A 2nd Look - Windows 7

After the honeymoon period running on Windows 7, and using this as my primary machine, now that the honeymoon period is over….

System Configuration

IBM X200 4GB DDR3
Intel Centrino Pro P8600

Problems

Problem #1 – As discussed during my first post, a UAC bug stopped by gadgets prematurely. Boo

Problem #2 – After installing my Microsoft Live suite of products, NO JOY with getting my Live Messenger to work. Turns out I needed to get rid of a new feature that does dynamic TCP/IP window resizing

Problem #3 – VirtualPC2007 is DOG SLOW. There is significant mouse and keyboard unresponsiveness (yes Hardware acceleration is set to MAX) and general slowdown (this laptop performs slower than a AMD XP3000+ I got running 3GB RAM). If I run the VM on the primary hdd, this goes to absolute crap.

Problem #4 – Tried to install a Microsoft Loopback adapter for my VMs to communicate with the Host. Device Manager can no longer Add?! hardware. Well done. And the Add Hardware Wizard is missing and must be accessed via command-line.

Problem #5 – Did I mention there was like 35 updates to be installed?

Problem #6 – I loaded up my (slow) VPC machine, took forever. Then I closed the lid of my laptop bringing it into Standby. When coming out of Standby, VPC2007 will stop responding and automatically crash and restart. OMG.

Problem #7 – Still the legacy issue of 3gig on 32-bit Windows 7. No PAE on this baby.

Issue #1 – Software such as my fav Daemon Tools Lite are not compatible yet. BOO

Conclusion

I’m going to reformat to Windows 7 x64 and run all my work (i.e. important) stuff via VPC images. Only MSN messenger and Office suite gets on Windows 7. If the VM jerk issues persist, its Windows 2003 Server R2 with PAE for this baby.