Windows 7 is... Meh?
Aug. 24th, 2019 06:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starseerdrgnSo... I mentioned in my previous post that I installed Windows 7 on my Inspiron E1505, but I also did so on my XPS 410. And the result for both is... Meh?
For starters, there were no easily obtainable drivers for the Inspiron E1505. I had to actually go through Windows Update to even get drivers for the Radeon Mobility card in it, and that wasn't fun. 640x480 on a screen with a native 1280x800 resolution was a headache, which is sad since Windows Vista came with compatible drivers to put it at its native resolution out of the box. I also had to find a 64-bit trackpad driver for an ASUS machine, since the Dell driver was 32-bit only. In fact, the only two things that worked out-of-box on Windows 7 were the LAN and WIFI adapters. That was it. Vista had everything but the trackpad working right.
And honestly, it runs worse with 7 than it did with Vista. The memory is constantly strained or running out, even while idle, and no, there's no malware on it.
For the XPS 410... Well, Windows 7 also runs more heavily on it. Granted, the display driver for the GeForce GTS 450 works a bit better, but even with an SSD for the storage medium, it runs like a slug at times. At least like with Vista, the only driver I need is the display driver, so that's not really a problem. But having my entire system strain while trying to run Minecraft or Spiral Knights? That's not fun.
I don't really use Steam much anymore, and having modern Firefox or Chrome isn't an issue since I just use Pale Moon/New Moon and Basilisk/Serpent. I don't really need 7 for anything. Plus, if I really wanted 7, I could just throw another drive into this desktop and dual-boot Vista with it. So... I may go back to Vista just for the performance boost. On both machines.
For starters, there were no easily obtainable drivers for the Inspiron E1505. I had to actually go through Windows Update to even get drivers for the Radeon Mobility card in it, and that wasn't fun. 640x480 on a screen with a native 1280x800 resolution was a headache, which is sad since Windows Vista came with compatible drivers to put it at its native resolution out of the box. I also had to find a 64-bit trackpad driver for an ASUS machine, since the Dell driver was 32-bit only. In fact, the only two things that worked out-of-box on Windows 7 were the LAN and WIFI adapters. That was it. Vista had everything but the trackpad working right.
And honestly, it runs worse with 7 than it did with Vista. The memory is constantly strained or running out, even while idle, and no, there's no malware on it.
For the XPS 410... Well, Windows 7 also runs more heavily on it. Granted, the display driver for the GeForce GTS 450 works a bit better, but even with an SSD for the storage medium, it runs like a slug at times. At least like with Vista, the only driver I need is the display driver, so that's not really a problem. But having my entire system strain while trying to run Minecraft or Spiral Knights? That's not fun.
I don't really use Steam much anymore, and having modern Firefox or Chrome isn't an issue since I just use Pale Moon/New Moon and Basilisk/Serpent. I don't really need 7 for anything. Plus, if I really wanted 7, I could just throw another drive into this desktop and dual-boot Vista with it. So... I may go back to Vista just for the performance boost. On both machines.
