[Not So RESOLVED] Windows 7 Ultimate experience

[Shaggy Hiker]

I installed Windows 7 Ultimate about a week back on a new computer with a quad core processor, 4GB RAM, and some pretty high end components. This may be the first time that I have ever been an early adopter of anything out of MS, and I approached it with some trepedation, but I saw no point in using Vista with Windows 7 poised to replace it almost immediately. My alternative position was XP, but that would mean that I would be dwelling in the past, yelling at the neighborhood kids to get off of my lawn, and shaking a cane at people. I didn't want to go there, because I don't actually have a cane, so I would have had to buy one, first, and I had spent enough money on the computer, by then.

At first, W7 looked great. Then I replaced my number 1 computer with the new computer...and it wouldn't boot at all. After a bit of study, I determined that the USB ports on my monitor were confusing the BIOS somehow. Since those ports had never actually been used, the solution to the problem was quite simple. After that, W7 booted nicely, set up a network nicely, updated video and OS software nicely...then failed to boot a second time and undid all that work, including the updated video driver.

On the third try (the first worked, the second failed), I updated the video driver again, re-created the network (which was so easy I couldn't believe it and spent time trying to make it harder...seriously), and loaded a few other things. Then I got down to playing games. It occurs to me that I don't believe I have successfully closed any games at this point, other than simple things like Hearts and Minesweeper. The other games I have played have all been closed for me, generally at the cost of locking up the computer so solid that only the power button could get me out of them. I suspect that this has to do with running games that were not intended to work in a system quite as dynamic as W7. In one case, it appears that a message from Windows Updater killed Doom3, and any background message popped up by the OS would certainly kill Oblivion, as that game has always played poorly with others.

On the other hand, I'm getting updates almost daily. The OS loads nicely, looks great, and has some neat cosmetic features to it. However, it does appear to be like all other MS products: It will be pretty good once the first service pack has been released. XP wasn't all that stable early on, but is quite stable now. Seven appears to be the same way.