Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Krusty on March 04, 2011, 10:03:27 PM
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I've got Win 7 pro (full) on the way to me. I posted in the technical forum but I guess it goes here more.
What do I need to know? UAC is bad. Superfetch is bad. What else?
I know I'll have to get some drivers for my SSD (also coming) but that's just to start the install. To set up the OS the first time what kind of tips and tricks should I know?
Thanks,
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Obvious stuff - make sure you take off any data/documents you want to keep.
Use the format during the install to ensure its correctly formatted for win7 (NTFS!!!)
UAC in Win7 can be dialled back to only alert when something wants to change info on your hard disk (recommend not turning it off completely)
For AH, use something like alacritypc to turn services off to play, and restart when finished playing etc.
Superfetch can safely be turned off for playing (or if it affects anything else on your system).
If you cant find a win7 specific driver, you can use Vista drivers.
Good luck with the new build, if your coming from Vista - win7 is what vista "should" have been.
If your coming from XP, it has a lot of nifty, even useful features.
(yeah, I know the above is all the normal obvious stuff, but never hurts to remind people)
Wurzel
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It will be a fresh install on fresh SSD, 64-bit, and will be on a new box. I've been using XP for many a year now but want (no no no, "need") to break the 4GB limit, especially if I'm putting in a 1GB or 2 GB video card.
P.S. Good tip about Vista drivers
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Just sit back and let it install on its own and you will be fine. I don't use anything to tune services off in Win7 64 bit Ultimate install on my rig and it's rock solid and has been for over a year and a half now. Just make sure that your SSD drivers are up to date and it should be ok.
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I've got Win 7 pro (full) on the way to me. I posted in the technical forum but I guess it goes here more.
What do I need to know? UAC is bad. Superfetch is bad. What else?
I know I'll have to get some drivers for my SSD (also coming) but that's just to start the install. To set up the OS the first time what kind of tips and tricks should I know?
Thanks,
Well you can erase those two first things immediately. UAC is far from bad as it gives you added security. Annoying? Yes. But more secure.
Superfetch is actually very beneficial to you as it will cache programs to your free ram. It means that when you play AH your textures etc. are cached in memory and they're fetched from there with zero lag instead of starting to chug them from your harddrive.
Windows Vista had a bad implementation of superfecth and indexing causing peoples harddrives to rattle all the time. Not going to happen in 7. Even if you get the SSD, superfetch will still be at least tenfold faster if not more.
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While UAC makes things more secure you are still going to come to a point (possibility exists) where you decide to turn it off. If thats the case and W7 has been installed for a while then thats bad and you have to reinstall or face really awful situations. Best turn it off right away and be done with it. However... if you are a person that clicks on links your friends send to you or you frequent porn... mediafire... and so on... leave it on.
Superfetch is all positive in my book.
Turn off Readyboost if it is somehow on. Its related to Superfetch but you dont want it.
Turn off Windows Update but make sure to check for updates every week at the same time (they are released at 5pm PST I believe on Tuesdays so I get them on Thursdays so I get word if there was a glitch in a certain release).
If you have a Router you dont need Windows Firewall. But you should go through the process of testing your system with ShieldsUp!:
https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
I turn off all the remote access stuff (the "Remote..." services) except you may have to have a couple of them listed as "Remote Procedure Call." Not sure but I have those two set as Automatic and Manual.
Many other services you will have to check manually.
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Now that Chalenge went in there I might add one tweak that I usually perform: Turn off SSDP service. It's nothing but a security risk and is known to cause problems at least on XP revisions.
Personally I usually disable several other unnecessary services too but they're not for novices because if you turn wrong things off your computer might not work properly or at all anymore. It might be extremely hard to figure out why application x does not work after you disabled 20 services and it depended on one :rock
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krusty, this is a list of things i know are safe to disable on vista and win7 64bit:
aero
superfetch
readyboost (it's for external usb drives)
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Messenger Sharing Folders USN Journal Reader Service
Offline Files
Server
Fax
Tablet PC Input Service
Windows Error Reporting Service
Base Filtering Engine
Certificate Propagation
Internet Connection Sharing (only safe if you are not sharing your Internet connection on your local computer)
IP Helper
Net.tcp Port Sharing Service
Parental Controls
Remote Registry
Routing and Remote Access
Security Center
SSDP Discovery
Smart Card
Smart Card Removal Policy
Themes (this is a huge resource hog)
UpnP Device Host
Telephony
Terminal Services Configuration
Terminal Services UserMode Port Redirector
Windows Defender (also be sure to disable it from starting in the Start->Run->msconfig startup tab)
Windows Media Center Extender Service
Windows Media Center Receiver Service
Windows Media Center Scheduler Service
Windows Media Center Service Launcher
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service (this is a nasty one. It causes all manner of pauses and stutters and will spontaneously reappear even when it is stopped)
Windows Remote Management
WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service
then set all of these to "manual" start...
Application Experience
Application Information
Application Layer Gateway Service
Application Management
Block Level Backup Engine Service
CNG Key Isolation
COM+ System Application
DFS Replication
Diagnostic Service Host
Diagnostic System Host
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Extensible Authentication Protocol
Function Discovery Provider Host
Health Key and Certificate Management
Human Interface Device Access
Interactive Services Detection
IPSec Policy Agent
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service
Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
Netlogon
Network Access Protection Agent
Network Connections
Peer Name Resolution Protocol
Peer Networking Grouping
Peer Networking Identity Manager
Performance Logs and Alerts
PnP-X IP Bus Enumerator
PNRP Machine Name Publication Service
Portable Device Enumerator Service
Problem Reports and Solutions Control Panel Support
Protected Storage
Quality Windows Audio Video Experience
Remote Access Auto-Connection Manager
Remote Access Connection Manager
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
SL UI Notification Service
SNMP Trap
Thread Ordering Server
TPM Base Services
Virtual Disk
Volume Shadow Copy
Windows Backup
Windows Cardspace
Windows Color System
Windows Connect Now – Config Registrar
Windows Driver Foundation – User-mode Driver Framework
Windows Event Collector
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
Windows Installer
Windows Module Installer
Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0
Windows Search
Wired AutoConfig
WLAN AutoConfig
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krusty, this is a list of things i know are safe to disable on vista and win7 64bit:
aero
superfetch
readyboost (it's for external usb drives)
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Messenger Sharing Folders USN Journal Reader Service
Offline Files
Server
Fax
Tablet PC Input Service
Windows Error Reporting Service
Base Filtering Engine
Certificate Propagation
Internet Connection Sharing (only safe if you are not sharing your Internet connection on your local computer)
IP Helper
Net.tcp Port Sharing Service
Parental Controls
Remote Registry
Routing and Remote Access
Security Center
SSDP Discovery
Smart Card
Smart Card Removal Policy
Themes (this is a huge resource hog)
UpnP Device Host
Telephony
Terminal Services Configuration
Terminal Services UserMode Port Redirector
Windows Defender (also be sure to disable it from starting in the Start->Run->msconfig startup tab)
Windows Media Center Extender Service
Windows Media Center Receiver Service
Windows Media Center Scheduler Service
Windows Media Center Service Launcher
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service (this is a nasty one. It causes all manner of pauses and stutters and will spontaneously reappear even when it is stopped)
Windows Remote Management
WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service
then set all of these to "manual" start...
Application Experience
Application Information
Application Layer Gateway Service
Application Management
Block Level Backup Engine Service
CNG Key Isolation
COM+ System Application
DFS Replication
Diagnostic Service Host
Diagnostic System Host
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Extensible Authentication Protocol
Function Discovery Provider Host
Health Key and Certificate Management
Human Interface Device Access
Interactive Services Detection
IPSec Policy Agent
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service
Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
Netlogon
Network Access Protection Agent
Network Connections
Peer Name Resolution Protocol
Peer Networking Grouping
Peer Networking Identity Manager
Performance Logs and Alerts
PnP-X IP Bus Enumerator
PNRP Machine Name Publication Service
Portable Device Enumerator Service
Problem Reports and Solutions Control Panel Support
Protected Storage
Quality Windows Audio Video Experience
Remote Access Auto-Connection Manager
Remote Access Connection Manager
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
SL UI Notification Service
SNMP Trap
Thread Ordering Server
TPM Base Services
Virtual Disk
Volume Shadow Copy
Windows Backup
Windows Cardspace
Windows Color System
Windows Connect Now – Config Registrar
Windows Driver Foundation – User-mode Driver Framework
Windows Event Collector
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
Windows Installer
Windows Module Installer
Windows Presentation Foundation Font Cache 3.0.0.0
Windows Search
Wired AutoConfig
WLAN AutoConfig
Of course after that your performance has taken a serious hit and the OS looks as ugly as Win95. But at least you have 140Mb more space on top of your existing 7,5Gb of available ram :rock
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Of course after that your performance has taken a serious hit and the OS looks as ugly as Win95. But at least you have 140Mb more space on top of your existing 7,5Gb of available ram :rock
sorry ripley...stick with your mac...your knowledge of windows performance management is worse than your knowledge of apple history...my win7 enterprise 64 bit 2.4ghz core duo 4gb ram system runs very fast with that list and more...faster than it did with a fresh install of winxp...zero loss of needed functionality and i do more than game on this system.
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sorry ripley...stick with your mac...your knowledge of windows performance management is worse than your knowledge of apple history...my win7 enterprise 64 bit 2.4ghz core duo 4gb ram system runs very fast with that list and more...faster than it did with a fresh install of winxp...zero loss of needed functionality and i do more than game on this system.
Lol yeah, Superfetch BOOSTS your performance and you disable it? You're making mistakes based on urban legends. I'm not saying that everything on your list was bad. In fact apart from sf and the visual crippling from disabling aero and themes that list is quite good.
Superfetch is equivalent to the long time 'holy grail' of XP users, ram disk. Except stuff gets inserted and released from there fully automatically based on your usage profiles.
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Lol yeah, Superfetch BOOSTS your performance and you disable it? You're making mistakes based on urban legends. I'm not saying that everything on your list was bad. In fact apart from sf and the visual crippling from disabling aero and themes that list is quite good.
Superfetch is equivalent to the long time 'holy grail' of XP users, ram disk. Except stuff gets inserted and released from there fully automatically based on your usage profiles.
i apologize ripley...
fact: windows 7 advance performance tuning recommendations from multiple resources including microsoft (via the msdn) says "to boost performance" turn off superfecth and aero. superfetch works similar to windows search in that it caches and indexes information (most used applications) which increases cpu/memory/disk io overhead...functions that decrease performance for gaming systems.
aero is nothing but silly eye candy that does things like allow for slide shows screen savers, animated icons, peek and shake, etc...the same type of stuff you would turn off in windows xp to improve performance...and it is far from visually crippling...i'm using customized windows 7 basic desktop settings without the stupid animations and gadgets...
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i apologize ripley...
fact: windows 7 advance performance tuning recommendations from multiple resources including microsoft (via the msdn) says "to boost performance" turn off superfecth and aero. superfetch works similar to windows search in that it caches and indexes information (most used applications) which increases cpu/memory/disk io overhead...functions that decrease performance for gaming systems.
aero is nothing but silly eye candy that does things like allow for slide shows screen savers, animated icons, peek and shake, etc...the same type of stuff you would turn off in windows xp to improve performance...and it is far from visually crippling...i'm using customized windows 7 basic desktop settings without the stupid animations and gadgets...
Those tuning advices are for extremely low end machines gyrene, not for your typical gaming box. They're meant for hardware that's struggling to run win7 as it is and have limited resources. A gaming box with 8 gigs of ram has resources to spare in any given situation. Superfetch is also tuned so that it will _not_ run indexing or fill cache when any cpu or i/o intensive task is being performed. This is again different from Vista where it was much more aggressive and caused i/o bottlenecks to people.
Aero is all about eye candy, true. But peek can be very handy for people who have a lot of stuff open for example. Without aero your cpu will do all the work on display where aero loads them on gpu so you basically lose nothing. And disabling themes effectively drops the visual outlook to win95 time.
I honestly can see no kind of difference whatsoever in games if I have everything running or everything skimmed to the bone. Both cases perform flawlessly.
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make sure you don't turn off system help programs , some where listed, or you will be in trouble if your connectios are fubar and you can't fix them for example. no need to run 6 process only if you have a good system. some like remote confections should be turned off, others perhaps not.
semp
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to be frank ripley...i've taken a fresh laptop dual core 2.8ghz 4gb ddr2 250gb 7200rpm hdd...full windows 7 enterprise 64bit install with corporate software load including adobe acrobat pro, ms office 2010, ms lync (communicator) login on startup, quicktime, all plugins and add-ons available, wireless and bluetooth activation enabled on start, etc...windows search turned off...after 3 months of use, disabled aero...major improvement in boot time. disabled superfetch, freed up memory, applications that started up on login were ready to use a full 90 seconds faster (stop watch) and disk io/activity was cut way down. all windows systems where i work must have bitlocker encryption enabled...if you want to see a new business class computer turn into a 386, run superfetch with bitlocker.
on an average work day i have more than 4 ssh secure shell client sessions, outlook, lync, internet explorer with 5 tabs, wordpad/notepad, maybe a pdf file or two, open on my work system...there is no functionality that aero can give me that i don't have when it's disabled...when you know how to set up a windows system for performance and functionality, fluff is not required.
i've been dealing with all the microsoft/pc junk you and several others pointed out in that mac os discussion for 18+ years as a professional...removing/disabling all of microsoft's piss poor implementations of apple/mac style fluff has kept me from having to chew on tylenol and tums 24/7...i don't have to do it so often now that i'm a unix admin but i still get called on to "fix" windows problems, at home and work, that could have been avoided with a little "preventive tweaking".
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you guys may know everything there is to know about windows but you are not the ones asking for help. before you start think about that. give your opinion and lave it at that.
semp
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you guys may know everything there is to know about windows but you are not the ones asking for help. before you start think about that. give your opinion and lave it at that.
semp
You're right but I can't help one more comment to gyrene:
A work laptop with measly 4gb ram is hardly comparable to a gaming desktop. You say boot time reduced by 90 seconds???? My 7 boots to desktop in 24 seconds login time included and via regular 7200 rpm drive. I'd like to see you cut 90 secs off that. Not only that, what benefit do you get from faster boot? You boot once per day, you start applications, load libraries etc. all the time and those are now not cached to the fastest possible media, ram. Your application startup times went down the drain most likely - if you ever gave SF time to optimize itself in the first place.
When I switched to 7 with superfetch I could see huge improvements on load times in game maps on cod4, aao etc. AH2 ran noticeably smoother with no stutters whatsoever. Same box had XP installed at the same time with 7. This all with no tweaks to 7 and 8 gigs of ram. The ram is cached full of stuff so it can be launched as fast as possible, if you disable superfetch you leave your ram unused 90% of the time. And I'm not talking now about your LAPTOP that doesn't have enough ram to benefit from ram cache.
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I agree on Superfetch. Leave it on.
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both my laptop and my game system have more than adequate hardware resources to run whatever game or application i want with excellent performance...i seriously doubt your desktop system is starting up all the processes that my laptop has...it still takes 45 seconds from power on to desktop ready state...with bitlocker and windows search enabled. i haven't disabled near as much on my laptop as i have on my game system...and i have my game system booting in just under 27 seconds...with ah and ts running it's less than 1gb of memory usage...cpu usage never exceeds 78%.
why would i want to spend the money for 8gb of ram then commence to bloat it with junk when i can save the money for something else use only 4gb of ram, and keep my idle memory usage to less than 800mb...i choose not to throw money on hardware to overcome crap processes that aren't needed when i can get excellent performance for less cost by disabling the junk.
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both my laptop and my game system have more than adequate hardware resources to run whatever game or application i want with excellent performance...i seriously doubt your desktop system is starting up all the processes that my laptop has...it still takes 45 seconds from power on to desktop ready state...with bitlocker and windows search enabled. i haven't disabled near as much on my laptop as i have on my game system...and i have my game system booting in just under 27 seconds...with ah and ts running it's less than 1gb of memory usage...cpu usage never exceeds 78%.
why would i want to spend the money for 8gb of ram then commence to bloat it with junk when i can save the money for something else use only 4gb of ram, and keep my idle memory usage to less than 800mb...i choose not to throw money on hardware to overcome crap processes that aren't needed when i can get excellent performance for less cost by disabling the junk.
Why are you talking about your bitlockers and enterprise applications in a thread that's handling a dedicated gaming / leasure use machine? Does not compute.
If it was going to be a business use box I'm 110% in favor of every tweak step you suggested. Well, except superfetch since it releases ram as needed anyway - there's no down side on leaving it on. It won't even slow down boot since it waits for inactivity before starting to cache stuff.
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:rofl :lol i love these discussions with you ripley...you have more money than sense and i don't have enough sense to get that kind of money... :salute
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Gyrene, how would you go about turning those things off?
Win 7 64 bit here, and I am sure it would be a plus to turn them off. :)
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:rofl :lol i love these discussions with you ripley...you have more money than sense and i don't have enough sense to get that kind of money... :salute
Umm are you saying you use your work computer for anything but work? That's a big no-no where I come from.
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Gyrene, how would you go about turning those things off?
Win 7 64 bit here, and I am sure it would be a plus to turn them off. :)
the fastest way is start > run > services.msc
there is also:
control panel > system and security > administrative tools > services (local)
or start task manager > services (tab) > services (button bottom right)
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Umm are you saying you use your work computer for anything but work? That's a big no-no where I come from.
Must suck to work where you do. I play games on my work station all the time at work.
ack-ack
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Gyrene, how would you go about turning those things off?
Win 7 64 bit here, and I am sure it would be a plus to turn them off. :)
the fastest way is start > run > services.msc
there is also:
control panel > system and security > administrative tools > services (local)
or start task manager > services (tab) > services (button bottom right)
I recommend using the services.msc and forget about the task manager> services tab> services <---does not give you full control or info like services.msc does
services.msc will let you right click and click properties and see what other resources/services/processes are dependent on the specific service/process you are wanting to adjust... ( set to Disabled, set to Manual, set to Automatic.... as well as Start and Stopping the Service )
as well as what this specific Service/process is dependent on from other services/processes
also, I would recommend researching each service on the internet via processlibrary.com or Black Viper's Windows 7 tweaking page at www.blackviper.com
thoroughly research each Service/Process and it's associations before deciding to disable it
hope this helps
TC
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Must suck to work where you do. I play games on my work station all the time at work.
ack-ack
Lol! Good one. You have to have a completely inept IT administration if they let you install anything on your computer yourself let alone non work specific apps! :D
It consumes money and resources when you have to fix workstations that have been messed up with installing all sorts of crap, half of which are probably trojaned.
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Lol! Good one. You have to have a completely inept IT administration if they let you install anything on your computer yourself let alone non work specific apps! :D
It consumes money and resources when you have to fix workstations that have been messed up with installing all sorts of crap, half of which are probably trojaned.
pssst he works for a game company :aok
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pssst he works for a game company :aok
Well then it's work related duh!
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funny I saw this, so im running XP home sp3, and want to go to 7 for the exact same reasons...I have 4 gig of ram now yet XP sees I think 3.32, besides the fact my MB can handle up to 16 gigs :O I was reading up on my MB and no where does it list 7 compatible, my MB is this
http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/content.php?S_ID=364
CPU is this
http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUDetail.aspx?id=422&f1=&f2=&f3=&f4=&f5=&f6=&f7=&f8=&f9=&f10=&f11=&f12=
graphics card is this....
http://us.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=130&cat2_no=137&prod_no=1662
is it possible? I am already set up as NTFS..to keep my files? about 256 Gig worth, lol well that's what is used now on it, obviously I just need pictures, work designs,and such...do I have to reinstall games?
is it worth it? any advice? Ive been using XP for a LONG time lol really like the idea of 16 gig :x
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not sure if you saw it or not but...that link you provided on the mobo has a bios tab on it...there is a bios update from 07/31/09...the list of operating systems that bios update is compatible with:
Windows XP x86/ XP x64/ Vista x86/ Vista x64/ Server 2003 x86/ Server 2003 x64/ XP MCE/ Win7 x86/ Win7 x64
also found a bunch of drivers that apparently would be needed for win7 under the driver tab...best guess would be update the bios if you haven't already then grab all those drivers needed for win7 and hammer away at it.
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Lol! Good one. You have to have a completely inept IT administration if they let you install anything on your computer yourself let alone non work specific apps! :D
It consumes money and resources when you have to fix workstations that have been messed up with installing all sorts of crap, half of which are probably trojaned.
ripley...right now you're at the plate with zero clue...like most end users with a little knowledge gleened from sources other than real experience.
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not sure if you saw it or not but...that link you provided on the mobo has a bios tab on it...there is a bios update from 07/31/09...the list of operating systems that bios update is compatible with:
Windows XP x86/ XP x64/ Vista x86/ Vista x64/ Server 2003 x86/ Server 2003 x64/ XP MCE/ Win7 x86/ Win7 x64
also found a bunch of drivers that apparently would be needed for win7 under the driver tab...best guess would be update the bios if you haven't already then grab all those drivers needed for win7 and hammer away at it.
no I did not see that....so much for my reading up on it :rofl
Ive heard that doing a BIOS update is very touchy(never done one).....also should I install the drivers first? update BIOS first then 7? then the drivers?..... :( sorry clue less here when it comes to the in depth stuff, I built the system and it works...don't ask me how but it does :headscratch:
and thanx for the reply :salute
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nothing to worry about ink...we all start somewhere...
on that bios tab there is a "bios utility" zip file dated 01/11/11 and i'm not sure whether it flashes the bios or just unlocks it so you can use the other file to flash it with...documentation is sparse if at all so download, unzip the run that first. flashing a bios can be tricky, just make sure you don't lose power to the system while it's happening.
if the bios gets updated with that utility...then proceed with downloading those win7 drivers to a flash drive or other external device of some sort...so you have them when you install win7
keep in mind once you start installing win7, there is no going back...so make sure you have good backups of the stuff on your drive...or use a different hard drive for this.
once you're sure you want to install win7...do pretty much exactly what you did for winxp...only win7 is going to work best if you clear any existing partitions and let it create new partitions.
once win7 is installed...install the drivers you downloaded...
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Lol! Good one. You have to have a completely inept IT administration if they let you install anything on your computer yourself let alone non work specific apps! :D
pssst he works for a game company :aok
:D
But we do have an inept IT team.
ack-ack
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nothing to worry about ink...we all start somewhere...
on that bios tab there is a "bios utility" zip file dated 01/11/11 and i'm not sure whether it flashes the bios or just unlocks it so you can use the other file to flash it with...documentation is sparse if at all so download, unzip the run that first. flashing a bios can be tricky, just make sure you don't lose power to the system while it's happening.
if the bios gets updated with that utility...then proceed with downloading those win7 drivers to a flash drive or other external device of some sort...so you have them when you install win7
keep in mind once you start installing win7, there is no going back...so make sure you have good backups of the stuff on your drive...or use a different hard drive for this.
once you're sure you want to install win7...do pretty much exactly what you did for winxp...only win7 is going to work best if you clear any existing partitions and let it create new partitions.
once win7 is installed...install the drivers you downloaded...
cool man Thanx for the tips :salute
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Well you can erase those two first things immediately. UAC is far from bad as it gives you added security. Annoying? Yes. But more secure.
As long as you install all your programs outside of the "Program Files" folder, it is fine. The real problem with UAC is the virtual data stores where all the program data ends up being located. As a support person, I truly hate dealing with it as it is near impossible to help someone find where those data files are located. Then I have to listen to them blame me for creating the problem. Afterall, why would Microsoft do soemthing so stupid?
Superfetch is actually very beneficial to you as it will cache programs to your free ram. It means that when you play AH your textures etc. are cached in memory and they're fetched from there with zero lag instead of starting to chug them from your harddrive.
All versions of Windows, since Windows 98, cache data and programs after the first load. They only get unloaded when free RAM is needed to load another program. The only thing Superfetch saves time on is when it has already loaded data needed the first time. There is no benefit to it after that.
The downside is the amount of time it takes to unload what is not needed, when more free RAM is required. It can hurt game performance due to the dynamic memory requirements of games.
There is no magic way for Superfetch to give your computer better performance, once something is loaded into system RAM. The OS is already caching that information.
It never hurts to try it and make up your own mind. Most people will see a gain in initial load times as a performance boost. Try this. Turn off Superfetch. Load an application. Exit the application, then load it again. Do the same with Superfetch enabled and determine what you can live with.
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Ink: 16GB may seem like a lot now... but in 5 years? I'll probably still be using this version of Win7 then, so I went with the next version up. I do video editing on and off and graphics stuff, I've been known to play in 3D animation/rendering, so that RAM will eventually make its way into my system. Also, when using 64-bit systems, if I recall, the minimum amount of memory is larger for any given program. Because it is 64-bit programs use more, or some such oddity (?).
Also, I believe that the RAM limit on 32-bit also included the video RAM as well.... So if you had a 1GB or 2GB video card, look out! You might find yourself recognizing only 2 GB or something.
I've got 6GB now and a 2GB video card, I've set the system up with a fresh install (win7 64). I still haven't started installing things other than to test a game or two (checkin' out the frame rates, natch). I don't know if I like the default looks but I'll figure something out. Now I just need to read up on all the services and see what I can lose and what I can keep.
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As long as you install all your programs outside of the "Program Files" folder, it is fine. The real problem with UAC is the virtual data stores where all the program data ends up being located. As a support person, I truly hate dealing with it as it is near impossible to help someone find where those data files are located. Then I have to listen to them blame me for creating the problem. Afterall, why would Microsoft do soemthing so stupid?
I know about the problem with virtual store, we had our share of the support issues with that too. Having that experience and having noticed that AH defaults installation outside program files obviously for this reason, I thought it was safe from AH point of view.
All versions of Windows, since Windows 98, cache data and programs after the first load. They only get unloaded when free RAM is needed to load another program. The only thing Superfetch saves time on is when it has already loaded data needed the first time. There is no benefit to it after that.
If I recall correctly you and some others were giving advices on defragmenting drives to reduce warps when textures etc. get loaded. Those along sound etc. files are preloaded to ram by superfetch after AH usage gets profiled in it, therefore reducing issues with them. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
My personal experience has been that AH2 is working far smoother in Win7 than it does in the same box and XP.
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My personal experience has been that AH2 is working far smoother in Win7 than it does in the same box and XP.
FINALLY!!! that's something we can agree on ripley... :lol
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I know about the problem with virtual store, we had our share of the support issues with that too. Having that experience and having noticed that AH defaults installation outside program files obviously for this reason, I thought it was safe from AH point of view.
Yes, we did, but that is only a band aid. Once Microsoft decides to include all the folders, then we will be screwed again. That day is coming.
If I recall correctly you and some others were giving advices on defragmenting drives to reduce warps when textures etc. get loaded. Those along sound etc. files are preloaded to ram by superfetch after AH usage gets profiled in it, therefore reducing issues with them. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
The only reason to defragment has to do with all the patches we do. Over time the "res" files will get very, very fragmented which increases the first time to load. Again, Superfetch only impacts the time it takes to do the first load (providing it has already done the load). After any data is loaded, the OS will cache the data as long as there is no need to remove it from system RAM.
My personal experience has been that AH2 is working far smoother in Win7 than it does in the same box and XP.
That comparison is not a valid point in discussing the postive or negative results of using Superfetch. Windows 7 does a lot of things very differently than Windows XP did. XP required more effort to keep it running smoothly, but it could be made to run anything as smoothly as Windows 7, and usually faster. My XP box, for example is about 25% faster under XP than it was when I tried Windows 7. It also runs the game smoother.
However, I am not a typical end user and I know most users will not have that same experience. It has little to do with the operating system and more to do with the administrator/operator of the computer. Windows 7 nannies a person more than XP did, which for most end users is a blessing. To a power user it is a curse.
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As an aside, I've been experimenting the last few days (well, the time I've been able to get online etc) with turning off processes and seeing whether that helps with the AH/Win7 64 bit disco's. Turning everything possible off with alacritypc, I was able to fly in the BOG scenario - disco'd after 47 mins. Reupped (with turning nothing off) and discoed straight away - my isp having issues here, as losing connectivity quite a bit during the morning/evening.
Reupped again, (again with nothing turned off) and flew the rest of the scenario with no issues. Bearing in mind the flawed data (isp being the culprit) - it appears to make no difference (my machine has an asus mb, 12gb ram, dual 5770 gpu running in crossfire - onboard sound, custom sounds, hi res textures and everything turned on, shadows set to 2048)
Will (once isp stops being a pain in the neck) run with benchmarking up on a different monitor - see if I can pinpoint where/what is causing the issue with 7 64 bit.
Set some monitoring tools up to give me a dump report on the whole system when it goes next - we'll see if it gives me what I want.
Wurzel
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ripley...right now you're at the plate with zero clue...like most end users with a little knowledge gleened from sources other than real experience.
Please specify. Would you let end users install any non-corporate approved software to their workstations and if so, why? Doing that is shooting yourself in the leg.
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Ink: 16GB may seem like a lot now... but in 5 years? I'll probably still be using this version of Win7 then, so I went with the next version up. I do video editing on and off and graphics stuff, I've been known to play in 3D animation/rendering, so that RAM will eventually make its way into my system. Also, when using 64-bit systems, if I recall, the minimum amount of memory is larger for any given program. Because it is 64-bit programs use more, or some such oddity (?).
Also, I believe that the RAM limit on 32-bit also included the video RAM as well.... So if you had a 1GB or 2GB video card, look out! You might find yourself recognizing only 2 GB or something.
I've got 6GB now and a 2GB video card, I've set the system up with a fresh install (win7 64). I still haven't started installing things other than to test a game or two (checkin' out the frame rates, natch). I don't know if I like the default looks but I'll figure something out. Now I just need to read up on all the services and see what I can lose and what I can keep.
I have a 1gig GC now, are you saying that is included in the 3.32 that XP recognizes....? if so my 4 gigs of ram is useless, I need only 2 gigs of ram and the 1 gig card makes the full 3 gigs......now im so confused :cry
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I have a 1gig GC now, are you saying that is included in the 3.32 that XP recognizes....? if so my 4 gigs of ram is useless, I need only 2 gigs of ram and the 1 gig card makes the full 3 gigs......now im so confused :cry
ink, standard versions of windows xp will only recognize up to 3gb of total system memory (including the video card)...without tweaking anything.
windows7 32bit will recognize up to 4gb of total system memory (including the video card)...without tweaking.
windows 7 64bit depends on the version:
Starter: 8GB
Home Basic: 8GB
Home Premium: 16GB
Professional: 192GB
Enterprise: 192GB
Ultimate: 192GB
Please specify. Would you let end users install any non-corporate approved software to their workstations and if so, why? Doing that is shooting yourself in the leg.
*sigh* i work in a university...academic departments get a standard corporate software loadout on all systems deployed to offices and classrooms...faculty members can install whatever they want/need and get "best effort" support by desktop support staff...classrooms have another 10-25 applications (mostly freeware) that get installed for "academic purposes" then the systems are locked down...
business offices get the standard loadout, plus whatever additional business applications are needed for each area...there are some offices that have full autonomy over what is installed on their systems and they get full support by my department...especially on university owned laptops...position=perks.
we have fewer incidents of malware infections than some corporations due to our network practices and the hardware/software we have in place...it would blow your mind what some of the biggest universities in the country allow on their systems...and the lack of network security they have in place...but that is the nature of academia.
corporate world is different...for the most part...and it depends on the company, as well as a person's position within that company...try telling your ceo that he can't install something he wants on his company owned computer.
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man, I am glad nobody asked if the beer taste great or is less filling. imagine the fights in here? you guys gotta stop trying to up each other and actually help whoever is asking. when I first joined here there was lots of good help, now lots of people wont post due to the never-ending arguments that help no one.
semp
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ink, standard versions of windows xp will only recognize up to 3gb of total system memory (including the video card)...without tweaking anything.<snip>
No, that is not quite right. Windows XP does recognize all 4GB of system RAM, but the 32 bit version of the OS can only *directly* address 4GB of RAM. In order for all the other RAM in the computer (video card, sound buffers, any other hardware buffers, system BIOS and other BIOS's...) they have to be mapped in the 4GB address space, thus reducing the physical amount of system RAM as all the other RAM overlaps that space.
You can directly subtract the amount of video RAM your video card has from the 4GB limit and this gives you an idea of what the absolute amount of system RAM the CPU will be able to use for programs/data. All the other bits and pieces in the computer will normally take away about 300MB (+/- 128MB) of RAM.
The reason Windows 7 32 bit will allow all 4GB of RAM to be used is due to Microsoft finally using (the standard is over 10 years old, for crying out loud) the Intel PAE (physcal address extension) instructions to allow a 32 bit kernal to physically address up to 64GB of RAM. However, the access speed to the addresses above 4GB is much slower than the addresses below 4GB.
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corporate world is different...for the most part...and it depends on the company, as well as a person's position within that company...try telling your ceo that he can't install something he wants on his company owned computer.
You claim I'm clueless only to proceed to talk from non-corporate examples out of nowhere. Perhaps you should re-read the original question. Everyone knows that schools are like night and day compared to a corporation.
Of course corporations as themselves are no guarantee of best practises, far from it. It still doesn't mean they wouldn't shoot themselves in the leg by letting users install random crap.
Restrictions applies naturally to people who the IT administration administers, not their own superiors lol! If the corp administration chooses to install non-secure or non-relevant software they do it at their own risk. They have only the shareholders and a bunch of angry clients to answer to if they manage to infect the company network and corp secrets ooze out to wrong hands :)
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You claim I'm clueless only to proceed to talk from non-corporate examples out of nowhere. Perhaps you should re-read the original question. Everyone knows that schools are like night and day compared to a corporation.
Of course corporations as themselves are no guarantee of best practises, far from it. It still doesn't mean they wouldn't shoot themselves in the leg by letting users install random crap.
Restrictions applies naturally to people who the IT administration administers, not their own superiors lol! If the corp administration chooses to install non-secure or non-relevant software they do it at their own risk. They have only the shareholders and a bunch of angry clients to answer to if they manage to infect the company network and corp secrets ooze out to wrong hands :)
i came from the corporate i.t. world...as did a large number of my current co-workers...in my department (i.t. services) we follow best practices for enterprise application and network security...we're so tight about it even people within our department need to ask permission to do some things.
my first 2 years in an academic i.t. department at another university had me pulling my hair out...no firewall, no front end virus scanning, no spam filtering...it was all reliant on the end users to use common sense which didn't exist...i actually had staff and faculty forwarding virus infected files to me asking if they were viruses after i sent out multiple highly descriptive emails of what practices needed to be followed for all email... :furious
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i came from the corporate i.t. world...as did a large number of my current co-workers...in my department (i.t. services) we follow best practices for enterprise application and network security...we're so tight about it even people within our department need to ask permission to do some things.
my first 2 years in an academic i.t. department at another university had me pulling my hair out...no firewall, no front end virus scanning, no spam filtering...it was all reliant on the end users to use common sense which didn't exist...i actually had staff and faculty forwarding virus infected files to me asking if they were viruses after i sent out multiple highly descriptive emails of what practices needed to be followed for all email... :furious
Lol! That's hilarious with the forwarded files :rofl
At least you don't have to work with the kids that are just getting to puberty. Those critters will find a way to destroy any computer no matter what you do. I've seen boxes booted to linux just to cause havoc - or just random vandalization of hardware.