Flexi meets Windows 7

[choucove]

Greetings again all, I have a question here for you just in case anyone has played with this yet or has any inside knowledge of what to expect.

I have received a Beta testing copy of Windows 7 to begin playing around with some and wanted to try out our existing software and drivers to see what all will need to be changed if/when we make the jump to Windows 7. Currently all of our systems are set up on Windows XP Professional, so we will be jumping completely over Vista.

While I know that there will be some Vista driver changes required (and with an older plotter that may be my biggest headache really) but what I am really curious about is Flexi.

I have yet to get my test system set up with Windows 7 and try to install Flexi, but we would REALLY love to avoid having to spend tens of thousands of dollars on upgrading Flexi again after having just upgraded within the last year to Version 8.1. The added costs of a new version of Flexi (after only a year of service with the current version) on top of new OS for all workstations would be too much to handle right now.

So, does anyone know how friendly Windows 7 may be to older versions of Flexi, namely, V.8.1? From what I understand, Windows 7 is built on the kernel of Vista, but vast improvement motions were made towards compatibility with pre-Vista software and hardware.

What is the feasability of using a virtual machine of Windows XP to run the current V.8.1 of Flexi within Windows 7 if need be?

 

[P Wagner]

We have been testing Windows 7 (32-bit) for compatibility with RIP and various design softwares for several months. The general finding to date is that softwares that are designed for and are compatible with Vista are almost certainly playing nicely with Windows 7.

In the case of FlexiSIGN, we have been testing with the 8.6v1SP1 (current) product, and have found no issues to this point. I would expect a somewhat lesser compatibility with the 8.0 release of Flexi, and frankly, no compatibility with earlier versions prior to 8.0. The problems tend to lie with dongle driver compatibility more than with the application itself.

Bob

 

[Pat Whatley]

Or you could just not upgrade your operating systems the moment that Windows 7 comes out.

 

[choucove]

Or you could just not upgrade your operating systems the moment that Windows 7 comes out.

I'm with you on this, we won't be making an overall switch right away by any means, but still would like to start testing and be prepared. After all, testing out your software on a Beta of Windows 7 is free, while testing on the final Windows 7 would still require the full purchase of a Windows 7 license right away. I thought I might give it a shot at least.

Thanks for the input on the testing results so far, Bob, that is very good to hear. I knew that we would have to be changing some of our drivers for printers and such, as we are moving from XP to 7. I don't think that should be too much of a problem for our Mimaki JV3, but we have a couple older Graphtec plotters that may be difficult finding Vista drivers for.

 

[Tony Teveris]

Not much testing yet as we are trying to get Omega 3.0 out the door but we have installed both 32 and 64 versions of Windows 7 and installed Omega 3.0 with no operating problems of any kind.

 

[Hue]

Using a Dell - P4-3.0Ghz w/ 3MB Memory with Windows 7 and Flexi 8.6v1...with no issues.

Also had Windows 7 and Flexi up and running well on a Dual Core Laptop T2400 or something like that with 2GB of memory...

The only driver issues I have had at all with the Windows 7 Build 7000 is a Pinnacle USB TV Tuner that needs a driver update....

Richo Afico Color Copier...Graphtech-FC700MK2-100, Old LiDE Canon Scanner...Adobe CS3, Corel X4...all working fine...

Pretty Slick actually...only thing I miss from the new Windows UI is the ability to shove folders onto a toolbar I can dock along the top of my screen...but there are a ton of new search and slick file navigation options.