Windows 7 Beta

[Brendan]

Er, March actually. See above^.

My source.

Second (this is the brilliant part) Microsoft is releasing Windows 7 RC May 5th to anyone who wants to download it - AND it will be good until June 1, 2010.

I can assure you with 100% confidence that the kernel timebomb date is March 1st, 2010.

[Brendan]

I'm so torn.  Do I install this as a dual-boot on my Vista system? Install over Vista? Wait for it to come out retail?  So torn!

Do you have a secondary partition already setup?  If so, dual-boot is painless to try.

Alternately, we now support boot from VHD (if you upgrade BCD to the Win 7 version).

[Chaz]

Unfortunately, I don't have my drive setup with multiple partitions, just the one big one.

[Brendan]

Well, you could resize your boot partition using diskmgmt.msc to create a second partition, if you're so inclined.  I think the RC's great - it's stable and quick, and certainly driver support is light years better than Vista RTM.  As long as you're prepared to upgrade to RTM, I have no hesitance in recommending it.

[jersoc]

dual boot, as you can see above the RC license lasts for quite some time. I wouldn't recommend installing a beta or RC OS over your primary one. However, I've been using 7000 since it first came out and have no issues. It's basically my primary OS now. It's way faster than vista in every respect.

[farley2k]

dual boot, as you can see above the RC license lasts for quite some time. I wouldn't recommend installing a beta or RC OS over your primary one. However, I've been using 7000 since it first came out and have no issues. It's basically my primary OS now. It's way faster than vista in every respect.

I have as well. 


I also tend to download and play with a lot of crap so having to reformat in a year isn't even an issue.  I can't remember the last time I went a year without wiping my machine. 

[TiLT]

I'm seriously considering replacing my Vista install tomorrow with Windows 7, dual boot be damned! I just need to confirm that there are working drivers for my laptop so that I can get all my hardware working on the 64-bit version. Might as well make the jump to 64-bit now. Microsoft says Windows 7 will be their last OS with 32-bit support.

[YellowKing]

This is going to be my big weekend project. I've been dying to reformat my Vista-64 machine due to some niggling issues, but was trying to hold off for Windows 7. RC is good enough for me, based on all the positive impressions.

Fortunately I don't run a lot of critical software - if the 1-2 games I play run on it and Office works, I'll be a happy camper.

[LoneStarSpur]

Downloading the 64 bit version right now...already at 20%. They must have some serious resources devoted to it this time around. Gonna do 32 bit on my wife's pc and my work pc this time around.

[Canuck]

Just downloaded the 32bit version.  It literally took only 20 minutes for 2.3 gigs!!!  Installing on my netbook now.

[Canuck]

Well downloaded and installed it in about an hour and a half.  Smooth as butter.  I cant believe it went so easily.  I'm not a tech geek at all.

[LoneStarSpur]

Well downloaded and installed it in about an hour and a half.  Smooth as butter.  I cant believe it went so easily.  I'm not a tech geek at all.

That's what I was amazed at when I installed the beta...took maybe an hour, found my wife's XP box and her Dell printer, created the network, installed the printer on my pc and did it all without a single burp.

[Chaz]

I'm getting the impression that it's going to be a pain in the ass to create a new partition, set up a dual boot, and then re-do things when I move over to Win7 as a primary OS.  Since I haven't heard any feature from 7 that makes me wicked excited about it, I'll just wait and eventually upgrade when it's released at retail. 

[Brendan]

Since I haven't heard any feature from 7 that makes me wicked excited about it, I'll just wait and eventually upgrade when it's released at retail. 

Best feature:  really really really speedy.   

[Canuck]

I'm getting the impression that it's going to be a pain in the ass to create a new partition, set up a dual boot, and then re-do things when I move over to Win7 as a primary OS.  Since I haven't heard any feature from 7 that makes me wicked excited about it, I'll just wait and eventually upgrade when it's released at retail. 

Creating a partition may or may not be a pain in the ass I don't know-I've never done it before.  However I didn't have to do anything with regards to setting up a dual boot.  It did that all by itself!  I just had so much fun with the voice recognition software that it was criminal! (no I didn't do anything criminal, and yes I realize this is a feature already on Vista-which I don't have)

Does anyone know if Firefox works with Windows 7?

[Brendan]

Does anyone know if Firefox works with Windows 7?

Yep, as does Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc.

[farley2k]

I'm getting the impression that it's going to be a pain in the ass to create a new partition, set up a dual boot, and then re-do things when I move over to Win7 as a primary OS.  Since I haven't heard any feature from 7 that makes me wicked excited about it, I'll just wait and eventually upgrade when it's released at retail. 

Creating a partition may or may not be a pain in the ass I don't know-I've never done it before.  However I didn't have to do anything with regards to setting up a dual boot.  It did that all by itself!  I just had so much fun with the voice recognition software that it was criminal! (no I didn't do anything criminal, and yes I realize this is a feature already on Vista-which I don't have)

Does anyone know if Firefox works with Windows 7?

Only IE tab. 

[rickfc]

This is a terrible thing for those using RC1 as your default OS past March 1, 2010.

Watch the calendar. The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you'll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010. You'll also need to install the programs and data that you want to use.

[CeeKay]

This is a terrible thing for those using RC1 as your default OS past March 1, 2010.

Watch the calendar. The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you'll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010. You'll also need to install the programs and data that you want to use.

  I wonder how long it will take them to crack that.

[farley2k]

This is a terrible thing for those using RC1 as your default OS past March 1, 2010.

Watch the calendar. The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you'll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010. You'll also need to install the programs and data that you want to use.

At first I thought it sucked but then I realized - they are letting me use their new OS for 9 months free.  Sure it isn't 12 months but 9 is still pretty good.

[TiLT]

I wonder how long it will take them to crack that.

I don't see why they'd want to. The full OS will be available long before that.

[Isgrimnur]

I wonder how long it will take them to crack that.

I don't see why they'd want to. The full OS will be available long before that.

Arrr, matey, there be pirates that shant wish to part with the doubloons said purchase would force them to release from their coinpurse.

[TiLT]

I wonder how long it will take them to crack that.

I don't see why they'd want to. The full OS will be available long before that.

Arrr, matey, there be pirates that shant wish to part with the doubloons said purchase would force them to release from their coinpurse.

Yeah, but they are going to crack the full version, not the RC which isn't going to be updated any more at that point.

[Isgrimnur]

I think you underestimate the amount of free time and motivation of hackers.  They will crack it because they can.  They will do it before the retail version is available, and then they will crack the full version once it arrives.

[hentzau]

You guys are really tempting me to download this and try it out on my new HP laptop...

[LoneStarSpur]

Which ISO burning software do you guys suggest?

[warning]

Which ISO burning software do you guys suggest?

ImgBurn works great and it's completely free.

[Canuck]

If you have a partitioned hard drive then you don't even need to make a DVD.  Just put it on an imaging software like Daemon Tools or something.

[jersoc]

The installation went w/o a hitch. Still not any good native drivers though. I had to track down some old sound drivers for my mobo, oh well. No chipset drivers included either, I thought they were adding in all that shit now? Maybe it's retail release.

Anyways I don't notice much of a difference over 7000, but the fact that this won't expire in 3 months is a plus.

[Laner]

ImgBurn - http://www.imgburn.com/


Oops... warning beat me to it.

[Scraper]

If you have the 7000 installed do you have to reformat and reload to install RC?

[LoneStarSpur]

If you have the 7000 installed do you have to reformat and reload to install RC?

MS would like for you to do a fresh install, but one one of the W7 blogs there are instructions on how to do an upgrade.

[Scraper]

If you have the 7000 installed do you have to reformat and reload to install RC?

MS would like for you to do a fresh install, but one one of the W7 blogs there are instructions on how to do an upgrade.

Do you have a link for that?

[LoneStarSpur]

If you have the 7000 installed do you have to reformat and reload to install RC?

MS would like for you to do a fresh install, but one one of the W7 blogs there are instructions on how to do an upgrade.

Do you have a link for that?

linkage

Oh, and IE 8-64 is the fastest browser I've ever used.    I think I may be finished with Firefox.

[Brendan]

You can actually follow those steps without making another copy of the media - just hit shift-F10 when setup comes up, browse to the temp directory, and edit the live ini file under \sources with notepad.

[Kagath]

What's the difference between the different Win7 download versions? Is one of the like the Vista Ultimate where it includes nearly everything?

[ravenvii]

If you have the 7000 installed do you have to reformat and reload to install RC?

MS would like for you to do a fresh install, but one one of the W7 blogs there are instructions on how to do an upgrade.

Do you have a link for that?

linkage

Oh, and IE 8-64 is the fastest browser I've ever used.    I think I may be finished with Firefox.

Firefox is slow as molasses. That's why I switched to Safari 4. (I admit Safari 3 sucked, but Safari 4 rocks!)

[TiLT]

I installed Windows 7 x64 yesterday, and it seems to run smoothly so far. Can't wait to get home from work and play around with it some more.

There are some things that have changed a lot from Vista, such as the newly reimagined Taskbar (it can sort of be described as a combination between the old Taskbar and the Quick Launch bar) and the way the Control Panel works. Now if only I can figure out how to force it to use HDMI for audio when available (and only then), I'll be set.

Kagath, the two versions are the 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) versions. If you've got more than 2 GB RAM in your computer, download the 64-bit version. Otherwise you might want to stick with the other one.

[jersoc]

oh wow, the xp virtualization is freakin sweet.

[LoneStarSpur]

oh wow, the xp virtualization is freakin sweet.

Need more info. My google-foo is weak this morning.