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Moving on from XP Pro to Win 7 Pro


trimis

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As a longtime XP Pro user preparing to make the jump to Win 7, any advice on the differences between the two, or major problems likely to result from the transition?

I am studying the books 'Microsoft Windows 7 Simplified' (ISBN#9780470503874) and 'Windows 7 Secrets' (ISBN#9780470508411). For any familiar with these books, any advice on what parts I should focus on to limit 'culture shock'?

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Another minor problem with Windows 7 is that it cheats at Spider Solitaire by not properly shuffling the deck.  My success rate with 2 suits went from about 50% to 7% when I changed from Window XP x64 to Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

 

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I do not like Win7's version of Spider Solitaire at all so I rarely use it. I installed WinXPs version and also the XP pinball game too. Easily found and copied from a XP installation.

Personally I'd focus on the positives of Win7, the things I have come to appreciate which I did not think I would like or use initially. Too many to list but ones that immediately come to mind:-

1). The Show Desktop button on the far right edge of the taskbar taking you back to the desktop quickly. Hover to view the desktop or click to go and when done click to return to where you were.

2). The program thumbnails rather than XP's menu options when you hover over over its icon on the taskbar. Makes it very easy to identify, select, quick check or close something when you have multiple windows open.

3). The fact that a lot of Win7 system file locations are very similar or the same as with WinXP even if sometimes the name has been altered. It won't feel that much different from WinXP and that is its great and still significant selling point. If you know Win XP you can often find the same thing in Win7 without needing to search online for help.

4). The Control panel does everything that WinXP's did and more but it has a far better GUI.

Many other things...........................................   

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15 hours ago, trimis said:

As a longtime XP Pro user preparing to make the jump to Win 7...

Why not jump to Windows Vista ? A solid choice , especially considering it has a fully working extended kernel , thanks to @win32.

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all visual complaints can be easily restored
the old show desktop button (among others) are just in hidden toolbar (search of quick launch toolbar on google)

the up level button (which is pointless) you can have via classic shell, which among many things can tweak your explorer to look and work
so much better than in both 7 and XP

alot useless things can be removed and SPED UP via registry

 

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On 1/10/2021 at 6:14 AM, mshultz said:

My biggest complaint is that the "up one level" icon is gone from Explorer.  However, since I use Office 2003, when I am searching for a file in Office, that icon is still available.

 

There is Explorer++ that can be used on Vista/7/8 that will give you an "XP-esque" experience, including the "up" button.

 

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Definitely download, install and configure Classic Shell. This will give you a good experience of Windows Explorer on 7 that has strong similarities to WinXP. I'm on Windows 7 myself but only because Classic Shell makes Explorer and the Start Menu tolerable for me - if Classic Shell wasn't available then I would think I'd just go over to Linux Mint. In point of comparison I have to say that I do find Win7 to be a pretty good system and am overall well pleased with it.

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On 1/14/2021 at 4:52 PM, Jody Thornton said:

There is Explorer++ that can be used on Vista/7/8 that will give you an "XP-esque" experience, including the "up" button.

 

I had not heard of Explorer ++.  If I do decide to try it, I will wait until version 1.4 is RTM.

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If you do go over to Win7 then at some point you're going to have deal with the 'issue' on what you're going to do about Microsoft Updates. At minimum you're going to have to find out what updates are absolutely essential to giving you a useable system. On that account I would recommend reading the following thread in its entirety: Update Win 7, or Not ?

With respect to the books you mention I have no knowledge of them. However, when I first came to Win7 I got a hold of Windows 7 Annoyances by David A. Karp. I found it very informative and useful during install and configuring lots of aspects of Win7. In particular it had the information I needed to get Win7 to install onto a single partition (no hidden 'system reserved' partition necessary). To buy that book new is expensive but you should be able to pick up a second-hand copy very cheaply.

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7 hours ago, mshultz said:

I had not heard of Explorer ++.  If I do decide to try it, I will wait until version 1.4 is RTM.

I use v1.3.5 and it's reliable.  In fact it looks more like XP than the 1.4 beta.  You may wait a LONG time for the RTM.

There is also XP Explorer.

 

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Never really moved on, I just triple boot with XP, Win 7 and Win 10. On an older computer I've still got W2k. Each OS has it uses, especially XP with programs that can't be installed on the newer ones.

Of the bunch Win 10 barely gets used, I consider that OS a joke but will probably be needed in the future. 

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On 1/15/2021 at 7:54 AM, Radish said:

Definitely download, install and configure Classic Shell.

Classic Shell, now Open Shell along with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker made Windows 7 a good choice and are even more important  with Windows 10. Without these third party programs that restore useful functions I'd probably still be on XP most of the time. I'm waiting for someone to bring back the classic theme for Windows 10, Microsoft screwed it up so bad removing that option it has turned the OS into a joke.

Edited by DanR20
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10 hours ago, DanR20 said:

Never really moved on, I just triple boot with XP, Win 7 and Win 10. On an older computer I've still got W2k. Each OS has it uses, especially XP with programs that can't be installed on the newer ones.

Of the bunch Win 10 barely gets used, I consider that OS a joke but will probably be needed in the future. 

I used to have a triple boot system with Windows XP, XP x64, and Windows 7 x64.  Windows XP x64 was my main operating system, but when I could no longer use it to buy stuff off eBay, it was time to move on.  I use VueScan for my scanner, since HP did not provide x64 software other than a driver.  My LightScribe software works under Windows 7 x64, which is great.  In the past, each operating system had its own drive.  Now I have Windows 7 x64 on one drive, and the data on another.  I have an Asus Prime Q270M-C motherboard that I have yet to get working under Windows 7 x64.  I need to give that another try.  It goes on its own hard drive, too.

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10 hours ago, DanR20 said:

Classic Shell, now Open Shell along with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker made Windows 7 a good choice...

Yeah. Forgot to mention 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. That's a double-plus-good (in the genuine sense) for Win7 and it can be 'installed' as a portable.

Also worth a mention is Sizer. Kind of a niche program but use it for a couple of months and you won't end up deleting it as 'useless'. Again, can be 'installed' as portable.

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