Windows 7 GUI feel questions....

[ckett]

I am considering moving from Windows XP to Windows 7 and had questions about the general feel of the GUI.

I have always struggled to get Windows XP's GUI to respond quickly and fluidly over the time of its use. It always seemed like after doing a fresh format and install everything responded nice and quick. But slowly over time the GUI would get slower and slower. It could get so slow to the point of where you would see the drawing action of icons and such. Drives me nuts!

So I picked up an Apple Mac Mini and OSX and for the most part responds smoothly and quickly with hardly any noticeable slowdown. Very enjoyable to use. I read that OSX's GUI processing would be handled more from the graphics card CPU rather using the system CPU. Also that Microsoft with the release of Vista changed the OS code to use the graphics card for GUI animation/processing. I am sure this carries over to Windows 7 as well.

What are your opinions concerning this topic?

Thanks!!

 

[JackMDS]

Three months ago I installed two Win 7 computers (Both Core Duo 2.5GHz, 2GB Ram, WD 250GHz HD).

Both run nicely, and perky, and behaving the same after installation.

One computer I am using for Surfing, some email, and notes, I did not add anything on top of the OS besides installing Word, Outlook, and Firefox.

The second computer is my main workstation.

It was installed exactly as the first one. At the end of the Install both computers showed that the HD has a total 14GB of files (of which 4 Giga is the page file and Hibernation file).

Three months after the First computer has the same application pull and few more GB of data and it runs exactly the same as it ran in the first day.

The second computer has by now an installed of added applications that shows 24GB, and data files to the tune of 20GB more. I.e., total 44GB.

The first computer still run as in the first day, the second one is still fast but Not as fast.
It taked longer to start because more data services and processes that are needed for the additional applications has be loaded, and when working, and multitasking, some of the additional applications are more demanding that the core OS by itself is.

Mac owners by nature of their computer Lic., and the pool of available applications, tend to be following the practice of my first computer.

If all the application that I installed on my computer would be available and installed on a Mac it would follow the pattern of my second computer.

 

[Modelworks]

windows 7 handles the gui differently from vista. They really use the gpu much more efficiently. In vista it kept two copies of the desktop in memory and swapped between them, that used extra system ram and slowed performance because of the swapping in and out of the buffers. In 7 there is only one copy and the changes are done incrementally resulting in faster performance.

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

Windows 7 grabs data, such as the detail in details view or thumbnails for images, slower than Windows XP does. I've noticed no degredation in speed and it's still fairly snappy. Also, Windows Vista and 7 seem to grab icons for menus a bit slow sometimes.

These issues are just inherent to Windows Vista and 7 from my experience. Still a fast, stable, and usable OS though.