Posts Tagged: Install

Windows 7 — No Comments
14
Jun 09

Windows 7 – clean install, upgrade, My journey so far

Windows 7

Windows 7 is being hailed by reviewers and users alike as more than a ‘Vista’ two. Being being a web designer and Geek I’ve been toying with the idea of installing Windows 7 for sometime. So a few days ago I decided to take the plunge.

My advice to anyone considering this is to back up everything!

The second thing to do is to go to the Windows 7 website and download the Windows 7 installation file. I went for the 64 bit version and also got a product key, free and valid until next year. I burnt the file to a DVD with ImgBurn 2.4.4.0 . I also prepared a partition on one of the hard drives of my computer as I intend on using Windows 7 is the main operating system of my computer but also have Vista as a backup just in case.

the install went well, I had to track down several beta drivers for Windows seven and of course set up my programs again. But one tip I can give you is to use the upgrade wizard on the windows 7 DVD to save your office and browser settings (it even supports Firefox). This can then be loaded onto the new installation of Windows 7.

I got the system up and running okay and started to look around various Windows 7 forums. It turns out that later builds of Windows 7 are being released. So I downloaded the most recent release build 7229 and installed it via an upgrade last night.

As with all upgrades they tend to have some unexpected problems. But I couldn’t commit the time to set up a fresh at the moment — although I may do in a few weeks.

The main problem with this upgrade is drivers. Windows 7 is set to install drivers it  recommends. Although they are not always the best ones. So far I’ve had to reinstall virtually all of the drivers. Two lingering problem is that my Firefox icon had lost association with webpage icons also my sound driver is playing up with distortion when I play music– a driver issue. I shall update you here on the progress.

I shall probably reinstall this latest build as a clean install to fix these issues. Not for a few days at least. But there is nothing major to report that would deter me from recommending to anyone to try Windows 7 – just make sure you back up and have a backup operating system available.

I shall continue to post tips I’ve found and experiences.

Geeky Reviews / Vista Service Pack 2 / Vista SP2 — No Comments
28
May 09

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Install – Initial Impressions

Windows Vista had a gift for me this morning, a bright new service pack with promises of improved stability and reliability..

I resisted the urge to press install immediately (It was not difficult considering several bad experiences installing Service Packs in the past (XP SP1, 1a or even SP2..) and waited until I had done some critical work for my clients.

Once that was done and I have a window for the expected crisis that may ensue I pressed the install button, with everything crossed, rabbits foot, horse shoe – you get the picture.

Well, first I had to agree to the licence, I did not read it through so have no idea if there are mentions of side effects or small implosions etc. Then my PC (64 bit Vista Quad core, 8GB, 945 chipset) restarted and during this the now familiar three stage update install progressed.

When it started up again it appeared a little quicker, but nothing too noticeable.

At this point the service pack could be uninstalled as the older files where backed up that where replaced during the install. To make Vista SP2 permanant and save some space run ‘cmd’ as an administrator and type ‘compcln.exe’ and let it clean your system of backup files. IMPORTANT: This means you can never uninstall Vista Service Pack 2.

I also ran my favourite degraf program; http://www.defraggler.com/download to tidy the drives up afterwards.

The system is running well but I can not see any noticeable difference. Obviously there are many 100s if not 1000s of changes made and security is paramount so it is advised (by Microsoft) to install it.

Hope this was helpful.

Andy

Issues since installing

Explorer has crashed once but I think that is due to memory hogging FireFox plugins that I have cleaned up since and no further explorer crashes.