Windows 7 Beta

[CodeRed]

I just got done with the install and I must say I actually like it...

I think it is a huge improvement over Visa.

Anyone else install yet?

[dusred]

OH NOES! NOT ANOTHER ONE!

I just barely broke down and got Vista and just got used to to.

[gammer_ghn]

is it free???

[BoostFab]

zer...ows-7

I just got done with the install and I must say I actually like it...

I think it is a huge improvement over Visa.

Anyone else install yet?

i tested it as a virtual machine, it's faster than vista, but who knows what the actual release version will be like. vista was light like that when it was beta. so i shouldnt expect too much.

[OriginalWheelman]

zer...ows-7

i tested it as a virtual machine, it's faster than vista, but who knows what the actual release version will be like. vista was light like that when it was beta. so i shouldnt expect too much.

What? Vista was a huge resource hog up until RC1.

I haven't burned the ISO yet. I don't have any software to do it.

[jeff_windows_team]

Hey Everyone-My name is Jeff and I work with the Windows Outreach Team. Codered, thanks for getting this thread started. How has Windows 7 been working out for you?Gammer_ghn- The beta is free but must be downloaded and activated by Feb. 12. It will expire on Aug. 1, then you will have to reinstall your previous OS. If you want to download it you can get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/windo....aspx . Be sure to look at the install instructions before you install Windows 7 Beta. Lastly, for those of you who are trying the Beta and want to tell Microsoft what you like or what you want Microsoft to change before the final version is released, leave those comments here: http://social.technet.microsof...7fe07Thanks for your interest everyone. Microsoft looks forward to your feedback.JeffWindows Outreach Team

[OriginalWheelman]

Welcome to the forum Jeff!

Any chance you can harass Creative into making me a decent driver this time around?

[BoostFab]

Hey Everyone-My name is Jeff and I work with the Windows Outreach Team. Codered, thanks for getting this thread started. How has Windows 7 been working out for you?Gammer_ghn- The beta is free but must be downloaded and activated by Feb. 12. It will expire on Aug. 1, then you will have to reinstall your previous OS. If you want to download it you can get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/windo....aspx . Be sure to look at the install instructions before you install Windows 7 Beta. Lastly, for those of you who are trying the Beta and want to tell Microsoft what you like or what you want Microsoft to change before the final version is released, leave those comments here: http://social.technet.microsof...7fe07Thanks for your interest everyone. Microsoft looks forward to your feedback.JeffWindows Outreach Team

#1 focus should be security, why Windows systems first to be compromised, that's something needs to focus on. MS really cheat the home users with having a security-crippled version of any of Windows "Home" edition. Let Apple be the role model for a fine tuned product...

[OriginalWheelman]

Um, you don't understand the basics here. Virus programming is about statistics. The more computers you can infect the better. This is why IE is breached often, because more people try to breach it, therefore more succeed. There is more to be gain from hacking a more popular browser. The perfect example of this is Firefox. When it was scarce it was untouched, now that it has gained popularity it is being hacked more and more frequently. Microsoft operating systems are far more common so they are hacked more often. Apple is not more secure, it is less common. That is it's only line of defense. However, NT based systems are becoming so well protected, that it is now becoming more profitable to hack Apple, since almost every Mac used runs around WITHOUT a virus scan. Apple just issued a release urging it's users to start using virus scan for this very reason.

[BoostFab]

Um, you don't understand the basics here. Virus programming is about statistics. The more computers you can infect the better. This is why IE is breached often, because more people try to breach it, therefore more succeed. There is more to be gain from hacking a more popular browser. The perfect example of this is Firefox. When it was scarce it was untouched, now that it has gained popularity it is being hacked more and more frequently. Microsoft operating systems are far more common so they are hacked more often. Apple is not more secure, it is less common. That is it's only line of defense. However, NT based systems are becoming so well protected, that it is now becoming more profitable to hack Apple, since almost every Mac used runs around WITHOUT a virus scan. Apple just issued a release urging it's users to start using virus scan for this very reason.

I see you got a point there, however, I work in the IT industry and I do understand the nature of WIndows very well. I do not agree with you on the point about the reason for Windows & IE to be compromised more due to its popularity---no excuse for poor design with strong emphasis on security.

This can not be said about FireFox; firstly, because it is open source, its much easier to find exploits and fix them with in matter of hours is readily pushed to the end user. The same could not be said for IE, leaving the user severely infected with malware, and the best thing is to reload Windows entirely. If OS was well designed, even if the application gets compromized they still sould not be able to take over the machine.

I'm not talking about the corporate users, since the systems are behind multiple firewall and proxies, but an average home user's system are saturated with spyware/malware/ viruses and they may not even know what hit them. Linux and Mac OSX are immune to this crap.

Let's hope Win7 take improve in this area.

[szh]

Hey Everyone-My name is Jeff and I work with the Windows Outreach Team. Codered, thanks for getting this thread started. How has Windows 7 been working out for you?Gammer_ghn- The beta is free but must be downloaded and activated by Feb. 12. It will expire on Aug. 1, then you will have to reinstall your previous OS. If you want to download it you can get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/windo....aspx . Be sure to look at the install instructions before you install Windows 7 Beta. Lastly, for those of you who are trying the Beta and want to tell Microsoft what you like or what you want Microsoft to change before the final version is released, leave those comments here: http://social.technet.microsof...7fe07Thanks for your interest everyone. Microsoft looks forward to your feedback.JeffWindows Outreach Team

Hi, Jeff.

Can the same keys be used for multiple machines that I want to test with Windows 7? Or, do I have to register multiple times to get multiple keys?

Thanks!

Z

[jeff_windows_team]

@originalwheelman- I don’t know if harassment is allowable but I can certainly send them a message letting them know.@szhosain- Each key is good for up to three computers. After that you will need to re-register to get more keys. Take a look at this blog. It explains the three-step process that will be used to phase out the download availability of Windows 7. http://windowsteamblog.com/blo....aspx

[Beancooker]

Okay, been using W7 on a partition. W7 is cool.

IE8 is the most terrible web browser I have ever used, and I am a hardcore IE fanboi...

It is next to impossible to log into this forum with it. If I hit the compatibility button right as the page opens, I was able to get on once.

DEP wouldn't allow me to open half the pages here. The fact that even through "cmd' you can't disable DEP in the 64 bit OS is retarded. Why it is able to be done in 32 bit, but not 64 is beyond me.

I'll have a lot more to say, after I have used it a little bit more.

[Adeianos]

I love Win 7, but it has been causing issues for me. I'm most excited about not having to run 64-bit to utilize all 16 GB of my RAM.

[dangeris]

I loaded it and It's ok. I think Windows 3.1.1 is far more stable than this though. Actually, I built a box about 6 yrs ago running XP embeded and that thing is solid! I just hope none of my peripherals crap out or else I'm screwed!

[szh]

I love Win 7, but it has been causing issues for me. I'm most excited about not having to run 64-bit to utilize all 16 GB of my RAM.

Um? You have to run 64 bit versions - of any OS - to get above 4GB of RAM.

How are you planning to get to all the memory with a 32 bit version of Windows 7?

Z

[szh]

By the way, so far, it is running well on three different systems. Better and more stable than Vista to date.

Just one issue that I have not been able to track down: I am missing a driver for one hardware thing on a Latitude D820 - there is not enough information provided for me to even figure out what is not working right. It seems to be working pretty normally otherwise ...

Jeff, any thoughts or recommendation on how to figure out what that hardware is, let alone getting a driver for it?

Z

[Adeianos]

Um? You have to run 64 bit versions - of any OS - to get above 4GB of RAM.

How are you planning to get to all the memory with a 32 bit version of Windows 7?

Z

Windows 7 in 32 Bit recognizes all of my RAM. To be fair, I haven't tested to see if it actually utilizes it yet. I'll have to test it out when I finish painting the room.

[szh]

Just one issue that I have not been able to track down: I am missing a driver for one hardware thing on a Latitude D820 - there is not enough information provided for me to even figure out what is not working right. It seems to be working pretty normally otherwise ...

Jeff, any thoughts or recommendation on how to figure out what that hardware is, let alone getting a driver for it?

Jeff, I figured out what it was: the SMC Fast IrDA infra-red transmitter - compared the specific device manager device values to a Vista system. So, I transferred the Vista SMC driver for this device and it worked fine!

FWIW, I also note that the update this morning sent this Vista driver (from 2007, I think?) along as an Optional update. Good enough!

Finally, something to be looked into ... I have already submitted this via the feedback button. The latest update from yesterday evening (2/24/2009) has broken something in IE 8 (the version that comes with Windows 7). It does not like the forums.nicoclub.com site ... gives an error message that I have sent along.

However, IE 8 on this Vista system I am using, works fine without any problems - although I usually a Chrome user, btw. So, something in the update has broken IE 8 on Windows 7 for this web site ...

Z

[szh]

Windows 7 in 32 Bit recognizes all of my RAM. To be fair, I haven't tested to see if it actually utilizes it yet. I'll have to test it out when I finish painting the room.

Please let us know ... I suspect that you will not see (or able to use anyway) anything above about 3.1GB or so - this limit will depend on the specific graphics card you have that uses that section of memory.

I am fairly sure you will need to install the 64 bit version for memory usage near or above 4GB.

Z

[Razi]

Just chiming in to say that I've been using W7 for about 2 weeks on my desktop, and it's been running great so far.

[Colorado Kidd]

i didn't download the beta but i am excited to see it come out. though i haven't had any problem with vista.

[szh]

Which build are people using? I am using build 7000 and trying to figure out how to get build 7077 (the next apparently stable one).

Z

[headhunt3r]

Please let us know ... I suspect that you will not see (or able to use anyway) anything above about 3.1GB or so - this limit will depend on the specific graphics card you have that uses that section of memory.

I am fairly sure you will need to install the 64 bit version for memory usage near or above 4GB.

Z

He's right, a 32 bit operating system will only have enough bits to address up to 3.x GB of RAM before it runs out of digits...

[Curtieson]

Bringing this back up again...

I installed this maybe 2 months ago and just got the new RC last night and yet to install. One hangup I had though was with the browser and NICO. I COULD NOT get into NICO AT ALL! It would constantly crash, try to recover once, crash again and close the window. Very annoying...

But, it gets removed this weekend and I try again with the RC build. Good luck to me

[szh]

Bringing this back up again...

I installed this maybe 2 months ago and just got the new RC last night and yet to install. One hangup I had though was with the browser and NICO. I COULD NOT get into NICO AT ALL! It would constantly crash, try to recover once, crash again and close the window. Very annoying...

But, it gets removed this weekend and I try again with the RC build. Good luck to me

The RC build fixes the problem with NICO and Internet Explorer 8!

Z

[C-Kwik]

I have IE 8 on all my PC's and NICO works fine. IT could be an issue with the early builds. I just installed W7 RC on my desktop this weekend. Looks good. I can't seem to get it to update the windows experience rating though. Well, I should say, it worked fine when I first installed it. Then I updated some drivers for video and it had issues. Would get hung up. Then I reinstalled the entire thing as I suspected some issues with drivers as well. But now that I have gotten it up and running, it still can't update the score. Its possible that it might have to do with the hybrid SLI mode I'm using, but it still couldn't do it when I ran just the discrete card. Vista had no problems updating the score though.

My biggest complaint through is with the control panel. I can't find a way to switch it to classic view. I can't navigate efficiently through the newer menu.

[sr20detox]

Um, you don't understand the basics here. Virus programming is about statistics. The more computers you can infect the better. This is why IE is breached often, because more people try to breach it, therefore more succeed. There is more to be gain from hacking a more popular browser. The perfect example of this is Firefox. When it was scarce it was untouched, now that it has gained popularity it is being hacked more and more frequently. Microsoft operating systems are far more common so they are hacked more often. Apple is not more secure, it is less common. That is it's only line of defense. However, NT based systems are becoming so well protected, that it is now becoming more profitable to hack Apple, since almost every Mac used runs around WITHOUT a virus scan. Apple just issued a release urging it's users to start using virus scan for this very reason.

linux ftw

[turbotaloon95]

I've been running a beta version of Win7 on my Del Mini9 without any issues. It actually runs pretty decent on the Atom processor and 1GB of memory. I ran into some compatability issues on my desktop though with some older hardware and some random applications. Reasons like that I don't plan on switching my main computer from XP just yet.

[Looneybomber]

Hey guys, so what all did you think of W7? It comes out pretty soon and I was thinking of getting it and buying a SSD for my computer since I hear it is optimized to load on a SSD drive.

I sure would like to keep my MCE2005, but I am having an impossible time getting it to work with my new computer. I cloned the drive, yet it still doesnt work...even though the cloned drive works in the old computer.