Windows 7 Beta...

[mjc]

I just grabbed the beta iso (yeah the legit one from MS, itself) last night...after figuring out why Windows Live wouldn't log me in (I had cookies disabled)...also it wouldn't let grab the 64-bit version for some reason. Go figure...Microsoft has never been one of my favorite download locations.

Any how...has anyone tried it yet?

If so, how does the installer behave?

I am asking because I have an old Linux partition that isn't currently being used for anything. The problem is, it is sitting right in the middle of my drive. I don't really want to screw up the drive, so I'm being cautious about it...

Has anyone tried it in a VM? If so, which VM and how did it go?

[Rick]

I ran into the block earlier
They shut it down for some time ( stopped d/l's

VERY slow server or just way to busy
I think If when I install it
It's going on it's own drive

Way to many things can go wrong with betas

[Roel]

I got stuck on creating an iso file..didn't got a chance to try this one..Only bug in mind is all about drivers??? I hope we can used vista drivers

[mjc]

Your bug is from downloading it from 'unofficial' sources...there is no 'assembly' required with the official version direct from MS.

What are you expecting from it, anyway? A replacement for Vista?

It's still in beta!

That means, unfinished and buggy as hell...with little or no advanced driver support (heck, Vista didn't have decent support until several months after going 'gold'). That means, for most things, the default Windows included drivers are all you''ll get. It is up to you, the test subject to try out the drivers and see if they work. If they do, great...if not, then remember, it is a free open beta, so don't cry if you have to reinstall...repeatedly.

Is it going have rough edges...hell, yeah.

Is it going to be a real pain in the posterior...most likely.

Will it actually run on a given system...God only knows, and he hasn't told me anything about it yet.

Is it something that I would trust anything that I consider valuable to...NO! semi-valuable...NO! not really valuable but not something I can easily replace...NO! something that can be discarded like last week's leftovers...yeah, probably.

[jlreich]

Downloading it now. Going good so far at around 730Kb/s and rising.

I don't when I will be able to get around to installing it, but I would like to check it out.

[astoroth88]

I have it now, and must say it is definitely what vista should have been. It's quick, less crashing, has IMO the speed of xp, and the nice sleek looks of vista. It is definitely a must try, personally I am satisfied with it and hopefully they let me keep my beta key when the officially release it lol
If not I will buy this one, it's a great OS especially in comparison to Vista, and the beta (so dxdiag says) comes with Direct X 11, so if by some reason game companies imply dx11 support to their games, I'll have it. On 4 gigs of ram, it's using roughly 580-600 megs idle,where vista ultimate used about 1.2gigs on my old system with 3 gigs of ram, so the ram consumption has been cut down considerably!

As i said already, definitely worth a look.

One feature that I like, is the "snipping" tool, it basically allows you to drag a box around a section of your screen and save the image to your pc. This will cut out the whole "alt + Prnt Scr" and cropping out what you don't want. When you highlight the area you want an editor pops up with a pen tool (red, blue and black colors) a highlighter and an eraser. It also gives you an option to send it to some one via E-mail. definitely a cool feature ;)

Another little feature they added in was the "stick notes" basically it opens up a green piece of paper on your screen, you type what you want on it and then either leave it on your screen or just leave it running in the background. It's not an amazing feature but it is there.

One bug that was OS related that I think they might have patched it with the recent windows update was that if you had, let's say, My Documents open on your desktop, and you were trying to download something to that folder from a web browser, it would give you a "Permission Denied" error basically, but as I said I received an update for the OS recently and haven't seen that since.

I myself am having hard ware issues (it's on another post in core hardware) with a new motherboard that I purchased, it crashed on all 3 systems (xp, vista and 7), But W7 doesn't blue screen very often, compared to the other 2 OS', Vista being the worst naturally.

[Roel]

Im using it right now.. almost like a vista.. lets see if its better than vista

[astoroth88]

like i said it has the style of vista, but there quite a few interface changes, and it doesn't use nearly as much resource.

[PrntRhd]

A link to an early "first look" for the beta:
http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/software/2009/01/16/windows-7-beta-performance/1

[awaj]

downloading now... how ever it needs a dvd... let's see if the dvd burner on my computer actually works. It looks interesting. Can't wait till I can play around with it... (any idea how games run on it :P)

[astoroth88]

I run Fallout 3, CS:S, Battlefield 2, Guitar Hero 3, Left 4 dead, All maxed out on settings (minus fallout 3, it's on ultra high though.) They all run perfect as far as I'm concerned. Granted I had an crash-to-desktop problem with fallout 3, before I patched it up, but that was even a problem with vista so no worries. Once patched it works great, Ultra High settings pulling 65 fps! As far as drivers go, Vista drivers worked oddly enough?!?! yeah, I installed the vista 32bit drivers for W7 32bit and they work! So use Vista drivers for the version you downloaded (32bit on 32bit, 64bit on 64bit), for me at least, they work. W7 Comes pre-installed with Direct X 11, so no worries about upgrading that.

So as far as gaming goes on W7, it's fantastic as far as I'm concerned, No hang-ups, minimal lag online (averaging 30 ping on a wireless connection, Belkins wireless G Adapter Card 125mb/s). Once I worked out my blue screen issues with my new mother board, this is a great set-up for gaming. Ultra High settings on Fallout 3 pulls about 60-65 fps, and this is on a budget system.

On a side note, the blue screen issues with my new mother board had nothing to do with W7, I had issues with All the windows Versions (xp, vista, W7) but I worked it out and it hasn't blue screened in about 18 - 20 hours now. Driver and BIOS version issues, who woulda guessed lol

[jlreich]

Running it on a virtual machine right now and playing around with it a little bit. Will need to spend more time with it to check out the new features. I will say it has 29 processes running on a clean install with no AV/FW or any else installed on it yet. Using 640MB of the 3.7GB ram I have allocated to it.

Will install it onto hard drive when I get around making some room for it.

[awaj]

any idea what a good AV/FW program for this would be?

(I'm like 14 minutes away from having the ISO downloaded, then I just need to find some way to burn it... hopefully with out transferring it to another computer...)

[jlreich]

Avast! AV installed. But both ZA and Comodo firewall failed to install. Haven't tried another firewall yet. Might have to just use the windows firewall for now.

[awaj]

jlreich, did you go with the 64 bit or the 32 bit?

[jlreich]

MS Virtual PC only supports 32bit unfortunately. But when I actually install it on my machine it will be the 64bit version. I downloaded both versions.

[astoroth88]

ZA usually causes to many conflicts withe programs and games, so I haven't used it in years, never heard of comodo before though.

[sassie05]

Hi all
How are you installing? Dual Boot on partition, separate HDD?
I see jlreich is using a VM. (I should learn to play with VM's.)
I read somewhere space requirements up to 16GB.
What is your usage?

[awaj]

I'm going to play around with it on my desktop, triple booting, XP, Vista, Ubuntu, and 7... (I know I said triple, but I'm having a hard time deciding which one to leave out till I find a way to install all 4...) I have 650 gigs of space that's untouched (I need to re-install everything anyways...) so I'm going to have fun figuring out which to install and which to not install... any suggestions as to what to put on and what not to?

[jlreich]

It showing less than 10GB on mine with nothing installed but Avast.

MS virtual PC 2007 is free. And fun to play around with. You can install directly from the ISO, no need to burn to disk. Same goes for Linux Live CD/DVD's, just load the ISO. Not all Linux will run, Ubuntu won't unfortunately, but many others will.

I'm having a hard time deciding which one to leave out till I find a way to install all 4.
Why not all four? Unless you have a utility/recovery partition already taking up the fourth spot?

[mjc]

Well, this post comes from FF running in W7, running in Vbox...on Slackware :D.

Considering that this is running in a VM, with half my memory it is very 'snappy'. Not bad at all...definitely tolerable.

[Roel]

I cant figure out how to use my BT headset philips SHB7100.... drivers was loaded but can't find the options in sounds setting

[mjc]

Well, after playing around with it for a while last night and this morning...

1. Sound subsystem, in general seem a bit unfinished. Under the VM, you need to make sure that the generic AC97 device is enabled, but the drivers included (which you don't get until you run the updater) are just too basic. Yeah, they work, but that is about all you can say for them.

2. Also, due to the nature of running under a VM, the graphics has no 3D acceleration...which makes things like even the included FreeCell painful to endure on an otherwise snappy system.

3. Networking was dead simple, after making sure that the VirtualBox network device was enabled.

4. There are still a number of annoying pop ups, but unlike Vista, you can tell it that you are in charge and it will let you go right ahead and screw up the system however you please (with in a set of limits, though...I haven't quite figured out exactly what they are)...

5. I allocated 2 GB of RAM to the VM for this and sitting at idle, it was using about 400MB of that. With FF running and a bunch of tabs open it didn't go beyond 700 MB. I also allocated a 20GB 'virtual drive' for it and it is using around 11 of that...with just FF installed. But that is including things like the default sizes for System Restore, pagefile, IE cache, etc...so, while it is lighter on RAM it sure fills a platter quickly.

A couple of other things...

The 'trial' edition happens to be Ultimate...so I expect things to be a bit different in other versions.

I didn't play around, at all, with any of the media features.

And since there is no 3D accel in the VM, I didn't even bother with trying any games.

[awaj]

Quick question. on my desktop (which is finally running..., Gigabyte sent me a new one instead of trying to fix my old motherboard, not sure what the mobo is though...) I have XP, Vista, and Ubuntu installed. How can I install 7 with out uninstalling the other 3 OSs? (Yes, I plan on using Vista a bit more then 7 until it's released, and I plan on keeping XP, and Ubuntu... I currently have one 650 gig hard drive)

[Jiggy]

I cant get it to accept the product key, ive been back to the MS download page and rechecked the key and no go.

[mjc]

Just checking...you are entering without any dashes, right? (I made that mistake the first time I entered the key.)

[Jiggy]

I`m not entering dash`s, it does it itself.

[mjc]

I know...found that out after I did the dashes...didn't read the text under the block, just started typing in the number, complete with dashes; it didn't work that way. The second time I entered it, minus the dashes, it worked.

[awaj]

I just installed it... It has a nice feel to it, I think I am going to stick with Vista for a while though, too much work setting up everything for 3 MS systems... Is there a way to mess with the boot list (easily...) (I may not have the problem for long... I plan on installing Ubuntu next...)

[Jiggy]

On the first install it went to keyboard layout then to product key, now on my second download and its installed great and im at desktop, can you install drivers in a virtual machine ?

I will start installing at the weekend.

[mjc]

It depends on the VM...VirtualBox presents its own graphics 'interface'...virtual video card that has only basic functions, a virtual network card that is similar to an average card and uses a 'generic' driver. Audio is a basic AC97 'device' that also uses the basic drivers. Somewhat better drivers, for the fully supported operating systems (2k, XP, Vista) are on the VirtualBox supplemental "GuestAdditions". But, there aren't any specific drivers for 7, yet. The Vista ones do work, for the most part...in or out of a vm.

I want to try the beta outside a VM...

[Paul Komski]

How can I install 7 with out uninstalling the other 3 OSs?What you can do depends to a large extent on what and how you have already setup your hard drive and done the installations. For the future note that it is easy to configure Linux to boot to logical partitions - it can be done with Windows but there is quite a lot of faff and a learning curve (http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/). Some Windows can co-exist in the same partition but even when that can be done it is bad practice and so the "normal" max is three windows into three primary partitions and just about any number of Linux distros into logical partitions.

You will also make life simpler for yourself in the long run if you use a boot manager such as XOSL or BiNG since this allows one to keep the different OSes much more distinct from one another. BiNG also allows you to specially configure a customised MBR/EMBR that allows one to use 200 plus primary partitions. The only real downside to this is if you need to uninstall BiNG using fdisk /mbr or fixmbr you will be in the mire. Note too that with either XOSL or BiNG you will need to have one available primary FAT partition. SBM is the only boot manager I know that doesn't need a FAT partition. If using SBM to boot a Linux distro then it is imperative that GRUB is installed onto the relevant root partition; if root has no bootable PBS, then SBM will totally ignore it as if it didn't exist.

Whether or not you decide to use logical partitions for Windows installations, have a good read of the whole Goodells site if you are a "serious multibooter".

PS If mixing Vista and XP you should only allow the former or a third party tool to do the partitioning since Vista uses different geometry and you can get missing partitions if partitioning is done by both (http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=931854). I guess the same will apply to allowing WinXP and 7 to do a certain amount of partitioning, whether during the installation or later on from Disk Management.

[awaj]

PS If mixing Vista and XP you should only allow the former or a third party tool to do the partitioning since Vista uses different geometry and you can get missing partitions if partitioning is done by both (http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=931854). I guess the same will apply to allowing WinXP and 7 to do a certain amount of partitioning, whether during the installation or later on from Disk Management.

Yeah... I got myself into a bind... I have Partion Magic installed on the XP partition and it won't load saying that the drives aren't labled right (not sure what's wrong with it...) but I bypassed that in Vista and I wasn't given the choice to make a FAT32 partition but I think I can get around that as well...

I'm going to look at the boot managers that was mentioned and mess around with them later tonight probably and report back if I succeed or not. (if you have some advice on how to fix my dilemma with out re-installing everything again I would greatly appreciate it)

everything runs fine aside from having to go through 2 boot menus to get to a microsoft OS though...

[jlreich]

If mixing Vista and XP you should only allow the former or a third party tool to do the partitioning since Vista uses different geometry and you can get missing partitions if partitioning is done by both (http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=931854).
Wanted to point out that while you shouldn't partition with vista or 7 when mixing OS's you can format without trouble. At least I have had any issues with formating in vista. Running XP/vista/Suse11 and all OS's can read/write to all partitions that I want them to see without problems.

Please correct me if I am wrong and you know of some issues.

[Paul Komski]

Wanted to point out that while you shouldn't partition with vista or 7 when mixing OS's you can format without trouble.
Yes. Formatting is not problematic it is just the partitioning as the MSKB showed.

If the partition that hosts Windows Vista was created during the installation of Windows Vista, a 1-megabyte (MB) alignment boundary is created on the partition. This alignment boundary differs from the alignment boundary that is created by Windows XP. Therefore, when you use Windows XP to create a new partition, the different alignments may cause this problem.

The "legacy" approach was to use one "track" (or 63 hidden sectors) and it had been the tradition, up to Vista/7 to always keep partitions on traditional cylinder boundaries (http://www.multibooters.co.uk/partitions.html). Even though "tracks and cylinders" are no longer even of real relevance with LBA geometry, the change to 1MB (or 2048 hidden sectors) as the default for the first primary is a significant departure from what has been the norm. The "hidden sectors" represents the offset from the MBR to the PBS for primary partitions and from the start of an Extended partition for Windows logical partitions.

[Jiggy]

Windows 7 networking question,

Is it possible to connect Win 7 (running in virtual pc) to the desktop hosting them ?

[jlreich]

I don't think so, but I could be wrong. I know the pay version of VMware can share files between VM and host machine, but not the free player and I am pretty sure MS VPC doesn't do it at all.

[mjc]

VirtualBox can...but it is a bit of a royal pain in the posterior to set up. It is actually easier to set up USB support and plug in a USB drive than it is to set up and get a shared folder working...

[jlreich]

Thanks for the reminder abut VB. I had meant to try it a long time ago and forgot all about it. My guess is it is probably better then MS VPC. :)

[Jiggy]

Thanks lads.

I`ve just got Thunderbird up and running.

[saphalline]

Typing this from IE8 in Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit beta. Nice! :cool:

Currently dual-booting Vista Ultimate 64-bit SP1 and Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit beta, each with a 150GB partition on a Seagate ST3500320AS SATA 300 HDD (Vista has the first partition, obviously). Spent today installing and setting up both operating systems on my repurposed core upgrade. Vista and Windows 7 have identical set-ups, other than the default extras for their respective installs.

Hardware:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 retail
Asus P5Q-EM mobo retail (G45)
4GB kit Corsair XMS2 retail (1.8V, 5-5-5-18, compatibility testing)
GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB retail (factory OC'ed eVGA model, G80)
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer PCI retail
Toshiba SH-S223F SATA dual-layer DVD burner OEM
Seagate ST3500320AS SATA 300 HDD, 500GB (boot drive)
Seagate ST3320620AS SATA 300 HDD, 320GB (storage)
Western Digital WD6400AAKS SATA 300 HDD, 640GB (storage)
Logitech G15 USB keyboard retail, 2nd-gen
Logitech G5 USB mouse retail, 2nd-gen
17" LCD monitor, 4:3, 1280 x 1024

Software:

BIOS 1605
Intel Chipset Software drivers, reference, 9.0.0.1008 (Vista x64)
Realtek 8111C GbE LAN driver, 6.210.1003.2008 (Vista x64)
GeForce Release reference driver, 181.22 WHQL (Vista x64)
X-Fi reference driver, 2.18.0008 (Vista x64)
Creative ALchemy, 1.20.04 (Vista x64)
3DMark Vantage 1.01 trial

(In order to get a couple of the Vista x64 drivers to install in Windows 7, I had to right-click on them, choose "Troubleshoot compatibility", and tell the system that the drivers had worked in Vista. Easy as pie! :D)

Boot and shutdown times:

Vista:

boot loader -> login = 47 seconds
login -> desktop = 11-14 seconds
desktop -> complete shut down = 12-14 seconds

Windows 7:

boot loader -> login = 27 seconds
login -> desktop = 11-12 seconds
desktop -> complete shut down = 12-14 seconds

(Tests run 5 times per OS, staggered. Boot times never varied.)

3DMark Vantage:

Vista:

P6334 3DMarks
28723 CPU
5028 Graphics

Windows 7:

P6289 3DMarks (-0.71 % change)
28160 CPU (-1.96 % change)
4995 Graphics (-0.66 % change)

(RAM timings not optimized, but I did that on purpose to test robustness. Not only are the Vantage results within the margin of error for any benchmark test - commonly +/-2% - but Windows 7 managed to keep up with drivers meant for Vista!! :eek:)


This is as apples-to-apples as you can get, really. Same hardware, same system, same drivers, same Ultimate 64-bit for each OS. So far so good, but I still have a lot of work in the BIOS to do yet. A few thoughts on the installs, however...

- Vista recognized jack sh*t on the reinstall! Screen resolution at 800 x 600, no internet connection, no sound, etc. Had to start from scratch, apply SP1, run all the frickin' updates, reboot a few dozen times, etc. Standard PITA M$ Windoze fun for a couple hours.

- Windows 7 loaded older drivers and had no sound. Wait, what!? :eek: Yeah, that's right! Sept 20th, 2008 NVidia drivers, full 1280 x 1024 screen resolution, and immediate internet connection ON THE FIRST BOOT!! Sure, I had to update the drivers and still run the OS updates, but man oh man! That sure was easier at 1280 x 1024 vs 800 x 600! Especially since I would not have had to suffer through the stupid Activate Windows now pop-up for 2-3 reboots while I installed drivers! It was already ready already!! (Nice to see this work on my main gaming desktop just like the laptop tests.)

Out-of-the-box experience with Windows 7 beta already exceeds Vista's! Can't wait to see what's coming down the pipe before the production release! Woah...

One feature that I like, is the "snipping" tool

Another little feature they added in was the "stick notes"These are actually on Vista, as well. Some of the cool extra gadgets that come with Vista Ultimate. Sorry, but I've been having fun with these for 18 months on my Vista machine. ;)

[mjc]

One feature that I like, is the "snipping" tool

Another little feature they added in was the "stick notes"These are actually on Vista, as well. Some of the cool extra gadgets that come with Vista Ultimate. Sorry, but I've been having fun with these for 18 months on my Vista machine. ;)

Those are 'Ultimate' perks, right?

[saphalline]

Those are 'Ultimate' perks, right?Yes.

Although, being cool little extras or even utilities, I have no idea why they are reserved for Ultimate. :confused: Seems to me that Home Basic and Business would be the only versions of Vista that could do without them.

[mjc]

No wonder I've never seen them...every version of Vista I've messed with is HP. I'm beginning to wonder how much of difference there really is between HP and Ultimate...playing around with the 7 Beta has many little 'extras' like that.

[sassie05]

I'm pretty sure I have thos "perks" on Hp 64bit.
I'll check when I get home.

[jlreich]

The snipping tool is there in HP, but not the stick notes.

[saphalline]

There's a whole bunch of gadgets, junk, cr@p, and bloat available for Vista Ultimate that I haven't touched. Probably never will.

Trying to decide what version of Windows 7 I'll want. Hopefully they'll have decent guides to all the versions of W7 (unlike Vista!).

[awaj]

hopefully we all who are testing get a nice discount on the final version... (or free would be even better...)

[mjc]

hopefully we all who are testing get a nice discount on the final version... (or free would be even better...)

Dream on...about the only thing I see coming down in the way of perks for the 'testers' is a good chance to get it a couple of days early.

[awaj]

I will dream on... You never know... Ben Franklin (I think it was him, could be a different Father of America) said "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst."

[sassie05]

I found the Sticky Notes feature under Start>All Programs>Accessories>Tablet PC

Is this the same feature you folks have?

[jlreich]

Hey you are right it is there, and a couple other nice little tools a well. :) That's what I get for never exploring the tablet PC folder. :p

[sassie05]

I was beginning to think it was not the same feature.

I gotta install the beta.

[awaj]

Has anyone have any trouble between 7 and grub? I'm getting "error 23: error while parsing number" after I pick it from the boot menu. I have it set up with XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Ubuntu. (all seperate partitions) When I go into Vista I can get to either vista or 7. Is that the way I need to get into either of them or did I mess something up while modifying Grub?

[Paul Komski]

awaj I would start a thread on your booting/multibooting problems giving the fullest details of exactly what you have done. It sounds like Vista and 7 were installed from the same system partition but to different boot partitions. Also give details of what you did to Grub config.

[PrntRhd]

The number of Windows 7 versions has been released:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/02/official-windows-7-skus-revealed-six-editions.ars

The number is six.

[mjc]

Well, at least one thing is apparent in all of that...there are only going to be 4 useful US versions. That 'Starter' isn't much of anything and the 'emerging markets' puts Home Basic pretty much in 'last place' before it even hits the shelves.

Now they should do the real smart thing...use Pro as the starting point and do a small premium for Ultimate and discount the others from Pro.

[Paul Komski]

Leaving aside 64-bit, two versions was still too many, IMHO, for WinXP. The attempt to make networking easier for Home users just led to complexities in networking-troubleshooting generally as just one example. It's still MS just wanting their OSes to be ATM machines for them; its really just a licensed form of "phishing".

[PrntRhd]

The number of Windows 7 versions has been released:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/02/official-windows-7-skus-revealed-six-editions.ars

The number is six.
I misspoke, the number is higher, there will be 32-bit and 64-bit versions of everything except Starter, and Ultimate may be an upgrade version.
The number is 11.

[mjc]

You know, the Beta is about half a DVD's worth of data...so why don't they do the smart thing and cut the number of versions by putting both the 32 and 64 bit versions on the same physical media with unlimited switching between them? Oh wait, that makes too much sense and leaves too little for the Marketing weenies to screw up!

<bang>*thump*<bang>*thump* <==my head hitting wall.

[awaj]

So, to get 64 bit and 32 bit versions, I need to get 2 copies?

Also, I had Kapserksy (excuse spelling, but I don't like it much...) and for some reason, it always said I was out of date, no matter what I did... Comodo will probably be better as I am switching over now...

Edit***

Comodo is installed and is working fine. it says that firewall is not functioning properly. any idea how to fix said problem?

[spiral08]

have you tested this out on games? how is it going? will this be a better than the vista? :confused:

[awaj]

I haven't done much of any kind of gaming, but I would say it is better then vista in any way shape and form.

[Ajmukon]

gaming isn't to bad, from what i can see. Still need to install other games...

[seohadczy]

I have just installed the new Windows 7 beta. My opinion is that is much above all operating systems, even above Vista. I wait for final version wich was announced for 2009 august! I looking forward to use it! Anyone knows what will be the price?

[awaj]

I hope it's going to be cheap and affordable when it comes out (unlike all the other operating systems MS put out previously...) unfortunately, it's probably going to be about 100 dollars if not more.

[spiral08]

I hope it's going to be cheap and affordable when it comes out

yeah i second that, its really great to get really good feedback on windows 7. all eyes on it :)

[pop pop]

I've heard (not seen) tha DRM is even meaner (worse) on Windoze 7 than Vista.

[SatokoTenno]

I've heard (not seen) tha DRM is even meaner (worse) on Windoze 7 than Vista.
http://imageshare.info/24213481828.jpg
indeed it is worse

[Dinosaur]

I have been playing with Win 7 Beta for over a month. I downloaded it a day or so after it was available.

It looks great. My hardware is about 4 years old and had no trouble running 7 Beta.

I like it so much that I am planning on skipping Vista & getting Win 7 when it is available. I am planning on building a new system in a month or so, but will use XP instead of Vista.

I am using Partition Magic 8.0 & Boot Magic to run multiple operating systems. This seems to be the safest & easiest method for trying out a new OS. PM moved/resized some partitions & created an extra for Win 7 Beta. 7 Beta installed easily from the DVD I had created into the new partition.

A few of my friends ran into trouble using other methods. Fortunately, they took my advice & let me make images of their OS partition on an external Hard Disk before they installed Win 7 Beta.

I am now running 98SE, two versions of XP, & Win 7 Beta. Boot Magic provides a Menu & boots the OS I request. It boots the default OS in 30 seconds if I do not make a choice.

Win 7 automatically loaded drivers for everything, including my HP 1350 all-in-one. I was never able to get the scanner for HP 1350 to function under XP (I have service Pack 3). I used the HP install CD. I downloaded newer drivers from the HP site. I touched base with HP Tech support. Since I hardly ever used the scanner & my Win98 SE computer has one, I gave up.

Win 7 Beta uses the scanner with no problem. I might have been doing something dumb for the XP system, but it was nice to discover that I did not have to do anything to get the scanner working under 7 Beta..

[awaj]

XP needed drivers and didn't know how to search for it effectively. Windows 7 Beta seems to have fixed it all.

[classicsoftware]

I have been playing with Win 7 Beta for over a month. I downloaded it a day or so after it was available.

It looks great. My hardware is about 4 years old and had no trouble running 7 Beta.

I like it so much that I am planning on skipping Vista & getting Win 7 when it is available. I am planning on building a new system in a month or so, but will use XP instead of Vista.

That would be a mistake. There will be a low cost or no cost upgrade path from Vista to 7, not so for XP.

[pop pop]

There will be a low cost or no cost upgrade path from Vista to 7

Interesting.

Do you know that for sure, o Exalted One?

[classicsoftware]

I read it somewhere at CNET or PC Magazine. I'll try to dig it up for you....

[Dinosaur]

The following might be valid.There will be a low cost or no cost upgrade path from Vista to 7, not so for XP.However, I have an XP install CD with valid Product Key. I will be out either the cost of Vista & an upgrade to Win 7 or the cost of Win 7. I doubt that there will be much difference.

Also: I have never been completley satisfied with any upgrade install of an OS.

[mjc]

If you aren't buying a copy of Vista and are happy with XP and can live with it for another few months, then there isn't really any reason to go to it, cheap/free upgrade included. At this point in time, the only thing that makes sense is if you need to buy a copy of Windows, but Vista because you will get to Win7 cheaper...

[classicsoftware]

Unless this is a full license, you can only install it in PC anyway. If you already have XP, than you there is no financial advantage for you...

[Dinosaur]

Somebody here indicated an August release date for Win 7.

I think that is an error. Some date in August is when the Beta version will no longer be functional.

[awaj]

I mentioned that I hope it comes out in August... at least I thought I did, I read elsewhere that it may come at the end of this year or early next, but I hope that's not the case...

[mjc]

The last I saw, the release was supposed to be Q4 2009, in time for the holiday season.