Windows 7 – what software works and what doesn’t
Having been bitten in the past by finding software that fails to work after an upgrade, I decided to be sensible and use a spare laptop to install Windows 7 on and then install all the software I use on the laptop, starting with all the free software. So here goes.
- Install Windows 7 – this went nice and easily
- Install all the Windows patches – Windows has moved where “Windows Update” is. No longer is it a short cut on the start menu called “Microsoft Update” but it’s moved to “All programs”/”Windows Update” (I believe this is the same as Vista, but given that Vista was such an abortion, I’ve never touched it – for this reason, all comparisons in this article are against XP).
- Now found that there’s an equivalent to “Microsoft Update” to check Windows, Office and MSN, the new option is confusingly called “Windows Update”. There’s a whole load of optional updates for different languages – they can be hidden fortunately (but only one at a time – it would have been nice to be able to select them all and hide them in one go), so I don’t have to keep saying I don’t want them.During the update, the latest version if IE is installed, along with a bit of software called “Browser Choice”. On the next reboot, I was asked which browser I wanted to install as the default browser – went for Firefox (no surprise there) although later I’ll be installing Opera, Netscape, Safari & Chrome.
- All the software I wanted to install is on a NAS (a hard drive attached to the network) – trying to map a network drive using the usual search facility failed. I had to manually type in its location. OK if you know the location, but otherwise a bit of a bummer. Doing a quick search on the Internet showed up that this is a common problem.
- First thing we install on all computers at Redline Digital Services is anti-virus software. We’ve been using McAfee for over 10 years and have never had a virus infestation.1st (and as it turns out only) problem – Windows said that the version of McAfee that we are currently running is incompatible with Windows 7. According to the McAfee site we need version 9.11, checking the installation on other computers we’re already at 9.15. Going back to the McAfee site and re-downloading the installer fixed this problem. I’m guessing that the installer we had was an older version and that McAfee had been updated during its regular update sequence.After McAfee was installed, it took Windows Action Centre a little while to discover that there was AV, Firewall & anti-spyware running and until it did, it kept nagging me to go and find some software online. My advice – be patient and go and make a cup of coffee.Before installing anything else I ran a full virus scan – just in case.
- Our next bit of software is usually Winzip. Yes, Windows has had zip software for a while, but I’ve been using this since Windows 95 and I’m comfortable with it. However, it is shareware and on one of the upgrades a couple of years ago, they wanted a further payment so I’ve never progressed past version 9. I’m taking the opportunity to try out 7-Zip, a freeware compression utility that will compress in several formats and uncompress in even more (including RAR, which Winzip v9 doesn’t do). One thing to note – on installing the software it doesn’t automatically assign itself as the default to open zip files, I had to find a zip file, do “Open With”, select 7-zip and tell it to always open with this.The rest of the software is listed alphabetically, for no better reason than this is the order it is found on the NAS drive
- Adobe Acrobat Reader. An essential for all computers and, as expected, absolutely no problems at all. Interestingly, Windows XP requires a reboot after the installation of Adobe Reader 9, Windows 7 doesn’t – that’s good.
- Auslogics Disk Defragmenter. Freeware disk defragmentation software. Very fast and just as good (if not better) than Windows on defragmenting.
- CCleaner. Freeware software that cleans up your system by deleting unwanted files and removing bad registry entries. There’s a few options during the install. I deselect “Add Desktop Shortcut”, “Add Run CCleaner option to Recycle Bin context menu”, “Add Open CCleaner option to Recycle Bin menu” and “Add CCleaner Yahoo” Toolbar”. I select “Add Start Menu Shortcuts” and “Automatically check for CCleaner updates”.What does CCleaner do? The first tab is “Cleaner” and this removes old temp and junk files. You have some control over what is removed, but be careful because once this deletes the files they are gone forever. The second tab is “Registry”. This scans the system registry for problems and attempts to fix them. Always accept the offer to back up the registry first – although it’s very rare I have had CCleaner delete something from the registry that was needed.
- Defraggler. Another disk defragger. Much more thorough than the Auslogics one, and hence slower. It also has an option to defrag empty space, which tries to make all the empty space on a disk contiguous and a file defrag option, where it tries to defrag specific files. My normal procedure is to use the Auslogics defragger first, then run the free space defragger in Defraggler and finally the file defragger in Defraggler.
- HijackThis. A piece of software that looks for Trojans and spyware, specifically where they have modified registry entries. This software was originally developed by a German called Mathias Mattner and is now supplied by Trend Micro. The scan report is almost incomprehensible, fortunately Mathias still maintains the logfile analysis site. One thing to note – to run this software properly you need to right click on it and select “Run as administrator” even if your account has administrator privileges – it seems as though there’s a “super administrator” account hidden away on Windows 7 – do a Google search for “Windows 7 super administrator” for more information.
- IrfanView. Free image viewer with some editing capabilities. Most useful of these are the batch conversion options and the thumbnail viewer. Very simple to use and pretty quick too. Along with IrfanView is a bunch of plugins that do various extra things – see the website for what they do as it seems to change each version.
- Malwarebytes. Another program for scanning your computer for malware – spyware & Trojans. I used to use Adaware, but I got fed up with it because it seemed to keep starting for no apparent reason and slowing down the computer.After installing, Malwarebytes goes off and gets the latest updates – let it do this, it doesn’t take long.
- RealPlayer. A program to compliment Windows Media Player as it plays some formats that Media Player won’t or struggles with. The other nice thing about this is the ability to download video embedded in a web page.
- SocketWatch. A freeware program with the ability to access other options if you pay for it. I don’t want the other options so… This software goes off and checks various Internet clocks to correct the time on your computer. Does it when you first log in and then regularly afterwards, depending on how often you tell it to do it. I set this for 10 hours.
- Norton Partition Magic. This has been a useful, if rarely used bit of software, for me. However it was discontinued at v8 (which is what I have got) and it is incompatible with Windows 7 – oh well, will have to use the Linux GParted – this boots from CD so will always work, but is slower and more complicated
- Finally, some little system tools.
Unlocker. If you try to delete or rename a file and Windows says it can’t because something else has the file open, unlocker will free the file without you having to log off and back on again). A word of warning though – it asks to install a link to eBay – don’t! McAfee says it’s a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program) and deletes it
Startup Control Panel. This program lists everything that runs at system startup and allows you to delete them if you don’t want them starting. There’s a similar feature in CCleaner.
Pagedefrag is a program that runs at boot time to defragment system files that are locked normally. However this isn’t compatible with windows 7 and I haven’t yet found anything free that’ll do the same job. - Now for the thing that is most likely to break – the network laser printer – an HP 2600n. I had fun getting this to work under XP because HP had cleverly hidden the drivers. A quick search on Google and several people have had problems with this printer, but HP have now issued the drivers and made them easy to find. I downloaded these and started the install – HP want the printer connected by a USB cable as there’s no network search facility (unlike the XP version of the software). A quick search of the Internet and yes, other people have found the same. The answer is to install it as a USB printer (to get the drivers in), then disconnect the USB cable, delete the printer and add a new printer. However, the installation wizard didn’t find the printer and I had to install it using it’s IP address, which is fine if the IP address is static (as it is), but if the IP address is dynamic I can see that Windows will lose it each time the IP address changes. Silly HP. Anyway, it works, which is all I’m bothered about
Only one problem left, I can’t see any other computers on the network. I’ve scoured the Internet and it appears to be a very common problem. Several solutions have been suggested, but I can’t get machine to see anything else on the network. Oh well, keep looking & I’ll post an update when I find an answer
Well, that’s it for this part of the upgrade. The next part will be freeware/shareware programs that are used specifically on my main PC. Finally there will be the “paid for” application programs that I use.
