Thirith on 9/10/2010 at 18:33
I'm thinking of getting a new computer in the next 3 to 6 months, and I'm wondering: are there any major compatibility issues with Windows 7? Can I pretty much play most if not all the games I can play on WinXP on the new OS as well?
Kolya on 9/10/2010 at 19:54
Well you won't be able to play any DOS games without DOSbox any more. Other games may also have problems, eg with newer graphics drivers (hence things like DDFix). Also Vista/7 did away with the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) which means that some older games that relied on it to produce 3D sound via EAX will sound very flat now (see Alchemy for Creative cards or 3D soundback for Realtek cards). Most things will be fixable but expect some fiddling. That's as much as I know, still being on XP myself for various reasons (netbook).
Thirith on 9/10/2010 at 20:30
Thanks for the answer. I'll probably hang on to one or two of my hard disks when I change computers, so it'd be easy enough to set up one of those as a dedicated XP partition if necessary.
Brian The Dog on 9/10/2010 at 22:14
One thing you should be aware of is that Windows doesn't like having multiple Master Boot Records, even if they are seperate hard drives. So I personally only have one hard drive, the one I am installing Windows on, plugged into the motherboard. You can always plug them both in when you've installed all the operating systems you need.
The other two things are, as Kolya says, firstly Microsoft did something to the sound and requires all sound to go through secure channels. I heard stories of people not being able to hear output on their fancy speakers or sound-systems connected by an optical link, dunno if that's been sorted yet. The other thing, and this is true for all Microsoft x64 systems, is that x16 support through emulation has been removed in Windows 7 x64. So any 16-bit apps, such as DOS programs, won't work. Fortunately, since most of them are from the DOS era, you can use DosBox to run them.
Edit - thirdly, I think all device drivers HAVE to Microsoft-certified, but I think that's only on Win7 x64, not the 32-bit version. I'm not too sure about that though.
Renzatic on 10/10/2010 at 00:19
Quote Posted by Brian The Dog
thirdly, I think all device drivers HAVE to Microsoft-certified, but I think that's only on Win7 x64, not the 32-bit version. I'm not too sure about that though.
That's only on x64. You can still use uncertified drivers, but you have to hammer F8 before the splash screen and tell it to allow them every time you start or reboot your comp.
Programwise, I haven't had many problems out of Win7. Gothic 1 & 2 were about the only older games I've ever had trouble with, but that's been remedied with the latest Nvidia drivers. Beyond that, about the worst I've had to do was search on the internet and do some quick tweaking to get something to run.
I guess it all depends on what you're wanting to run. Best thing to do is look up program compatibilities and see what works and what doesn't. That's alot easier than slapping two partitions on your drive for an OS you might not even need.
Renzatic on 10/10/2010 at 04:42
XP Mode isn't the end all of compatibility issues. It's only good if you're running ass old software that doesn't require alot of hardware to work well, or games that don't need 3D acceleration. It's too slow to be of any use for anything else.
If you really want to go that route, you'd have better luck getting Virtualbox or VMWare and using your old copy of XP. It's faster than MS's implementation, and you don't have to buy pro to use it.
lost_soul on 10/10/2010 at 14:52
If you're a fan of the 3D sound in classic games like Thief, I would be careful about upgrading. The 3D Soundback program is at something like 0.1 beta, and it didn't work with any of the three games I tried it on. I'm not for supporting that other company which has done nothing but harm the state of PC sound over the past fifteen years, so I'll stick to playing on an old XP box with a $8 SB Live card.
Why should you have to pay again to restore functionality that you already had and which was deliberately taken away from you?
EvaUnit02 on 11/10/2010 at 03:24
If you are going to run Windows OSes in multi-boot, the older one should always be installed first. That way the Windows installer takes care of the boot menu for you. It's reportedly doable to install the older OS later, but it's a pain in the arse, requiring you to edit boot.ini and the like.
Quote Posted by Renzatic
That's only on x64. You can still use uncertified drivers, but you have to hammer F8 before the splash screen and tell it to allow them every time you start or reboot your comp.
You don't even need to do that. Download and install DriverReady Plus, which automates the process.
(
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=306676)
(
http://www.citadelindustries.net/readydriverplus/)
I'm running Vista x64 SP2 and have had near bugger all problems with it. I'd imagine that Win7 wouldn't be too different. I do have both XP SP3 and XP x64 SP2 installed in multi-boot, but I usually go several months without touching either partition because Vista usually does everything that I need it to.
The only thing in recent memory which required me to boot into XP x64 was that Call of Duty 2 would crash when I tried to run ALchemy with it (the game would run fine without ALchemy however). So I'd have to play the game under XP if I wanted EAX effects. That's an exception obviously, ALchemy has worked with virtually every other of the dozens of games that I've thrown at it.
Quote Posted by lost_soul
Why should you have to pay again to restore functionality that you already had and which was deliberately taken away from you?
Creative ALchemy is completely free, you dolt. Creative developed a solution for owners of their sound cards, they're under no obligation to get their software to work with other brands.
It was MICROSOFT that removed DirectHAL from Windows, not Creative. Get that through your thick skull. If anything that automatically killed Creative's monopoly on the PC gaming sound board market.
lost_soul on 11/10/2010 at 06:25
that is good. We will eventually have competition in the sound card market again. For the time being though, my Realtek (laptop) chip is capable of the full Thief experience, but has been hobbled. Since I paid for the machine assuming all hardware would function to full-spec, that angers me. That is why I want folks to know that if they don't have a Creative card and have to run windows past XP, they may be out of luck when it comes to 3D sound. If you get enhanced Thief working on other cards, please let me know.
