Well a graphics-oriented client currently running Windows XP wants to try to make the transition to Windows 7 from XP – so I have been commissioned to test out a Gateway NV74 17.3″ 4GB RAM, 500GB hard disk@5400RPM [Passmark rating of 1.243]. The OS is Windows 7 Home Premium. I think this PC Model and OS was chosen because it costs $649 rather than $1500 to $2000 required for the “equivalent” Apple Macs; but I could be wrong on this impression.
The Windows 7 machine took 31 minutes to boot-up and set up including all security updates but no additional program loads. In effect the PC with Windows 7 was operating and I got to choose the bulk of the additional downloads and program installs. And I chose none. However, Gateway did reserve first boot upDesktop Real Estate Rights to the following vendors:
Norton Internet Security 2009
Norton Online Backup
Google iGoogle
Ebay
Gateway Free Trial games
Microsoft Office Try, Buy or Activate
Microsoft Works
Net Zero Internet Access
Nonetheless, the setup operations performed essentially hands and attention free and no excessive program installs were allowed. So the first test was to load some large image and data files from a USB card drive and then process the images using Photoshop CS4. But first, I had to download and install Adobe Photoshop CS4.
And that is when the problems started.
Adobe use Akamai Download Manager. And Windows 7 could not/would not recognize the Akamai delivered executable file. So Windows 7 slapped a lock on the file and made it invisible to Windows Explorer.
Now I had been told that Windows 7 had much improved versions of Windows Explorer and Notepad . Not exactly… and I was starting to have problems finding any of my files. So I finally gave up looking for the files and used Internet Explorer to download and install UltraExplorer – a much more adept and free file manager for Windows 7. Unlike Win Explorer, Ultra Explorer could see the files:
But let me assure you that Windows 7 contrived no matter what permissions I used to, to frustrate any attempts to unlock the downloaded .7z file. However, in stark contrast, Windows XP had no problems seeing and using the downloaded files. So a new plan was spawned – just move the Adobe Photoshop trial edition file over from the Windows XP to Windows 7. I got the files over but still Windows 7 said NO PERMISSO!!.
So after 4 hours of work I will try another approach – loading Photoshop CS3 from the install DVDs. Stay tuned for more adventures with the New and Improved Windows 7 as applied to graphics.