Roll Call: Is Windows 7 now your primary OS?

As per the title, I was wondering about numbers really. So who here is currently using Windows 7 as their primary OS?

 

I'm using it, but my primary OS is XP still. I also have Vista (triple boot config now with Win 7 beta, Vista and XP).

 

GO GO 7!

OS X and 7 both now my primary operating system on the macbook

 

Anyone who is using it as a primary OS is an absolute fool and has no business downloading it.

It is Windows 7 BETA 1. There is a reason it is a BETA. There is a reason that Microsoft tells everyone who will listen not to place Windows 7 on a production machine.

This is intended to help find and squash bugs, not to be used as a primary OS

 

I have my (original) Vista setup acting now as a virtual machine, which I access using VMware Workstation. Windows 7 is my primary OS, and am moving applications that I normally use to it. I do plan however to triple-boot XP/Vista/W7 this weekend, as I'm running into some disk management issues (istuff is everywhere ).

 

Thats a good recommendation. It's what I plan to do this weekend once I sort out my disk management problem.

There's nothing wrong with using W7 as a primary machine as long as there is a backup of an original setup somewhere that a person can go back to quickly.

 

Greetings,

It's my primary, but like Dbam said I do have back up, plus everything that I save goes to a server, so I'm not worried in the end.


Ali

 

I'm using Windows 7 as my main OS on my laptop, but am dual booting with Vista, so I have that to use aswell in case anything goes wrong.

I also have my desktop with just Vista on which is the main system in my house, so I have options if major failure.

 

I was booted into it for a while, but went back to Vista so I could take notes in OneNote 07 for school, (I'm not sure how many times my Office professional can be installed, and I don't want to take any chances)

 

As long as it's the same machine that you are installing Office on (i.e. same processor, hard-drive, motherboard, etc.) then you can re-install it as many times as you need. So, if you decide to wipe your machine and go back to XP then install Office again, you'll be fine.

 

Not Primary, as I still have my regular Vista machine.

 

I am using it as my primary OS

 

Yeah, I was referring to how many simultaneous installs of Office you could run from one key. I found out that if your running Office 07 Professional, you can actually install it on up to two machines-a desktop and a "portable system."

That would explain why I was able to install it on my old Ubuntu partition in Crossover just fine.

So, I might export my OneNote 07 notebook and make the switch tonight. Maybe.

 

Nope, Vista (x64) is working just fine for me. I don't plan on making more work for myself when the beta expires.

 

I voted "No - not primary". I intend to use it about equally with XP, but I think I actually use XP a bit more - I've got everything set up there already. Had Win7 beta come out 13 months earlier, when I still had Vista, it would've become my primary OS overnight and only OS within a week, but I'm in no hurry to leave XP. Right now I only really surf the net on Win7 - everything else I do in XP. And I surf the net in XP sometimes, too.

Give me a couple months and post the poll again, and the result might be different. Though I'll at least have XP still installed so I'm not left hanging on August 1st.

Ah, that explains why I never ran into Office installation trouble back when I had to re-install Vista every four weeks in fall of '07. Makes sense now.

 

It's now my primary OS on a secondary machine, specifically, my laptop.

Of course, there's absolutely no essential data on my laptop and I have a pristine Vista image in an Acronis recovery partition that I could blow on there at a moment's notice and not miss a beat.

I'd never use a beta OS as an actual primary OS on an essential system. That's just nuts.

 

I'm using it as a primary OS, but I don't have anything important going on atm. I figure I wouldn't really be able to test it out unless I do make it my primary OS. I'll probably give it a week more or so before I go back to Vista, but leave a little space for W7 and its subsequent releases.

 

Good very general advice re betas and risk, but my feelings are that in this instance you are safer with windows 7 than vista 64.

They should switch it around and start calling vista a beta OS...

That is how satisfied I am with windows 7 and I do run it as my primary OS...with a back up of important crap of course,,

 

BTW.....I think it's "nuts" to use Vista as the primary OS....

Win 7 IMO is just a VISTA SP....Not your everyday beta by any means...

 

Since i installed windows 7 i haven't looked back!!! my laptop is so much smoother than with vista sp1, i never thought i'd have a "beta" as my primary os, but it don't' feel like no beta!!!

 

Until you try to install certain virtual drives on W7 and watch the corruption begin, you'll be thankful you have Vista as a primary.

 

I'm using it as my only OS, but all of my data is backed up and this is certianly no business machine. I do the odd website and some schoolwork, but nothing terribly important.

There are 4 laptops in my house, and yes, it would not be responsible having 7 on all of them, but my personal laptop? I wouldn't call that nuts at all.

I was having lockups at least every day if not more and losing data on Vista, whereas I had one lockup since I've installed 7 (how long is it now? 6 days?) and I lost 2 sentences is MS Word. (I also retyped what I had not saved using another laptop incase Word did not recover the document, the laptop was unresponsive, but I could still read it)

Greg

 

Oh, I definitely agree that on the surface W7 appears to be a better performer than a laden-down Vista install, but after what happened to me yesterday has renewed my caution.

 

Depends what you mean by primary... I do have it on my primary computer, dual-booting with XP. I've been using it 90% of the time since installing it, however I still use XP for all my online banking & critical work. I won't trust a beta with sensitive information or work that will cost me money if I lose due to a crash.

I'd still consider XP my primary OS, since that's the one I trust at the moment.

 

same here, more or less. I haven't saved anything to my Windows 7 partition since I don't want to lose it in August or if something crashes, but I am using Windows 7 much more than I'm using Windows XP at the moment.

 

I second this!!!!!

 

It is my primary OS on the two computers in my sig since I have nothing to loose, and reinstalling stuff is easy (stuff from internet, Office, Paint Shop Pro XI, and Sim City 4 is it). I only have a couple mb of music and school work on flash drives.

 

I might add that I needed to reformat my computer anyways. I just waited another week than I had planned for the beta to come out.

Greg

 

I use Vista on my laptop and 7 on my desktop. I really like 7. I will preorder if they offer a preorder.

 

I'm also strongly considering picking up W7 when it is officially released. Although this time around I will not get it by downloading it and will get the official DVD media when it hits the store shelves. Although if Microsoft offers a cheap upgrade path from Vista to W7 I'll jump on that in a hurry .

 

When you say that you needed to reformat your computer, do you mean that you were still running the factory installation of Vista that came with your machine?

The reason that I ask is that we are running essentially the same hardware, but we've had pretty different experiences with Vista and 7.

Once I did a clean install of Vista Business 32 on my e6500, Vista was responsive and reliable to the point that I couldn't imagine it being any better. For me, Win 7 32 Beta offered about the same performance, but less reliability than Vista. Now that I've gone to Win 7 64 Beta I have lots of incompatibilities (including a mission critical app I use for work).

Win 7 is a great beta and has some cool new features. I look forward to seeing the finished product. But, I am really surprised that you find that 7 offers better performance than vista on the same hardware that I have.

 

What exactly makes someone doing this a fool? You insult people who might have perfectly good backups of significant data and know _KNOW_ what they are up against. I usually ignore blowhards but according to the forum you're supposed to be a guru of some sort.

I, for one, am in the habit of using MS OS BETAs asap. This is my third. XP was a great, VISTA a blessing and W7 seems to be the best of them all. I am not your average user and am perfectly capable of recovering a crippled OS, should I need to.

If you're going to insult as a PRIMARY means of delivering your personal opinion on choices people make, try /.
You'll fit right in.

 

I have win 7 beta installed on both my youngest childrens desktop pc's and their shared laptop. They have nothing critical to make a mess of ;-)

So the answer for me would be no, but for my kids yes.

No probs so far, although I do have my ghost images at the ready, just incase :thumbsup

 

lol the poll is funny

 

It was not my factory installation, but being an early adopter of the Latitude E6400, I was often experimenting trying to find the best drivers, there were numerous updates, etc. Those seem likely to be the reason that I needed a reformat, but everything was working perfectly until one day about 2 weeks or so ago. I'm thinking it was a Windows Update that killed the otherwise perfect installation. Regardless, I was formatting anyhow.

Oh, and thanks for that curaven.

Greg

 

Cheers

tencharacterlimit

 

I use it as my primary OS because all my software and games work with it. I don't experience random crashes. Even virtual disk mounting software works. If something does happen, it's juts 4 hours of downtime for me to reformat and install Vista again.

 

Which one did you use?

 

got my new xps m1530 a couple of days ago, installed 7 (64bit) strait away, never tried vista & dont wanna try it either.

 

Decided to play it safe in the end and restore my original Vista install (special thanks for Vista's Complete PC Backup!) and dual boot with W7 on a secondary drive.

W7 is the default OS in the selection window though, so I have a choice on what to load every startup.

 

I have it in dual boot with Vista. It's not my primary right now, but will be once I get the programs I normally use up and running on 7. I go back and forth between the two right now.

 

As with others I am dual booting between 7 and Vista, for now. I don't mind Vista but am starting to like 7 better already after 2 days.

 

Common sense is something some people are missing.

Recommendations from m$ that you shouldn't is something you should read with sense, OFCOURSE they will tell you that, it's a beta for christ sake.

Just because you're afraid of using it as a primary OS doesn't mean others are.
And i think 99% knows what a BETA is, but it seems to be something new found for you what a beta is?

Anyhow, it runs just fine as a primary OS for me. If i where afraid as you are i would be "wise" not to run it ofcourse.

BETA's doesn't need to be unstable or unusable you know. It could be fully functional for anything you need, it all depends on the developer and how far the beta has come to be, you see?

And really, m$ wouldn't release it to the public if it'd be a disaster destroying all your files or anything like that. That wouldn't be any good PR.

 

Mike, I don't know how to respond to your post. You clearly do not know what a beta is...a beta is for testing, not for critical apps.

If you really think that Microsoft wouldn't release it if it were a disaster you clearly are not one of those people who just corrupted their entire MP3 collection with THIS beta.

Yes, Microsoft caught it within a day of release and released a patch, but this is the kind of thing that happens with Betas. Yes, this is a public beta and it is more stable than the previous betas, which were private, but it remains a beta and caution should be exercised.

The beta has been out only one week and I've already fixed two machines where bright guys like you thought the way you do and crapped up their computers.

I am not afraid of anything. I have Windows 7 loaded and running on a test machine. I back up even that machine. The difference between you and I is that I have been around long enough to respect the process.

I've been an actual private beta tester for Microsoft and other software companies. I've filed bug reports, tracked nightly builds, and contributed to the process. I've seen Betas go terribly wrong and happily right.

You are right, about one thing. Common sense is something people are missing, but it is your arrogance that is blinding you to who is lacking in common sense. I'm sure you are a pretty bright guy and you know your way around a computer, but I also bet you are one of those people who have learned things the hard way. With your attitude, you are going to continue to learn them that way.

 

I've got everything backed up and ready to go. Windows 7 is my primary, along with Ubuntu Studio 8.10. Ubuntu is my work partition (browsing, docs, etc.), while Windows 7 is my play partition. 7 is also used for CAD work, and of course, testing.

 

Gerry is correct... The release notes available from Microsoft very clearly state not to use this as a primary OS. They state further to not even have it on your primary computer. Other problems could arise, similar to the MP3 issue, which could cause corruption to files. Further, Microsoft provides no support about any issue that may arise.

Still, I'm braving it out, against Microsoft's recommendation, just by having it on my main machine. Even though it isn't my primary OS.

Please let's not argue this point any further. We are all educated enough to make our own determinations about what to do with our own computers. I would recommend reading the Windows 7 F AQ as well as the release notes.

 

Ofcourse beta is for testing, haven't said anything else! Or did I?

Windows Seven was released to the public 9th january 2009, correct? And the patch for that MP3-issue was released 9th january 2009, correct? So..

Beta can be unusable ofcourse, it's beta, it can also be totally usable, it ALL Depends on how much m$ has done to get everything working, but not according to you?

Bright guys like me don't up the computer like that, so you're wrong. Sorry. That wouldn't be common sense.

Ofcourse you're afraid of using it, as you keep on telling it's a beta and you should pay extra notice to what can happen. That is a big sign for that you are afraid for the beta to crap up your system. Or did i miss your argument to not use a beta here? Because if i read you correctly, you say that you shouldn't use it as a primary as it can crap up your computer, then you say you're not afraid, but what is it that's bothering you then?

We all know what a beta release can do to your system, that's why it's a beta and not a final, as there IS some issues with it that has not been found yet.

And if you've been a hardcore 1337 beta-tester, you should know that the only reason you shouldn't use it as a primary OS is that you're afraid of it crapping out just like you say it can happen.


You're attitude in your first post in this thread is an "attitude" and that's why you get an attitude back at you, you see? I'm not the first one telling you. I don't have a problem with my attitude, i just wanna say to you that people aren't so dumb that you think they are. Because when i read your post it seems like you're telling everyone's an idiot and you're the brainiac. And that's terribly wrong dude.



EDIT: i just saw your post Gregory, but i just want my post to stand still and i wont argue anymore.
And i haven't said nothing bad will happen when using a beta. So please don't say anyone's right or wrong in this question. I'm just arguing in the sake of one who post a reply to say everyone's an idiot in other words.
And as you say, "We are all educated enough to make our own determinations about what to do with our own computers." is something gerry didn't respect with his first post in the thread.

 

It has nothing to do with fear. It has everything to do with being appropriately cautious with one's data. For the record, I'm running it as the primary OS on my notebook, but it's important to note that my notebook is largely expendable in that there is no irreplaceable data on it, and if it blew up to the point of having to rebuild it'd be no big deal. I have no problems running a beta in a situation like that.

But running it on some critical system? No way. Nothing to do with being "afraid" as you put it. Microsoft simply did not release this with the intent for people to migrate permanently away from their current OS's. If someone chooses to do that, fine, they do so at their own risk. No one should be whining if things go bad, as some have already done in other threads.

I'm sure that you're knowledgeable enough to understand the risks and prepare for any problems, but I've seen too many folks in these threads asking questions that suggest to me that they don't properly respect the idea of beta software.

You're kidding, right?

 

I ticked Choice 2 a few hours ago, and now I'm at Choice 4.

For those with XP/7 dual boot, the last section of this guide should work when going back to single boot XP [yes, I used that same guide in setting up my XP/7 dual boot. lol7issooooooovista. ]

 

Thanks for the guide scythie- I'm sure it will help a lot of first-time dual booters.

I'm running an XP/7 dual boot. So far I am finding 7 very stable and for some silly reason faster than XP. I won't say that I like it yet. I'll have to see how far I can push it on a 20 gig partition.

And yes, I did dual boot on my primary machine. I feel pretty safe doing that.