10 replies to this topic

[Sammi Somara]

Hey, all.
Thinking of upgrading my box to Windows 7. My main concern is--will BG1 and BGII work? If anyone here has upgraded, can you tell me what I should be expecting?
Because I've heard a few scary things about it. I'm starting to wonder if it's worth it.

[Cal Jones]

Personally I'd wait a while (unless you're on Vista, in which case go ahead). Frankly I'm sticking to XP for now - everything I own runs on it and I take the view that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Plus, I don't want to be one of Microsoft's bug testers. Always best to wait a year after release before buying.

[berelinde]

Brother-in-law, a professional computer repair guy, advises against altering your OS after purchase... unless you've got Vista, in which case, go for it. When he performs the upgrade for clients, it's usually a headache updating all the drivers. Not so much a big deal for him. He's paid to do that. But if you're upgrading yourself, it might be more trouble than it's worth.

If you're choosing which OS to install on a new PC, though, that's another story. Oddly enough, Dell's latest sales brochure gives buyers a choice of XP or Windows 7, with very sparse options for Vista.

Anyway, back to your original question:
Theacefes uses Windows 7, I believe, and she can run BG2. Don't know about BG1.

[Sammi Somara]

Yeah, I've got Vista right now. I heard some scary things about stuff on the hard drive being deleted though and I don't want to lose my saves.

[theacefes]

I can run bg1 and bg2 on my Windows 7 installation.

[berelinde]

... I heard some scary things about stuff on the hard drive being deleted...

Burn them to CD. While you're at it, you can and should include your weidu log so you'll know the installation order. You might have to reinstall the game, and it would be a shame to backup the saves to disk only to find that the dialogue is hopelessly scrambled because you added the mods in the wrong order.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Hey, all.
Thinking of upgrading my box to Windows 7. My main concern is--will BG1 and BGII work? If anyone here has upgraded, can you tell me what I should be expecting?
Because I've heard a few scary things about it. I'm starting to wonder if it's worth it.

Yeah, I've got Vista right now. I heard some scary things about stuff on the hard drive being deleted though and I don't want to lose my saves.

Well, when you upgrade from OS₁ to a OS₂, your entire hard drive will be reformatted, meaning that you'll loose everything in it. This is why I advice to use a movable hard drive to use as a backup. 1Tb will do usually fine for all your info.

The BG1 and BG2 will work well in W7, just as long as you do not install it into the Programs Files sub-directories! So you can actually modify the files in it by hand, and not be pestered by the OS mirroring the files so you can't do that.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 21 December 2009 - 03:09 AM.

[Lollorian]

Well, when you upgrade from OS₁ to a OS₂, your entire hard drive will be reformatted, meaning that you'll loose everything in it ...

... unless you use one of them upgrade packs (XP -> Vista / Vista -> Win7) which preserves the file structure That's why XP -> Win7 isn't an option

Cheers,
Lol

[cmorgan]

I can confirm

1. The advice to wait, as there are always legacy driver issues - so my custom rig with 2008 + vintage components was not a problem, but even with win7 64 pro the printer driver in Quicken failed (another bunch of $$ for functions I never use

2. A version of berelinde's advice - if you do anything with an OS, make full backups of data/games, then reformat the drives and start with a clean, fresh install. Do not fall for the partial - take the time to update bios, system drivers, everything. It will help later.

3. Definitely install I.e. Games on a seperate drive, not in program files, and disable UAC before install (I disable it while playing, too) just like in Vista. You can add custom launch icons to win7's game panel for differently nodded games, too, afterwards.

4. Win7 64 pro runs DLCEPT, NI, BG, BG2 fine on my rig. Better than with any flavor of Vista. I have not tried it under the full versioon XP virtual machine that ships with Pro - I will try it in January and report if someone pm's me then and reminds me

[the bigg]

Happy Win7 user here. Win7 is basically a service pack for WinVista, and what works in Vista works 99% of times in 7. Unless you really need to upgrade, I'd still stick with what's on the machine though (especially with Windows - upgrading Linux is usually easier).

4. Win7 64 pro runs DLCEPT, NI, BG, BG2 fine on my rig. Better than with any flavor of Vista. I have not tried it under the full version XP virtual machine that ships with Pro - I will try it in January and report if someone pm's me then and reminds me

don't bother. The XP virtual machine has no graphical acceleration, and is thus only meant for business applications, not games.

[cmorgan]

Good to know!

(and damn - I should have stuck my old Quicken on that VM instead of upgrading!)