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Windows

Unread postby icycalm » 04 Dec 2009 18:35

Not, strictly speaking, a hardware issue, but this sub-forum is still a more appropriate place for it than the "games" sub-forum. It is also more appropriate than the "off-topic" sub-forum, because we are mostly interested in Windows from the perspective of gaming... This also applies to threads about emulation, all of which should go in here too. (Threads for purely non-gaming applications, on the other hand, should go in the "off-topic" area).

So yeah, I've had this idea for my new PC, to get three 1TB hard drives (which are ridiculously cheap these days) and install the three latest Microsoft OSes in them, one per hard drive: Windows XP, Vista and 7. This is because there are still tons of emulators and other applications which do not yet have Vista (let alone Windows 7) versions, and some of them perhaps never will.

In addition, I think I might also get a fourth hard drive down the road and install Max OS X on it. I've been using OS X exclusively for the past year and a half, ever since I bought a MacBook Air, and I don't think I could go back to Windows for pure non-gaming applications. Does anyone know if it's possible to install OS X on a PC? I know for a fact that installing Windows on a Mac is possible, ever since Apple switched to Intels, so it would make sense that the reverse is also possible.

So I'll do some research and report back with the results. If you know your shit on this subject don't hesitate to help me out.
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Unread postby tackywoolhat » 04 Dec 2009 20:37

If you're planning to get any one of the more expensive variants of 7 then your OS runs a full copy of XP SP3 in in a special virtual machine in the background -- it's not emulation, it's actually an entirely different operating system with its own dedicated resources that you have to use an integrated Remote Desktop (integrated into the Win 7 shell) to access. For that reason I don't think you'd need a separate XP partition/disk.

I also doubt the usefulness of a Vista install for the same reasons; Vista doesn't suffer from all the driver problems people complained about anymore, but 7 will still run anything Vista would've run, and newer games as well.

I'm not knowledgeable enough about Macs (new ones anyway) to answer your last question. I do know that it definitely is possible to run OS X on x86 hardware (the 'hackintosh') and has been since long before Apple officially made the switch. I don't know how difficult it is.
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Unread postby faceplant » 04 Dec 2009 23:32

The Windows 7 XP Mode VM is not any good for games. It's designed for office/productivity applications. It won't run 3D accelerated games, and even 2D DirectX games will make it choke and stutter. It's not a solution for a separate XP install.

You are right about Vista/7, though. Windows 7 is basically Windows Vista Service Pack 3, so I wouldn't see the point of installing both. If I had to choose, I'd go for Windows 7, as it has (slightly) increased compatibility.

I have recently gone from XP to Vista, and have yet to run into an emulator that doesn't work in Vista as well as XP. If you are going to install XP just for emulator compatibility, it's probably not worth it.
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Unread postby tackywoolhat » 04 Dec 2009 23:47

I assumed the XP install wouldn't be for demanding games but for emulators and things like that which are technically difficult to run on modern architecture but aren't resource-intensive. That may have been incorrect. And if he's already getting three terabytes of space it's not like he has to be terribly judicious about stuff like this anyway.
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Unread postby raphael » 05 Dec 2009 00:38

icycalm wrote:Does anyone know if it's possible to install OS X on a PC?

There are two ways of installing Mac OS X on a PC: hacking the OS or making the hardware Mac-like. I don't know much about the first solution except that it exists. The second solution is more stable, compatible and it's legit. What you need is an EFi-X dongle and compatible hardware (limited set of motherboards, processors, graphic, audio and network cards). All in all it's much cheaper and more flexible than an equivalent Mac.

http://art-studios.net/catalog/20
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Unread postby El Chaos » 06 Dec 2009 18:48

I think I must third tackywoolhat on the pointlessness of installing Vista if you're already going to install 7. They are both based on the same kernel architecture (therefore, most Vista-compatible apps should also run on 7), and the main differences are some tweaks in the user interface and an apparently big optimization in resource consumption.

In case you must know what you'll be missing out precisely, you can always check which Vista features were removed from 7 here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fe ... _Windows_7
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Unread postby El Chaos » 03 Jan 2010 04:44

A friend of mine at another forum told me that it'd be a better idea to get a solid state drive for storing the operating systems and leave the big HDDs for data storage. I guess there shouldn't be any performance bottlenecks if you install the games in the HDDs too, in case the SSD ends up running out of free space, but you can always replace the drives with bigger, faster ones in the future, anyways.
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Unread postby ontologist » 31 Jan 2010 00:49

icycalm wrote:Does anyone know if it's possible to install OS X on a PC?


A PC running OS X is known as a Hackintosh:

http://www.hackintosh.com/
http://www.insanelymac.com/
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Windows 8

Unread postby icycalm » 10 Oct 2012 15:20

5-page review:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/featur ... s_8_Review

Well-written, and he seems to know what he's talking about. I read most of it and skimmed the rest. The gist of it is that it's an overall improvement, which however suffers somewhat in usability, especially if you are using it on a single-monitor setup. But what I'd like to know is game- and app-compatibility. Emulator compatibility too. Performance-wise it seems to be roughly on a par with 7, from their limited tests, so I am not too worried about that.

At any rate I'll probably keep using 7 for my current machine, which is still a beast, and by summer next year, when I'll be thinking about making a brand-new one, I'll consider putting 8 on it, so that I'll have both operating systems.

There has apparently been an outcry frpm game developers, but I've no idea what's up with that.
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Windows 10

Unread postby icycalm » 21 Jan 2017 01:10

10 reasons you shouldn't upgrade to Windows 10
http://www.infoworld.com/article/297229 ... ws-10.html

This article pretty much convinced me to stick with what I am already running, which is 8.1 for my laptop and 7 for my desktop. I strongly recommend it to anyone who's into PC gaming.

At the same time,

Halo Wars 2 Beta Live on PC (12GB) [Up: And Xbox One]
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1335753

Halo Wars 2 Blitz Beta
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p ... blggh4xvr6

Microsoft wrote:This game does not work on your device.
May require certain hardware. See System Requirements for details.


Microsoft wrote:System Requirements
Minimum
OS Windows 10


I am hoping this is merely for the Beta and not the full game, but I doubt it. And I sure as hell don't want to play the game on console when there's a PC version, especially since we're talking about an RTS. So I don't know what to do. I was THIS close to moving my laptop to 10, and the only reason I didn't was that article I linked at the top.

I think one solution for me would be using 10 with a new PC, if I end up building one in the next few months. Then I'd have all three OSes working on different systems, and would be able to choose between them at will. Another option, for the desktop, would be to simply install 10 on one of the four hard drives I have in that machine (which option isn't available for the laptop because I don't want to partition its disk).

Post any good info you find on the subject here, so we can track developments and make up our minds in future. I am especially interested to know which games will require 10 to work.
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Unread postby Some guy » 21 Jan 2017 14:09

Microsoft bringing new 'Game Mode' to Windows 10 for an enhanced PC gaming experience

http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft ... experience

Zac Bowden wrote:Microsoft is working on a brand new "Game Mode" feature for Windows 10 that will enhance the PC gaming experience by minimizing resources used by running apps to almost nothing and allocating freed up resources to the game, making it run faster, better and smoother overall.

This new feature was first spotted by WalkingCat in the recently leaked build 14997, and although it isn't working yet, we understand it's a feature that will be showing up for Insiders very soon, as it's something that's set to arrive with the Creators Update.

WalkingCat wrote:.@h0x0d 14997 has a new dll "gamemode.dll", so it looks like Game Mode is a thing

.@h0x0d looks like Windows will adjust its resource allocation logic (for CPU/Gfx etc.) to prioritize the "Game" when running in "Game Mode"


Our own sources have said this feature works similarly to how Xbox One handles running a game. Xbox OS, when a game is launched, will allocate resources to make sure the game is running the best it possibly can. Up until now, Windows hasn't had a built-in option for this that benefits games directly, but with the Creators Update that will be changing.

It's unclear if Game Mode will work with all Win32 games from the likes of Steam or Origin (we're assuming it will), or if it'll be limited to games from the Windows Store. Regardless, it's interesting to see Microsoft taking PC gaming seriously again, as for a while they kind of abandoned it in favor of Xbox. Now Microsoft's goal is the merge the two, as they both run on the same platform after all.
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Re: Windows

Unread postby icycalm » 07 Apr 2023 11:57

Shadow just added Windows 11 as an option. Anyone using this? Have you had any issues with games or emulators, or have you heard of any issues? Any benefits? I am thinking whether it’s worth the hassle to upgrade.
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