Windows 7

[Dave A]

Didn't Vista have that "hack it if you can" contest in Beta?

I think that went a long way to the beta good rep.

[twinscythe12332]

yeah, of course people could just be projecting their hopes. "please be better than vista, please be better than vista, please be better than vista..." oh wait, that might be microsoft.

[garthu]

NICE!

[Loman]

Definitely

[twinscythe12332]

uh oh, looks like there's trouble in paradise.

I honestly will have to agree with the microsoft side though. if that can be considered a vulnerability, we should disable browsers and email, after all, isn't that where most of the attacks come from?

here's a more recent link to follow up on as well:
read here.

[Dave A]

MS should run a poll as to whether you want the "did you initiate this" nag on or off by default. And the switch between those options definitely should not be hidden!

Personally, give me the nag. As said in the article, irritating but safe.

[twinscythe12332]

read here

some interesting information. it looks like people on windows XP will be able to upgrade to windows 7 (thus doing a vista skip entirely), albeit with a fresh install. whether you'd want to do that, is another story. I still think windows 7 is going to have some size issues, and it's still going to use up a fair chunk of resources. however, machines running vista currently (and are truly vista capable), should have no problems with windows 7.

personally, I'll probably gun straight for the 64 bit version. there are a number of new software packages that utilise 64 bit now, a major increase from when dual and quad cores first came out.

[Dave A]

So computers bought after 1 July 2009 with Vista loaded will be entitled to a free upgrade to Windows 7.

That's a fairly good incentive to hold back on buying that next PC until then

[Chrisjan B]

I downloaded the Windows 7 beta and installed it on a PC with the following specs:

Pentium 4 2.8 GHz processor
1GB DDR 400 memory
128 MB Nvidia 6200 graphics card
80 GB 7200 rpm IDE hard drive

I t uses MUCH less resources than Wondows Vista - freshly booted and with Avast Antivirus running it uses about 328 mb of memory which is about the same as Windows XP.

It also run the Aero interface and the speed and responsiveness of the PC seems to be the same as we get used to in Windows XP.

It does have it issues - Trend Micro PCcillin is not compatible, the Windows Experience Index does not work properly (exited without finishing) on the network only one of several shares is seen etc.

Overall it seems that it may be worth the wait, and a new PC not necessarily needed for acceptable performance.

[twinscythe12332]

I downloaded the Windows 7 beta and installed it on a PC with the following specs:

Pentium 4 2.8 GHz processor
1GB DDR 400 memory
128 MB Nvidia 6200 graphics card
80 GB 7200 rpm IDE hard drive

I t uses MUCH less resources than Wondows Vista - freshly booted and with Avast Antivirus running it uses about 328 mb of memory which is about the same as Windows XP.

It also run the Aero interface and the speed and responsiveness of the PC seems to be the same as we get used to in Windows XP.

It does have it issues - Trend Micro PCcillin is not compatible, the Windows Experience Index does not work properly (exited without finishing) on the network only one of several shares is seen etc.

Overall it seems that it may be worth the wait, and a new PC not necessarily needed for acceptable performance.

very similar to a test rig I had when first using vista. 6200 was a 256MB ddr2 and hard drive was a 40 gig. The real thing with vista is it tends to optimize to your PC's resources. admittedly hogging more than it should, but still. It tended towards approx 34% - 40% of the system's memory on idle.

let's not forget that that is the beta. I like the reports coming out about it, but it also has the chance of going a bit haywire towards the end. let's hope Microsoft keeps to their current adopted strategy of not releasing a module unless it is complete, and doesn't make the boot progs look a few pages long.

the big test is going to be RC1. if they can keep winning votes with that, Microsoft is going strong.

[twinscythe12332]

Enterprise features

apologies for the double post.

looks like windows 7 enterprise isn't going to be too amazing, but may have some interesting features geared towards telecommuting. connecting to office networks without a VPN, BranchCache for speeding up remote file access and the likes, BitlockertoGo for when your son really wants those new songs on your work 500gig, and appLocker (which looks kinda interesting) for restricting application installation and access.

[Dave A]

apologies for the double post.

No need to apologise. Thanks for keeping us informed

[twinscythe12332]

Microsft said to ship windows 7 in september

yeah, I'm not going to believe this till an MS OFFICIAL says it's happening. the guy may have a clue, but then again, microsoft may hit a giant block and leave him looking like a fool.

[Dave A]

In the meantime he gets a whole pile of links and hits for breaking the rumour

[twinscythe12332]

very true. after all, a bit of bull here isn't going to really attract too much attention down the line while he's wrong.

for those of you on windows 7 beta, read here for a brief overview of some of the changes that will be hitting RC that you might care for. for everyone else, take a sneak peak at what to expect once you upgrade