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Wait For Windows 7 SP1, Support Firm Warns Users
CWmike writes "Users should wait for Microsoft to work out the bugs in Windows 7 before jumping on the new OS, computer support company Rescuecom said on Friday. 'From the calls we're getting, as well as our own experience in the past with all Microsoft's operating systems, we're recommending that people stick with their time-tested OS and wait for the dust to settle,' said Josh Kaplan, president of Rescuecom. Citing a litany of reasons, ranging from the risk of losing data during an upgrade to tough economic times, Kaplan urged Windows users to put off upgrading to Windows 7 or buying a new PC with the operating system pre-installed. 'There are some compelling reasons for both businesses and home users to move to Windows 7,' Kaplan said, 'so we're saying "just wait for a bit."' Upgrading an existing machine — whether it's running the eight-year-old Windows XP or the much newer Vista — is particularly risky, he added, especially if users haven't taken time to make a full backup before they migrate their machines. Some users have found that out first hand. Among the top subjects on Microsoft's support forum is one that has put some PCs into an endless reboot loop when their owners tried to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7. Microsoft has not yet come up with a solution that works for all the users who have reported the problem, sparking frustration."
Trust me.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Wait... Windows 7 is the vista service pack.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I say get Windows 7 now, if you have a reason. If you have a new computer get it with 7 for sure. Get it for an old computer if there's a reason you want it (like DirectX 10/11 support or something) and your computer is reasonable (at least a dual core with 2GB RAM).
We have been deploying it here at work and it works great. It is a solid and fast OS. App compatibility is extremely good, even with our squirelly engineering apps.
But then seriously, how is this guy's story "news for nerds" any more than my anecdote? I would think nerds would be capable enough of doing testing to determine if 7 is right for their environment and then deploying it if appropriate.
What's new? This is always the recommendation. It has never not been the recommendation to jump on a Windows product as soon as it's been released by a support firm. Is it just posted here to give Slashdot readers a space to vent their Windows 7 thoughts on?
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Having played with Windows 7 Build 7000 (public beta), Build 7100 (RC1) and the final version, Windows 7 is stable enough as is to not need to wait for a Service Pack 1. The only thing we need are proper Windows 7 drivers, which will be coming over the next 4-5 months from hardware manufacturers that haven't gotten them available yet at the time of Windows 7's retail release.
When SP1 comes out (which I expect will arrive probably Summer 2010), I expect to be a "roll up" of the monthly security fixes plus additional driver support. This isn't like SP1 of Windows Vista, which had a LOT of bug fixes to correct a number of memory handling issues.
While no initial release is perfect (and nor is any currently deployed system), this seems like FUD to me. Win7 is small enough of a difference from Vista (and that's a good thing) that there's relatively few surprises switching to it. There's no major driver model change and real world app compatibility testing has been in progress for almost a year now.
I hear this every time a new version of Windows comes out. While it may be good policy for businesses to buy time to test the OS, develop training materials, and fix any application problems, it isn't as big of a deal for consumers, and articles like this come off as anti-Microsoft FUD.
There is always risk in upgrading to a new operating system, especially if you don't have much experience with it. That shouldn't stop you from waiting for the service pack.
My Sysadmin Blog
and we have seen a plethora of issues with people who have upgraded to Win 7. For example:
1.) SQL 2005 and SQL 2008 both have known compatibility issues. SQL 2005 will ALWAYS fail an upgrade to SP3 under Win 7 without a reg hack.
2.) We've had a ton of issues with other things like: Drive mappings, printer compatibility issues, memory leaks from Win 7 processes, just to name a few.
I agree with the FA to the point that if you have an intelligent IT dept who has the time and resources to debug and work these issues AND have a need or value added motivation to upgrade to Win 7 then you should do so, otherwise you should just let the "dust" settle and then migrate.
Hey, I upgraded Vista SP2 Business to W7 Ultimate and it worked great. There are two things that I would caution on though. My printer driver doesn't work well anymore because HP hasn't upgraded their printer drivers and my Motherboard drivers had to be refreshed as I was having some problems with the chips that drive the ethernet ports. Printer and motherboard drivers are not a Windows 7 flaw though, but are dependencies. By the way, HP isn't planing to upgrade their printer drivers until Jan '10. What's up with that ?
Waiting for SP1 isn't a bad idea if you are not a techie. For those of us who are techies, bring it. W7 works great !!!! Unless I have to print something, which I still can, but I can't get any advanced functionality like duplex printing.
Purchasing version 1.0 of anything is always an act of vanity rather than practicality.
Examples include:
Cars (Tesla?)
Phones, including Droid
Operating Systems
Girl friends
etc, etc.
But then you should have that anyhow. If you data matters, it needs to be backed up. How much it matters depends on how well you back it up. Reinstalls aren't the time to make backups, every single day is the time to make backups.
I wonder how much they get paid to release that? Everyone knows to wait for SP1 in businesses.
If it isn't broke, tinker with it till it is!
I'll be the first to admit that, in the past, this is exactly the recommendation I follow. However, I've used the beta, the RC, and I'm typing this on RTM, with an official install disk and license sitting next to me waiting until I have time to reinstall everything. Win7 has been rock-solid stable for me (aside from Creative's shite XFi drivers) through every version I've tried. If you are aware of any incompatible software that you need to run, then by all means wait (or run a VM), but otherwise, I have yet to see any reason to wait for a service pack on this one. If someone could provide some concrete reasons to wait, I'd take this article seriously, but otherwise, FUD.
As to upgrading, when has it ever been a good idea to perform a Windows upgrade installation? If you've been running any old version of Windows for 6 months or more, a fresh install is probably indicated anyway (although, I have been running RC on my home system since the day it came out, and I haven't had any Windows Rot yet, still runs as well as when I installed it). Backup your data, wipe the drive, and start from scratch. Bit of a pain in the ass, but that's pretty much a fact of life with Windows.
Because the is a Knowledge Base article (KB975253) about this problem?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
I see no reason to upgrade from VAX/VMS...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
"has put some PCs into an endless reboot loop when their owners tried to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7. Microsoft has not yet come up with a solution that works for all the users who have reported the problem,"
Download and boot a linux live cd, mount your NTFS partitions, copy all your data, install linux or reinstall windows
The only problems I've had, and I only use my Windows box for games and keep my data on a server anyway, are
1: Quake 2 and derivatives do not run
2: My Turtle Beach surround sound USB headphones make Windows 7 bluescreen.
Otherwise everything I've tried on it works as well as it did under XP. I'm not happy with the new interface, but I remember not liking Windows XP when it first came out.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Windows 7 is just a servicepack and some graphical changes to Windows Vista. Its still horribly incompatible with older applications, has very bad support for older hardware like printers and scanners and are a real resource pig. Frankly, Vista/Windows 7 still sucks just as bad despite the name change.
If you have a working computer at home with XP there arent any reason whatsoever to install Windows 7. The benefits just doesnt exist.
Buying a new computer and getting Windows 7 is something else but to get rid of a functioning XP install in return for a world of pain? Im not even sure Vista users will get that much out of installing Windows 7 unless the install is 100% flawless (wich it looks like it never is).
HTTP/1.1 400
While I hate "Me too" posts as much as the next guy, I have to agree that this article is FUD for the management types. I installed 7 RTM as soon as it was available from TechNet, and haven't had problem one yet.
Well, I have one problem - it doesn't seem to connect to Windows 2000 Server shares, and it doesn't like my (very outdated) Samba network. Apparently it requires Samba 3.3 or higher. However, that aside, I have to say my existing PCs (original P4 3ghz, 3gb or 4gb memory) are noticeably snappier than they were with XP - granted, some of that may have been the accumulation of crud that happens with any windows installation. Clean installs are always speed-boosters.
Speaking of which - yeah, don't bother with an upgrade. With as cheap as USB drives (even USB HDs, not just flash) are these days, you have no real excuse for not doing a clean install. I'll be deploying Windows 7 starting in April to the 500+ workstations at my company, and every install will be a wipe & reinstall using Acronis TrueImage with a nice sysprep'ed image. All of the testing I've done so far has made me a happy camper and Win7 evangelist.
Prior releases... yeah, waiting for SP1 was always a good idea. Hell, we waited for XP SP2 before deploying it. I really think they've finally gotten this thing right.
But of course, I could be wrong.
Poor means hoping the toothache goes away.
that would be Slackware. and i am sticking to it.
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
I thought that info was olds, not news? For at least the past 10 years, anyone who upgrades to a new windos version before the first big patchset is done is roughly on the same risk level as someone going to vacation in Afghanistan. As a woman. In a bikini. Together with your lesbian girlfriend. Who has an "I love USA" tattoo.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Oh, bullshit. I have NEVER ONCE done a format/install on a Mac OS that hadn't experienced a hardware issue requiring an HD replacement. And I have NEVER ONCE had a problem doing it. That goes back to Mac System 6->7, up to and including OS 10.5.8. I have found bugs in the new system, but NEVER ONCE an issue with the upgrade itself. Format/install is probably the only way I would do Windows "upgrades" but it's simply a non-issue with Macs going back ~20 years.
Brett
AUMHA Discussion: Should I Use a Registry Cleaner?
[excerpt]
Mark Russinovich wrote:
No, even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little
impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive
searches (ed. of the registry itself).
On Win2K Terminal Server systems, however, there is a limit on the
total amount of Registry data that can be loaded and so large
profile hives can limit the number of users that can be logged on
simultaneously.
I haven't and never will implement a Registry cleaner since
it's of little practical use on anything other than Win2K
terminal servers and developing one that's both safe and
effective requires a huge amount of application-specific
knowledge.
[/excerpt]
It's a very interesting read, that's just one of the many security
and computer experts that chimed in on the issue.Overall, the
consensus is No, you should not use a registry cleaner. Period.
A few end-users howl contrary.
I'll go with the expert's advice that aren't trying to sell or promote crapware.
I love a good screwdriver, me. It's a fine, honest tool. I'm a traditionalist - I like a flat blade. I've never liked those newfangled crossheads. I mean, they just don't have the elegance of a nice flat blade. They're rubbish for opening things too. You can jam a flat blade into just about anything. I'd ban crossheads, they're just forced on us by industry shills.
OK, leaving out 1.x and 2.x (3.x was where most people started after DOS...were 1 & 2 ever even released to consumers?)
Yes, I've used 1.x (well, used may be overstating, I played a bit with it, but since you could not run any DOS program in a window, and nothing was available for Windows yet, you basically just closed it and used DOS anyway). I also tried 2.x, and I still have the originals 5.25" floppy. Was pretty much the same as with 1.x, you could run Calc, Notepad and Paint (which stayed pretty much unchanged since then), but that was about it.
Avoid the MS tax, always buy I.B.M. PC's (I Built-it Myself)