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Upgrading from 32-bit XP to 64-bit Win7

Post Date: 2010-10-27
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Bill the Cat View Drop Down
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Posts: 1150 		  Quote Bill the Cat Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: Upgrading from 32-bit XP to 64-bit Win7
    Posted: 27 Oct 2010 at 12:40pm
My original DS computer turned Three, last month. It's still running the installation (with updates of course) of XP that it came with. At this ripe old age, it's starting to act a little quirky. My biggest problem is that it has suddenly decided to start locking up while playing any Source Engine based game (HL2, Portal, etc.). Yet it works fine playing other Steam based games like Far Cry 2 and Crysis. It also passes Furmark, Prime95 and MemTest86 tests. I've tried deleting and redownloading the HL games. I have the latest NVIDIA video and Realtek audio drivers. If anybody has had a similar problem, I'd love to hear about it.
 
Barring advice from out of the blue, I'm going to take this opportunity to install Win 7; going with the 64-bit version to help Photoshop performance and to take advantage of more RAM. I'm sure this topic has been beaten to death here, but does anyone have last minute words of advice on this upgrade?
 
Finally, I have an "upgrade" version of Win7. Is there any chance that it will let me duel boot Win7 with the original XP?
3.6 GHz E6850,       4 GB RAM, GTS 250,   TJ9, Win 7 64-bit
4.4 GHz i7 3930K, 16 GB RAM, GTX 670, 550D, Win 7 64-bit
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Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Oct 2010 at 1:09pm
how much ram do you have?
 
id reformat windows and start fresh, problems like that dont just start for no reason, the system will get slowly bogged down over time even if you take good care of it
 
when is the last time in those 3 years that you reformatted?
 
been a long time Ninja i think we got our computers at about the same time way back in the day!
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Bill the Cat View Drop Down
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Posts: 1150 		  Quote Bill the Cat Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Oct 2010 at 2:33pm
@!ender_,
 
There's 4 GIG of RAM now. There used to be just 2 GIG.
 
I was trying to suggest that I've never reinstalled XP during those 3 years. If I have to do a reinstall now, I figured that I might as well go all the way and upgrade to Win 7 while I'm at it.
 
So basically I've got 3 separate questions....

1) Has anybody had trouble with HL2, Episode One, Portal, etc locking up while everything else works fine.

2) What problems, if any, have folks had going from 32-bit to 64-bit. I don't expect there to be any except my scanner may stop working, but I may be ignoring something obvious.

3) What are the chances the Win7 upgrade will allow me to duel boot with the original XP. I was hoping to keep XP on the current C: drive and put Win7 on the current D: drive.

Weird, bullet formatting isn't working for me....


Edited by Bill the Cat - 27 Oct 2010 at 2:37pm
3.6 GHz E6850,       4 GB RAM, GTS 250,   TJ9, Win 7 64-bit
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Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Oct 2010 at 2:56pm
yea bulleting still doesnt work lol
 
while im a big fan of win 7, i dont think your solution is to add a 2nd os on a new drive, i think that would potentiall compoud your issues
 
personally, id advise you to save anything vital on dvds and reformat xp 32 bit
im betting you would see a drastic speed increase
 
if you still prefer to move to 7, id still suggest you back everything up and completely delete/format the hdd before continuing, if you upgrade, what would be the point of keeping your xp install?
 
as far as wierd slowdowns.. on a system that hasnt been reformatted in 3 years, ill say that its impressive it took this long for you to notice a decrease in speed, i typically reformat a minimum of once a year.. always gives a very notable boost to everything's speed
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Bill the Cat View Drop Down
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Posts: 1150 		  Quote Bill the Cat Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Oct 2010 at 6:35pm
Gee, bullets and numbered paragraphs used to work.... I stop coming around here for a year or so, and the place starts to fall apart. Confused%20Wink
 
Since I'm not rock stupid or totally lazy, but I am somewhat reckless, I do clone my system drive occasionally. Acronis has saved my ass many times. If the whole Win7 install goes south, I can restore the machine back to it's current state and try again.
 
I've always been a vocal XP supporter, but I can't see the point of hanging on any longer. I especially can't see the point of putting any effort in to bringing an XP system up from scratch again.
 
BTW, performance really hasn't been an issue with this old machine except maybe for Photoshop. I've been thinking about upgrading to Win 7 just because... it was on sale, but if HL2 hadn't stopped working for no apparent reason, I might have held out until a Sandybridge machine appeared next year.
 
Anyway, you're probably right about skipping the duel boot business, but I keep thinking that one of my favorite classic games, like Desu Ex or something, isn't going to work with Win7. I should just "man up", bite the Win 7 bullet and suffer the consequences.
 
3.6 GHz E6850,       4 GB RAM, GTS 250,   TJ9, Win 7 64-bit
4.4 GHz i7 3930K, 16 GB RAM, GTX 670, 550D, Win 7 64-bit
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Posts: 5084 		  Quote justin.kerr Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Oct 2010 at 6:42pm
should be straight forward, so many improvements with WIN 7, you will be able to use DX10, DX11 when you upgrade the video card again.
Nice to see you around also. Big%20Smile
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Posts: 4219 		  Quote !ender_ Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Oct 2010 at 7:46pm
and as a side note, win7 has worked with every game ive tried so far, granted its not like ive been searching for one that wouldnt work or anything, but the backwards compatibility seems to be very good so far
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Bill the Cat View Drop Down
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Posts: 1150 		  Quote Bill the Cat Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Oct 2010 at 8:19pm
Originally posted by justin.kerr

Nice to see you around also. Big%20Smile
 
I always come crawling back when I've got problem and need help, but this machine has been pretty much trouble free for a long time.


Edited by Bill the Cat - 27 Oct 2010 at 8:24pm
3.6 GHz E6850,       4 GB RAM, GTS 250,   TJ9, Win 7 64-bit
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Posts: 1514 		  Quote maxyme Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 04 Nov 2010 at 9:22pm
just want to say do a clean install!!! its definitely worth it. i went from x64 vista to x64 win 7 and it screwed up my computer so badly. programs run really badly unless they are in x64 w/ my processor and it sucks.
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Posts: 1150 		  Quote Bill the Cat Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Dec 2010 at 7:42pm
Hello again.... Well the "upgrade" went fairly smoothly. There were a couple of driver problems, and a few favorite programs that don't work any more. That was to be expected, I guess.
 
Some of my current problems with Win7 are probably due to my own ignorance and some are due to bugs in 3rd party software. Still after a month of pretty heavy use, my reaction to Win7 is 98% negitive. Maybe Win7 is a dream to write code for, but from a user perspective, it is almost never noticably better than XP and it is often frustratingly worse.
 
I know it's late in the game to be beating this dead horse, but my question is, "Are there any XP old hands here  who think Win7 is an improvement? If you are out there, please tell me why. What am I missing?


Edited by Bill the Cat - 07 Dec 2010 at 7:44pm
3.6 GHz E6850,       4 GB RAM, GTS 250,   TJ9, Win 7 64-bit
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Posts: 5084 		  Quote justin.kerr Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Dec 2010 at 8:37pm
I hated Vista when it came out, well I hated XP when it came out. lol  I have liked 7 from the get go.
SSD performance, HT performance, Home theater has been a dream integrating, hell you prolly have not found the snippit button yet. Big%20Smile Then there is tessellation, no more flat worlds, beautiful thing.
I really have very little bad to say about WIN 7. All of my old programs work fine with it, integrates well with my work Citrix crap, blueprint programs, printing programs, heat-loss calc programs ect.
 
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Posts: 1826 		  Quote EdH63 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Dec 2010 at 8:40pm
Drew, I'm not an XP user (Vista), but from what our IT people say in my company, because I was thinking of upgrading myself, was that there's not a large overall improvement from Vista to W7 other than a little faster boot and shutdown times, uses a little less resource than Vista (RAM) and more secure.  Other than these few things, I really can't see the reason to upgrade at this point.

I'm not having any issues with Vista right now and my rig is doing everything I need it to do in my business and gaming.  Unless Vista just takes a dump on me, or there are some marked improvements that come out in W7 that are substantial, I probably won't upgrade. 
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Posts: 1514 		  Quote maxyme Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 07 Dec 2010 at 11:14pm
the one thing i hate about w7 and vista vs xp is that there is absolutely no compadability. like vista to 7 everything works fine without any dev tweaks but xp to 7 its like it supporst one or the other unless the dev puts alot of work into supporting both.
but i went from xp to vista and w7 because my laptop got a free upgrade and i like 7 alot more than vista because of the better aero fx than vista along with much better performance. and of course the "superbar" is pretty awesome in itself. before my quick launch had over 400 icons in it.. now thats my desktop...
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Posts: 2254 		  Quote FrankW Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 08 Dec 2010 at 4:42pm
I had XP since it first came out and I liked it. I got my new system in May with Win-7/64 and like it much better than XP. The only thing I miss from XP is Windows Explorer. By the way my first Windows system was Win 1.1 and it has came a long way since then.

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Posts: 1150 		  Quote Bill the Cat Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 10 Dec 2010 at 8:44am
@FrankW, I agree Windows Explorer in Win 7 is a complete disaster. Folders don't remember their window size, the directory tree jumps around by itself, folders sort themselves compulsively. Explorer has some nice new features, but the implementation makes it painful to use. I've replaced it with "FreeCommander",  but that's not really a satisfactory solution either.
 
Personally, I won't be "upgrading" any more XP machines unless there is no choice or unless a service pack comes out that fixes some of the every day glitches in Win 7. Right now, Win 7 would discourage me from buying a new computer.


Edited by Bill the Cat - 10 Dec 2010 at 8:55am
3.6 GHz E6850,       4 GB RAM, GTS 250,   TJ9, Win 7 64-bit
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Posts: 1514 		  Quote maxyme Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 10 Dec 2010 at 1:11pm
haha just adding to how its come a long way did you guys hear the rumor that windows 8 might be fully dynamic and interactive 3d? sounds awesome.
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Posts: 36758 		  Quote DST4ME Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 10 Dec 2010 at 3:38pm
@Bill the Cat, how you been good to see you, Bill I'm a big confused as I have win7 and I don't have any of the problems you describe, for example, my folders remember their position and size, I'm wondering if there is a setting that you need to change.

I got my new pc with win7 64bit and I have to say its better then xp, once you set it up the way you like it.

let me know if there is anything I can help with.

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Posts: 1150 		  Quote Bill the Cat Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 11 Dec 2010 at 12:10am
@DST4ME, It is nice to see some old "faces" still around.  Looks like you finally got that killer "Big Rig"....
 
Like I said, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot (most?) of my problems with Win 7, even after a month, were still due to my own ignorance. I may have forgotten how long it took initially to get XP configured satisfactorily. It was so long ago....
 
For a specific example, if I open, resize, and then close Windows Explorer from the Task Bar; and then open any folder on the desk top it takes the size, shape and position of that last generic Explorer window. So, if I start with a nice compact grouping of game icons in a desk top games folder, after I've used Explorer to look at some random larger folder and open that desktop games folder, it is spread all over the screen; and mostly empty space. If I open several folders, they cascade instead of opening in their last known position.
 
If you could point out what I've missed, that would be a huge help.
 
My other big problem isn't actually Window's fault. I've lost the use of my favorite JPG viewer program because it was WAY too old (16-bit) I haven't been able to find a tolerable replacement. Since you're an expert on freeware/shareware programs, as I recall, maybe you can help here too. I don't need a lot of bells and whistles. I'm looking for a program with a browser mode and an image viewer mode that will resize (expand or shrink) it's window to fit the current image. Most viewers seem to just shrink the image to fit the current window. IrfanView does what I want and would be acceptable except every time I run that progam "drag and drop" with the right mouse button stops working. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I've also got some serious doubts about Logitech's MX Revolution mouse driver compatability. I've also tried XnView and the latest ACDSee viewers. Any suggestions here would also be appreciated


Edited by Bill the Cat - 11 Dec 2010 at 12:20am
3.6 GHz E6850,       4 GB RAM, GTS 250,   TJ9, Win 7 64-bit
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Posts: 1514 		  Quote maxyme Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 11 Dec 2010 at 12:38am
irfan view works fine for me...
don't know what you mean by drag and drop with the right mouse.
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Posts: 36758 		  Quote DST4ME Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 11 Dec 2010 at 1:24am
irfan is what comes to my mind, unfortunately I'm not big on graphic editing other then cs or photoshop.

as for the folders remembering their own stuff, try going here

great to see you also and ya got the beast finally.

Edited by DST4ME - 11 Dec 2010 at 1:26am

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Posts: 1150 		  Quote Bill the Cat Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 11 Dec 2010 at 10:53am

Thanks guys! ShellFolderFix is a substantial improvement over Win 7 stock behavior. Still, a 3rd party "kludge" like this shouldn't be necessary. What the hell was MS thinking when they designed this interface? Also, too bad ShellFolderFix can remember an individual folder's layout. Still, it makes a big improvement.

IrfanView would be a fine image browser/viewer except.... Once I exit IrfanView (Esc) I can no longer drag and drop files anywhere. I don't fully understand the conditions under which this happens. I'll get back to you later.
 
Thanks again for the suggestion.
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Posts: 36758 		  Quote DST4ME Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 11 Dec 2010 at 5:07pm
I agree the folder memory thing was stupid of them, but the rest of the stuff I Like.

It sure can use some improvements no doubt, but for a 64bit its pretty good.

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Posts: 1150 		  Quote Bill the Cat Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 11 Dec 2010 at 10:20pm
There many things to like about Win 7, but IMHO, file management is the fundamental IU function of an OS, and Win 7 blew it. It looks like it can be at least partially fixed.
 
As far as IrfanView goes, the drag and drop problem is definately caused by the way the Logitech mouse driver handles programmable buttons; not in IrfanView. The keyboard shortcut to exit IrfanView is ESC. If I close IrfanView by actually hitting esc or by picking EXIT from the menu, then there's no problem. If I bind esc to a mouse button and use that button to close IrfanView, afterwards right button drag and drop stops working in all progams until I also hit the ESC key as a last step.
 
A separate IrfanView short coming is that it is impossible to use the right mouse button to drag and drop files from the IrfanView bowser window under any circumstances. At least I think it is.


Edited by Bill the Cat - 11 Dec 2010 at 10:22pm
3.6 GHz E6850,       4 GB RAM, GTS 250,   TJ9, Win 7 64-bit
4.4 GHz i7 3930K, 16 GB RAM, GTX 670, 550D, Win 7 64-bit
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