I just wanted to let all the aluminum macbook owners know that the latest Windows 7 beta (build 6956) runs great in boot camp. I was worried when I first installed because most of the device drivers were not recognized. I tried the drivers off the OS X install disk and they worked great. I will have to test it more but it is running very fast!!
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Windows 7
- Thread starter CBeckstrand
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Hi there! I have the windows 7 build 6801 currently installed in my MBP Late 08 but with some problems like wireless adapter cannot be installed/found. this actually happened when I imported my windows 7 boot camp partition to vmware as a VM. i installed the boot camp drivers but it didn't help. Could you please try importing your windows 7 BC to VMware and see if you'll be getting these glitches also. And I'm hoping you have VMWare. Haha... Can't wait for your next post. Thanks!
6956 is buggy. It's still a alpha/pre-beta.
The interface is a bit more polished over 6801, but performance is a bit off compared to Vista SP1.
Aero can slow down occasionally (this isn't on a MBP or any Apple product, it's on my gaming PC with an 8800GTS 512 mb). I used the drivers that came with Windows 7 and drivers from Nvidia, both yielding about the same result (actually, I found it a bit more buggy with Nvidia's drivers, but they were intended for Vista).
Boot time seems to be better, and the new boot screen is nice. It's about comparable to when I first installed Vista 64-bit Ultimate on a fresh install. But boot up does seem a tad faster, especially if you have gadgets on your desktop. In Vista, Windows Sidebar can really impact boot time. It seems a lot better in Windows 7.
One thing that's great is that Windows 7 only load necessary services and loads services when you need them. This is especially noticeable in the task manager, with the number of processes around 33 (I don't have anti-virus installed, since I don't intend to do much with it). Supposedly, 7 will unload these services when you don't need them anymore. Hopefully, this means that we don't have to go into services.msc and configure what services are running.
Also, there is finally a wallpaper switcher. It acts just like the one in Mac OS X, and all I can say is, "It's about time!"
There's also a few new games. Not really new, but if anyone remembers Internet Chess, and Internet Backgammon and another Internet game, that was in XP. Well, all the Internet games disappeared in Vista (since ALL the games in Vista were recreated, as many of the games in XP had been around since the Windows 95 era and a few I think in Windows 3.1, like Minesweeper and I think Solitaire). Well, they are back. I don't know if they were in 6801, but they're in 6956. Unfortunately, since this build was never intended to widely released, nobody was playing, so I can't comment on how they would run.
Overall, the build is a good one. It's kind of obvious that it was never intended to be released to the public. It makes a great presentation build.
Build 6801 was supposed to be a pretty stable build, but many of the features that make Windows 7, Windows 7, were disabled by default (like the superbar, and aero peek) and were never supposed to be enabled by us. In fact, Microsoft never showed of 6801 with all the features. I believe they showed of 6933.
I think Beta 1 (supposed to released in January, I think the 13th) will be much better in terms of stability and overall buggyness. This build is probably pretty close to what Beta 1 will have in terms of features (since in 6801, some of the new aero features seemed incomplete, such as aero peek). However, I'm sure quite a few of the bugs will be fixed. I already have a few that I will send to MS if they're not fixed by Beta 1 regarding explorer refreshing the folder's contents and stuff like that.
I loaded up my Windows 7 boot camp partition tonight in VMWare. I also had no network drivers detected but I shut down the VM and changed the network mode to NAT. Once I rebooted it detected the device and my VM is online. Obviously Aero does not work but everything else seams to be fine. I really need to upgrade to 4 GB of ram though.
6956 is working quite nicely on my alu 2.0ghz macbook.
Bootcamp drivers work fine, aero is working.. really like the aero peek function.. it feels faster than 6801 did for me.. although the backend of things isn't any different speed wise from Vista, the UI feels faster.. and has some welcome tweaks to the more annoying parts of vista like UAC.
I love the new taskbar.. especially with small icons and setting the color and transparency of the taskbar and window glass to match the background... it really helps the task bar become virtually invisible, except for the icons.
Definitely looking forward to Beta 1.
What I'd really like to see is a way to set taskbar color and window border color separately.. maybe they will add this feature or it will be available through a third party add-on... this thing is just around the corner.
Also, I don't know if this exists in previous versions of media center, but it has MSN Internet TV integrated into media center in Windows 7 6956.
Bootcamp drivers work fine, aero is working.. really like the aero peek function.. it feels faster than 6801 did for me.. although the backend of things isn't any different speed wise from Vista, the UI feels faster.. and has some welcome tweaks to the more annoying parts of vista like UAC.
I love the new taskbar.. especially with small icons and setting the color and transparency of the taskbar and window glass to match the background... it really helps the task bar become virtually invisible, except for the icons.
Definitely looking forward to Beta 1.
What I'd really like to see is a way to set taskbar color and window border color separately.. maybe they will add this feature or it will be available through a third party add-on... this thing is just around the corner.
Also, I don't know if this exists in previous versions of media center, but it has MSN Internet TV integrated into media center in Windows 7 6956.
Sorta true, but before it was a rectangle that represented a window, now there are icons... The Dock has icons to represent windows/open apps. Not going into the MS copy Apple thing, but it was just a little bit of humor.
I see it more as an expansion of the quick launch. While I agree, there are similarities, there are more differences than similarities though.
I hope that in the end it really is a good product and maybe... just MAYBE, they'll have learned a thing or two about creating a more solid product. Here's cheering for the enemy
I hope that in the end it really is a good product and maybe... just MAYBE, they'll have learned a thing or two about creating a more solid product. Here's cheering for the enemy
I have to agree with you on this one! The stronger the competition, the better all the products become. I hope Windows 7 is a real knock-out of an OS.
One thing I have noticed is how busy the interface is, though. Comparing Control Panel in 7 to Preferences in Leopard, the difference is remarkable. Preferences is very elegant, click an icon to change something and done! In 7, you have a choice of views, and even then, you can sometimes choose an icon, sometimes choose something from the context menu on the side or another way altogether. MS should work on simplifying this sorta stuff. Too much choice is not a good thing.
Damo
Interesting article:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3240
"I havent yet found a Mac or Linux user who feels tempted back to Windows based on what theyve seen in Windows 7."
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=3240
"I havent yet found a Mac or Linux user who feels tempted back to Windows based on what theyve seen in Windows 7."
I can agree with that article. I find that I like Windows 7. They took Vista and built upon it. However, I find it to have a lot of features that have been included in OS X for years. Windows 7 seems to take ideas on the dock, expose, etc. I like how Microsoft has integrated these new features, but they do not compare to the superiority that they have been developed in OS X. Windows 7 build 7000 is running real smooth for being a beta.
Already having bought Vista for over $100, I would not buy Windows 7 if it was over $130. If I was a full-time Windows user I would probably upgrade no matter the price. At the moment, there is nothing ground breaking in my mind to justify a high retail price for a part-time user.
I see Windows 7 as a good improvement, but nothing that will change my mind on using OS X.
I wish MS would just make less versions, maybe 1 version for consumers and 1 for business (corporate, enterprise edition, etc).
Seriously, 6 editions of Vista??
SIX!?!?
I thought this company were business genious's!
Yea Like Windows ME and Windows 2000 xD
or like 98 and NT
or like XP Home and Xp pro
But only 4 of them you can actually buy.
Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium, Vista Business and Vista Ultimate. Windows 7 is expected to keep the same line up.
The other two are Starter and Enterprise. Starter is OEM only and available in 3rd world countries and Enterprise is only available to businesses with a Volume License key.
XP technically had 5 versions, XP Starter, XP Home, XP Pro, and XP Media Center Edition and XP Tablet PC edition (yup, it is a seperate version).
Microsoft took XP Media Center and XP Tablet PC edition (the feature set) and merged them with various versions of Vista.
Hey guys, a quick question. Did you guys download Windows 7 beta and then burn it to a disk to do the install?
Also, it looks like these beta's are only good for a month. What do you guys plan then? Delete the partition and start over with a newer version on install?
Thanks
Also, it looks like these beta's are only good for a month. What do you guys plan then? Delete the partition and start over with a newer version on install?
Thanks
The 30 day limitation is pretty harsh, but that's how betas and alpha releases are. It would be nice, now that the beta release of 7 is rumored to be better than Vista, to have that limitation removed, but then you'd probably want the next release, too.
It should be good for 120 days. All you have to do is open up cmd prompt and type "slmgr -rearm" (I think thats right), and it will restart the trial period up to 3 times (make sure you do it at the end of each 30 days so you get the maximum amount of time since it doesnt add days and can only be done 3 times). Its a part of Windows, not a crack or patch.
+ XP 64bit
Please, oh please, tell me how MS has copied the dock other than removing titles from apps int he taskbar? The Taskbar is 4198746846 times better at handling multiple windows of the same app and really hasnt changed other than the large icons and no lables. Oh yes, they have program grouping turned on by default.