Number 320 - January 2010

Windows 7, 64 Bit
by Brian K. Lewis, Ph.D.* Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
Well, I finally did it. I bit the bullet and installed the 64 bit version of Windows 7 in place of the 32 bit Vista that came with my computer. I even managed to do it without disturbing either of my Linux versions that are on the same hard drive. I did end up with a very large file that I didn't expect to get that is labeled "Windows.old". More about that later. The version of Win7 that I installed was the Home Premium Upgrade. So here's how it went.    First I downloaded the Windows Upgrade Advisor so I could check on the compatibility of the hardware and software I was using under Vista. Then I ran the advisor for info on upgrading to 32 bit Windows 7 and a second time for info on upgrading to 64 bit Windows 7. The first item on each report was "upgrade options". My options for the 32 bit upgrade were that I could do a standard upgrade to any 32 bit version of 7. My only option in order to move to a 64 bit version was to do a custom install of 7. That confirmed earlier information I had obtained from Microsoft and other sources on the Net. In any case the upgrade advisor did not recognized my Brother fax or my Verizon broadband card. All of my other hardware was recognized. Only in a few instances was it indicated that a software upgrade would be needed for the drivers to work with Win7. My ZoneAlarm fire wall was specifically targeted as being not compatible, so I would need a new version there. All in all, it looked like everything would work, providing I downloaded a few new versions of some of my software and some updated drivers.    Since I was going to be changing from a 32 bit Vista to the 64 bit Win7, I thought that new version would overwrite my old files. Accordingly, I did a complete backup to my external drive using Acronis. There was also one major change I needed to do before I installed Win7. My computer came with a recovery partition placed ahead of the Windows Vista partition. Since I had a complete recovery CD, I didn't need or want the recovery partition. So I booted the computer with "Gparted" and used it to empty and then move the recovery partition to after the Vista partition. That of course, destroyed the multi-boot loader setup. To correct that problem I booted with the Ubuntu live CD and restored the multi-boot loader. Now I was finally ready for the Win7 installation.    After booting with the Win7 64 bit installation disk, my first choice was the selection of language. Then came the choice to either upgrade or select custom installation. When I selected custom installation I found that all of the Vista files, including my data, would be saved and placed in a folder called "Windows.old". It's a very good thing I had a large partition for Windows (149 GB) as the Win7 installation plus the old Windows files took up almost 60 GB of drive space. The installation software did check the drive to see if the space was adequate, but some advance warning would have been helpful. I can imagine some situations where the available space might not be sufficient. As it turned out, I could have formated the entire partition, which would have removed all the Vista files and the data files. Then I could have followed with the Win7 installation. For those that haven't installed Win7 and wish to move to the 64 bit version, this is an option.    The actual installation of Win7 took about one hour. However, I had to keep a close watch on the process as the install program never told me to remove the installation CD. Since it did reboot the computer several times I had to be sure it didn't restart the installation CD. Instead it needed to use the restart files it put on the hard drive. Somewhere along the way it would have been very helpful to have instructions telling the user when to remove the CD.    Windows update advisor had told me that it did not recognize the broadband modem that I had been using under Vista. So as part of my preparation for the upgrade to Win7 I checked the Verizon web site for drivers compatible with Win7-64. Then I downloaded the file and copied it to my external drive. After the Win7 installation was complete I installed the Verizon software so that I would be able to get an Internet connection. It went quite smoothly.    With Win7 running, the first package I downloaded and installed was the Avast! anti-virus software. Their latest version is Microsoft certified for Win7. The next step was to update all the ASUS drivers. On their web site they had a complete set of drivers for my computer and Win7. The only problem being that I couldn't just get a CD with the drivers to use for an update. I had to download them all, individually. There were several hundred megabytes in total. Some of the individual files were more than 49 megabytes in size. Now if you have a cable connection with a 12 megabit/second download speed it wouldn't be a problem downloading these files. In my case the maximum speed was 2 megabits and more commonly the speed was around 750 kilobits/second. You're absolutely right, I spent time over several days getting these files downloaded and installed. I didn't wait for this process to be completed to install my other working software. Then on to OpenOffice and Gimp, both in 64 bit versions. That's when another problem surfaced.    The Win7 installation automatically setup my Brother multi-function printer and fax. However, it did not setup the scanner. So as far as Gimp was concerned I didn't have a scanner. So back to the Brother web site. I had to download software to remove the drivers that Microsoft installed and another 49 MB package of Brother software. After getting that installed, Gimp still didn't recognize my scanner. So I had to remove and reinstall Gimp. That didn't work either. Since the	64 bit version is a beta (unfinished) version I tried the 32 bit version. It also told me I didn't have a scanner. So, I'll have to do some work to find out what the solution is to this particular problem. I know there is a Twain driver installed and have located it. This is what Gimp usually uses. Oh well, just a little more work to do.    Another little quirk surfaced the first time I booted into Windows 7. It loaded a boot menu listing both Win 7 and Vista with an option to select which one I wanted to run. Since Vista was no longer really available I went ahead with Win7. Then I had to do some searching on the Microsoft site to find the instructions to remove the Vista boot option. You can do the removal from the Microsoft boot loader manually or download a third-party program (EasyBCD) which is then used to edit the boot loader file. Since I use Grub, a Linux program, as the boot loader for both Ubuntu and Windows, I really didn't need a second boot loader menu popping up.    While I was investigating the boot loader problem I also researched how to remove the Windows.old file. I had tried selectively removing parts of it and kept getting the message that only the TrustedAdvisor could remove the files. I never did find what was meant by the "TrustedAdvisor", but Microsoft did have instructions for removing the Windows.old file. It has to be done using the "Disk Cleanup" function and selecting "Clean up system files". Then you have an option to remove previous Windows installations. The instructions warn you that none of the files will be recoverable once you dod this. So you want to wait a week or two before removing this folder.    So now I have been running the 64 bit version of Windows 7 for several weeks. Is it better than Vista? In some respects, yes, but overall it is much the same. It does start quicker and it, so far, shuts down without any real delay. One change is that Win7 tells you what, if any, software is preventing or delaying the shutdown process. In my case the Verizon broadband software always slows down the shutdown process. At least now I know what's holding up the process.    Another change that I like in Win 7 is ability to select a window by mousing over the icons on the task bar. When I have multiple pages open in an application, it is much easier to find the page I want then having to pick them from a list. I guess this is part of the Aero interface. I also understand that both this change and the one in the previous paragraph may have been present in the 32 bit versions of Vista Ultimate.    Microsoft keeps touting the improved security in Windows 7. However, I am not convinced, especially where the firewall is concerned. I tried it against Gibson Research Shields Up software. It did indicated that the incoming ports were all stealthed. That means that they don't even appear to exist as far as random probing from the Internet is concerned. That is very good, but just what would be expected of any good firewall. The problem occurs with outbound signals. I used the Gibson Research Leaktest application and the firewall failed. This small program sends out an FTP signal to the Gibson site. If the site responds, then the firewall has failed. The Windows firewall requires that you set up a rule for blocking every outbound application you want to control. You really don't know what might be involved with a Trojan or parasite program and what port they might be using. Therefore this individual rule requirement is ridiculous and makes outbound control very unlikely to ever be useful.    I have always used the ZoneAlarm free firewall in the past. However, when I tried installing the latest version I received an error message telling me I needed to install SP-1 for Vista. Apparently ZoneAlarm has not updated this version for use with Windows 7. Too bad. I also tried the Win7 version of the PCTools firewall. It's outbound protection is no better than Windows even though I tried to block the Leaktest output from ports 0 to 1024. It still failed. So be warned. You may not be as secure as you would like to be when running Windows 7 connected to the Internet. At least until ZoneAlarm updates its free version.    All in all, Win7 seems to be better in some respects than Vista. However, it still is no match for Ubuntu. So my main OS will remain the 64 bit version of Ubuntu. Now, if you are planning on upgrading from XP or Vista to Win7, my recommendation is to go for the 64 bit version. All of the Windows upgrade packages have both the 32 bit and the 64 bit versions. If you have doubts about whether or not your computer can run the 64 bit version, check it with the Microsoft Update Advisor. Then you'll know what you need for the upgrade. The upgrade process to 64 bit is really not difficult and I think you'll like the result.    *Dr. Lewis is a former university and medical school professor of physiology. He has been working with personal computers for over thirty years, developing software and assembling systems. He can be reached at bwsail at yahoo.com.    Copyright 2010. This article is from the January 2010 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication.
Number 320 - January 2010