Windows 7

**Hagarthehorrible** · January 12th, 2009, 12:53 PM

I couldn't find an appropriate spot for this thread, so I figured here is as good as any. Has anyone else out there downloaded Windows 7 yet? I managed to snag a 32 & 64 bit build of "7" but have yet to install it. I'd be interested in hearing what luck everyone else had had with this promising beta.

**NooNoo** · January 12th, 2009, 01:15 PM

Are you on the beta team?

**Ferrit** · January 12th, 2009, 01:22 PM

They offered it for public download with registration
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...-download.aspx

http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...FRE_EN_DVD.ISO

**Hagarthehorrible** · January 12th, 2009, 01:26 PM

Yup. This is the third time 'round for me. I has XP when it was still Whistler, Vista when it was still Longhorn and now "7". I'm still backing up files (if I toast any of the family photos I fear the wrath of my wife) and am in the process of selecting an anti-virus system.

From what I see so far, this looks like 7 may arrive early.

**Ferrit** · January 12th, 2009, 01:31 PM

I have it loaded in virtual pc and from what I see it looks like Vista SP2

**MobilePCPhysician** · January 12th, 2009, 01:37 PM

I've got Virtual PC on xp sp3 and vista sp1. Would it load on either? Or does it have to be Vista?

**NooNoo** · January 12th, 2009, 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by Hagarthehorrible

Yup. This is the third time 'round for me. I has XP when it was still Whistler, Vista when it was still Longhorn and now "7". I'm still backing up files (if I toast any of the family photos I fear the wrath of my wife) and am in the process of selecting an anti-virus system.

From what I see so far, this looks like 7 may arrive early.

See you in the newsgroups then!

Ferrit, it doesn't look like sp2, I have sp2, it doesn't look anything like it!!
It is however built on the Vista codebase, but it has some interesting new additions and subtractions.

**NooNoo** · January 12th, 2009, 01:50 PM

Originally Posted by MobilePCPhysician

I've got Virtual PC on xp sp3 and vista sp1. Would it load on either? Or does it have to be Vista?

It doesn't upgrade, it's a clean install. If the hardware runs Vista it will run Win 7 and 90% of the vista drivers work in Win7.... kinda the way 2k drivers would work in XP.

**Ferrit** · January 12th, 2009, 03:24 PM

I need to look more but from what I have seen and all that I have read from reviews it's basically SP2 for Vista.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=9367
http://www.businesspundit.com/give-w...away-for-free/
http://www.cloudave.com/link/free-up...but-not-enough

**NooNoo** · January 12th, 2009, 03:33 PM

Originally Posted by Ferrit

I need to look more but from what I have seen and all that I have read from reviews it's basically SP2 for Vista.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=9367
http://www.businesspundit.com/give-w...away-for-free/
http://www.cloudave.com/link/free-up...but-not-enough

Ummm none of those are reviews, they are opinions about what those authors think M$ should do...

What we have here is PR fight. I will start taking them seriously when I see some technical reviews.... something these authors probably aren't up for.

**BOB IROC** · January 12th, 2009, 05:02 PM

Loaded it today on My Vista x64 Host OS. I am using VirtualBox and running Windows 7 x64. So far it has the overall feel of Vista. Seems to use about 25% less memory than Vista though from just using it for a couple hours today installing applications to see what will run/not run on it. So far my McAfee 8.5 enterprise will not install and says it has known compatibility issues with this version of Windows. I will post more if I find anything compelling.

One thing I am not sure on is the task bar. It is a big change on how it handles running programs and grouping programs. Takes a little getting used to.

I may also find a non used actual computer and run it on that to get a better sense on how it works on actual computer hardware. I am attacking this early as I think my organization is going to skip Vista and go to Win7 in 2010 (or whenever it is released)

**Niclo Iste** · January 12th, 2009, 06:55 PM

Talked to my buddy today and told him what you all thought of Win 7. He then told me he got the beta also. His general feeling is it's more like Vista Mk II which makes sense. Remember ME sucked horribly then immediately afterward XP came out. If you looked at ME and XP you saw they kept the good things ME had going for it and just migrated them to XP and made a better NTFS based OS. XP just was an overhauled concept of ME with the knowledge of what was inherently wrong with ME they knew what to leave out. Ironically you'd think MS would have learned the first time around and expected them to do something better than offer what felt like an alpha release to the public with vista. Someone should tell MS to do actual project testing with techs and home users instead of inhouse developers and some criteria approved techs. Not to mention I'm sure they ignored 90% of the "negative" feedback that was advising them what they were doing was not going to go over well. Now I'm not bashing MS I just want them to do a little better customer feedback relations. Think of how great the next OS would be if they took good advice and utilized it.

P.S.
I don't believe in paragraphs when I freeflow my typing from thought to text. If I write a book or report I'll focus on it but when I'm letting my thoughts out it's best not to interrupt the thought process or I'll forget what I had to say.

**xpuser357** · January 12th, 2009, 08:18 PM

Just to add. Millennium only ran about a year. now vista is going out as well??

**Hagarthehorrible** · January 12th, 2009, 08:32 PM

Originally Posted by MobilePCPhysician

I've got Virtual PC on xp sp3 and vista sp1. Would it load on either? Or does it have to be Vista?

If you're running XP only, then it is either a clean install or dual boot. If you have Vista with SP1 you can upgrade, dual boot ot clean install.

My plan is to try the upgrade. Will post the results tomorrow.

**BOB IROC** · January 12th, 2009, 08:56 PM

I know lots of people compare Windows Vista to Me but thats not a fair comparison. I also believe Me was rushed together and released based of Win98 code because many people confused Windows 2000 as an upgrade for Windows 98. Having been using Vista for 2 years now on all my computers (2 at home, and two for work) I really have to say that many of the so called Vista problems are exhaggerated and most are not faults of the OS at all. The only thing I have found wrong with Vista is that it IS a resource hog and really needs 2GB+ of ram and recent hardware to run optimally. Other than that I have found little incompatibilities with some software which I cannot fully blame on Microsoft. Companies like Adobe with their CS2 suite on Vista did not work right and even when they released CS3 it had issues with 64bit Vista that had to be patched. Intuit (The makers of Quickbooks) had issues with Quickbooks 2007 on Vista. Both of these companies failed (IMO) to address their software to make sure it would work on Vista before Vista came out. Vista was in Beta for over a year and a half and I have seen tech docs of Microsoft warning these companies of the potential problems and what needed to be addressed and yet it seems they went ignored. Other than that every 32bit app that was designed for 2000/XP has run fine on Vista x86 and X64 (that I have used). 16bit apps do not run but that was expected. The only exceptions were Antivirus software which seemed to have 64bit engines ready and drivers. Some companies chose not to write Vista drivers and again that is NOT Microsofts fault.

When I talk to people about thier complaints about Vista I usually get things like my older printer/scanner/or other peripheral does not work with Vista and they immediatly blame windows and not the manufacturer for writing an appropriate driver.

Other complaints include slowness and every computer that I have touched that came with Vista that ran poorly was loaded with "Crapplications" loaded by either the OEM or by the end user. Removal of those programs or a fresh install of Vista and every one of those users were amazed on how much better the computer ran.

Lastly the other people complained about performance bought the Vista Upgrade (or got a pirated version) and installed it on their 3+ year old computer that was a low end $399 special to begin with.

People have called me a MS fanboy but I have never had Vista Crash, Blue Screen, or lock up on me due to something wrong with the OS. Actually in two years the only problem I can remember with one of the 4 computers I have running Vista was caused by a Hard Drive failure.

Ok I am done with my Rant and will close by saying that Vista (while not perfect) was and is a good OS. Vista SP2 and Windows 7 will improve upon that and that will be a good thing.