Windows 7 - Windows 7 NG?

Asked By (PeteCresswell)

31-Jul-10 12:47 PM

I am looking, but cannot find an NG for Windows 7.

Gotta be one, right?

But where?
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PeteCresswell

31-Jul-10 01:24 PM

alt.windows7.general

Microsoft is discontinuing all their newsgroups in favor of web forums.

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Peter Taylor

31-Jul-10 01:46 PM

alt.windows7.general

Microsoft Responds to the Evolution of Communities
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/default.mspx

Newsgroups removed as of June 1, 2010
http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2010/06/05/closin-the-nntp.aspx

You can still access the groups on some non-MS servers such as Eternal
September, but how long the quality of questions and replies lasts is
unknown.

Eternal September
http://www.newsgroupreviews.com/eternal-september.html

The replacement forums.

Microsoft Answers - First Time Users
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
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Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP  [Mail]
Imperial Beach, CA

31-Jul-10 02:41 PM

+1.
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Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP  [Mail]
Imperial Beach, CA









He might like to install the MS / Connect  NNTP bridges for the Forums,
and Answers.
I did, so that I can continue to use OE6, and whilst the quality of most
of the questions is, as usual, awful,
there are answers to be found in there !

regards, Richard

31-Jul-10 04:59 PM

+1.
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Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP  [Mail]
Imperial Beach, CA


I "glanced" at the "Community Forums" web site, before fighting with the
Connect nntp bridges, (perhanced I should have glance harder and longer !),
and thought it looked even more complicated than the "Connect" ones, ... who
failed to mention anywhere, (well, I could not see it anywhere), that I had
to make a News account in OE with local machine 127.0.0.1 server address, or
it would not work, ...then I noticed that it would not work because the
Answers Forum needed changing to port 120
...and of course, had to wade through all that MS "Live" stuff as well :-(

regards, Richard

31-Jul-10 06:23 PM

The Community forums bridge uses port 119 for all of the forums, Answers,
TechNet, etc. (2,284 forums in various languages). I much prefer using it to
access all of them than use the separate bridges.
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SC Tom

31-Jul-10 07:58 PM

Per Peter Taylor:

Are these the same guys that designed the Windows 7 UI?....   -)
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PeteCresswell

01-Aug-10 04:41 AM

No, the people who did this are in the control freak department.

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Alias

01-Aug-10 09:55 AM

Per Alias:

But I bet both departments are under the Gratuitous Changes With
No Added Functionality But Much Added Inconvenience division....

I am no technophobe and I'd say that Windows 7 has gotten to a
degree of arcane-ness that is approaching Linux.

If somebody has XP down cold, they should not have to spend time
trying to figure how to perform functions that they have
programmed into their lower brain stem along with how to tie
one's shoelaces.

Seems like when MS is crafting a new OS/UI, there ishould be a
committee or something that developers have to go before to
justify any deviation from the prior OS' UI.
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PeteCresswell

01-Aug-10 10:35 AM

I do not find Win 7 to be all that much different than XP. New eye candy
and some changes as to where things are but basically same old same old
Windows. The "aero" seems like a poor imitation of Compiz, though :-)

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Alias

01-Aug-10 01:28 PM

+1

01-Aug-10 01:45 PM

Per Alias:

You did not have any problem with the Control Panel and having to
drill down through all those arbitrary categories before finding
something that used tb right there on the screen?

I finally found the "Small Icons".. or whatever they call it...
option.  But until then.... geeze!

And even then, I'd like to hear their rationale for changing
techweenies to me.

I *still* have not figured out how to do all of what I used to do
with a FolderWindow | Tools | Folder Options | View | Apply to
All Folders.

And if "Aero" means those pop-up thumbnails from TaskBar
MousOvers... that made me crazy until I found TaskBarTweaker.
it is also quite confusing to a new user.

Maybe I am just getting old and crabby......
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PeteCresswell

01-Aug-10 03:12 PM

XP has the same problem and the solution is similar.


Agreed.


Nor have I :-)


I like that feature but I have been using it in Linux for years.


Then cheer up. You're still alive ...

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Alias

01-Aug-10 05:43 PM

Per Alias:

That has not been my experience in, maybe, 20-30 XP installs.

I have forgotten what Control Panel's view defaults to
(Thumbnails, Tiles, Icons, List, or Details.... probably one of
the icon-ish views) - but they are all the same in that they are
granular: i.e. there is no higher level that the user has to
drill down through... just a plain alphabetical presentation.

If 7's default were Icons, it would save a lot of "WTF?!!!"s by
XP migrants.

Stuff like this might sound nit-picking - and I would agree that
complaining about any single instance of UI change probably is
just that.

But when you add up dozens and dozens of little differences added
for no apparent reason other than to be cool or to differentiate
the product, you get quite a significant hit on usability for a
person coming from the previous UI.

Multiply that hit by 12,000-13,000 people working in a big
building and that is some serious time and money - for what?
Nothing, IMHO.
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PeteCresswell

01-Aug-10 07:05 PM

It has categories by default. You probably change it out of habit
without thinking. I am not in XP to check at the moment to check so I
could be wrong. It would not be the first time ;-)


I agree but what are you gonna do? I use Linux most of the time.

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Alias

01-Aug-10 08:03 PM

Per Alias:


I dabbled in Linux for a few months trying to get a freebie
Tivo-On-Steroids app whose name I have forgotten (the bad memories
fade....) working reliably.

Since then, I have tended to diss Linux - more, I think, bco the
nightmare of trying to get that app to work than anything else.

Now, having built a few Windows systems for technophobes who only
want to browse web pages and do email, I am coming around to the
suspicion that somebody who really knows that they are doing
Linux-wise (that is NOT me....) could set up a box for said
technophobes that would be just as reliable as a Windows box,
significantly easier on the user and, of course, cheaper.
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PeteCresswell

02-Aug-10 04:50 AM

Not to mention no malware problems.

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Peter