SillyDog701

by **James** » Thu 08 Jan, 2009 11:23 am

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090108/ ... icrosoft_1

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by **Mandrake** » Fri 09 Jan, 2009 2:50 am

Thanks for the link James. We can use this thread for all Windows Seven discussion and posting screenshots, user experiences etc. As my UA string clearly shows, I'm currently using the beta. I'll update this later on with some screenshots, my own experiences and opinions etc.

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by **James** » Fri 09 Jan, 2009 6:16 pm

Great, Mandrake. I'll be very interested in hearing your comments.

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by **Mandrake** » Sat 10 Jan, 2009 6:21 am

Here's a first batch of screenshots: (click the thumbnails for full size versions)

Windows Seven includes some nice wallpapers, this is my current desktop. You can see the new taskbar as well.

This shot shows off a feature of the new taskbar. All my Firefox Windows are grouped under a single Firefox icon. By simply mousing over the icon, I get a thumbnail preview of those Windows. All I need to do is left click a Window to activate that window. I can also mouse over the thumbnails, which will display the window on screen.

I moused over the Firefox window that had the BBC website open and there it is, on the screen.

The default wallpaper.

The revised start menu.

Performance scores for my system. Note that the hard disk score is low because I installed Windows on an old spare 160GB drive.

The updated networking center.

Revised UAC controls.

A full screen Firefox 3 window. Windows are now translucent even when in full screen mode with Aero enabled.

Updated Games application.

Applications like Paint now use the ribbon menu system from Office 2007.

More to come later.

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by **Antony** » Sat 10 Jan, 2009 8:15 am

thanks for the screenshots.

Waiting to see more screenshots and your experience after you've played it longer.

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by **iJohnE** » Sat 10 Jan, 2009 9:44 am

Very cool Mandrake.

In your opinion, how is it preforming?

(I know it's still in Beta, but still.)

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by **Mandrake** » Sat 10 Jan, 2009 9:54 am

UPDATE: Anyone wishing to try the beta can do so by downloading the ISO image direct from MS. Without a product key you can only use the beta for thirty days however.

Anyone after more screenshots should take a look at Paul Thurrot's site, there's tons to look at.

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by **Mandrake** » Sat 10 Jan, 2009 10:16 am

How have I enjoyed using Windows Seven? Did I enjoy it? Is it stable?

Before we get into that, it's important to note that I am running the beta on a fast Core 2 Duo system with 8G RAM and a Geforce GTX 260 video card.

Microsoft's 'requirements' include a 1GHz Pentium 3 CPU and 1GB of ram. I wouldn't even want to try running it on a system like that. My own recommendations would be as follows:

Minimum:

Pentium 4 3GHz CPU
2GB RAM
DirectX 9 video card with 128MB memory

Recommended:

Dual Core CPU
4GB RAM
DirectX 9 video card with 128MB memory

Now that I've got that out of the way. I'll get to my own experiences with the Windows Seven Beta.

I performed a clean install on my system, dual booting with Windows Vista SP1. This was easy to do. Firstly, I emptied a 160GB HDD in Vista, and then rebooted and booted from the Windows Seven DVD. I chose to do a clean install, and formatted the 160GB HDD. Then Windows Seven was installed on that drive.

The install process is very easy. After you answer a few questions the installer lets you know that you've provided it with all the necessary information. I just went and read a book for a while, and when I came back the install was done. You then get asked for your username and password, and are asked to choose a computer name. Following that Windows runs some performance tests and detects the native resolution of your monitor.

I then logged into the Windows Seven desktop for the first time. Windows had already enabled Aero and set my resolution to 1920x1200. A quick check in the device manager showed that Windows had installed drivers for everything but my Auzentech sound card. I quickly set my TCP/IP settings (IP address etc.) for my NIC and then took a a quick trip to Auzentech's website to grab the latest Vista drivers. I installed those and had full audio capabilities. I also updated the Nvidia GeForce drivers for maximum performance, again the Vista drivers worked perfectly.

I ran Windows Update and it found some Acer G24 drivers for my monitor and some updated Windows Defender definitions. I installed those along with an update from Microsoft that fixed the MP3 corruption issue with the Windows Seven Beta.

Following that I started installing applications like Firefox, Foxit Reader, Messenger and so forth. I also noticed that my Vista hard disk wasn't visible in 'My Computer'. A quick check in disk management had shown that the drive was there, it just didn't have a drive letter assigned to it. I assigned a driver letter and then had full access to my Vista drive.

Following installing a few applications and games that I regularly use, I've been using Windows Seven as my main OS for the last 48 hours or so. It's been very reliable for a beta version, with no crashes or anything like that. It's incredibly responsive as well, applications and Windows itself clearly load faster than under Windows Vista. A quick check of the the frame-rates in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare show performance right on par with what you'd get in Windows Vista.

Perhaps the coolest thing I found thus far is the standby mode. After a while of being idle my monitor goes into standby mode, and then soon after the whole PC does as well. All the case fans, video card fan and CPU fan are powered off. But the amazing thing is that with it only takes a single click of the mouse and literally three seconds later I'm staring at my desktop - exactly as I left it. That's just utterly outstanding.

In concluding, I'd have to say that my experiences with the Windows Seven Beta have been overwhelmingly positive. It's clear that this is a refinement of Windows Vista. It's comparable to the transition from Windows 2000 to XP, rather than the massive differences between XP and Vista. Despite that, just love this OS. I'm going to make the beta version my primary OS for the foreseeable future. It's just that good. You can bet for sure I'll be picking this up the day it's released!

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by **James** » Sat 10 Jan, 2009 11:52 am

Thanks for the thorough review, Mandrake. I'm sure we all found it very interesting. It sounds and looks like a winner.

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by **beanboy89** » Sat 10 Jan, 2009 4:17 pm

I have Windows 7 installed in Virtual PC 2007 on my main desktop. I'll post some screenshots of it a bit later after I've had some time to play around with it.

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by **Pu7o** » Sat 10 Jan, 2009 4:48 pm

Some screenshots of Windows "7" (Click the thumbnail for a full size version):

(Windows "7" with Aero turned off)

(Windows "7" with the Classic theme)

An annoyance I encountered: When connecting to a remote SMB share, this thing refuses to allow me to login with any domain other than "puto-PC", which pretty much keeps me from logging in at all, seeing as "puto-PC\puto" isn't a valid user on my server (just "puto", on the other hand, is).

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by **beanboy89** » Sat 10 Jan, 2009 5:11 pm

Here are my Windows 7 screenshots: http://billy.mozfaq.org/misc/win7_ss/

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by **iJohnE** » Sat 10 Jan, 2009 10:45 pm

It's looking like Windows 7 is something I will have to save up for.

I am downloading the Trial right now, and will post screen shots and such when I have them.

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by **iJohnE** » Sun 11 Jan, 2009 12:54 am

Mandrake wrote:UPDATE: Anyone wishing to try the beta can do so by downloading the ISO image direct from MS. Without a product key you can only use the beta for thirty days however.

Anyone after more screenshots should take a look at Paul Thurrot's site, there's tons to look at.

Where can one obtain a product key?

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by **Mandrake** » Sun 11 Jan, 2009 1:41 am

iJohnE wrote:Where can one obtain a product key?

Only from Technet now.

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