Problems Encountered So Far With Windows 7
When using the Virtual PC with Windows XP installed, which only is allowed to be installed with some versions of Windows 7, it stopped working. I was not logged into my computer with a password and the Virtual PC wanted my password, but it was asking for it on a blanked out box without buttons, so even if I had one I couldn't press ok or accept. Anyway I gave myself a password to see what would happen and then restarted my computer and then loaded in the Virtual PC with Windows XP loaded. I found that the internet hearts card game was trying to connect to the Internet every time I started the Virtual PC and couldn't. This caused a crash. I was able to x out of the game. It seems that Virtual PC, at least when running Windows 7 is buggy. It has crashed a few times now and mostly won't integrate. A bar appears and you have to select action, integrate to get it going again. You can stop the Virtual Machine, click on the program in the start bar then go to the right in the start bar and you will see the Virtual Manager. There you can change some settings such as memory allocation. When Windows 7 was first installed it ran very slow and crashed a few times. After I researched this, I found that not all anti-virus programs and anti-spyware programs run correctly on it, even though they are supposed to. I installed Avast and StopZilla and the problem was solved. Previously I had PC Tools Spyware Doctor installed in the latest version with the virus protection package. I am sure they will fix this in the future, if they have not already done that. A message keeps coming up that I have files yet to burn, even though I do not. This message comes up every time I reboot and when I click on it as instructed, it asks for a disk and when it is inserted, it does no good, the message remains. I have no solution yet for this problem. Software privileges changed and I was told that I didn't have permission to run some software that I had used for years. Much of this can be fixed by going to the Program Icon, not the shortcut icon, right clicking on properties from the context menu that comes up and then clicking on the security tab. Now you can edit the permissions. You may also have to do this later to the shortcut icon. If this doesn't work, reboot your computer, make sure you are logged in as the Administrator and try again. I use Cablevision and when I try and hook up my tv through my cable box to the media center, which I did under Windows XP by the way, I get a message stating that there is no IR port and I can't hook it up. This is ridiculous since the box has an IR port and goes directly into the tv card via a coaxial cable. No fix for this yet, so I use the tv software that came with the card. Sometimes a program GUI (interface) doesn't look right in Windows 7. This happened to Dreamweaver. Some of the boxes to enter info into were cut off. The solution is to right click on the screen, go to Personalize and either set the display to 100% or 150%. For some reason setting it at 125% causes this problem. Careful, setting at 150% can make some program windows too large to fit nicely on your monitor screen. A very strange thing has happened, my Lotus Approach software, that would not install into Windows 7 now does and works fine, so I suggest trying to install software that wouldn't install again a couple of days later, what have you got to lose? I restarted Windows 7 and a temporary desktop came up and suggested that I restart again to cure the problem. When I did the normal desktop returned. After about a week, I found that Windows 7 started hard again and had to be reset or wouldn't load the desktop. I could be wrong but I think it had something to do with updates trying to load, since when it did load I got an update complete notice and had no more problems. Every once in a while I lose my desktop on a reload, and get what appears to be a basic desktop. I have been able to get my regular desktop back by reloading windows again. I am getting reports of a problem with Windows 7 that I am seeing firsthand. The operating system seems to love to leave icons on your desktop. An example would be when you insert a disk into a dvd or cd player. An icon come up and when you take the disk out, it stays there and refresh does nothing. You have to delete the icons manually. There are also reports of drives being hooked up using the USB port and when they are removed the Window7 retains their information on the Computer page as if the device was still installed. Lets hope that an update solves this problem. In the same vein, I removed a Sony DVD writer and even removed it from the bios and yet it still shows up in the Device Manager that states it is working perfectly and yet the replacement DVD player, which is not a burner, doesn't show up in the device manager, but works perfectly. I am afraid to remove it because it might remove the new player. A problem that I have been getting some mail on is that Windows 7 sometimes, resets itself to the mode where it is first installed. That means you lose everything on your desktop. I have had this happen twice so far, in the last few months since I installed Windows 7 32 bit. The first time I had to reset the computer and it corrected itself. The second time this didn't work and I had to use the restore option in Windows to roll back the computer to a previous time. It is very important to keep the restore option current by creating a restore point every day, so that you will have a current version of your setup to go back to if needed. The next problem was submitted by Ron Barry. He has a problem with shortcut icons disappearing from his desktop. He states these happen periodically without any rhyme or reason. I have had the same problem and while not frequent I have also lost a couple of software programs that I installed into a folder on the desktop. I see no fix for this yet and it doesn't seem to happen anywhere else. |
