Windows 7

[Spazosaurus]

Hmmmm. Freezes and slowdowns? None of that experienced here. It does feel like a beta os in terms of driver support for certain 'exotic' hardware having various issues.

I dual booted win7 with xp on my work laptop. I was able to add the machine to our ministry's domain, run office communicator, outlook, servicedesk and symantec ghost corporate without any fuss at all. I did notice several issues though.

1) The driver for the dvd burner doesnt properly re-initialise after the device has been disconnected and reconnected. A reboot is required to have it working again. (A bit annoying)

2) My wireless rfid mouse is touchy when the system reboots. Sometimes it would be detected and work properly. Other times the driver would not initialize properly. I have to isolate the cause of this as i am still unsure as to what triggers the problem.

3) The new Franklin usb ev-do devices from tstt doesnt work with the supplied driver. Again, would have to test the out more closely.

Anybody else realise that all the problems that i've listed are directly related to the usb root hub?

I'm wondering if its the laptop's docking station thats causing the havock.

Lappy is a Dell Latitude D430, specs are as follows:

1.33ghz ultra low voltage core 2 duo cpu
120gig hdd
2gb ddr2
Intel gma 950 graphics.

Apart from the above mentioned issues, the OS runs well. Resources are not hogged like Vista does it. I found that it uses only slightly more ram than xp. cpu usage is also quite low most of the time, on par with xp.

For a brand new beta os though, 5 thumbs up.

On my home machine after leaving it folding all day, ram usage stands at 1.75/8gigs. In comparison, by now, vista would have sucked on 4gigs PLUS!

Apart from some program compatibility issues, all of my other programs and hardware run well. There's no problem I met that i coldnt not solve. Gaming is on par, could be a little faster than Vista and all. Will have to do a direct frame to frame comparison to confirm, however.

All in all, this is the best beta experience ever.

[daniboy79]

I mangaed to aquire the 7, and it installed perfectly on my Eee.

so far (after about an hour of playin) it appears that Windows Live Messenger is unstable in this version. It crashes a lot!

overall I really like this OS better than Vista, and I can see the subtle changes that they've made in the UI that so crippled Vista  B-)

[Spazosaurus]

Windows Live messenger is rock stable for me...then again im using the 2009 beta...

[daniboy79]

hmmmm

i'm not sure which version the one i'm using is, cuz it keeps crashing, lol


edit:

I just managed to catch the version; 2009 build 14.0.8050.1202

[Spazosaurus]

i'm using that exact version....it hasnt crashed at all with me....strange....

If you got one from two months ago, then that is definitely the alpha release, since the 64bit version of beta1 came out this year.

[daniboy79]

I'm gonna try a repair in add/remove. hope it works

[Crixx_Creww]

15 minute install??? great scotts!

[Spazosaurus]

That amount of install time sounds about right. These new os's sure are big, but quick to install.

[woodyear99]

umm would that entail less money for MS?? lolz @ that idea

LOL for sure

[daniboy79]

WLM definately won't work on this system :S

...I'm uninstallin it and goin back to 8.5 ...hope that one works!

and 8.5 works like a charm

[Arcmanov]

Well boy...can I say that Windows 7 could be meh future new hoss?

As far as Windows betas go, I think M$ has hit this one out the park.  This OS
has an amazing amount of polish.  Everything just 'works' now.  Boot time is
considerably faster than Vista, and the 1st-boot annoyances have been all but eliminated.

Some Pros:

 - IE8...thats it.  I'm speechless.  Love how tabs are grouped by colour (depending on browsing sequence)

 - Jump lists.  I'm an instant fan.  Apps that open files now have a list associated whenever you hover over that
   app in the Start menu, showing files recently accessed.

 - Instant Window docking.  Dragging windows to different screen edges does different things.  Left/right side = dock window.
   Top = maximize.

 - Taskbar.  Now you can configure how the taskbar behaves with shortcuts, and 'pinned' programs.  Now, apps/windows are
   smartly grouped according to 'origin'.  You can even revert to the traditional taskbar if you want.  Hovering the mouse over a group
   shows you all the associated windows in thumbnail view, so you can pick the one you want to navigate to instantly.
   A little 'show desktop' button in the far right corner instantly makes all windows transparent when you hover over it, showing the desktop.
   Now you can also completely reorder the icons in the system tray, or even choose which ones to show, or none at all.

   All in all, I love that new taskbar.

 - The dreaded UAC is much less intrusive, and its behaviour can be tailored via a slider.  In Vista its either on, or off.
   In Windows 7, you can leave it on, but not have it nag you for every little system change.

 - Look and feel.  Its plainly obvious that a LOT more work was put into the look of the UI.  The Aero theme is simply stunning
   to look at (if you have a proper video-card of course).  There's a nice selection of Aero themes included, and a link is present
   to download more.  Selecting a theme this time changes desktop background, window border colours, screensavers AND sounds
   all at once.  Very slick.  You can still mix and match all those to your liking though.

 - Driver compatibility.  Of course, I tried the 64-bit version, and was very happy to note that (almost) all existing Vista x64 drivers
   worked without issue, save for the sound, but the W7 supllied driver worked just fine.  Even the Vista x64 Radeon driver 8.12 worked
   on my HD4670, which is interesting, because it did NOT work on my HD4870X2 on Vista.

 - Software compatibilty.  So far, most of my apps that work in Vista x64 work just fine here.

 - THE PRON WORKS!!!    VERY important!!!




Cons:

 - Well, its a beta.

 - Daemon Tools won't work.  The devs have stated that they do not support beta OSes, so Ultra ISO will have to do.

 - Trying hard to think of some more cons, but I really can't.  Its just that good.





Comparing this to the Vista RC1 is like comparing a Subaru Impreza to a Nissan B13.
I am totally impressed by this beta.  GG M$ GG.

...and what would an Arcman preliminary user impression be without the obligatory benchmark...



The geek in me just HAD to.  After all, we MUST make sure we can bench the thing for the obvious
Vista comparisons.

Gaming performance impressions to follow...

[Spazosaurus]

Yip yip. And those are just SOME of the new features to be found on 7. Here's a list of 30 new features that can be found.

Point of note: PowerISO also works.

I'll have to do a bit of benchmarking of my own for comparison for real.

]

^^3d06. Vantage to come later.

[Arcmanov]

Benchies for breakfast yes.  I like you.   *awards chakra*

Now THAT is what I call 'enthusiast'.
I seeing so many apps there, I'm inclined to think you're now using this beta as your primary rig's OS.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Spazosaurus]

^^ A A, yuh saying that like yuh eh sure. Primary OS since Saturday and loving it.

[daniboy79]

Have you guys noticed that WEI ratings are much lower than with Vista in the equivalent system? lol

[Spazosaurus]

Have you guys noticed that WEI ratings are much lower than with Vista in the equivalent system? lol

Yes...Not like Vista where almost right out the bat men was top scoring in its ratings. This way, it will take at least a year or more for even the top end systems to score a full 7.9.


As promised...Vantage scores in Win 7.



(Ignore the 2 instances od CPU-Z lol)


I must say, sensors indicate monster kill levels of epic win over vista, especially when you COMPARE RESULTS I OBTAINED LAST YEAR WITH THE SAME SYSTEM!!! (see screen in reply #20) Granted my GPU clock was 20mhz higher but my CPU speed was 100 mhz LOWER!

For the lazy ones...In August 2008 with my current system, Vantage score was P9196 @ 3.5ghz cpu, 620/1100 gpu under Vista 64 and now in Jan 09, the score stands at P10,195 at 3.4ghz cpu and 640/1100 in win7. Either ATI finally learnt ho to make drivers or Win7 win bad bad.

And remember this is a beta os eh...

[Arcmanov]

O_O oh my stars and garters.

Did I not SAY this OS was da shiznit!!?
You makin me feel like installing this on my main rig, but that is too much headache
with file transfers right now.  There's always the LAN rig though. (hmmm  *rubs chin* )

[W1nTry]

Well I am running Windows 7 on a VM and making this post as I type. It's decent so far (obviously with a VM I don't have the benefit of Hardware Video acceleration) though without it being native i'll miss some of the bells and whistles. The VM uses a 20GB partition and get this 512MB of RAM O_O. And no real complaints so far. Then again what am I really doing apart from browsing XD. Will continue to use it to 'evaluate' win7 as my next OS purchase.

[Spazosaurus]

Yeah. I ran it in a virtual machine for a while, but you simply cannot get a good feel for the os through virtualization. An install on actual hardware is mandatory.

[Philosophical45]

ok i just joined the bandwagon and got this muhh fugga. I must admit, it's noticably faster than Vista to me, which was snappy to me anyways. But windows 7 just seems to have the extra umph. Haven't played up much in it, but i do like the fact that i didn't have to go driver hunting, all that i needed was installed already via windows update. I'm definitely liking the taskbar, and the jump list feature. Also who woulda thunk that IE would be this good. Hmm M$ really came good with this one, will be testing it whenever i have time. I just installed it on an old 80gig IDE  drive i use for testing other os's. Will run a vantage benchmark and a 3dmark bench also to compare to my vista scores at a later date. This is definitely looking like the new massive quantity of epic win to make hardened XP users upgrade.