Steam users adopting Windows 7 at breakneck speeds

I use Windows 7 64-bit at home. It's a vast improvement over Vista IMHO and has been great for gaming. Not the leap one might expect over XP, but a leap nonetheless.

I use Windows XP 32-bit at work because that's what works with all our applications (love how Microsoft made it so Office 2003 wouldn't work on Vista and beyond) and because Cisco currently doesn't have any plans to create a 64-bit VPN tool.

@Huskercubfan, yes Cisco are some lazy (and greedy) bastards. But, check out NCP Secure Entry Client. Windows 7 and 64bit compatible, it connects me great to my work VPN.

What do you mean 64-bit support? I have a 64-bit copy of Windows 7 and I have steam on here....

I would rather have launch Windows Vista over any version of ME. Worst OS I have used.

Damn, beat me to it. But yes, everyone that was forced to attempt to "use" ME deserve medals.

Lindows (Yes that's right, with an L) would like a word with you two gentlemen.

This this this this this.

I've had about 14 total computer crashes in my life. 12 were under Win Me.

I hear the U.S. government uses ME to torture terror suspects...

My first computer ran me. (I'm 16) it had 64mb ram, and a 600 mhz amd cpu. i think it had tnt2 graphics. I remember when I threw it out, the garbage man asked me if he could keep it and I laughed.

Dear god, I still have nightmares about trying to update my hardware with ME!

Absolutely.

While Windows 7 is great, I think it's greatly overrated. Having been forced to use Vista on a HP laptop (no support/good drivers for XP) I can say the upgrade from Vista was minor but pleasant. If it had been released instead of Vista, people would have been a lot more critical of it.

There's horror stories for every OS, but ME takes the cake bar-none.

Hell yeah!

It's either on the office or in the streets my friend. Keep in mind that before you buy Windows 7 at least know the advantages of it.

Here are the proofs laid in this article plus the millions of people who are buying Win7 not to mention Steve Ballmer's Happy face which only proves Windows 7 is still the "best" OS there is on desktop.

Proof: http://cli.gs/windows-7-for-the-win

@gonintendo
I usually donate old hardware to Goodwill or other second hand stores, because I figure there's probably some really poor folks who could use a computer of some sort for some reason, or just people scrounging for scrap or vintage hardware...

But I am pretty sure if I donated a PC with Windows ME on it, I would get arrested for terrorism.

Damn you! That was my line!

I know I'm in the minority here but I never had any issues with Windows ME. Always worked great for me. I probably had the "just right" hardware config where nothing was interfering. Not discounting anyones problems, just saying, the "worst" always depends on who you ask.

It almost seems like there's no actual need for these periodic new Windows releases. I guess Microsoft need to make money, but we're at a point where innovation in software is limited mostly to 'improving' the appearance and layout of an OS - the unstoppable march of techno-progress is overwhelmingly due to improvements in hardware.

New versions of DirectX are the only features that actually offer any significant breakthroughs in efficiency and technology.

Really? That's horrible. I have a HP Deskjet 820 Cse from 1996 which only has parallel (and for which I needed to get a parallel to USB cable), and that printer was just plug and play through a USB port. It acted similarly in Vista, but I had to play with it to work it like that in XP.

Tweak your memory settings in the bios, set it to be more compatible and overclockable (without overclocking)

Between me and work there are 3 printers and 8 computers. All have windows 7, all the printers are HP. Have had zero issues. Not saying it doesn't exist, I'm saying you need to learn how to work your hardware better.

Got a C4680 myself but not planning on getting W7 anytime soon.

Ive spoken to CS for a long time and they just keep telling me to uninstall, reinstall. Doesn't matter. Tweaking my ram doesnt seem like a cure to a incompatible/missing/bad driver.

i have never had a crash and i use my hp printer

I ran an HP uninstaller for my printer drivers on Windows 7 64 bit and it attempted to erase my user folder. I realized when icons started to disappear off my desktop and quickly killed it. I called HP and they tried to get me to pay for an extended warranty.

HP didn't even bother making a driver for my printer for Vista or 7. Their support page says "Sorry, there's no driver for this model for Windows Vista. However, HP makes many other printers that are compatible."

You know who else makes printers that work with Windows 7? Canon. And they got my money.

I've also had to send my HP laptop back to be repaired twice, and am a member in a class-action suit against HP. Those repairs will be the most expensive $400 HP has ever made.

I thought I was the only one that got BSOD on 7. But I was always thinking it was cause of compatibility issues with 64-bit version (which I use). My friend uses 32-bit Ultimate and has yet to encounter a problem.

I'm using Windows 7 at home with an older model HP printer, and it works without any issues. In fact I was rather surprised how easily it setup the printer without any interaction on my part.

The one issue I have encountered with HP printers though, was at work when setting up a printer server. Some models of HP printers replace the Windows spooler with an HP printer spooler, and that crashed the system. I'm not sure why HP does that. And it's actually easy to avoid if you don't install the included HP software that came with the printer. Some HP software includes way more than simply the driver-- they're like huge installs. What you can do is try to download the driver only from HP's site or try to use Windows 7 own printer drivers.

Meh, all things related to computers have problems one way or another. Recent story: I have never had a bad experience with Kingston hardware... Lo and behold, I experience not one, but two pairs of bad Kingston memory at work in the same week! One didn't allow the BIOS to even POST, and the other would cause the system to reboot randomly.

That doesn't mean I'm not buying Kingston hardware anymore because I love their RAM as much as Corsair's (they are both very good in my opinion), but I understand that sometimes, what you get doesn't work due to hardware defects or just bad luck.

In other words, sometimes, you get a good product, and sometimes, you just get a lemon. That's the way life is, it sucks, but you have to just move on.

I've got a C3180 and have never had any problems with it in W7.

I have a wireless HP printer and it auto detected it instantly and works great.

I'm an ENIAC

I'm a Blank Mage.

I'm Bradwart, and Windows 7 was MY idea.

I'm OS/2 Warp, and I'm a bad idea.

actually, last i checked this site covered gaming, and the PC (and vista: see the games for windows failure) is still a gaming platform... so i think they can "push" commentary when they did have to play games on PC and deal with the crap...

Agreed. I used Vista from a few weeks after it came out until the day I received Windows 7 in the mail. I enjoyed it. The only problem I had with it was VERY early on there was a lot of hardware incompatibilities. This was the fault of the hardware manufacturers, not Microsoft. Literally, one manufacturer had up on their website that they will not be developing drivers for the only piece of hardware I had issue with, using the OS upgrade as an excuse to force me to buy new hardware.

The only other problem I had in the LEAST was the UAC, which I turned off the first day. Yes, that was horrible. It was also a two-second fix. Get over it.

@ infiniblue

Congratulations. Now you sound equally ridiculous. Their comment had nothing to do with gaming. It was an unnecessary and off handed remark. Period.

Kenny you ignorant slut, Engadget is owned by the same company. Steam is a platform for games, thus this counts as gaming news. Wretched and pointless trolling.

@ THE WICKER MAN

No shit they have the same parent company. That's why I said Engadget and not Ars Technica or Gizmodo. I'm glad you were able to comprehend that.

Their only comment on Vista was pointless to the topic at hand, and sounded like either mindless bashing or the tongue in cheek posts you'd get if that was Joystiq's area of expertise, but since their comment had nothing to do with gaming, it wasn't. I'm obviously not talking about the entire news article.

Reading comprehension. Get some.

kenny goo... troll or idiot?

CIVILITY: GET SOME. (and you should probably take your lithium)

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly you kids either disappear or cut to the one liners after my points make your posts irrelevant. But I forgot, that doesn't make you all a bunch of blundering idiots, that makes me a troll. My mistake.

Dear sweet Kenny, I assure you I am older than you.(However relative that is to maturity...and by the way Kenny what do you contribute to society as a functioning adult? Do you help your fellow man, volunteer, or even wipe your own rear end?) At least in terms of maturity. "You kids"??? Are you mental? Kenny I want you to do a little experiment with me. Take this entire diatribe we just shared and copy and paste it in MS word or whatever you use. Print it. Now go show it to ten well dressed people (not the other people in your ward who spend their hobby time trolling message boards and the rest of their day scrawling crazed rants in their own feces on their cell walls) who look professional and "normal" (or just your therapist) and ask them who in this conversation started an argument and who has a bad and abrasive tone. (for fun do not tell them which one is you) So my long winded point is this: you seem to have a bad attitude in most of your post. You rarely offer anything to any conversation on any level save an aggressive and malicious response. You have the attitude that every one is wrong and mind numbingly ignorant; that only your divine perspective is pertinent and righteous. As cliche as the following statement is, it is true. IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THIS SITE, ITS' STAFF, OR COMMENTERS DO NOT POST. To quote you, "you sound ridiculous". Take some anger management. I do apologize to all for being admittedly immature to continue to argue with you. As they say Kenny, "never argue with an idiot..."

@ THE WICKER MAN

...you still never responded to what I said. I believe that's called dodging. Good job.

"A wise man told me don't argue with fools. Cause people from a distance can't tell who is who."