Going Back to XP

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I’ve been using Win 7 since Beta, RC1, and Professional was released. I like it a lot, but have 1 irritation that is sending me back to XP_SP3.

In XP logging in to either a Domain or to the local machine was a snap — you just selected your choice at the login screen (after Ctrl-Alt-Del of course) and logged in with the appropriate credentials. This has become much more cumbersome in Win7.

I switch back and forth regularly for some reasons I won’t go into here, and just plain got fed up with the Win7 procedures.

It has also become more cumbersome to “Copy and Replace” multiple items. I can no longer click on “Replace All”.

Otherwise, Win7 is just great.

Dick Arlington

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I’ve been using Win 7 since Beta, RC1, and Professional was released. I like it a lot, but have 1 irritation that is sending me back to XP_SP3.

In XP logging in to either a Domain or to the local machine was a snap — you just selected your choice at the login screen (after Ctrl-Alt-Del of course) and logged in with the appropriate credentials. This has become much more cumbersome in Win7.

I switch back and forth regularly for some reasons I won’t go into here, and just plain got fed up with the Win7 procedures.

It has also become more cumbersome to “Copy and Replace” multiple items. I can no longer click on “Replace All”.

Otherwise, Win7 is just great.

Dick Arlington

Switching back & forth should be no more difficult than Start | Logoff.

Whenever, I copy items and there is a check box in the bottom of the form that says “Do this for the next x conflicts”. Just check that box, it is the same as “Replace All”.

Joe

--Joe

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In addition to what Joe said, have you also tried Switch User? I find it invaluable for doing exactly what you do, but without having to log off off of the domain and close all my running programs. I don’t disagree that not having a drop down list of domains is less than desirable. However I don’t find it too cumbersome to type domain/username either. That may be because I’m used doing it a lot anyway when connecting to systems via a UNC path on my network. That said, the few things I find annoying about Win7 are far outweighed by how well the rest of it works.

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I don’t disagree that not having

I don’t disagree that you’re not wrong either…I think?!

I keep getting driven back to XP as well for the more intensive OS interactive tasks. Running games and applications where I stay in the application all or most of the time and I’m fine with Win7. Time and time again, I find Win7 more blunt to use, not as direct and not as granular as XP. However, if I had never used and highly customized XP for 8 years now, I’m quite certain I would think Win7 was the best thing since sliced bread.

rfe: removed one d (not that one).

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However, if I had never used and highly customized XP for 8 years now, I’m quite certain I would think Win7 was the best thing since sliced bread.

Win 7 is just as easily customized in my belief. Take a look at How To Geekfor hundreds of tips and tricks to customize Win 7.

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Win 7 is not only good, it is (allegedly) far more secure. It is also very efficient in terms of resources used to accomplish a given end. I certainly like it (or maybe you guessed).

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I too think it is quite a bit more secure, especially the 64-bit which has a hardened kernel. I wish UAC wasn’t so dumb, it should be able to learn a program’s signature once irs been approved (or even make it after 3 or 5 allows) and stop repeatedly bugging the user about the same application. And yes, Microsoft took out the porcelain bathroom that was VIsta and made Win7 much more like XP: I have it running very nicely on a Sempron 3000 with one gig of RAM and a FX5200 video card that’s so old I have to use the Vista drivers and hack the OS to get Aero glass. I can tell the system is laboring just a bit more than it would with XP and an elaborate Windowblinds skin, but its very acceptable.

Win 7 is just as easily customized in my belief.

Sure its customizable, just like any Microsoft OS is, I don’t think any of us would accept anything that isn’t very customizable. The question is whether or not the customizations provide greater detailed information or greatly facillitate the efficeincy of a processs. For instance, still, to this very day and I don’t know why for the life of me, Windows ships with show filename extensions turned off. Other things make me work even harder to get 7 as efficient as XP, for instance having to build in a shortcut to ncpa.cpl to get directly to the network connections; its just a right click away in XP. Still, there are a couple handy things in 7 that aren’t in XP as well such as the Rename-Tab-Rename and if one remote desktop is already open, the built in Remote desktop jumplist nicely gets me to another straight away.

The biggest lump in the road for me though is Windows7 Explorer. If I could be using XPs explorer in Win7, maybe keep the breadcrumb address bar, but only in full path display at all times, and also keep the details pane where it is in 7 instead of where it is in XP, that sort of customization would make it awesome for me.

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The biggest lump in the road for me though is Windows7 Explorer.

You might find THIS DISCUSSION to be of interest.

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You might find THIS DISCUSSION to be of interest.

Not so much since its more of a how to rather than address specific issues. The Add to favorites would be nice if I could add something like Network connections to the list. I wonder if I could copy the location, then find that particular navigation pane favorites location and paste in the shortcut? The XP Explorer pane works so well because its contextual whereas the Win7 navigation pane doesn’t seem to be at all, only providing contextual task possibilities in the overhead bar pertaining to the current location.

Also, warmest personal regards to whoever can come up with the solution to details view, mouse gesture, multiple file selection (excluding the last file in the list) from a explorer Open… dialogue window. The engineers put in a little gap in the front of the file name in the regular explorer window so its usable if one is precise, but its not there in an Open… window so with whole line selection, I always have to grab the edge of the window and extend it out beyond the last data field in order to make a proper multi-file mouse gesture selection. Something like that for instance, I would find VERY interesting.

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ok, folks …

I’ve been properly chastised by you Win 7 Loyalists and have reinstalled Win 7 Pro in a dual boot situation with XP Pro SP3.

When I need to go back and forth from a Domain to the local machine I’ll boot into XP; for continuous (?!?! more or less) local use I’ll go with Win 7, which — as I said initially — I like a lot.

I’ll live with the monor inconveniences and soldier on.

Dick Arlington

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