Windows 7 — first impressions

[J-Mac]

Poorly programmed isn't the same as crapware.

-f0dder (December 12, 2009, 12:46 AM)

True, but when the apps I mentioned were called "poorly designed", I usually associate that with a similar term that I wanted to avoid - "sh*tware"...  so I hedged!   

Jim   

[Innuendo]

And then there are some developers who are apparently trying but it simply isn't working. I use - or use to use up till a few days ago - ACDSee Photo Manager 2009. Worked fine on XP and Vista, but won't work for many on Windows 7.

-J-Mac (December 11, 2009, 06:24 PM)

I'm not doubting your words. However, I have personal knowledge of 8 installs of ACDSee Photo Manager 2009 on Windows 7-based computers & laptops of varying ages and none of them have anything to report other than smooth sailing.

This problem must be a very tricky one indeed to track down. I'd be lost without my ACDSee. I started using it way back in the v2.x days and the ACDSee way of doing things is too ingrained in my being to ever switch picture viewers. Every attempt to check out others results in me missing the ACDSee workflow.

[Innuendo]

You might be on to something there - I usually install to D:\Program Files when an installer gives the option and I am not plagued by UAC prompts either.

-Carol Haynes (December 11, 2009, 11:23 AM)

When Vista was released a lot of older games wouldn't work unless you installed them somewhere other than C:\Program Files.

(The following is not addressed to Carol, but just general discussion to carry on the thread)

I'm sure the state of development that UAC is in now is not the end of the road. There'll be enhancements and tweaks going forward. I'm sure MS is just easing everyone into this kind of OS security, developers and users alike. I wouldn't be surprised if one day MS released an OS where UAC could not be adjusted or turned off.

People pining for the days of how things worked in XP and before just need to get over it. Running as super-admin/root all the time is never a good idea under any circumstances. Before someone pipes up and tries to point one out...the answer is no. You're wrong. What you think might be a valid circumstance is just software that needs to be re-written to do things the right way.

Fifteen years from now we'll all be looking back at how quaint XP was for running users as root all the time much like we look back at Windows 3.1 and think how quaint it was.

[J-Mac]

And then there are some developers who are apparently trying but it simply isn't working. I use - or use to use up till a few days ago - ACDSee Photo Manager 2009. Worked fine on XP and Vista, but won't work for many on Windows 7.

-J-Mac (December 11, 2009, 06:24 PM)

I'm not doubting your words. However, I have personal knowledge of 8 installs of ACDSee Photo Manager 2009 on Windows 7-based computers & laptops of varying ages and none of them have anything to report other than smooth sailing.

This problem must be a very tricky one indeed to track down. I'd be lost without my ACDSee. I started using it way back in the v2.x days and the ACDSee way of doing things is too ingrained in my being to ever switch picture viewers. Every attempt to check out others results in me missing the ACDSee workflow.

-Innuendo (December 13, 2009, 10:57 AM)

It's not everyone, but check their forum to see that it's a lot. Just in case you didn't see this:

This used to show Windows 7 as a compatible OS.

[attachthumb=#1][/attachthumb]

And this is from the knowledge base.

[attachthumb=#2][/attachthumb]

Jim

[Innuendo]

It's not everyone, but check their forum to see that it's a lot. Just in case you didn't see this:

-J-Mac (December 13, 2009, 11:51 PM)

Like I said, I am not doubting you at all. As a matter of fact, the official word from the ACD Systems reps in the forums is that ACDSee 2009 isn't Windows 7 certified. However, they are saying that its problems are limited to having trouble with Libraries & large DPI settings.

And yeah...their solution is probably going to be to just shovel out ACDSee Photo Manager 2010 and ignore 2009's problems.

[J-Mac]

Not probably - they have already told me that. Though I had to call them and hold a long time to get that tidbit.

Jim

[f0dder]

Writing lousy code - a great excuse for charging customers for a new upgrade

[Carol Haynes]

It is the standard approach of ACDSystems - if you report bugs they will always 'be fixed in the next version'.

[Innuendo]

It is the standard approach of ACDSystems - if you report bugs they will always 'be fixed in the next version'.

-Carol Haynes (December 15, 2009, 03:26 AM)

Was just getting ready to post that. This has been their policy ever since the beginning. Although during the v4-v7 stretch they were particularly bad about it. It took an act of God to get a vX.01 release.

[J-Mac]

My first purchase was, I think, ACDSee 7. I had registration/activation problems and couldn't reach their support. Eventually after much difficulty I managed to reach someone on the phone - it took finding an employee and getting an internal number from him. Their excuse for no support response? While the company is located in Canada, their server with support info was in Miami, FL and they claimed a hurricane had knocked out their server there. (However I lived in Miami for 8 years and still have a lot of friends there - no such damaging hurricane during that time frame)

They had no support available for almost 7 months after that. I knew I was in for a real treat then.

Thank you.

Jim

[J-Mac]

It is the standard approach of ACDSystems - if you report bugs they will always 'be fixed in the next version'.

-Carol Haynes (December 15, 2009, 03:26 AM)

A little bit off-topic:

Carol, Since I am looking for a new photo manager/organizer that does work on Win7 I remembered Zoner Studio. I purchased all of Zoner's products back a couple years ago when you recommended them and they were having a 90% off sale. Never used them much though since I was using ACDSee for organization and PaintShop Pro X for editing. Now I'm looking for both a photo organizer and editor, since ACDSee 2009 isn't running on my box and PSP X isn't Win7 compatible. I might just pick up the latest PSP but that's only good for editing; PSP doesn't have an organizer. They used to offer PaintShop Photo Album but it was truly terrible.

Are you using Zoner at all? I would give Lightroom a try but that will have to wait for a while; personal budget restraints.

Thanks!

Jim

[Carol Haynes]

Haven't been using Zoner for a while. I am using Adobe Photoshop LightRoom 2 now.

[J-Mac]

Haven't been using Zoner for a while. I am using Adobe Photoshop LightRoom 2 now.

-Carol Haynes (December 17, 2009, 05:35 AM)

I'm sure I'll g3et that at some point, but not in the cards right now.

Thanks Carol.

Jim