Windows 7 RC1 Trial lasts over one year

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Re: Windows 7 RC1 Trial lasts over one year

Post by TronFAQ »

Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 was released to the public a couple of days ago. Anyone else besides myself install it yet? I have to say, the installation of SP1 was a bit of a headache and did not go smoothly for me.

I downloaded the redistributable installer version rather than do it through Windows update, because SP1 wouldn't download that way for me. Update would just sit there, keep on trying to download it, and nothing would happen. I take it that Microsoft's update servers were overwhelmed with people attempting to download SP1.

At first SP1 wouldn't even install. It just said that some Windows files were missing and then it quit, without providing any meaningful details. I eventually found out it was because I'd used Driver Sweeper. The program removed the default ATI drivers that were included with Windows, because they were pretty much useless and just taking up space if you're using ATI's own Catalyst drivers. But the SP1 installer for some reason considered the default ATI drivers as an essential part of the Windows system files. So they had to be put back.

Then after trying again, it told me I didn't have enough free hard disk space. *Sigh* Off I went to find a way to free up more space.

Finally, the third time was the charm and it began installing. After that, it installed pretty much without a hitch.

HOWEVER. It took 4 1/2 hours to install. Which is insane. Luckily, I started it in the early evening so I was still up when it finished. I don't know if it will be this bad for everyone, but I suggest either starting the upgrade process when you have a lot of free time or start it before you go to bed and leave the computer on overnight. Though if you go to sleep, you won't be around to witness what happens in case anything goes wrong.

So it finally installed, and everything seems to be fine. Haven't run into any difficulties so far. But if you upgrade to SP1 rather than install Windows with SP1 integrated, it turns out there's a flaw in the upgrade process. It doesn't update your USB drivers properly, which can lead to USB devices operating slower than they should. There's a fix for this that's pretty easy to do, though.

After SP1 is installed, you might want to use the Windows Disk Cleanup utility. You'll probably want to remove the Service Pack Backup Files. Unless you want to play it safe and keep the backups handy, in case some program doesn't work properly in SP1. SP1 backs up the older files it replaces, which takes up a lot of disk space.
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