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Developers, developers, developers, developers

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Starry Windy

Everything will be Daijoubu.
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When I checked my Windows Updates last time, I installed most of them already except for Office 2007 SP3 and 2010 support (and 2 certain drivers updates), that I consider my laptop is fully up-to-date, and it was in a few days before my laptop's BIOS goes haywire...

I want to ask you guys (after I'm experiencing the problem that I just mentioned), if you guys have ever changing using laptops or even PC at some point.
 
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Well, I do consider changing computers all the time based on what has the better specs.. in the most recent case, I began using my desktop way more than my laptop once I managed to get a newer (but not new) desktop and put Windows 7 on it. Before then, the desktop I used only had 2 GB RAM and Windows XP.
 

Legendary Silke

[I][B]You like dragons?[/B][/I]
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Sometimes I wonder whether I'll manage to stay with this laptop for more than a year... It's almost 10 months.
 

Starry Windy

Everything will be Daijoubu.
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It's the first time for me to changing laptop, because of the old laptop's issue that I need to buy a new one. I need to be used to newer OS of Windows 8 in my new laptop after using Windows 7 for years, because using this new OS means a totally different league for me.

However, I never change my PC because I was upgrading my PC little-by-little in terms of RAMs. But the out-of-date nature of my PC (well, the hardware which is in there is already old-fashioned) is what makes me consider to change one someday.
 

Legendary Silke

[I][B]You like dragons?[/B][/I]
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It's the first time for me to changing laptop, because of the old laptop's issue that I need to buy a new one. I need to be used to newer OS of Windows 8 in my new laptop after using Windows 7 for years, because using this new OS means a totally different league for me.

However, I never change my PC because I was upgrading my PC little-by-little in terms of RAMs. But the out-of-date nature of my PC (well, the hardware which is in there is already old-fashioned) is what makes me consider to change one someday.

So what are you planning to get/did you get this time?
 

Starry Windy

Everything will be Daijoubu.
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I managed to buy a new laptop yesterday which have Windows 8 in it, and for me, Windows 8 is quite odd if I'm not getting used to it, because the Start button does different thing now.
 

Starry Windy

Everything will be Daijoubu.
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I think I agree with you, that Windows 8 starts to grow up in me, and my new laptop is more nicer if it comes to gaming right now (which have 1 GB dedicated memory), compared to my old one (which have about 128 MB's).
 
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It never really takes long for an operating system to grow on me at all. The next problem is: trying to get the fact that when I'm using older operating systems that some features aren't available.

For example, my server runs Server 2003, and when I was doing some work with it about a month ago, I tried to drag down a window up to the top of the screen to maximize it.
 

Starry Windy

Everything will be Daijoubu.
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lol yeah, I'm like that too, because after I'm using my current phone (which have touchscreen), when I'm touching my old phone's screen, I realized that my old phone is not using touchscreen, so I'm like between getting used to new technology or old ones now.
 
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It never really takes long for an operating system to grow on me at all. The next problem is: trying to get the fact that when I'm using older operating systems that some features aren't available.

For example, my server runs Server 2003, and when I was doing some work with it about a month ago, I tried to drag down a window up to the top of the screen to maximize it.
That's exactly how I am! And it's strange for me since I use Windows Vista alongside Windows 7, both of which use Aero.

Speaking of which, I really wish Windows 7 had the option like Windows Vista to where windows weren't transparent when they're maximized, because I don't like the idea of seeing my desktop background through my taskbar whenever I have programs maximized :\
 
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That's exactly how I am! And it's strange for me since I use Windows Vista alongside Windows 7, both of which use Aero.

Speaking of which, I really wish Windows 7 had the option like Windows Vista to where windows weren't transparent when they're maximized, because I don't like the idea of seeing my desktop background through my taskbar whenever I have programs maximized :\

Try Windows 7 Basic or go into your themes and adjust the color intensity of your window colors in your Aero theme settings. Won't completely hide the windows behind your current one, but you won't notice they're there unless you're specifically seeking them out.
 

Legendary Silke

[I][B]You like dragons?[/B][/I]
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Speaking of which, I really wish Windows 7 had the option like Windows Vista to where windows weren't transparent when they're maximized, because I don't like the idea of seeing my desktop background through my taskbar whenever I have programs maximized :\

I know your feeling, right? Try cranking up the colour intensity of the window colour in Windows 7 - it's actually just another word for "how opaque the windows should be". It won't be completely opaque, but it's close when you have it at maximum.

Try Windows 7 Basic or go into your themes and adjust the color intensity of your window colors in your Aero theme settings. Won't completely hide the windows behind your current one, but you won't notice they're there unless you're specifically seeking them out.

This is also arguably the fastest way to see your desktop responsiveness and smoothness plummet. Windows' DWM uses your graphics card to draw all these nice-looking windows and handle a lot of work, reducing the load on CPU by a lot and also preventing redrawing glitches for the most part. Not allowing that means everything has to be done on the CPU, and, well...

You'll also be penalizing the graphical performance of web browsers, for example.

Leave Aero on in Windows 7 if your graphics card isn't some integrated junk in 2006 (emphasis on integrated in 2006 - today's Intel integrated is faster than your CPU at drawing your desktop).

Areo Glass, and Areo Peak are what I miss most. Simple things are the most missed, strange.

Aero Peek actually still exists in Windows 8.x. It's just disabled by default. Open the taskbar properties and check the last checkbox.
 
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Windows Aero is just as dependent on the processor as the Windows classic theme in Windows 7, if not moreso. Maybe it is technically supposed to work the way you describe, but that's not been what I've been experiencing when experimenting with this and looking at raw performance numbers on various PCs running W7.
 
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I am using my current laptop for about 5 years already and I am going to change it to a new one in about 1 or 2 months time. The only reason why I am changing it because the battery life sucks, its getting slower and slower as the days go by, and I can't play most of the current-generation games.
 
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I am using my current laptop for about 5 years already and I am going to change it to a new one in about 1 or 2 months time. The only reason why I am changing it because the battery life sucks, its getting slower and slower as the days go by, and I can't play most of the current-generation games.
Out of curiosity, does the laptop run XP or Vista? Because I will agree that 5 years is a little long for a laptop. I know my Compaq laptop though has the same problem with its battery not living up to like its supposed to be.
 

Legendary Silke

[I][B]You like dragons?[/B][/I]
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Windows Aero is just as dependent on the processor as the Windows classic theme in Windows 7, if not moreso. Maybe it is technically supposed to work the way you describe, but that's not been what I've been experiencing when experimenting with this and looking at raw performance numbers on various PCs running W7.

You'd be surprised how much CPU is taken up when you're not using Windows Aero and on the desktop whenever something needs to be updated. Keep in mind that the window manager tries to not draw anything that it can not draw...

It is supposed to work in the way I just described. Drawing graphics is not the CPU's best thing to do when it can be used to do something else...

Also, there's a bunch of niceties that you lose besides the fancy effects when you disable Aero and other HWA goodies in Windows Vista or newer. Take an application that isn't responding to window paint messages and was hidden before being brought back to visibility. If this were Aero, at least Windows will be able to show the last contents as it keeps them in a buffer.

Classic mode? The contents were already thrown out. Guess what's there?

"Adjust for best performance" perhaps should be relabelled as "Adjust for crappiest appearance" these days given sufficiently fast graphical hardware.

Raymond Chen said:
Starting in Windows Vista, a lot of visual effects were offloaded to the graphics card. Consequently, the impact on system performance for those visual effects is negligible, and sometimes turning off the effect actually makes your system run slower because you disabled hardware acceleration, forcing operations to be performed in software.

For example, if desktop composition is enabled, then a backup copy of a window's entire contents is kept in video memory, even if the window is covered by other windows. Without desktop composition, the window manager uses the classic model which follows the principle don't save anything you can recalculate: The contents of an occluded window are not saved anywhere, and when the window becomes exposed, the window receives a WM_PAINT message to tell it to regenerate its contents.

This means that, for example, when you remove a window from the screen and expose the window underneath, the desktop compositor can show the contents of the underlying window immediately because it saved a copy of the window in video memory and has been keeping it up to date. On the other hand, if you disable desktop composition, you will just stare at a blank window underneath, and then you have to sit and wait for that window to repaint itself.

Congratulations: By disabling desktop composition, you made the act of uncovering a window run slower. (You will see the same effect when switching between maximized windows.)

I believe how much CPU advantage enabling Aero gives also depends on raw CPU power available. Most GPUs should be able to stay in 2D mode with a normal desktop environment, so they shouldn't guzzle up power, either.
 
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Out of curiosity, does the laptop run XP or Vista? Because I will agree that 5 years is a little long for a laptop. I know my Compaq laptop though has the same problem with its battery not living up to like its supposed to be.

My laptop's running on Vista.
 
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I will say that sometimes I do indeed use Windows Vista for nostalgia purposes, but that's about it really.. and I also always have that one Windows XP Virtual Machine on my desktop as well if I want to revisit that. :)
 
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