Just backing up my old computer, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips or hints about windows 7 or just how different it is from vista.
Also, one of the main questions is : Does swtor have any issues running with win 7 that I should watch out for and correct off the bat, or is it pretty much a ok?
I've had no issues for SWTOR that I've seen from Win7. I purposely skipped Vista.
I run Win7 on my desktop at home and haven't had any problems running TOR on it whatsoever. To me, it seems mostly the same as Vista. I do seem to have some issues with access permissions on some of the "library" folders when trying to access them from the Explorer window. By "Library" folders, I'm referring to the My Music, My Pictures, etc folders.
The only annoyance I have is that when I click on the TOR launcher, Windoze always always always asks me if I want to allow the program to make changes to the computer. And yes, I've set the "run as administrator" thingy on the shortcut. For cripes sake, if I didn't want it to make changes (i.e. download the latest patch) I wouldn't have run the fracking program! grrr Not sure who I have to sleep with in order get that to go away.
Hmm Ive had that issue with vista as well Grim so another normal thing for me.
And thanks vif, I feel good knowing that someone has had no issues with it. I was worried I would have to jump a few extra hoops to get it going.
I haven't had any problems with Win7.
But in my search for optimal graphics settings, I've heard that some have had performance issues in some sort of twisted 3-way interaction between SWTOR, Win7 and their graphics cards.
Their answer was to right-click on the Launcher executable and change it to run in Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode. Presumably that cascades to swtor.exe, but some also change that to run in compatibility mode too.
I think the issue was that Win7 will sometimes try to use the CPU for some of the graphics duty in an effort to "help" the GPU, but cause more problems than it helps.
I switched my launcher and swtor executables over to Windows XP SP3 combatability mode on both my computers. It didn't help my newest, top-o-the-line computer. But it did add about 10 fps on my older backup computer.
Just on a side note... there is very little difference under the hood between Windows Vista and Windows 7. Take a look at the minimum system requirements.
Windows Vista (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/products/system-requirements) vs. Windows 7 (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/system-requirements)
Basically, Windows 7 has some newer features, but it's the least hardware demanding OS upgrade Windows has ever had. There are reasons for this, if you're interested. ;)
Hmm xp sp3 mode - got it - will do if I get issues.
Also YES PLEASE Namae! Im always interested in learning something new and this would definitely count as something that I am interested in as well.
Well, Vista got a LOT of bad press when it released, mostly not deserved. Vista is a huge step forward for a Windows OS, in that they finally sealed away the operating systems kernel, the most basic unit of functionality for an OS. This means that outside programs (both friendly and unfriendly) can't just waltz in and smash your OS, they need to get permission, and Vista was (and is!) SUPER strict about who it lets in to see it's guts.
This was great, and it made Vista crash a lot less, but hardware designers had over the years gotten used to the easy kernel access of Windows, and coding drivers for the strict Vista standards was hard work. So a lot of them just didn't update. This lead to the PR nightmare for Microsoft, as they had to explain to the public why none of the popular devices out there would work with Vista, but would work with XP.
The fallout got Vista made into a hated OS overnight. Microsoft rode out the criticism and waited for time to fix the issue. As more new devices came onto the market, they would be coded to work for Vista.
A very short time after that, Microsoft announced their new OS. Windows 7 had a bunch of features that people wanted for Vista, and some large parts of Vista kernel strictness had been turned down. What you may miss though, is how Vista and 7 are almost identical behind the scenes. In fact, Windows 7 is not much more than a finely retooled and refinished version of Vista.
Also, if you need to run something that works better with XP, I suggest the nice free Windows 7 XP mode virtual PC suite. (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx) :)
That's my understanding anyway. I'm sure there's someone out there that knows better than can correct me in the particulars.
Namae siting! Woot!
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