[citation][nom]V8VENOM[/nom]It will be a LONG list of games/applications that do NOT work in Windows 7.The first 4 out of 5 games/applications I tried have problems either installing or running after install:1. Age of Empires III (no workaround)2. DiskKeeper 2008 (forced to upgrade to 2009)3. Dawn of War II (patch pending)4. 3DMark Vantage 1.0.1 (there is a work around)Also, overclockers be aware, on the same system (tri-boot) Windows 7's performance Index would ONLY complete (without rebooting in the middle of my CPU test) when I dial clock speed back from 3.8Ghz to 3.4Ghz and dropped DDR3 rate. Fortunately this is ONLY under Windows 7 64bit. CPU at 3.8Ghz works fine with Vista x64 Performance Index test.Hard to say if it's just poor Windows 7 code causing the reboots or a Windows 7 driver -- OS log reports no issues other than the abnormal shutdown so my hunch is a Windows 7 code problem -- usually driver problems will trying something in the OS log.As with Vista, you'll get more compatibility if you disable UAC -- so much for Windows 7 being more secure if it works better with UAC disabled.[/citation]
Ok, the applications you mention...
1) Age of Empires III This works fine. My spouse plays it all the time, and it works on several Win7 machines, from the old Laptop to the new desktop running Win7 x64.
2) Diskkeeper? Since XP, there is little need for a third party defragment utility, and with Vista and Win7 there is even more reasons not to use Diskkeeper.
In Vista and Win7 if you let the OS defrag utility run (which it does once a week) it processes all prefetch and supercache data so that not only does it defrag the drive and consolidate free space, but then goes on to put files specificaly in the best locations so that when launched the HD can process them faster.
This is because areas of the HD are faster, so more frequently used and demanding files are put in the faster area of the HD and additionally, files are laid out as the application loads them, so that the HD can just process all the files for a loading application with less seek times.
Using Diskkeeper is losing the optimization features, because even though it will put files together to help load times, it doesn't truly know what files are loaded in what order and this is where the prefetch and superfetch data gives the OS defrag utility the ability to move things specifically based on your HD and how you use it specifically instead of general optimizations and just putting Application EXE and DLLs next to each other on the HD, when the application may be reading stuff from other parts of the OS and other DLLs and not its own at the same time it is loading the EXE for example.
3) Dawn of War (No Idea, haven't tested it)
4) 3DMark Vantage 1.1 - again it works fine, and many sites even use it to test Win7 performance.
From your additional information, it sounds like you have a flaky hardware issue that may also contribute to the games failing.
If your overclocked system is running marginally under Vista and you move to Win7, with new drivers, and you start to see failures, you can be assured that either the drivers are not right or your hardware is overclocked to a level that is not as stable as you might have thought.
For example, when the new Video WDM drivers are doing more with the hardware especially in areas of handing off more to the OS so there is less overhead of the GPU scheduler.
Win7 also has a new set of optimizations for multi-core/SMP processing, and if you have an i7 CPU, this will make dramatic changes in the HT virtual CPU handling. So sometimes the multi-core CPUs will spike more as the additional core is being used more.
Just because the OS didn't note a 'driver error' doesn't mean that the code cause the problem is not a driver, it could just mean that it is a low kernel level driver that is causing the problem.
So you have a couple of things to look at, make sure you system is overclocked so that voltages are right and you are in marginal areas, especially when Win7 is throwing more to additional cores at times, create more peak temps.
Next you need to look at your mainboard and other hardware, check to see that things are ok, and Vista just isn't pushing it enough to fail.
Then look at drivers and other things that seem suspect or operations on the system that can create the errors. Video is one area to start, especially when you are having trouble running a game and graphical testing tool that everyone else can run just fine.
Good Luck...
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