I started the move to Windows 7 last night. Just to make things interesting, I also moved to the 64 bit version. The base installation was quick and painless. I was installing on a Dell Latitude D630 with a nVidia video controller.
Windows 7 did a pretty good job of finding and configuring my hardware. The only drivers that I needed were for the video controller and the finger reader. Everything seems to be working good and the computer is running noticeable faster with a lower resource usage.
Here is a list of the software that I have had problems with:
- Alcohol 52% – Alcohol 120% does work and they are working on a update for Alcohol 52%. This is causing me more irritation than anything. I have converted all my install CDs to ISO images and use Alcohol to mount them.
- Acronis True Image Echo Workstation 9.1 – I just get a message that this program will not run on Windows 7. Nothing that I could find on the Acronis web site, but there is a new version out. The explorer shell extension seems to be working for browsing previously created images. I may get stuck purchasing the new version. I use this for backup and recovery. Update: Purchased Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Workstation and it supports Windows 7.
- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition – This installs but would not run until Service Pack 1 was installed.
Here is a list of the software that has installed without any problems:
- ACDSee Photo Manager 2009
- Apple iTunes 8
- avast! Professional Edition Anti-Virus
- Corel Paint Shop Pro PHOTO X2
- PaintShop Pro Photo Photo Essentials 4
- ImageSkill Background Remover 3
- DisplayFusion
- Evernote
- Google Chrome Beta
- Microsoft Office 2007
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
- ComponentOne Studio 2009
- Innovasys HelpStudio Lite – It is hard to find the free version that is available as part of Visual Studio. Still not sure were I found it on their web site.
- AxTools CodeSMART 2009 for VS.NET
- Nero 9
- Quicken Deluxe 2009
- Softbrands Fourth Shift 7.5A – It is not support by the vendor on Windows 7 or under 64 bit Windows, but it does install and run.
- TrueCrypt 6.2a – There is a problem with encrypting the system drive, however there is a workaround for this in their forum.
- VMware Workstation 6.5 – Runs much better under Windows 7 than Vista.
- VMware Virtual Infrastructure 2.5 – I had to install Update 4 to our VMware Infrastructure 3.5 server to get the 64 bit client. This item can only be downloaded from the local VM server.
- WinZip 11.2