Windows Hardware Compatibility Woes: A Frustrated Scientist's Rant

Thread starter Pengwuino
Start date Jul 14, 2011
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Windows

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Changing hardware in Windows systems often leads to boot issues, frustrating users who lack installation discs or knowledge about their system configurations. Many users express annoyance at the time wasted trying to restore functionality after hardware upgrades. Discussions suggest that hardware compatibility issues may be a significant cause of these problems, rather than Windows itself. Some users advocate for upgrading to Windows 7, citing it as a more stable and user-friendly operating system compared to its predecessors like Vista and XP. The conversation also touches on the challenges of maintaining older computers, particularly regarding driver support and the impact of hardware age on performance. Overall, the thread highlights the complexities of hardware upgrades in Windows environments and the varying user experiences with different operating systems.

Jul 20, 2011

jhae2.718

Gold Member

Windows 2000 wasn't that bad. Sure, it lacked USB support until SP4, if I remember correctly, but in my experience it was pretty stable for a M$ operating system.

XP was basically 2000 with USB and a new UI, and didn't really become a decent OS until SP2/SP3.

Vista/7 (they're basically the same, Vista is NT 6.0, 7 is NT 6.1) is actually rather decent. Vista wasn't really a finished product when it was released, so it perhaps unfairly got a bad reputation. There's not much different in 7. Unfortunately, IMO the NT 6.* line really messed up a lot of the good features trying to be "user friendly".

Of course, I only boot into Windows now for games or SolidWorks, and do all my work in Unix-like operating systems.