As I mentioned in my previous post, I have installed the latest offering from Microsoft, Windows 7, onto my primary machine.  This machine is my most important machine, and had not been reformatted since the initial Vista installation over two years ago.  However, with the amount of software that has been installed, modified, and uninstalled, the machine was becoming slower than it should be.  I say should be due to the fact that the hardware, despite being two years old, is still cutting edge.  Thusly, I decided to take the plunge.  It bothers me to purchase an operating system for some reason (probably because I think that if you spend the money on a machine, the o/s should be free), but I would rather do that then steal it because I do not like the uncertainty of having it fail when I need it most.  I will have to purchase another copy for my laptop in the near future as well.

Prior to installation, I disconnected all the other hard drives I have in my system lest Windows trys anything funny.  Chance favors the prepared mind.  In so saying that, the Windows 7 installation was easy.  Almost too easy.  Everything was done automatically and I had to go back and make sure that everything was in there.  So far, it is quick…but there is no software on the machine yet.  Its getting there though, slowly but surely.  I have turned off all the “enhancements” because I like the classic look, and I also like to get all the speed that I can out of my computer.  The feel is very similar to Vista and there is not a hard learning curve attached to Windows 7.  In particular, one thing that stood out was the fact that all those horrid, silly, annoying pop up windows that plagued Vista have all but disappeared in Windows 7.

The networking has been streamlined and seems to run much better as well.  I’m not sure what improvements that they made from a technical standpoint – but yes, it works well and it seems like the throughput is much smoother.

One thing that has always bothered me about Windows is the file transfers.  When copying large amounts of data, Microsoft has elected to base the copy time on the number of files, rather than the total size.  For people copying a few files this is not a big deal, but I tend to move hundreds of gigabytes at a time.  It looks like they have fixed this!  Time to break out the party hats.  As an aside, the copying speed has not changed much, if at all (though you cannot expect the operating system to compensate for the speed (or lack thereof) of the hardware).

So far, Microsoft has got it right and Windows 7 could be their best effort to date with respect to an operating system.  I have no problems giving credit where credit is due, because I will also criticize when it is warranted as well.  So – good job Microsoft!

Next up is the codec installation.  I have found that the K-Lite Codec Pack is the best option.  I use the full version (there are standard, lite, and mega versions available) and I have had zero problems with it.  In fact, it has even made codecs work on machines where they previously crashed.  Included with this version is a copy of Media Player Classic.  It is a small piece of software that you can run instead of Windows Media Center.  Because the codecs are all installed properly, everything plays in this tiny little piece of software flawlessly.

After I settled on the codec installation, I installed the AVS4YOU suite of products (some of them).  I’ll give another shout out to this company as well for making an affordable suite of products – that for a small fee ($59.00) – offers lifetime upgrades.  I purchased these products two years ago and I have easily gotten full value for my hard earned dollar.  I will present a formal review of their product suite sometime in the future, but in the interim, if you do any kind of audio/video editing, ripping, or conversion, then this is where you must start.

I installed Nero 7 Burning ROM next.  While Ahead.de’s current offering is Nero 9, I have played with it and have found no discernable difference between the versions from a technical standpoint.  Version 7 simply runs quicker than the newer one.  I do not understand why the installation size changes so much from version to version.   They both do the same thing, and if version 9 does the same things as version 7, they will both run great.  Call the size difference an enigma I suppose.

Continuing on, the Adobe CS3 suite of products was next on my list.  For image and video production, nothing on the market today beats Photoshop and Premiere.  While they can have a steep learning curve attached to them, the investment of time is well worth it.  Some of Adobe’s offerings, such as Encore and Soundbooth, lag behind the competition still.  Others, like Acrobat, are horribly bloated.  Yet all in all, CS3 is a top notch suite that does everything you ask of it (notwithstanding that endorsement, I did not install Acrobat, Encore, or Soundbooth).

Office 2007 was installed next.  I am very familiar with the intricacies of Office, but 2007 is a little different.  Microsoft took the interface in a vastly different direction than its predecessors, so I have a bit of a learning curve ahead of me here.  The jury is still out as to whether or not I like it…time will tell.  If not, I can always install the old version.  The interface is easy, and novice users will like it.  Us old birds who grew up when WordPerfect 5.1 (for DOS) was the universal standard sometimes need a bit of prodding to change out of our old ways into newer ones.

This time, I am doing away with MSN and AOL completely and installing Pidgen.  I have always liked this software and run it everywhere except on my main machine.  That changes now.  I have never been a fan of bloatware and both of those chat clients installed ate up far too much system resources for my liking.  When I first started using them they were decent enough – but as I have squawked about many times, today’s software has become bloatware.  Inefficient coders thinking that the speed and power of the computers these days can cover their errors.  Imagine – just imagine – how fast the computers would run if the coding of today was as super tight as it had to be in years past.  Anyways, Pidgen is small, allows for multiple IM platforms, is simple and easy to use.  It also includes a spell checker!

It is now time to plug in the hard drives that I had previously disconnected.  These include 3 x 500 GB HDDs, 1 x 1.5 TB HDD, and a 4.5 TB E-SATA RAID-5 array.  I am curious to see if the machine takes a performance hit having all those drives connected, though by rights it should be a small one if any.  As they are all SATA 2.0 7500 RPM, things should still run quite adequetely.  One thing I can say though, and all us geeks know it, is that the USB drives perform like a dogs breakfast.  They run slow, and the more that you connect the slower they run.  I have a significant amount of USB drives that I am going to convert over to E-SATA because I do not like the performance hit that they take.

Now that the hard drives are all hooked back up, and the machine is back where it should be, things are starting to feel somewhat more normal.  I.T. guys generally tend to fret when their main computer is in disarray, and I am no exception.  I do not like it and it makes me uncomfortable.  We like a certain order to things.  Now that the computer is well on its way I can turn my attention to some domestic duties.