So I joined the club

[Octopuss]

I feel the urge to share my opinion

Installed 64bit build 7201 few hours ago (need... sleeep... damnit!!!) onto my C2D E8400, 4GB RAM, ATI 4870 and Samsung SpinPoint.

The installation was pretty good, the installed looks visually good. The only trouble was when I wanted to select my own AHCI driver - the one I used in Vista gave an error, although it was correctly identified. The funny part was that all disks disappeared after that because the installer is obviously unable to revert back to the default driver

Nothing much to say about the installation process after this point. It works and doesn't take too long.

But then I booted into the system for the first time.

First off - I like the new animated logo that shows during boot

Second - I am orthodox fan of classic Windows look. But I must say I REALLY LIKE what they did here!!! It's visually perfect!! Few tweaks into the annoying animation of everything and I can imagine using the theme. Did I mention it's fast, too? Yeah, speaking about fast - the whole **** system is fast as hell! Someone did a hell of a job tweaking the baby.

Microsoft apparently finally found out how to do stuff right, because I didn't have to chenge anything after I booted in. It's no major things, BUT it's those minor improvements that make you enjoy life again. For example desktop automatically set to resolution native to your monitor (which is - at least in my case - identified as well).

Drivers are quite up to date - in fact suspiciously well! I have not too old driver for my Intel network card, and the driver present in the system refused to update because it didn't need to! Yay. Same goes for Intel chipset drivers - but I am a bit confused about this bit because there is no official support for W7, judging from download options at Intel.

Software works. Pretty well. No problems at all.

Ok and now what I dislike.

No, what I HATE.

The new Start menu!!

Oh my, oh my, oh my!

This hurts.

I really like the right side of it, that's actually pretty useful - but the main part, that's terrible. I really don't like the approach of list of recently/frequently used programs. I like to have access to stuff that's installed, just like the old times. It's very easy to navigate in and I can reach anything in about three seconds. Now it is hiddden at the bottom, uses ultra miniature icons and the submenus open in totally useless way. Ouch.

The pin function is nice, BUT why the hell I can't create menu levels in there? What kinda point is to drag sh**load of programs in there? If that doesn't result in a mess sooner or later, I am a pope. I used to have extra menu in XP and Vista where I put all the programs that don't install and which I frequently (like, system tools etc.). Impossible here.

Also, I would prefer classic view of Control panel more - but luckily I can access it from Start and it's ok.

Aside from the **** Start, I really like it! I was also really surprised how I didn't mind the new taskbar AT ALL. Half the community curses about it, but I started to actually like it a LOT after initial ten seconds of confusion.

I know where will my money go around the end of the year!

Edited June 9, 2009 by TheWalrus

[Colonel O'Neill]

I joined the club recently too, although I still have my gripes about it.

The new taskbar I agree with you there, I like it. Except you can't ungroup without showing labels.

For me, jump lists = Bigger bulkier right click menu (with apparently smaller text Oo).

I sympathsize with your opinions about the lack of Classic Start Menu, and that's one major thing I want back.

Faster? Seems so. The Aero UI has bigger window control buttons, easier to hit now, and the glass effect is still awesome.

But... did you ever notice that compared to XP and 2000 (not sure about Vista), pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del takes about 3-5 seconds to reach the screen compared to near instantaneous for XP and 2000?

And the flickering screens every time UAC asks, that gets annoying quick. Disabling that and running as admin made things better .

[Octopuss]

But... did you ever notice that compared to XP and 2000 (not sure about Vista), pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del takes about 3-5 seconds to reach the screen compared to near instantaneous for XP and 2000?

And the flickering screens every time UAC asks, that gets annoying quick. Disabling that and running as admin made things better .

It's instant for me!

UAC, that has a fix too, jsut not sure what setting it is.

What I pray for is Nuhi showing up with ANY tweaking utility for W7 Preconfigured system is a win. I don't like to dig in the bloody control panel for too long. It's exciting when discovering the mystery of a new system, but on next installation it becomes annoying

[DigeratiPrime]

You can 'Pin' items to the StartMenu and disable recently opened programs in StartMenu. As for creating a cascading menu I think it is possible.

You can get a near classic view in the Control Panel by setting the View from Category to Large Icons.

I reccomend to use the Ctrl+Shift+Esc combo to directly open the Task Manager.

You can disable the "flickering" with UAC by setting the 'switch to secure desktop' policy to disabled.

gpedit.msc > Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options

You can use the Search feature in the StartMenu and Control Panel, though the StartMenu will show CP items, to quickly find what you are looking for too.

[Octopuss]

If cascaded menu would be possible to create, I would be happy. Sadly, it is not

I also strongly dislike submenus in All programs opening below instead of on right.