[HappyWheels]

Has anyone tried out the new release from Microsoft - Windows 7?

The initial press release said that Microsoft is going to limit the download to just the first 2.5 million people and expected not to get one, but was able to download the copy today.

Installing as we speak in a in a virtual machine to check it out.

So, is anyone else trying it?

Ok; finished installation. As said running on vpc with 2gb allocated. And its slow!

Seems very Vista like and the applications are more Office type, with ribbons on them.

And, somehow I get an overall feeling it is more Mac like!

When you move the mouse over the taskbar icon, they give out a small glow. This glow is present in small but noticable places, where you go to click on any icons.

Here are few screenshots:

Nice background picture!


This is IE8


Notice the ribbon.


Will add experience as I go. But this slowness is not something that I am going to like!

[Samurai]

There is no restriction anymore, unlimited downloads are allowed.

[abk]

@HappyWheels

Given that you are running Windows 7 on a virtualised environment it is bound to be slow. Have you tried using Vista on the same virtual environment? If yes, what do you conclude about their relative performances?

I have Vista home premium and wondering if it is worth replacing it with the now released beta of Windows 7? Any program incompatibility that you're aware of?

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by Samurai

There is no restriction anymore, unlimited downloads are allowed.

Oh, is it. Really did not get the need for the restriction, since either way, this beta is valid only for few months after which it will die!

Originally Posted by abk

@HappyWheels

Given that you are running Windows 7 on a virtualised environment it is bound to be slow. Have you tried using Vista on the same virtual environment? If yes, what do you conclude about their relative performances?

I have Vista home premium and wondering if it is worth replacing it with the now released beta of Windows 7? Any program incompatibility that you're aware of?

Hey ABK,

I have Vista Home Premium on my laptop and this laptop is the one I am currently using as work machine also. For the work on my product, I have an XP vpc which I use.

The only issue that I have faced in my day-to-day work is the inability to get onto the clients wireless network since I cannot get onto their domain for authentication. But I am able to connect thru wire. Overcame this difficulty by using a D-Link mini wireless adapter!

Apart from that, I have found no issues, or softwares that have refused to run on this version. But I keep most of my R&D and freewares on the VPC. Maybe that can be the reason I have not run into trouble.

And for Vista in VPC; well, I had installed and used my edition of Vista Ultimate in a virtual environment for sometime and did not find any drop in performance, neither in the host nor in the guest. Not as this. This is really bad. And also, when I run my XP vpc, I have given it 2GB of RAM, even then I do not find the host Vista Home Premium running for breath, now this is with IE open with few tabs, Outlook open with 2~3 mails and also excel and word. And I still have some 10-20% of RAM left. So Vista is not all that bad.

Let me first install an antivirus onto W7 and check if there are any patches. During beta time, patches come like a waterfall!

EDIT: And no, it is not worth replacing your Vista HP with W7; at least not as of now.

[abk]

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

And no, it is not worth replacing your Vista HP with W7; at least not as of now.

Dear HappyWheels,

Thanks a lot for all that information and especially for your advice to stay away from Windows 7 at the alter of Vista

Although I have not used Vista on VMWare but Windows 2003 on VMWare just crawls. But then it was used on a macbook! On top of everything, am not much of an expert in this field!

[IMP]

There is a Hindi version available, anybody tried it yet? Planning to get that on vmware.

[ph03n!x]

I have been using Windows 7 for a few months now - was using Build 6801 that got leaked after the Professional Developer Conference in Oct end, and am using the Beta - Build 7000 - that was "released" on 9/10th Jan since Dec 24th / 25th

And ya, this has been my primary / only OS in my Home PC since November... And if your computer manages to run Vista, it will sail with Windows 7. I have not tried it in a Virtual PC environment, though. I have beta-tested Vista (and XP, and other OSes too!), and this Beta seems to be the only with very few rough edges yet.

Some immediately noticeable observations -

Pretty quick install, compared to Vista Ultimate (The beta version installs 7 Ultimate by default)
The new task bar, christened internally as the super-bar
Aero peek, that shows a thumbnail of the window if u hover your mouse on a minimized window, and shows an actual-size snapshot of the window if the mouse is moved over the thumbnail
Docked taskbar icons
New startup animation
Pretty fast startup and wake-from-sleep times, compared to Vista
Wallpaper slide-show
Fewer (by miles!) User Access Control prompts
Lesser OS footprint on the hard-disk and memory
IE8 Beta is still slow(er than Chrome / Safari / FF), and is a bot buggy with certain websites
Almost all the software I used in Vista works in this, and all my devices are detected and installed
...and on and on, mind you i am not even discussing the technicalities!

My suggestion? if you PC is not a "task-critical" one, go ahead and give it a shot - worth the experience. Mind you, the Beta will commit harakiri by July - August! And ya, do not do it if you are not familiar with the process of installing Windows and et all.

And will I switch to Windows 7? Hell yes, anything to runaway from Vista - especially if it is something better than it!!! (No, I am not gonna go back to XP / 2003, and 2008-as-a-desktop-OS has some minor stuff, gave up on figuring it out...)

Let me know if I can be of any help to anyone, will give it my best shot.

[jkdas]

Nice one Happy The taskbar looks like it was picked up from Linux OS, thick one.

"EDIT: And no, it is not worth replacing your Vista HP with W7; at least not as of now."

Until SP1 is out? :P

[Bubby]

Hello All,

Just thought of sharing this piece of news with you.

How Windows 7 beta can be 'risky' - Software & Services-News-Indiatimes - Infotech

[ipkonfig]

Have u guys tried unlocking other regional themes? Do it and u are in for a treat !!

[ram.west]

Guys, Whats the minimum requirement for Windows 7???

[appuchan]

While I am at it, I also saw this new free online shared drive from Microsoft called SkyDrive. Looks interesting.

Explore Windows Live SkyDrive

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by Bubby

Hello All,

Just thought of sharing this piece of news with you.

How Windows 7 beta can be 'risky' - Software & Services-News-Indiatimes - Infotech

This "risky" disclaimer applies for all pre-production-ready software. And ya, those who try it, install all critical updates on windowsupdate- there is especially one for an mp3 corruption issue when played with WMP 12.

Originally Posted by ram.west

Guys, Whats the minimum requirement for Windows 7???

Didnt look this up, but 1 Ghz proc, 512 MB ram, 16 GB HDD space if i aint wrong...

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

...And will I switch to Windows 7? Hell yes, anything to runaway from Vista - especially if it is something better than it!!! (No, I am not gonna go back to XP / 2003, and 2008-as-a-desktop-OS has some minor stuff, gave up on figuring it out...)

Let me know if I can be of any help to anyone, will give it my best shot.

I ran to Vista within months of release and now when this happens, I feel like a Window Me user!

Originally Posted by jkdas

...Until SP1 is out? :P

I doubt is there will be a SP for this. It should be just various code releases as and when they fix up things which will come either thru an update or thru a patch. Either way, this beta version will die on August 1st 2009.

Originally Posted by appuchan

...I also saw this new free online shared drive from Microsoft called SkyDrive. Looks interesting.

Explore Windows Live SkyDrive

This has been there for sometime now. I guess a year or more. I was one of the beta testers for the new Hotmail and I go one of the early bird invites to use this feature.

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

...Didnt look this up, but 1 Ghz proc, 512 MB ram, 16 GB HDD space if i aint wrong...

Min hardware requirement from MS page:

Windows 7 Beta recommendation:

1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
1 GB of system memory
16 GB of available disk space
Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (to enable the Aero theme)
DVD-R/W Drive
Internet access

[jkdas]

Originally Posted by ram.west

Guys, Whats the minimum requirement for Windows 7???

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

This "risky" disclaimer applies for all pre-production-ready software. And ya, those who try it, install all critical updates on windowsupdate- there is especially one for an mp3 corruption issue when played with WMP 12.



Didnt look this up, but 1 Ghz proc, 512 MB ram, 16 GB HDD space if i aint wrong...

• 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
• 1 GB of system memory
• 16 GB of available disk space
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (to enable the Aero theme)
• DVD-R/W Drive
• Internet access (to download the Beta and get updates)