Windows 7 Updates!
These are the updates to my Windows 7 article.
Here's the Big Guy!
As I mentioned earlier, various devices did not install under Windows 7. Seems this stuff is too old for Microsoft to include it, however, as with other issues, this may be a Beta thing. If they just wanted to get this out there to get folks fired up about it, I can see how they'd leave a few things out.
Still, I wanted to get everything working, just to see if I could. And I did! Well, almost everything. I don't need the funky built-in network card, and I don't have the drivers handy, so I left it alone for now.
Before going any further, I wanted to see what Windows thought of my, eh, vintage computer. Believe it or not, Microsoft things My System is Number One!
Well, anyway, it'll be interesting to see if I can get this up a little.
It should be noted that the RAM cannot be upgraded. I put the maximum 512mb in, and that's it. The CPU can be upgraded from 700mhz to 1ghz, and it'd debatable whether that would make a difference, either to the user or the numbers above, but it's simply not worth it. A roughly one fourth extra megahertz is unlikely to do much, the CPU itself, used, would cost as much as a current mid-range CPU, and it would be a real hassle to install. That leaves the hard drive. The one installed now isn't bad, so a significant increase in performance would require one of those newfangled SSD drives. When they drop in price by, say, 1000%, I might try it, unless you have one handy to send me, in which case I'd be happy to try it out for you.
The audio for this laptop is handled by an ESS Maestro 3i embedded sound card. This system is so old that you can only find information about it on forums, where folks look for drivers and whatnot. Still, since it wasn't working at all, I couldn't hurt things by trying the old Windows 2000 drivers, so I did.
It worked!
In fact, it works just like it did under the old operating system, which is swell.
Since Windows 7 didn't recognize the ATI Rage Mobility 3 video controller, I thought I'd give that a try as well.
It worked too!
Ooooooooh, 350mhz DAC and 8mb of video RAM! I know your jealous! That's AGP baby!
I did get a repeating artifact here and there. It might be Windows 7, the driver, the laptop giving up the ghost, or overheating. They're tiny, and not worth worrying about unless you plan on doing some serious artistic stuff on there.
I tried to do another performance test to see how everything turned out. Here's what I got:
Well, Thank You Microsoft! I so deeply appreciate you telling me there's an error. Somewhere. With Something. I am SO GLAD you narrowed it down to the Operating System, Driver, or Other Component! That helps a lot! Now I know not to waste time checking the ad...no wait, that could be "Other Component." Darn.
Wait! I just remembered, there's a log file that stores errors just like this! Let's check it out:
Oh.
Well, they may not be able to keep menus and functions the same, but they're ever-so-not-handy error messages are more certain than Death AND Taxes!
I also checked the new Action Center, which up to now never hesitated to 'inform' me whenever Windows wasn't happy. For once, it felt there was nothing to bitch about. I also did a long, painful investigation in Device Manager, with no joy. Then I figured it was one of the drivers I installed, so I disabled the audio driver. No luck. Disabling the video driver would have been pointless, so I quit messing with it.
ANOTHER NOTE TO MICROSOFT - If there's an error, and somehow your boys can't get it to fix itself, or give the user an option to ignore it, or bypass that function, then hey, how about giving a few more clues as to where the error is, or at least have it logged in English!
It's not a total loss. The rating system displayed on the laptop was from 1 to 7.9. That's right, 7.9. Silly me, I've always done the 1 to 10 rating system. Must be some kind of metric thing. So I guess a 1 out of 7.9 beats a 1 out of 10. Awesome!
So, back to Windows 7. Here's a screen shot of the desktop:
For a screen pushing 10 years old, it sure looks pretty! On the left you see the standard Start menu button, next to it is the Quicklaunch bar with Internet Explorer and File Manager. I like how they put File Manager on there as a default, as I've always had to put it there in the past. By the way, when you click either of these buttons, instead of a separate bar showing up on the bottom for the program in question, the button on the Quicklaunch expands and serves that purpose. This may be mildly confusing at first. Of course, Microsoft isn't satisfied with mildly confusing, so to go that extra mile they removed the Show Desktop button, which I have a hard time living without.
On the right we have, from left to right, my screenshot utility, AVG Antivirus, the USB control thingy, the Action Center, Battery Status, the wireless network manager, and the clock. The battery has been long dead.
The Action Center is a new gizmo that nags you about your antivirus programs, bitches about some problems, and, uh, doesn't show the problems you need to see.
The Desktop icons and text are a little big for my taste. After about 15 minutes of digging I was unable to make them smaller. Windows 7 calls this size "100%", gives you the option to make them bigger, and that's it. A little frustrating, if you ask me. Granted, the resolution of the LCD is 1024 by 768, and by modern standards this may seem low. Still, I used that resolution for something going on 12 years on my desktop computers, and I had a lot more control over icons and such. This is just wasted space.
While perusing the Control Panel, I found a couple goodies that might be fun to play with. The first was Speech Recognition:
Seems this does what add-on software has been doing for years, which is, add voice control to your PC. Oh, I just check Vista, and this isn't all that new! Told you I was still learning Vista! Since I just discovered this, I haven't mess with it, and, due to 9 years worth of finger grease and Pringles crumb crud, didn't get very good results from the built-in microphone in the old laptop. I don't know whether it works or not, but I guess it probably works.
I have used this type of system long ago, with IBM's ViaVoice, which was pretty cool. You say "Open Word" and up comes Word. Using voice recognition for actual writing, however, needed some work. I don't know if that part is included in Windows 7 or Vista, so that'll have to wait.
I also found something about Sensors:
This will be very interesting in the future. My guess is, this will control, and receive information from, various devices due to be included in newer computers, most likely laptops. This may include accelerometers, GPS, thermometers, fan speed sensors, and, I'm sure of this, Microsoft's new version of a touch screen. Everybody stood up and took notice when Apple released the Iphone and Ipod Touch, and Nintendo with the Wii, so the industry is going to play around with that technology in new, creative, and sometimes stupid ways for the next few years.
Seems now you have some control over the Notification Area Icons, those little buggers on the lower right of your screen. I like this!
This is the rest of the Control Panel:
Maybe you can find something I missed.
There was another surprise; Internet Explorer 8! I didn't spend too much time going over it, but if that's your 'thing', here's a shot:
So far I've noticed two big changes. A couple menu items are moved around, and:
That's right, a big fat "8" where there was a "7"! Yeah! No doubt there's a third change; newer and more interesting vulnerabilities to hackers, crackers, and tallywackers.
Unfortunately, this is when my poor laptop was struggling. I don't blame the laptop, nor do I blame Windows 7. I put the blame squarely where it belongs, with Microsoft's web designers. They put so many stupid videos, animations, blinking moving circling things on there that not only slowed things down, but took too long to load. Sure, I got DSL, and many folks got cable, and most folks probably have newer computers, but there are still folks out there with dialup connections, slower DSL connections, older computers, or a T1 at work that's shared with thousands of people trying to look at the same damn things. What useful purpose do all those doohickies serve, and is it worth the hassle and hardship to those not equipped for it?
This, my friends, is the main reason you won't see that garbage on MY site!
As for other changes, there was something interesting tidbits here and there:
I'm not sure exactly what Smart Screen is, but it did a good job!
They also seem to be getting quite bold with the Backup Program that comes with Windows.
I have yet to find a use for Windows Backup. I've never met anybody who has. I've never heard of anybody who has. But here it is, all for you!
Personally, I just copy the directories where I have stuff stashed onto another hard drive. It's not the most efficient system, but I like having control over what, where, and when, and I REALLY like verifying the backup. Oh, and I don't want to rely on Microsoft to retain compatibility with older Windows Backup programs.
While doing the above tasks and running a small screen shot program, I checked the CPU load:
As you can see, this version of Windows put my poor CPU and RAM through the wringer, making the normally quiet cooling fan run like crazy. It was like a big, fat guy riding an old, skinny horse. If only I could sell it for glue...
Also, I noticed things getting slower, especially after I tried refreshing the Performance Index. Again, it may be the laptop is getting too hot, giving up the ghost, or some kind of problem with Windows 7 that somehow gets worse with use. A couple reboots didn't help much.
My guess is Microsoft won't allow this OS to install on such a lowly computer in the final release.
On the bright side I was able to fire up Microsoft Word, Exel, Frontpage and Powerpoint with no issues. These applications started and made themselves ready for use within a few seconds, which is as fast as you can ask of any computer, even a modern one. Oh, and this was a 'first run'. None of these programs had been started before. That was impressive. For this reason, I abandoned the 'drag race' idea mentioned earlier.
I didn't do a 'boot drag race' either. It would have been interesting if my Vista installation was somewhat fresh, but now it would just be dumb.
Also, Windows 7 gets an "F" for retaining my settings on when to go into Standby (I set it at NEVER), but an "A+" for coming out of Standby with impressive speed! That, alone, makes me want to try it on my teeny tiny laptop, which I often have on Standby.
That pretty much concludes my review. If you were looking for hundreds of benchmarks and graphs, I'm sorry to disappoint. Frankly, I've found benchmarks to be worse than useless when deciding where to spend my money.
If I had this laptop, and only this laptop, to use, I'd try Linux. In fact, in the next day or so I will load Linux on there. Dell was kind enough to offer Red Had drivers, so who knows? What I do know is this laptop isn't much good for Windows of any sort, not for general usage, anyway. Today's applications just demand too much RAM and CPU power, especially for surfing the web.
However, if all someone needed was a compact word processor or number cruncher, something with a little more flexibility than a dedicated machine, this would be perfect, especially using Windows 7. It's easy on the eyes, you can turn Indexing on for quick searches, and easily print or transfer work.
Would it be wise to buy Windows 7 to run on this computer? That depends, of course, on what Microsoft decides to charge for it, any other OS you may have handy, how long you intend to keep it, and so on. I'd pay up to $150 for a budget version of Windows 7, if I had the needs mentioned in the previous paragraph, and I didn't want to run Linux. It may sound like a lot, but there are good reasons. Linux, and older versions of Windows, simply don't have the support of major software and hardware vendors. Does it make sense to save a few bucks on software when your printer dies and the new one doesn't have drivers? How about virus software, exploit updates, compatible file systems? This is called The Big Picture, and is often overlooked by Specialists in any field.
I'd like to give Windows 7 a "Score." Something like 7 out of 10, or B+, a 3/4 mast willy, or even a 6.5363 out of 7.9. The problem with scores is, they reflect what I think of the product, based on what I need and want. Chances are good your needs and wants differ ever so slightly, which makes my score meaningless. That is, unless you've already made a decision, and my rating agrees with yours; then you can come back and blame me for making you buy junk! Again, sorry, but that's not what I'm here for. Blame me for Global Warming. I'm OK with that.
CS