Upgrading the HP dv2 to Windows 7 Home Basic

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
From our front-page news:
It's a little embarrassing to admit, but up until now, I haven't given Windows 7 much of an honest go. It's not due to a lack of interest, but rather boils down to available time, which has been scarce lately. But, since we received some RTM copies of the OS recently, I decided that I put off the testing for too long. So, I sucked it up and decided to give it a reasonable test.

Well, for now I won't give too much opinion on what I think of the OS, but I can say that I've been enjoying it quite a bit. In fact, I feel it completely makes up for Vista's various shortcomings. Within a half-hour of testing it out, I really felt compelled to install it on my main machine, to replace my Windows XP installation (I run Linux as primary, but Windows as secondary). To feel that way about an OS after about 30 minutes of usage says something.

Because a lot of people will be choosing 7 as an upgrade path, rather than a fresh install, I decided to give that scenario a go on two notebooks here, including my HP dv2. This notebook is modest in all regards, and the fact that it came included with Vista Home Basic proves it. So naturally, I chose Windows 7 Home Basic as the upgrade path (actually, I was forced into it... you cannot mix and match versions).

I have always shunned upgrading OS' in the past, but I have to admit that I was surprised by just how easy it was to upgrade from Vista to 7. The entire process took about 90 minutes, and before I knew it, I was at the desktop, 7-style. Because I prefer a clean install, I then installed fresh, as I wanted to see how much of the hardware it would pick up, especially the GPU, since I was unable to find a 7 driver for it anywhere.


Well as you can see above, the install went quite well. The WEI is rather low, but this is a budget computer after all. What impressed me, though, is that absolutely every piece of hardware in the machine was taken care of. After the install, I was good to hop on the WiFi and download whatever I needed to via Windows Update, including the GPU driver (ATI X1270). I was actually quite surprised that a driver was available at all, and it was a big relief given it would have been a show-stopper.

So far, I'm happy with the overall performance. I have all the applications installed that I need, and though the notebook has a slow processor, it seems totally manageable. Whether or not it's faster or has better battery-life than Vista, I'm not sure. I plan on dedicating this notebook for use during IDF, so I'll be able to find out soon enough. Stay tuned!
 

RobbyBob

Obliviot
I'd have to say from that screen-shot that the start bar reminds me of the one in KDE. All-in-all it really looks like Microsoft is trying to utilize some visual design features from Linux.

If only it WAS just a Linux distro...
 

gibbersome

Coastermaker
Great! I think you'll find it much faster than Vista. And of course if you run into any problems at the IDF, there will tons of tech wizards around to help you.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
RobbyBob:

To an extent, I'd agree, but Windows 7 is still far, far better. I abhor KDE 4's task bar... it's horrible. The best part of Windows 7 is that I can move the icons around while I'm using them... I never lose the application order. I hope that other OS' take after this feature.

gibbersome:

Well, so far so good. I really can't say if it's faster than Vista, because the notebook is, in all regards, slow, but I have no major complaints. It's really not a good multi-tasker though... some applications will lag if I'm doing something even mild in another.

One thing that I'm finding a little frustrating about Windows 7 is that once in a while, the desktop or a folder will not update right away. I mean, if I copy files there, or even rename a file, I have to hit F5 or right-click and refresh in order to see it updated. I'd blame this on the slow notebook, but I have the same issue back at home on the full-blown desktop too.
 

gibbersome

Coastermaker
One thing that I'm finding a little frustrating about Windows 7 is that once in a while, the desktop or a folder will not update right away. I mean, if I copy files there, or even rename a file, I have to hit F5 or right-click and refresh in order to see it updated. I'd blame this on the slow notebook, but I have the same issue back at home on the full-blown desktop too.

I looked it up and it seems it's a common bug. Windows did the right thing by issuing a Release Candidate, they should have many bugs fixed before the retail release.
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
One thing that I'm finding a little frustrating about Windows 7 is that once in a while, the desktop or a folder will not update right away. I mean, if I copy files there, or even rename a file, I have to hit F5 or right-click and refresh in order to see it updated. I'd blame this on the slow notebook, but I have the same issue back at home on the full-blown desktop too.

Yes, sometimes I notice it takes 2-5 seconds... somewhat odd.

However, Vista did this all the time, except it wouldn't update at all unless I manually refreshed the window or hit F5... so 7 is still a definite improvement here. And most of the time it does refresh without any delay for me, thankfully.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
gibbersome said:
I looked it up and it seems it's a common bug. Windows did the right thing by issuing a Release Candidate, they should have many bugs fixed before the retail release.

Well, this is the retail release I'm using, and the bug remains. It's not a major bug, but it's still a little annoying regardless. It's even more annoying to know that it wasn't caught or fixed during the long beta period. I stumbled on it on two different installs... I'm sure it's rather common.

Kougar said:
However, Vista did this all the time, except it wouldn't update at all unless I manually refreshed the window or hit F5.

In all my time using Vista, I have never, not once, ever had that happen. Ever.
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
In all my time using Vista, I have never, not once, ever had that happen. Ever.

I'm not kidding, at some point the OS would always just stop refreshing folders. Even on the desktop I could create a new file, but wouldn't see it until I hit F5. Whenever this started t happen (usually after the OS had been running for a day or two), I could rename a file and I'd then have to refresh the window for it to update so I could open the file, else I'd just get an error that it couldn't find the file. Vista was all about really stupid, little things like that. You at least do remember folders never did retain the view settings applied to them, either....
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
I'm not kidding, at some point the OS would always just stop refreshing folders.

Oh, I believe you... I just haven't personally run into the issue. It does surprise me that after having dealt with Vista for so long, I never experienced it once (that I realize), but with Windows 7, I hit the issue the very first day.

It IS an annoying issue, though. How hard can it be to have the desktop auto-refresh as soon as a change is made to it? I mean, seriously.

When I think about it though, I've had the same issue with KDE as well, so I have to wonder what causes it to happen. It's not just one OS, so it almost feels like they all share the same issue at some point. I wonder if Mac OS X users ever have this happen?
 
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