Windows 7, final verdict?

[updog]

Some of my friends have started saying Windows 7 is pretty crap after all. One of them has a computer that's 2 months old and he's already thinking about reformatting it. And that's just for playing games and running Reaper...

On the top of them getting the same old bluescreens of death and errors, there's a lot of the new hardware incompatibilities still.

I will never understand Windows. For some people it seems to work absolutely flawlessly for years and years (or so they claim. But I'm not calling anyone a liar just because I have a hard time believing) and for some it just doesn't work for too long, and I'm part of the latter group.

 

[crosstalk]

I've had the RC version of Win7 64 for 6 or 8 months. Since it came out anyway, been awhile. Just bought and installed a new version since the RC license ran out. Never had one problem with it and love it. When I go to use XP, I instantly miss features.

I still use XP on my recording PC. It's completely stable with no troubles, no reason to change anything at this point.

 

[Gnash]

I'm running Sonar 64 bit with Windows 7. All my plugs work perfectly. Even the Waves shit. All my hardware works fine. I still run AVID with my mac or XP machine, but it's only a matter of time before I get it working with 7. This OS is what I've been waiting for for a LONG time. I'm finally utilizing 8 gigs of fucking RAM with a fucking pc!!!!!

 

[JMarz]

I just installed win 7 on my new laptop and everything was fine for about 15 minutes online. Then I got over 200 viruses, my hardware caught on fire and finally the laptop blew up killing my new born kitten called Sniffles. FML.

Fucking LOL.

But yeah, go Windows 7 64. It's the best evar

 

[Torniojaws]

Win 7 FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I run 64 bit Windows 7 with Cubase 4 and have not run into any issues what so ever.

64-bit Cubase? Do all 32-bit VST plugins work for you? At least with Vista 64 + Reaper 64, most of my favourite plugins don't work at all (they don't even appear on the list of plugins, while some crash Reaper everytime I scan for plugins). I don't know if Cubase has some sort of wrapper for 32-bit plugs...

 

[DeclanWhite]

my computer came with 7 32 installed, then i installed everything and have been using it for several months, and i want to change to 64, but how? without having to reinstall everything?

 

[Raptor7]

W7 32 have some issues with Far Cry 2 MP so I am not using it. yet.
From the software POV, very old plugins will not work.

 

[Jind]

Some of my friends have started saying Windows 7 is pretty crap after all. One of them has a computer that's 2 months old and he's already thinking about reformatting it. And that's just for playing games and running Reaper...

On the top of them getting the same old bluescreens of death and errors, there's a lot of the new hardware incompatibilities still.

I will never understand Windows. For some people it seems to work absolutely flawlessly for years and years (or so they claim. But I'm not calling anyone a liar just because I have a hard time believing) and for some it just doesn't work for too long, and I'm part of the latter group.

I have had Windows 7 x64 with a clean install on my system w/ 8GB of RAM since the day it was released and have never seen a BSOD since. I had to acctually check to see if they still used the old BSOD (and yes, some have experienced them), but I have not. I have had a few times when I've had to Reboot (maybe 3 times), and several that I've had to ATL+CTRL+DEL to get to task manager and exit out of an application, but nothing too bad, and nothing like I had under previous Operating Systems. One other note about this is that I've always been able to task manager out of something cleanly without it taking down other applications and such.

I'm in no way saying that my experiences are the same as others, but I would in no way go back to the dinosaur that XP is - I'd work to get my current setup more stable first.

As for plug-ins under x64 specifically - as stated before, I've had none that have not worked under either Sonar's native BitBridge, or the available jBridge (which works and integrates simply and flawlessly into Sonar) with no apparent shortcomings or performance hits.

Each system is different and hardware probably plays the biggest role. I for example would probably not go to Win 7 if I was using E-MU stuff as they barely have Vista support let alone Win 7. Know your equipment and your companies reliability on producing good solid drivers prior to upgrading and all should be fine.

 

[updog]

Yeah, I just don't understand it... That computer of my friend's was custom built, so there was no skimping on the hardware..

 

[DeclanWhite]

oh and ive had one bsod when rendering a file

 

[The Unavoidable]

Been using Windows 7 for about a month now, and I'm very happy with it. It's a bit frustrating after using XP for like ten years that somethings are in a completely different place than it used to be, but whatever.

 

[Bekanor]

Video drivers and creative sound drivers seem to be the main culprits for BSODs in W7.

I've had plenty.

 

[Torniojaws]

running Reaper with 64bit Win7 and every single plug in works.

Even 8505, 7170 and Wagner Sharp 0.6? And do you use 64-bit Reaper?

 

[sandra-]

That's the point. It doesn't matter (or at least it shouldn't if they are decent programmed) for the plugins what bit your os has.

What counts is if you use a 32bit or 64bit DAW.

Don't waste money on a Win7 32 bit.

 

[Torniojaws]

That's the point. It doesn't matter (or at least it shouldn't if they are decent programmed) for the plugins what bit your os has.

Now you can wish that every plugin was decently programmed

 

[Damphire]

I'm very pleased with W7 from a user's perspective, is faster and more robust than Vista. But I have problems with PSP and Voxengo plugins, they don't show up in my Cubase 5 so I'm stuck with Waves.

 

[FloridaRolf]

Even 8505, 7170 and Wagner Sharp 0.6? And do you use 64-bit Reaper?

Yes and yes

 

[The Unavoidable]

I'm very pleased with W7 from a user's perspective, is faster and more robust than Vista. But I have problems with PSP and Voxengo plugins, they don't show up in my Cubase 5 so I'm stuck with Waves.

Poor you.

 

[slashvanyoung]

The only thing I'm missing with Win 7 x64 is the lack of PT compatibility (at least for 7.4). Every other 32-bit software basically runs hassle-free... what a surprise.

Originally I intended to keep a partition with XP solely for PT, but since I'm slowly migrating to Studio One, I'm - once again - moving away from PT for my home set-up.

Overall, it's probably the nicest OS I've ever used (across all platforms).

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

I've been running Win7 x64 for just under a year. Generally, it's great - everything has worked straight off, software and hardware-wise (more luck than judgement, but still it's nice). The only VST I've had problems with is Revalver 3, which crashes Reaper.

Saying that though, it's been getting progressively slower and less stable the longer I've had it installed, far more so than XP ever did. No viruses/spyware etc., nothing new program-wise and nothing added to boot up, no fragmentation, no new hardware, blah blah blah - yet it now takes more than twice as long to boot up as it used to, and some programs take forever to load now. It's nothing major, but it does concern me slightly.

For audio stuff, I'm using Sonar 8.5 in XP64 - there's literally nothing on it bar what's needed for audio, so it's lightning fast and fat free. Windows 7 doesn't even come compete with that.

Also if you do get it, don't bother with the Ultimate version. For DAW stuff (and pretty much anything else really), the Home Premium version is fine. The Ultimate version doesn't really add anything useful unless you run a network.

Steve