Windows 8 Coming Soon (sigh)

Another reason to switch to MAC/Linux or SunOS.

Originally posted by RRokkyy
I just installed Windows 7 on my HP athlon 4600 dual core,2GB memory,320HD PC. It makes my CPU
run hotter than XP when running one video player. Temps hit 60+ C. That causes my fan to go from a quiet 2100 rpm to 2200 to 2700 rpm noisy.
I am thinking of going back to XP.
Would adding memory help?
Any suggestions?

When you start your PC, start task manager. Look at your memory usage, and keep watching it as you open all the applications you use at one time, and start working with some files. How much of the 2GB are you using? If you're using all of it adding memory will help, if you're not it won't help too much, maybe just a little bit.

Also if you upgrade to 4GB, upgrading to a 64 bit OS will help (either XP64 or Win7 64).

And if using Win 7 you can turn off a bunch of stuff that increases CPU usage, for example:

www.computingunleashed.com...

Generally, I find most problems to be with the user not knowing how to operate their system.

That may sound condescending - but I cannot tell you how many blank stares I get when I tell someone to fix their problem by going into the control panel and adding/removing programs or into the device manager. I even had to explain the concept of copying files from a CD to a folder to someone, before.... and the Windows start button.

Macs come at a premium price and only one button on the mouse, because they are built for people who think of the computer as a magic box and cannot understand that a computer is a cause-effect, command-driven machine. That's why you can't do anything with a mac, and it only comes in a very limited set of hardware configurations - so people and the technicians for them don't have to know "what kind of video card are you running?"

When you try and combine an operating system that the average person can wield with the diversity of the free market, you're going to have compatibility issues.

I was using computers early enough in my life that I recall the horror of trying to install a damned CD drive in DOS. I've still no clue how my dad got our old 486 to recognize a 3 gigabyte hard drive (the BIOS couldn't handle that many tracks, sectors, etc - most of you probably don't even know what I'm talking about right now). Audio drivers were even more fun... and even as recent as Windows 98, you had games and programs being released with -separate .exe files- for different hardware setups (Mech Warrior 3 was this way, how and where you got your game from had an impact on whether or not you would experience problems).

Considering I can install Windows Seven on hardware made nearly ten years ago and it work out of the box - that's pretty impressive in regards to compatibility. There's only several thousand different hardware possibilities to cover in that time-frame. There are bound to be some instances where there are stability issues.

Also, many people don't understand that the pre-installed OSes are almost always modified by the PC manufacturer. This isn't really Windows Seven running on this laptop. HP started with the OEM version of Windows Seven Home Premium and included their own drivers and modifications to the file structure and default settings. It may look and run much like Windows Seven on a Dell machine, or the Windows Seven retail installed on a custom built PC - but all three are technically different operating systems in terms of compatibility and driver issues.

You can get into arguments over what OS is better or worse than another - the issue is rather moot. A program designed and built to operate in an XP environment is likely going to be faster in XP. A program designed and built to operate in a Windows Seven environment may not even be able to run in an XP environment due to the features not being present in the OS (or even possible in the XP kernel). The hardware may not even be able to be supported by XP these days, XP x64 will be more likely to support the multi-core insanity about to sweep the CPU market, as well as the RAM craziness - but it'll be lacking DX10+ support and has its own driver and stability issues.

Wow, for the first time in my life, I can say I am totally happy with my OS! I really like Windows 7 and they would have to do something absolutely stunning with it to get me remotely interested in upgrading. Really, my main purpose for computing is school work and making music. For those two applications, it is rock solid and capable as a $2500 mac. Honestly, if I had $5000 to blow on a computer, I still wouldn't go with a mac. I build myself a dual xenon VST munching beast with 16 gigs of ram and have money to spare. Just can't go wrong with PC nowadays.

Originally posted by ResearchMan
Another reason to switch to MAC/Linux or SunOS.

And what reason would that be?

Originally posted by Aim64C
Generally, I find most problems to be with the user not knowing how to operate their system.

That may sound condescending - but I cannot tell you how many blank stares I get when I tell someone to fix their problem by going into the control panel and adding/removing programs or into the device manager. I even had to explain the concept of copying files from a CD to a folder to someone, before.... and the Windows start button.

Macs come at a premium price and only one button on the mouse, because they are built for people who think of the computer as a magic box and cannot understand that a computer is a cause-effect, command-driven machine. That's why you can't do anything with a mac, and it only comes in a very limited set of hardware configurations - so people and the technicians for them don't have to know "what kind of video card are you running?"

When you try and combine an operating system that the average person can wield with the diversity of the free market, you're going to have compatibility issues.

I have to completely agree with this... I work for a pretty big web hosting company as tech support and I didn't realize how many extremely computer ignorant people are actually out there..... "What browser are you using?" "What do you mean?" or "What's a browser?". I really feel like there are a few basic things that EVERYONE should know by now considering how widely used computers are.... ESPECIALLY if you're going to try and get in the web hosting game.

I'm still amazed at how often I get on my friends' computers and see tool bar after tool bar on their browser and sitting there for way too long on a fairly new machine waiting for stuff to load when i start it up when I tell them over and over again "Stop clicking next and read what you're installing before you do it" "Get rid of anythign taht says 'Install xxxxxxx toolbar' " "NO! You don't need norton get rid of it" "Stop going to porn sites -.-" (Said that one so many times... especially after scanning my friends machines and finding over 9000 (Literally) viruses/spyware). They make me facepalm.

And yes, I also think Macs are over priced eye candy machines.... 90% of the mac people I talk to wouldn't know what "OS" stood for if you rammed in their head for 2 weeks straight. We had a guy cancel his account and give our company a bad rating because safari doesn't like the E-mail accounts section of cpanel (Ajax error -.- ) He got really belligerent when I told him he would have to use Firefox or Chrome (we avoid telling people to use IE.).

Don't even get me started w/ "Make money at home" people.... *sigh*



Oh and star for you =)

reply to post by gabbermatt


Honestly, "general education" should include the history of the computer (both hardware and software) as well as basic operating system concepts (files, folders/directories, executable/command files, the stuff that is pretty basic across all operating systems going back to IBM operating systems that predate DOS).

It, honestly, is an economic security concern as well as a national security concern. The DoD spends enormous amounts of time and resources trying to make their computer systems idiot-proof. Most of their expenses aren't even related to espionage efforts - you can siphon off gigabytes of classified information on a flash drive and be out the door just as easily as you could on an office computer - but GOD FORBID we be able to send .zip and .mdb files through the exchange servers - can't have idiots sending PII all over creation, now can we?

Most of the defenses they put in place are simply to prevent people from hurting the system with their ignorance. People with half a bit of computer knowledge and a malicious intent are not really affected all that much. Well - other than DoD computers are so bogged down with monitoring software that no one can actually use them to complete their work. I do as much USNR business as possible on my own computer, because the physical networks are so unstable and the computers so ponderous (I never knew a Core II desktop could take longer to load a web-page than our old 486DX did running Windows 95) that you may as well spend your time doing something else, as attempting to use the DoD computer systems cannot be considered a productive use of time.

I swear... I'm hailed as some kind of computer genius when I get a CAC reader to install properly on someone's computer, or show them how to use Outlook Web Access.

It's no wonder ID theft is such a fast growing crime. People practically offer themselves up as a sacrifice on an hourly basis.

Bloatware?

And btw I sympathize with people who have to work with people who know next to nothing about computers and their proper use. It's aggravating to see that they can be so ignorant. It's like giving the 5 year old keys to the car. A bomb waiting to go off. Good for business have to say.

I have Win7 on my netbook, and I hate it with a passion. I've spent several months trying to love it, but I simply cannot. Despite turning off all unnecessary processes, and only utilizing, at most, 30% of my CPU and 50% of my RAM at any given time, 7 still runs slow, and often locks up. It is absolute crap. I might just as well purchase an external drive and install XP. XP never gave me anywhere near as big a headache as this does.

Originally posted by Itop1
8/8/2012
4-4-4

Worlds gonna end on that date guys, srsly

Don`t quite follow you reasoning behind that....

you mean 8/8/2011 ? Then I`d see the link with the 4s you mention

reply to post by Nyiah

netbook

7 still runs slow

Netbooks run slow, buddy. A netbook is an up-engineered PDA rather than a down-engineered notebook.

Despite turning off all unnecessary processes

often locks up

Are you sure those processes are unnecessary? For the operating system and/or for what you are trying to do with your netbook?

I might just as well purchase an external drive and install XP. XP never gave me anywhere near as big a headache as this does.

Good luck with that. Your netbook likely doesn't have xp-compatible drivers.

Of course, the real question should be: "Dude, did you get a Dell?"

(I joke - Dell has improved their reliability considerably these past couple years). Your OEM has far more to do with OS stability of prebuilds than the OS, itself.