Windows 7 Beta (1 Viewer)

[Bryan X]

Anyone download and install the Windows 7 Beta that became available January 9th? I downloaded it but haven't installed it yet.

 

[David Norman]

I did. It was a clean install last night on a computer I built in early December that isn't being used for anything so far so I figured why not play with the new toy on the block.

AMD X2 4850e
ASRock A780FullDisplayPort AM2+ MB
2GB DD2 RAM
2 DVD Writers
320GB single SATA HD (no raid setup)
PowerDVD seems to function well

No Games, I don't have a BluRay player unfortunately though that was one of the options when I built the computer about using it for a HTPC.
Win 7 Beta 1 64bit

Haven't done anything fancy with it so far, but it's handled everything without a glitch. I haven't had to search for any drivers so far. It even recognized my built in video driver and Linksys wireless network card (I'm not using at present) and installed basic drivers on the first Windows Update

Mozilla3 and IE7 worked as expected
Backed up some DVD's without a hitch using Slysoft.
Installed AVG Antivirus without an issue.

I haven't quite figured out how to make My Home Network behave exactly right yet, but everything else is still XP SP3. I expect this is more user problem than software since I skipped Vista completely and am still learning some of the differences.

Simple install, the OS seems quite responsive, load times are definately quicker than XP was, my internet speed was better than it had been on XP though I;m at a bit of a loss why. Speedtest.net got me above 20mbps which is 6-7 mb faster than my Main computers now and 3-4mbps faster than this same computer was when I had XP loaded.

 

[Bryan X]

I'm anxious to install it and check it out (I'm running Vista on three machines and XP on one older one). The only spare PC I have around is just an 866GHz machine so I don't know if it will handle Windows 7. I don't want to install the Beta on my wife's laptop or my son's PC. I played it dangerous with the Vista RC2 and installed that on my main PC. Fortunately I ran in to zero problems, but I don't want to take that chance again.

Have you used Vista at all? I'm really curious about the comparison with Vista. I'm one of the few on the planet who don't think Vista is worse than XP.

 

[David Norman]

I never used Vista at all. At home I just left everything with XP. At work they're still using some variation of XP Pro.

Honestly, I've had little issue with Win7 so far though I'm not running anything at all difficult so I'm not really the greatest beta tester. Overall some minor cosmetic differences between XP and W7, but I haven't had a hard time at all with any older program I've loaded or used. It was a lot more work between Windows 3 and Win95 or 95 to XP. If this is Beta, I can't wait to see the real deal.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

How long can you continue using the beta? When is its expiration?

 

[Sam Posten]

I did an install on my oldest box last night, liking what I see so far but then again I don't have an issue with Vista now that it's been patched up a bit since launch. Still pref my Mac Pro tho! Impressions of Win7 in a few days, i suppose. Ron, the Beta expires in August and while MS has not firmly set a release date the presumed ship date is "Early July."

Does MS do any kind of special purchase program for those who actively file bug reports on betas?

 

[Edwin-S]

Bloody MicroSoft. I have been using Windows Vista 64 bit on my laptop for about a year. Now, MS is bringing out another new operating system this early. That most likely means the abandonment of Vista. MS should be offering Vista users a free upgrade to Windows 7 when the bugs are worked out.

 

[Jay H]

Which makes me think I should wait or not... the perpetual question. I've started to look at getting a new laptop with Vista-64 SP1, 4gigs of ram, but wondering if I should wait for Windows 7 to go live and populate for a bit....

Jay

 

[Zack Gibbs]

I wouldn't call the release of 7 early, Vista was just very very late. There's generally been a 3 year release window between significant consumer Windows.

I've been dual booting XP64 and Vista 32 for two years and when Win7 beta went public I essentially replaced both of them with it. I've still got XP on another drive if I need it but the beta is solid, fast, and does everything I needed the other two for and more.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Here's the link:
Download the Windows 7 Beta

The coach turns back into a pumpkin (sadly not Fluffy) on 1 August.

 

[Sam Posten]

Tim Sneath : The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets

 

[Bryan X]

I finally got around to installing Windows 7 Beta this weekend. I ended up creating a dual boot on my PC with Windows Vista/Windows 7.

So far no problems and it seems to be a very nice OS. I doubt I'll upgrade from Vista when the time comes. But if I were still running XP, I would do the upgrade.

 

[bobbyg2]

Is Windows 7 just as bloating as Vista? Or did they fix that with this new release?

 

[David Norman]

I think the consensus has been Windows7 is a much tighter/leaner OS.

OTOH this not going to run on a old computer with 64 RAM like Linux. I'm tempted to try loading it on an old P3 800MHz with 256RAM just to see if it will run at all.