Windows 7 RC Discussion

[jav6454]

Well, I have/had the Windows 7 Beta build 7000 (official from MS). So, I decided to take the plunge and delete it and install a fresh Windows 7 copy, but this time, it's the updated RC build 7100. I did fresh copy instead of upgrade to get 'better' results.

So far, only some GUI and taskbar changes that I've noticed. Snappier, perhaps.

Intuitive? Not so much, same as any Windows OS... though it's improving.

Bugs, non that I know the Beta had. Other bugs? Very likely. I did however, manage to get the BSOD on Build 7100. I had just finished installing Command and Conquers: Generals and prep'd myself to play when the BSOD popped to say hi.

Edit - By the way I put in the 64-bit flavor of Windows 7

 

[runebinder]

Installed 64 bit version, problem I had was that the Graphics driver (got from Windows Update), stopped working and had to be recovered. This happened a few times.

So installed the 32 bit version, no issues with the graphics driver this time round, however the computer keeps freezing every minute or so for about 5 minutes, so opened task manager and as valvehead mentions, KBDMGR.EXE was spiking the processor to 100% during a freeze. So killed the process and all seems ok now.

Thanks for the pointer valvehead, was well annoying.

 

[Signal-11]

Yeah, there is a Win 7 RC thread over at Fatwallet and the fanboys are going caveman on anyone who dares bring this up. From my totally non-biased perspective -- -- I think its a valid point. A machine that turns itself off every 2 hours is not real useful, and if you have unsaved work left unattended, well...

I'm not sure why M$ took that step. Seems bass ackwards and bound to piss unsuspecting users off. Just what M$ needs right now. It's an RC for freaking sake. They should just let it expire on March 1 if that's what they intend rather than playing some sort of gotcha game.

But hey, a narcoleptic PC would make for a great "I'm a Mac" ad.

I think this attitude is a little short sighted. At least this way, when March 1st rolls around and you haven't had a chance to upgrade or migrate off, you have a functional system with which to do that. There would be other ways, too, but this is two month, limited functionality grace period to figure things out.

I'm skeptical about anything MS does to the point of paranoia, but the ripping MS is getting for this is completely unjustified. The only thing they could have perhaps handled better would have been to announce this beforehand, not the day of the public RC release.

 

[Signal-11]

i would therefore conclude that your experience has been the same as mine, i appreciate that xp is finally going to be allowed to drift into the sunset and make using windows more productive when i need to, but it's still nothing special, except that one may say half-jokingly that it's a great accomplishment for microsoft.

I think XP is going to take a lot longer to die than people think. There are so software ecosystems that rely on XP, from huge enterprise to specialized niches, that you still have people DEMANDING that Microsoft sell them XP licenses. It's a little crazy. XP has been around for so long, it's the only thing people know.

I really like Windows7 but I'm having some trouble adapting to it as my knowledge of XP is hurting me. I keep expecting system behavior that has changed and it feels like half the configuration stuff isn't where it's supposed to be. The new control panel, in either view, is confusing to me because I don't know exactly what I'm looking for.

I'm learning to just hit Win and type, but since I still don't know Win7 terminology, I don't know what to type yet. Very nice that you can just type out commands there though. Not sure if it's better than Win+R yet.

Other minor issues: (Esc^2 ->) Win -> U -> U/R. Ingrained way for me to either reboot or shutdown. Handy when experimenting with displays and settings or just fooling around with hardware. Can't figure out a keyboard shortcut combo on Win7 to do this. Anyone?

The Homegroup networking. Is this between Win7 boxes only? Couldn't figure it out and had to turn it off in order to get filesharing to work again.

 

[edwardlanti]

hey guys how much hours are you guys getting with windows 7? Mines is weird on my unibody MacBook... Like it would say 50% left and it will say 50 mins.. Is that normal?

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

Other minor issues: (Esc^2 ->) Win -> U -> U/R. Ingrained way for me to either reboot or shutdown. Handy when experimenting with displays and settings or just fooling around with hardware. Can't figure out a keyboard shortcut combo on Win7 to do this.

That stopped working in Vista. I liked being able to sleep my comp with just a winkey-U-S, but no more....
I think if you hit winkey-D to go to the desktop then alt-F4 it will being up the shutdown dialog box.

 

[orb1692]

Lol@ Ms

Seems as though Microsoft are still wanting people to buy new Hardware just so they can run their Os again...and so it begins:
http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/4872-cd-dvd-driver-missing-install.html

 

[chewietobbacca]

Seems as though Microsoft are still wanting people to buy new Hardware just so they can run their Os again...and so it begins:
http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/4872-cd-dvd-driver-missing-install.html

So that company screwed up with the drivers for their CD/DVD driver and/or its old and/or the motherboard isn't reading the CD/DVD and suddenly it's MS's fault?

It's a pretty common issue especially if you're running an old PC made by an OEM company that hasn't pushed out driver updates, and its why this is an RC - to get the final kinks finished out.

But hey, kudos points for hating MS i guess

Explain it to me please. This toolbar makes it very annoying to AIM if you are clicking.

Which part of the toolbar? It took a bit for me to get used to the whole thing in general, but I've gotten the hang of it

 

[PeterQC]

hey guys how much hours are you guys getting with windows 7? Mines is weird on my unibody MacBook... Like it would say 50% left and it will say 50 mins.. Is that normal?

You mean the battery? it's completely normal. Windows on a Mac has absolutely no power management.

 

[Stridder44]

Is anyone else having difficulty downloading the Windows 7 RC1?
I keep on getting stuck on this page for long amounts of time.

I had it up for an an hour yesterday and then I tried it for another hour. This morning, I had it up for another half hour.

It doesn't seem to work for me in Safari (Safari 4 beta to be exact). Opened Firefox and everything worked just fine. D/l'ing at 1.17 MB/s

Seems as though Microsoft are still wanting people to buy new Hardware just so they can run their Os again...and so it begins:
http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/4872-cd-dvd-driver-missing-install.html

Well if this one guy is having a problem, CLEARLY everyone is having the problem. Take your head of your butt.

 

[kastenbrust]

You mean the battery? it's completely normal. Windows on a Mac has absolutely no power management.

Funnily enough Windows 7 beta was amazing at conserving my Macbook Pro battery power, but now Windows 7 RC has completely lost that?

 

[Signal-11]

It doesn't seem to work for me in Safari (Safari 4 beta to be exact). Opened Firefox and everything worked just fine. D/l'ing at 1.17 MB/s

Yeah, doesn't run in Chrome, either.

Also, this Win7/Vista bootloader is just goofy as hell. Very inconsistent.

 

[McShizzel]

Installed it into VMware Fusion but aero is unsupported in Fusion (come on VMware give us OpenGL support).

I know it doesn't mean much but check out my amazing Windows Experience Score under Fusion.

As for the OS, it seems to be running well no problems to report.

EDIT: I'm really digging the new wallpapers, very nice.

 

[Keleko]

I took some of the wallpapers and moved them to OS X because I liked them so much.

 

[Mhaddy]

Another for Win 7 RC on Parallels on Early 2008 2.8 Mac Pro. Install was quick and easy and everything seems to be running in tip-top shape. I do notice quite a few "hangs" -- Windows Explorer in particular. I don't know if I am having device/driver/something conflicts, but aside from that, seems pretty nice.

 

[Eidorian]

I took some of the wallpapers and moved them to OS X because I liked them so much.

I move my OS X wallpapers to Windows too.

 

[tubbymac]

I know it doesn't mean much but check out my amazing Windows Experience Score under Fusion.

That score made me laugh. You have the top and low end of the scale covered at the same time, hah!

 

[Signal-11]

I did the same. Then again I move my OS X wallpapers to Windows too.

I dunno. There's never been OS X default backgrounds that are quite so trippy as this batch that came with Win7RC.

It's almost like the boys at Redmond are actually developing taste... and style.

 

[Eidorian]

I dunno. There's never been OS X default backgrounds that are quite so trippy as this batch that came with Win7RC.

It's almost like the boys at Redmond are actually developing taste... and style.

Windows 7 does seem more "fun" to use.

OS X feels very clean and surgical to me. Windows 7 seems to take a lighter note this time around.

 

[dsnort]

It's almost like the boys at Redmond are actually developing taste... and style.

Links, or it didn't happen!

 

[Signal-11]

Links, or it didn't happen!

Here you go.

 

[tubbymac]

It's almost like the boys at Redmond are actually developing taste... and style.

I wouldn't go that far There have always been small pockets in Microsoft with some semblance of style (like the TV Media Center team), but the overall OS still looks like some plastic toy from Fisher Price.

 

[Eidorian]

I wouldn't go that far There have always been small pockets in Microsoft with some semblance of style (like the TV Media Center team), but the overall OS still looks like some plastic toy from Fisher Price.

What's amusing is that the original Luna them for XP was called Fisher Price. Today OS X is called Fisher Price.

Can you point out the Fisher Price in 7? I can see where the Zune/Windows Media Center team's handiwork is on layout and design. The wallpapers are a nice touch as well.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

XP is the poster-child for Fisher Price themes. The blue matte plastic look was cool for about the 3 seconds before you discover windowblinds.

I took some of the wallpapers and moved them to OS X because I liked them so much.

The windows 7 wallpapers are the best to ever ship with an OS, imo. They are just a lot of fun to use. Sounds odd, i know....

It's almost like the boys at Redmond are actually developing taste... and style.

lol.

Windows 7 does seem more "fun" to use.

OS X feels very clean and surgical to me. Windows 7 seems to take a lighter note this time around.

Thats a good way of phrasing it. Windows 7 feels like putting on your shorts and going for a swim in the middle of the day whereas OS X feels like a guy in a tux ushering you around to the different sections of the pool.

 

[tubbymac]

Can you point out the Fisher Price in 7? I can see where the Zune/Windows Media Center team's handiwork is on layout and design. The wallpapers are a nice touch as well.

The icons are where the Fisher Price color scheme is most prevalent. There's just too many colors on the taskbar by default and no consistent design style. If I was in charge I'd get one talented artist to redo every single icon on the taskbar so that it looked like it came from one artistic style instead of getting hundreds of artists that don't seem to talk to each other.

Compare it to the OSX icons on the dock which look very well together.