professional, mainly to take advantage of dual cores and running legacy programs. Of course, it costs a hell of a lot more.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

^Would using the XP mode in Win7 Pro solve that problem?

I'm just about ready to purchase a new laptop, and I'm torn on whether or not to get Win7 Home Premium or Professional. I'm leaning towards Professional, mainly to take advantage of dual cores and running legacy programs. Of course, it costs a hell of a lot more.

You can use dual cores in any version of Windows (well, I don't mean 3.1.) What you can't use are separate dual processors, which you would have if you bought a server-style motherboard.

Legacy programs are trickier. You're going to have a harder time with games because they expect the video and sound drivers to behave a certain way, and there was a huge change with Vista that comes over into Windows 7. Vista/7 won't allow drivers to have direct access to hardware, this to avoid full system crashes. Legacy games that expect drivers to behave this way won't work, and some will work but behave "badly". Also some games try to save their files (save games, etc) in directories that would now be in protected areas. Vista/7 forces games to create their own saves and configuration files in the user folders.

All kinds of problems like these. On the whole, when I upgraded to Vista I kept a dual boot and had XP on a second hard drive. I haven't used that boot in 2 years. A small number of programs wouldn't work, but I updated to newer versions shortly afterwards anyway.

 

[USS KG5]

I'm just about ready to purchase a new laptop, and I'm torn on whether or not to get Win7 Home Premium or Professional. I'm leaning towards Professional, mainly to take advantage of dual cores and running legacy programs. Of course, it costs a hell of a lot more.

Well also you lose nifty little features like Media Center - so unless you specifically have an important legacy program for which you need Pro, you will be better off with Home Premium.

 

[Scout101]

just ordered my new copy this morning Win7 Professional.

My old desktop is about 6 years old, so i'm using it as an excuse to build a new system. Any suggestions as to the 1156 vs 1366 chipsets? Going to go Intel i7, but trying to figure out the benefits vs the cost. leaning towards a i7 920, but could be convinced either way. have new case, 750w psu, and getting a blu-ray burner. 1TB sata hard drive, and then the memory depends on which MOBO i go with...

 

[PurpleBuddha]

windows 7 was the first os I've bought seperate from a pc and I have to admit I kind of like it. got it as a second boot os to vista at present until I get used to it.
anyone know how I can import my music from the media player in vista to the one in the w7 partition?.

You can actually have the media player on the 7 partition look at the files on the Vista partition. If Vista is on the C drive, just select that drive under browse and point to the location of your music files.

 

[PurpleBuddha]

I can get through most of the setup but when it comes to finding the drivers the computer says it can't find them. The printer are connected and switched on at the time but the computer just doesn't recognise it.



As to the version of Win7 mentioned above, I just noticed that the version I have is the 64bit and I've also found that I couldn't install two games, Voyager Elite Force and Max Payne. That's only two out of the seven that I have, which is not bad.

What does it do when you try to install the games?

On the printer issue, is it that it can't locate the driver or it can't locate the printer? If it is the driver, have you tried pointing the printer to the exact driver folder?

Exact error message for the games:

Now I know my OS is 64 bit and I have been able to install other 32 bit programs (there's two Programs folders, Program Files(x86), where alot of my old programs are, and just Program Files) but I'm not sure what to do in this case?

Managed to get my HP printer installed using Vista drivers but still no joy on the Lexmark, with that it's not just the Drivers, it's also the software for it that doesn't install.

For Elite Force I found this solution with google:

"The issue with the installer is because the installer is installsheild, which doesn't work anymore(it's 16-bit). Go to safe mode to install OR install by manually copying the files from the CD to your HD.

So for Elite Force 1:

Go to the CD rom drive.
Copy the whole setup folder from your CD to your HD. Rename the folder to whatever you want.
Run STvoy.exe

Easy stuff."

I have not tried it, but the manual option seems like it would work to me. The game is old enough that I think a manual install of this level of simplicity would work.

 

[judge alba]

windows 7 was the first os I've bought seperate from a pc and I have to admit I kind of like it. got it as a second boot os to vista at present until I get used to it.
anyone know how I can import my music from the media player in vista to the one in the w7 partition?.

You can actually have the media player on the 7 partition look at the files on the Vista partition. If Vista is on the C drive, just select that drive under browse and point to the location of your music files.

cheers I'll give that a go