The Blog of ROBROB8

Windows 7 “GodMode”

Create a new folder, anywhere, and rename it “GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}” without the quotes, all in one string.

Inside this new folder you will find all the settings to tweak your Windows 7 computer.

Enjoy!

OK…
here is the story as best as I can type it.

I am installing Windows 7 Pro 64-bit over an existing Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit install.

When I insert the disk I get an “incompatible with this version of Windows” error right away.

So, instead I reboot the computer hoping to start the install from the bootup.

Of course I have to go into the BIOS to change the boot order so the computer boots from the CD/DVD Rom first, not the hard disk.
(Pressing the ESC button got me there!)

Once that was done I could restart the computer and I’d get this choice (ignore the tildes ~~):
~~~~~
1.
2.
select cd-rom boot type:
~~~~~

If you are at this stage select 1.

Enter the number “1″ and hit the ENTER button.

That will get you through to the setup of Win 7.
As the setup requires at least 2 additional reboots you’ll need to repeat the above steps of selecting “1″ a couple of times and DO NOT choose whether to boot to CD as you’ll next be asked… just let Microsoft Windows 7 do the rest… the heavy lifting…LOL

And you can avoid the 45 minutes or so of frustration that I had getting to the initial install stage.

Good luck!

Bad hair day... seriously!

This is how you create a Windows 7 system repair disk, just in case your system gets corrupted, which doesn’t happen all that often, unless you were born on a month that ends in the letter “Y”, on a day that ends with “Y” or happen to have the last name “Gates”.

Anyways, this is what youy do:
- Click on the Start button
- in the ‘Search’ enter “system repair”
- choose to craete a system repair disk
- now follow the final directions inclduing putting a blank dvd into your drive.

This only takes a couple of minutes, you’re not backing up your complete drive and all it’s files, just the system information needed to boot into Windows and fix what might go wrong.

You’re welcome.

Unlike the crap experience I had with Windows Vista, I’ve had a great experience upgrading my Vista install to Windows 7.

A quick note:
I upgraded from Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 professional. I was one of the smart ones that took advantage of the July early bird sales and purchased 2 copies of Win 7 Pro.

It took exactly 97 minutes from beginning the install to the first complete install setup screen (where you’re asked about your country location and time zone).

This was using the only option available to me which was a clean install. Happily, Win 7 created a “windows.old” folder with all my stuff so rebuilding all my files was quite easy.
(Paranoid note: I did a complete backup to an external hard drive, then another backup to another hard drive – internal – before I started the install. And when Win 7 said that the folder “windows.old” would be created I was very relieved to know that I’d have 3 backup copies of all my stuff…. thanks to Bill Gates for not separating me from my stuff!)

In total there was three restarts of my system to complete the install and initial setups required.

I am very happy… everything works without needing more installs of motherboard drivers, sound card files, etc. You should know that I have a Certified Data computer, quad core AMD Phenom, 8gb Ram with an Nvidia Geforce 8800 GT card that was originally installed with Vista Home Premium.

Windows 7 is awesome so far!

Even the DVD driver was installed peoperly, the sound works and my Hauppauge TV tuner didn’t need extra software to install, although I did need to troubleshoot it, but Win 7 installed it all and Media Center took care of the rest.

My bluetooth keyboard and mouse work fine (MS entertainment 7000 bluetooth) but I did need to install a USB keyboard and mouse during the Win 7 install and initial setup, the bluetooth keyboard and mouse were not recognized.

As well, watch out for using Internet Explorer 8 64-bit. Many addons to the browser aren’t available yet, like Adobe’s Flash, so you’ll want to setup the IE 8 – 32 bit the way you like it and use it instead.

I think Windows 7 is great!!!
What do you think?

Party geekdom mainlines with Win7