A place to rant and run on about computers and software.

WINDOWS 7 RULES!!!!

I love both Windows 7 and Linux. The problem is that Windows is still kinda bug-filled.
I have to do a TON of maintenance on it to keep it running fast enough for me to use. That's why I like Linux.

Speaking of Linux, I once had a duel boot system. Why I don't now has a complicated answer, but I'm considering triple-booting it now.

I am gonna disconnect from the internet and run a virus scan because something bad is running on here... as in virus... it maybe affecting my hardware I have found.

Another thing too.. I wouldn't mind trying Linux, but is there a way to get rid of it if you don't want it?

I have another ? for you guys.

I was looking at the Google Sketchup system requirements and it said that it required 2 GB of ram to operate. I have only 1. But my pagefile space is currently at 1537 MB ( over 1 1/2 GB). Since pagefiling is used by your operating system as if it were ram, and after doing the math, 1537 990 (1537 being my pagefile, 990 being my ram) equals 2527.That is approx. 2 1/2 GB. Well, since the program requires 2 GB of it, would it be possible for me to increase the pagefile space a few hundred MB, and then the program use all the RAM, and then rely on pagefile for the rest? (yes, I would definately jack up the pagefile space a whole bunch). I would tune that up because of background services and the like.

I intend also once I get my new machine to disable to clean up my disks, disable the swap file, reboot, delete the swap file, and empty it from the trash can, do another reboot, set swap up to 4100 MB, reboot again, set it where it is custom controled (not system controled) and there I have 4 GB of pagefile space. That would be nice to have, since I don't have much ram.

Josh, you might be able to run it -- maybe, but even if it worked, I would think it would be so slow that it wouldn't be worth running (that is, if the programmers aren't lying about the 2 GB requirement.)

Most software companies understand that there are page files to help increase the size of the virtual memory. RAM requirements are usually referring to actual RAM.

About removing linux -- well, there isn't a technical "uninstaller" for an operating system, but that doesn't mean you cannot uninstall an operating system. It can be as simple as deleting the partition that the operating system is on. Don't rush, though. You do have to make sure that the bootloader is configured to boot Windows properly before you do that. Deleting a partition occupied by an operating system doesn't delete its bootloader (as far as I know), and as long as it gives you an option as to what operating system you want to boot at startup, I wouldn't think it would be a problem, but if you are going from a Windows-Linux system to a Windows only system, I would recomend restoring the native Windows bootloader, and then deleting the Linux partition.

If you install Linux, just make sure to install Linux after Windows. The reason for this is that the Windows bootloader doesn't like Linux, and doesn't support it. Whenever you install a new operating system, normally, it replaces the old bootloader. Most Linux distrobutions come with bootloaders that can boot Windows.

I would recommend installing Ubuntu (Ubuntu.com), which is free and is one of the easiest Linux distributions to use. It automatically configures the bootloader when installing. Just make sure that you set it to install to a different partition. If you need help at that stage, ask someone or look it up. I wouldn't think that you would want to mess up there! You might have to go to the advanced options and shrink the C:\ partition by five or six gigabytes, then create a new one manually, and set it to install to that.

One other note. For efficiency reasons, Unix operating systems, including Linux, create a separate partition for the page file. You don't have to create one, but it you aren't short on space, I would recommend coughing up a gig or so for the swap. Remember, no swap partition = no page file. That means that you have only 1 GB of virtual memory to use (assuming you have 1 GB of system RAM). The latest version of Ubuntu likes to use about 400 TO 500 MB of virtual memory when nothing else is running.

Ok thanks.

Are we the only two who are intersted in computers?

Sooner or later I am going to jack up the the swap to 4 GB. However I noticed that the higher you raise the swap space, the higher the recommendation gets. I saw the recommendation is based off of 1.5 times bigger then the initial size of the ram. So I don't know if that is messing with the ram or not.

There isn't anything wrong with having too much memory on there, so I brought it up to 1.6, and I am going to add another 400 MB soon.

I think that most likely your computer would crash before you could use 4 GB of swap on a system with 1 GB of RAM.

Remember, swap is much, much slower than actual RAM.

How high could I go then?

I generally recommend that a swap file be 1.5 times the size of your actual RAM if you have less than 1.5 GB of RAM. If you have more than that, you should get by with a swap file the size of your RAM.

When I get my new one I am going to carry over my HD from the old one which has XP on it. Meaning I am going to duel boot W7 on there. But really I may just dump XP and stick with 7.

XP isn't dead yet, but in a good 2 years it will be.

Question. What is your favorite Windows themes? Out of...

Windows 7/Vista (I think they are called Aero)
XP
Classic (Windows 98 junk)
Before then

I like the W7 themes the best, but still I think Microsoft could have done a little more to them. I wouldn't mind seeing the Vista themes in 7.

As for XP it is still good. I wouldn't go so far back as to the Classic themes. Really anything before XP is dead, that includes 98, Excel, Server '03, 2000, Millenium Edition...

Before you had those you got the first 4 Microsoft put on the market. Eeuf...



They have come far.


Believe it or not, Windows 8 Beta is out. But it hasn't been released to the public yet.

I remember the pic of the flatscreen monitor icon in W7. Now they have something like from those animated movies that are in the future sort of thing.

We'll have to see how this "Windows 8" turns out.

My favorite is 7.

I actually like XP's look.

XP's look is good, but I would say that the Windows 8 Beta's look is so good.. so good!

Wow.. that's nice.

Is it possible to make Windows XP look like Windows 7 anyone?

I actually don't know if you can get XP to look like Windows 7. I do know that it is possible to make Ubuntu linux look like XP, but I guess that's not what you are looking for.


As far as getting Ubuntu to look like XP, I have a picture of that:


That's not a fake picture, either. As you can see, there are a couple of noticeable differences, mainly the worspace thing on the right side of the taskbar. What I didn't show is that the start menu looks nothing like XP's menu when you click it.

There is a program called WindowBlinds that transforms the XP Theme into 7 entirely... 30 day trial and you have to pay for it. You can even pick out other themes that don't even look like windows.

I was absolutely appalled when I heard you have to pay. FOR A THEME?!?! And It had plenty of bugs in it too.. (i.e, part of the start menu dissappears.)

The script I used to convert the Ubuntu look into the XP look was free, but it had plenty of bugs. Believe me on that one. I thought it was cool, though.

Really there isn't anything wrong with the XP theme, I just like the Aero themes better. I tried the Trial version of WindowBlinds.. it was good. Looked just like 7. Transparent taskbar, the square buttons on the taskbar, start menu (except for the bug), window frames, etc...

Most things I find that claim to be Windows 7 themes make it look like 98.

Right now, I have my Windows 7 theme set to Windows classic. I change it frequently, though.

Windows Classic eh? I find Classic to be a really ugly theme IMHO.

I like it because of its simplicity. I get tired of it a lot and change it, but then I'd often just get tired of areo and change it back.

I downloaded a W7 themepack file. I double click it and it doesn't work... now I have to try and convert it to a .theme file.

Who else likes the Windows 7 Boot screen?

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pocketnow.com/html/portal/news/0000007598/NewsImage/Animated.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.modaco.com/content/i8000-verizon-sch-i920-omnia-ii-http-i8000-modaco-com/298902/bios-pc-and-windows7-boot-screen-on-i8000/&usg=__pPGkZTEfm6CY0ayswD4ECf2Q3X4=&h=800&w=480&sz=409&hl=en&start=0&sig2=ubi1VWf5O-HOrRtGg6u7DA&zoom=1&tbnid=-9JCXnmJE4LShM:&tbnh=132&tbnw=80&ei=mYvDTNuYBcSblgfw28yoAQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwindows%2B7%2Bboot%2Bscreen.gif%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26rlz%3D1B3GGLL_enUS399US399%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D538%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=636&oei=mYvDTNuYBcSblgfw28yoAQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:0&tx=31&ty=59

I did it as a link because it was a gif. (animation of the bootscreen)

I actually don't prefer that much. I would rather have a command prompt boot with a progress bar.

Old versions of Ubuntu used to do exactly that, but now I think they've replaced it with something more modern.