I upgraded one of my build machines to Windows 7 almost a month ago now but I only managed to get around to doing my main developer machine at the start of this week. Apart from the fact that the Windows 7 in place upgrade failed on me, twice, and rolled back to Vista without leaving me with much information as to why it had failed (removing Compuware's DevPartner Studio did the trick), the upgrade went pretty smoothly. Having used the machine for a week now I can say that there's nothing that I'm complaining about (yet) and that in general the machine feels faster. I also like all of the new eye candy; the new task bar is especially good. I'm one of the rare (?) people who actually liked Vista and who finds the UAC prompting a good thing so I guess I was already pretty much converted, but Windows 7 still seems like a worthwhile upgrade.
No doubt I'll find some things to bitch about next week...
Ooh! No I remember, I do have something I don't like... How comes MSN Messenger now minimises to the task bar rather than being a notification icon?
Thanks for the tip Len. I'll definitely be removing DevPartner before attempting the upgrade... and this time permanently.
Posted by: Harold at September 5, 2009 02:42 AMHarold,
I expect I might be doing the same thing. Apart from the fact that DevPartner probably wont install on Windows 7 I've found that whenever I use it I almost invariably end up having to report an issue to them rather than simply solving my problem. It's a pity as it's a good product but it just doesn't seem to be being maintained adequately anymore. I don't know if this will change now that it's passed from Compuware to MicroFocus...
Posted by: Len at September 5, 2009 10:34 AMThe MSN thing has to be a setting that you need to check in the options I would guess. Otherwise there is a freeware app (can't think of the name), that allows any app to minimize to the task tray.
Posted by: Barry at September 7, 2009 11:27 AMBarry,
Yes, I expected that to be the case but I can't find the setting anywhere :(
Posted by: Len at September 7, 2009 11:39 AMFound this link first time - depends if you want to go the compatibility route:
http://windows7center.com/tutorials/how-to-minimize-msn-messenger-to-the-system-tray-in-windows-7/
Cool, thanks. I was almost getting used to it :) but I think I prefer it in the system tray.
Posted by: Len at September 8, 2009 01:52 PMI'm glad you like it! I've been using Windows 7 on my primary home computer since sometime this summer. I got RTM probably about a month ago and find just about everything in working condition.
At work, I wish I could uninstall DevPartner, but unfortunately I need to keep it around for the occational C++ code coverage. We run XP in a virtual machine, so I haven't even had the displeasure of using it in Vista. I've been a Vista user going on 3 years as well and find Windows 7 to be an extra speed boost.
Posted by: StalePhish at October 20, 2009 05:16 PM