Windows 7 Beta [Archive] - SUBSIM Radio Room Forums

UnderseaLcpl

01-11-09, 06:29 AM

The most important thing is; In what ways is it dissimilar to Vista, and by how much? I seriously cannot take this operating system eating up a significant chunk of my RAM for no apparent purpose for much longer, and it has a lot of other annoying habits as well. :nope:

Raptor1

01-11-09, 07:19 AM

I'm thinking of putting the Windows 7 Beta on my laptop, which strangely still has that damned piece of jun...err...Vista

McBeck

01-11-09, 07:20 AM

Well, from what I understand MS wanted to go fullfill their vision of the MinWin OS.
Windows 7 should be close to it and Vista has been a steppingstone towards that vision. The core of XP is based on 2000, which is based on NT4 which is based on NT3.
We are basicly talking about an architecture thats 10 years old. Its time to change, but change is costly and painfull.

Thats what we are going through now. I have skipped on using Vista, but will give 7 a try :)

Torplexed

01-11-09, 08:15 AM

McBeck

01-11-09, 09:46 AM

I have skipped on using Vista, but will give 7 a try :)
You were smart. ;)

I wonder if this means in the near future we'll have to grow through several months of: "Will (insert favorite game or application here) run on Windows Seven?" posts? :hmm:We will probably, but since Windows 7 is based on the same architecture as Vista is should be a very easy transition.

Moving from Vista to Windows 7 will not be as much trouble as moving from XP to Vista.

McBeck

01-11-09, 09:51 AM

This old article describes the transition from XP to Windows 7

Jimbuna

01-11-09, 10:22 AM

Moving from Vista to Windows 7 will not be as much trouble as moving from XP to Vista.

I sincerely hope so because when I do eventually change it will be from XP Pro to 7

Raptor1

01-11-09, 11:16 AM

I got Vista on my laptop and almost immediately gave up any plans to upgrade my desktop to Vista

Let's hope 7 turns out good

Digital_Trucker

01-11-09, 11:58 AM

Has anyone tried installing it as a dual boot with XP?

McBeck

01-11-09, 12:39 PM

Iv tried to get it to install all day, but all I get from the boot on the DVD is "Couldnt find bootmgr" :(
So now I installed Virtual PC from MS. It boots the DVD fine there :doh:
I guess it will work just like dualboot for XP and Vista.

The thing to remember here is that Windows 7 has been the goal for MS.
Vista has been a steppingstone and an introduction of a completely new architecture to replace the 10 year old NT architecture.

porphy

01-11-09, 01:27 PM

I'm running a dual boot with XP Pro 64bit and Windows 7 beta 64bit. No problem at all so far. Installation was easy and quick, just booted from Dvd and picked one empty partition for the installation. The dual boot selection screen just came on automatically after first restart, and now I can choose what to run. No problems with drivers except that I had to run the install exe from creative in Vista compatibility mode.

I never bothered with Vista, so there is a lot to explore right now. First impression is that booting into XP might be a thing of the past pretty soon.

cheers porphy

McBeck

01-11-09, 02:38 PM

Just installed it using VirtualPC....works fine :D

Cant comment on performance since its virtual PC ;)

Fincuan

01-11-09, 02:48 PM

I installed the 64 bit version today, and so far I'm extremely impressed. Installation on an empty partition was absolutely hitchless.

The OS itself feels much smoother and faster than XP, boot and shutdown times are quicker, and surprise surprise I've managed to get every program and driver working that I've tried(I chose a Vista 64bit version whenever possible).

After getting things up and running I quickly tried Arma, and wowza! A lot better than before, there's a definite improvement. FPS was on average just a little bit higher, but loading times were a lot quicker than before.

So far I give W7 a big :up:
Let's hope this first impression lasts.

Torplexed

01-11-09, 02:52 PM

Gee...a Microsoft product which is getting a mostly favorable initial impression.:huh:

Looks outside to see if the sky is still in place.

Raptor1

01-11-09, 02:54 PM

Gee...a Microsoft product which is getting a mostly favorable initial impression.:huh:

Looks outside to see if the sky is still in place.
William the Conqueror...isn't running the show anymore, so it's not THAT unbelievable

porphy

01-11-09, 03:05 PM

FPS was on average just a little bit higher, but loading times were a lot quicker than before.

Yes, thats my impression as well. Both Black Shark and Steel Beasts Pro PE loads faster than with XP. And as you say Fincuan, shutting down and starting up the OS is pretty fast as well.

Cheers Porphy

Task Force

01-11-09, 03:08 PM

Hmmm, might try MS7 beta.:hmm:

Task Force

01-11-09, 03:35 PM

Does windows 7 beta come with a time trial period.(stops working after a while?):hmm:

Raptor1

01-11-09, 03:37 PM

Does windows 7 beta come with a time trial period.(stops working after a while?):hmm:

August, 2009

Digital_Trucker

01-11-09, 03:38 PM

Raptor1

01-11-09, 03:39 PM

Task Force

01-11-09, 03:42 PM

august 09.:hmm: And its surpost to be released in august 09 too.:hmm: Im probably gonna wait. last thing I want to have is august 09 to come up and have to go back to vista. (would be really depressing going from a fast computer to a slower one again.):lol:

Thomen

01-11-09, 03:42 PM

Does windows 7 beta come with a time trial period.(stops working after a while?):hmm:
30 days if you don't get a key

I have no problems getting a key, but I can't seem to get the damn download to work :damn:

Stupid question: Did you try to download it with IE or Firefox?
It woudlnt dl with Firefox, had to use IE instead. ;)

Task Force

01-11-09, 03:44 PM

Oooowwww. 64bit version. That will let my processor run to its full potential.:lol:

Raptor1

01-11-09, 03:45 PM

Fincuan

01-11-09, 04:11 PM

It woudlnt dl with Firefox, had to use IE instead. ;)

Same experience here. It wouldn't download at all with Opera, and even with IE I had to hit download almost five times before it started. After that I worked well.

Digital_Trucker

01-11-09, 06:21 PM

I tried Firefox with the IE plugin and IE itself and neither would work (although I got a ton of keys:rotfl:). Finally found direct links to the iso files and am downloading the 64 bit now.

See here (http://lifehacker.com/5127558/windows-7-beta-available-pulled-no-eta-on-product-keys) for the direct links.

Anyone know of some good (ie FREE) drive imaging sofware? I'm contemplating setting up a second partition on my system drive for the beta, but I'd like to image the drive before I shrink the partition that my XP install is in now.

SteveW1

01-12-09, 12:14 AM

I downloaded both versions of Windows 7 Beta and I gotta say they did a good job of compressing the files as I did a comparison on just the windows folder in each version, 64 bit download is 3.3gb - windows folder expands out to 11gb, 32 bit download is 2.43gb - windows folder expands out to 7.3gb.

But I gotta say both versions run quicker than XP Pro which I was using and both versions installed under 25mins and thats going for a full install. Likeing this Beta very much at the moment having an issue with one or two things but I think its just bugs that need ironing out like most new OS's.

my 2 cents

Steve

McBeck

01-12-09, 12:56 PM

Does windows 7 beta come with a time trial period.(stops working after a while?):hmm:Free download runs till 22/1 2009, so better go get it!
It will stop working 1/8 2009

porphy

01-12-09, 01:22 PM

Today I took the bold (and maybe foolish) step to wipe out my XP install. Only running Windows 7 beta 64bit now. I can't see myself looking back for a while.

Also check out the free beta for Kaspersky antivirus/firewall etc that works very well with Windows 7 beta.Link (http://www.kaspersky.com/windows7)

cheers Porphy

Fincuan

01-12-09, 03:05 PM

Today I took the bold (and maybe foolish) step to wipe out my XP install. Only running Windows 7 beta 64bit now. I can't see myself looking back for a while.

Heh

I don't know it it's wise to advertise it here, but I did it in the opposite order and installed Windows 7 64 bit on the partition where XP had been :lol:

No complaints so far, actually even more praise: At first I wasn't able to get my wireless UBS-dongle to work with its Vista drivers no matter what, so I had to do with a wire for a while. Not for long. Today I finally checked Windows Update, and was surprised when they had a driver for my wireless card. Downloaded the driver and voila, wireless works :up:

Task Force

01-12-09, 03:06 PM

:hmm:Im gonna have to get the higher power *parents* to agree with me on this. (ought a reformat vista anyway):hmm:

hmmmm, now how to back up vistas files. *just incase my parents say ok.

CaptainHaplo

01-12-09, 06:10 PM

Thanks for the direct link - but where do I get a key for the bugger?

porphy

01-12-09, 06:46 PM

The link below describes the method I used to get a key with Firefox browser. It might sound a bit complicated at first but it beats hitting refresh in front of your computer for an hour or a lot more... :roll:

Link (http://faqgo.com/2009/01/10/how-to-get-a-windows-7-beta-key/)

cheers porphy

Digital_Trucker

01-12-09, 09:49 PM

Finally got the nerve together to make an image of my XP install, shrink the partition XP was in and create a new partition for Windows 7. Got it installed and everything worked great until the first time I booted without the Windows 7 DVD in the drive. Booted right up to XP, no multi-boot option. Modified my boot.ini to point to the Windows 7 partition as a second option, won't boot. Put the Windows 7 disk back in the drive and, voila, boots into 7. Kind of a wonky way to do it for now, but it's just for testing anyway.

Gotta say, I'm pretty happy with it so far, too. Never tried Vista, so I'll find out in the next few days how much of my software will be a problem. So far, no worries, but haven't tried to install CS3 or any games yet either.

SteveW1

01-13-09, 12:02 AM

Ran the Direct X Diagnose tool in Windows 7 and to my surprise it came back saying that it uses Direct X 11, so now we are going to have to go out and buy new graphics cards down the track when developers start to use the new Direct X 11 to make there games.

Steve

Fincuan

01-13-09, 09:09 AM

Yeah noticed that DX11 thingy too, but so far I've had zero problems with Vista 64bit graphics drivers(made for DX10). Thanks to Ati for dropping support for my card(x1950 Pro) from their Windows 7 drivers :up:

Also Ati+OpenGL+64bit Win 7 = No go. Ati stated that it just isn't supported. Luckily DirectX works great.

Raptor1

01-13-09, 02:06 PM

Just installed the 64-bit version and it's running great (Except that I can't seem to get my damn RAID to work)

Gonne try to run it for a while and see how it goes

Task Force

01-13-09, 03:48 PM

Ooooohhh. Windows7 (or atleast as of now) dosent support open gl. that's a downer.

porphy

01-13-09, 05:05 PM

Just installed the 64-bit version and it's running great (Except that I can't seem to get my damn RAID to work)

Gonne try to run it for a while and see how it goes

I had some problems with my raid as well. No problems setting it up, but when formatting to NTFS it was reported as "write protected" and it wouldn't complete the process. Installing my motherboard Real Tek drivers for network somehow fixed that. Probably because my raid is hooked up on my e-Sata connector, but I still really can't figure out why it was reported as write protected. Anyway, it works now.:yep:

cheers Porphy

DeepIron

01-13-09, 05:25 PM

Personally, I won't even consider 7 for a year, maybe two. It's BETA, it's becomes inoperative in August, and considering MicroSoft's track record, it will have the usual bugs, incompatibilites and exploitable holes as any of their OSs have in the past.

Add to that manufacturers will have to build "Windows 7" drivers, blah, blah, blah... and you've got what, about a year after the official release before it's truly useful?

For those who didn't care for Vista, I would add that neither did I for the first couple of years after release. That being said, I've got Vista Home Basic running "perfectly" and I do mean PERFECTLY on both a laptop and my new game PC. No issues, no hangups, no problems. OpenGL smokes, DirectX runs great and all my programs from my XP days work fine...

The secret to Vista is simple, you can configure it to look and act like XP AND if you turn off the stupid UAC security junk along with Aero the Windows Defender crap, it works very well.

Cheers.

AVGWarhawk

01-13-09, 06:21 PM

I read today that any computer purchased on or after July 1st can get a free download of Windows 7. So, I guess the target date to release is July. Then we sit and wait for SP1:down:

Raptor1

01-13-09, 06:37 PM

Okay, a quick BIOS fix got my RAID working, now I have no complaints except the OpenGL thing

Fincuan

01-13-09, 06:41 PM

Well, my track record with 64bit Win 7 beta build 7000 so far:
0 BSODs or system lock-ups
0 obvious bugs
0 nonworking devices

Currently I have these devices plugged in and working flawlessly:
Saitek X52
Saitek Pro Pedals
MSFFB2
Cheap-ass chinese USB webcam(Opticam something)
Edimax WLAN usb-dongle

Some of the applications(besides the usual web browers and such) that work flawlessly:
Ati Tray Tools
Avast Antivirus
Saitek SST Profiler
Fraps
Freetrack
Teamspeak 2
7-zip
IL2 JoyControl
Arma Launcher
Notepad++
Openoffice.org
JSGME

Games:
Armed Assault
IL2
SH4

The only real problem I've had is OpenGL not working, but I don't expect Ati to take long to fix it.
If we don't hear about significant security problems and if MS doesn't go backwards with the development I'll have no problems transferring to Win 7 full version when it's released.

AVGWarhawk

01-13-09, 09:25 PM

Oh, I also read that Windows 7 will screw with your MP3 file. Anyone messing with MP3 on Windows 7 should do a search for issues before messing with this type of file.

SteveW1

01-13-09, 11:13 PM

Oh, I also read that Windows 7 will screw with your MP3 file. Anyone messing with MP3 on Windows 7 should do a search for issues before messing with this type of file.

Microsoft were aware of this and released a patch, when I installed windows 7 on my machine it automatically downloaded the patch and installed via windows update, hopefully it fixed the problem.:lol:

My only sticking point so far is I cannot get my SH3 to bloody run because of the starforce protection being incompatible with Windows even after updating to the latest it will let me, and i'm running the 32 bit version of Windows 7:nope:

Steve

McBeck

01-14-09, 03:55 AM

Windows 7 beta has been rated the most stable beta released by MS ever :)

Vista drivers will work on Windows7 as well since in the same architecture :D

Windows7 is really what Vista should have been...

Im sooo pissed I cant install it :(

McBeck

01-16-09, 02:18 PM

Zachstar

01-16-09, 02:58 PM

Try a new bootloader.

Grub or Lilo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_GRUB

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LILO_(boot_loader)

longam

01-16-09, 05:24 PM

Just installed the 64-bit version and it's running great (Except that I can't seem to get my damn RAID to work)

Gonne try to run it for a while and see how it goes
I had some problems with my raid as well. No problems setting it up, but when formatting to NTFS it was reported as "write protected" and it wouldn't complete the process. Installing my motherboard Real Tek drivers for network somehow fixed that. Probably because my raid is hooked up on my e-Sata connector, but I still really can't figure out why it was reported as write protected. Anyway, it works now.:yep:

cheers Porphy

Its been tradition in windows install to hit F6 to install 3rd Party RAID drivers early in the installation

Digital_Trucker

01-16-09, 05:37 PM

It turned out it was a faulty DVD drive.... :(

Borrowed a USB drive - I got it to work...but now I cant boot up in my seperate XP partition...and if I repair that, Windows7 cant boot.

Has anybody gotten XP - Windows7 dualboot to work?

Not a real dual boot, but if you get your system back to where XP will load, then insert the Windows 7 DVD and restart (don't boot from DVD, just leave the DVD in), it should boot into Windows7. That's what I'm having to do now.

McBeck

01-17-09, 12:42 PM

It turned out it was a faulty DVD drive.... :(

Borrowed a USB drive - I got it to work...but now I cant boot up in my seperate XP partition...and if I repair that, Windows7 cant boot.

Has anybody gotten XP - Windows7 dualboot to work?
Not a real dual boot, but if you get your system back to where XP will load, then insert the Windows 7 DVD and restart (don't boot from DVD, just leave the DVD in), it should boot into Windows7. That's what I'm having to do now.
Huh!?!?

Get put the Win7 DVD in the drive?! No action needed on my part?

Digital_Trucker

01-17-09, 03:55 PM

That's the way my installation has been working. I installed Windows 7 on a new partition on the same drive as my XP install. If I don't insert the Windows 7 DVD before booting, I get XP. If I do insert the Windows 7 DVD, but don't press any key to boot from CD/DVD, then I boot into Windows 7. Makes no sense to me, either, but I'm not complaining (yet).

I'd like to be able to modify my XP installs boot.ini to give me the option to boot into Windows 7 without the DVD, but since the boot process is changed from XP, that doesn't seem to be possible (as far as I can tell so far, anyway).