Adobe software has problems in 7. I had the same problem. Best thing to do is right click on the shortcut, click on "Troubleshoot compatibility" and go through the steps. I did that and now my programs run like a charm. The other problems I haven't experienced. I can suggest though to ditch IE and get Firefox.

Ok, I've been having pretty good luck with this OS over the last week. However, this weekend has not been so kind. I've so far crashed half a dozen apps on more than one occasion and received my second BSOD today. I'm raging pissed.

Failed so far...
*Photoshop CS (more times than I can count)
*Illustrator CS
*Adobe Lightroom
*Word 2007 (three times now... and autosave is not worth a damn I found out)
*IE8 crashes on a regular basis since I did that last security update
*Even in My Computer it crashes!

Not to mention that I am occasionally getting the BLACK screen of death where it does not load my desktop and I have to ghetto my way to getting one and load it all manually.

I'm so done with all this crap. I never had any of these issues on XP and I'm going back as soon as all my assignments are done and I can find my external CD drive... unless someone knows how to install XP from a usb stick or external hd. i'm all ears.

I was a tester for both Vista and Win 7.

for Vista ~ and I had a fairly brand new system, all put together by me but at that time it was top of the line..talking about 3 gigs of memory..core 2 quad Intel and 300 dollar graphics card and Audigy 4 XiFi sound card...

So I had (still have)3 hard drives set up and one was dedicated only for Vista..and from the first go..it was crap.

Nothing was recognized..no sound..crap graphics..but of course beta versions don't have a good support and so on, but I was still dissatisfied with the amount of hard drive space it uses and the amount of time it accesses and the running services tripled since XP for not much of reason at all..

I used it like maybe 3 times a week I booted into..but I already wrote back to Bill Gates Empire that they are taking the wroooong way with this..it's crap..and not because of the hardware support, but just way up from the foundation.the source code, the core engine sux balls.....you will be outmatched by Linux or OSX if you don't watch it..keep making this overloaded, over bloated, heavy overhead clunker speed Vista.


So anyway, I also tested Win 7. My first impression was like...crap..this can't be it.these people are kidding me..they gave me the wrong beta or something...this is pretty much a stripped down version of Vista, and it does run faster, but still..it's a stripped down Vista with some additions..to make it more appealing and more hardware support.
Used it for a year...I said "It is better than Vista, yes. " Is it an improvement?
Security - yes.. more idiot proof - yes. better hardware support - yes. Better software support - NO. I can't even get adobe acrobat work right sometimes and my Sony Vegas video editor just stops working on me..don't know why..but it has to do with incompatibility with Win7..even though it worked in Vista..but still not as good as XP.

So is Win7 better than Vista? Yes. Better than XP..at some places.

The Main point is:

going from xp to vista and to win7 is like 3 steps backward, and then 1 step forward.

Basically Micro$oft went the wrong direction after XP...why do they always try to copy OSX, like they did with Win95..I don't know, no original ideas...Win7 is a strange mix of Vista and Linux wannabe..but only on the outside....didn't really correct the change beside patched the Vista up and we basically do not have a new operating system, but a repaired Vista.

We are finally have arrived to 2006 (in 2009!!) with Win7 after being lost in a weird dimension with Vista.

We are still behind 3 years...where we should be by now..all that wasted money on these mediocre operating systems.. hell I'm still saying that MS-DOS was the best and fastest one out there.

I figure, some understand what I'm saying...others might not.

And yes I got them all free...they were beta, but to tell you the truth..having Vista now..it's only inches better than the Beta I tested and seeing the full release Win7 and comparing it to what I tested a year ago, it's the same damn thing. Basically they improved the hardware support (but that's NOT for microsoft's credit) and everything else stayed the same in it (like the Beta versions, which are supposed to be skeletons/unfinished products). I'm not kidding.

Andrew, Yes you can make XP boot off of a USB stick, but you will need two things...
1. you will need a USB drive that is 10gb or bigger in size
2. You will need a machine that supports the boot from USB feature..

NOTE: They recommend that you use a 256mb or bigger stick, but in my past experience i would go 10gb or bigger..

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-22_11-5928902.html

The crashing, blue screens and black screens of death you're describing sounds like it may be faulty hardware, or more likely, faulty hardware drivers. I would start by updating your video driver direct from ATI, Nvidia, Intel, or whatever. Could be some software you loaded after the fact too.

I've worked on a hundred Windows 7 machines already and have not come across the stability issues you're describing. If it were me, I'd try again with a fresh install & go from there

Thing is it's not hardware because I never had these issues on XP. Drivers are unlikely because I've downloaded every one from the manufacturer just to be sure and the fact I have no idea which one threw the BSOD.

I dunno if the x86 version is different or something, but either way, I'm going back to xp for a while or just wait and try the x64 architecture on the mac in a few months. maybe the x64 is more stable.

Wish you the best of luck, in my past experience with x64 architecture on the desktop side, i have always had issues with programs not supporting the x64 installation paths, i know they kind of fixed this in windows 7, but it sounds a little flakey still..

With the Mac, if i were you i would just use ESX-I and install virtual images.. I know mac works fairly well with ESX-I.

the only problem I've had with VMware is that the really intensive programs do not like it. Photoshop used to screw wine over royally running ubuntu, fedora, or arch - it didn't matter. It'll probably have a 500GB hard drive so I'll just dual boot. Actually, I'm considering removing the superdrive when I get it and installing a second hard drive. That way I can have a Mac drive and a windows/ubuntu drive. Seems pretty straightforward to be honest other than the bootloader part but it sounds to me that I can go from the apple loader and chainload the windows bootloader so I can select windows or ubuntu from that screen and it'll be no sweat.

Then again, for me, it's always easier said than done and I'm more of a database/networking kind of guy with some web design thrown in over software and programming.

update to win 7 if you own a toshiba you need to get your win 7 from them they have already updated all the drivers to make your computer work with win 7 other wise you have to go manually load them from the toshiba web sight

I just upgraded to windows XP.... I have a slew of machines, and still hate the vista-7 movement... I support the vista or 7 machines though work, but i dont think i will ever install it.. Its just way too slow.. vista takes about 2gb of memory to just run.. 7 is about 1.5gb to run... XP i can run on 128mb smoothly.. Hell ubuntu i can run at 64mb of ram..

Exactly! No OS should require that much memory.