Windows 7 BETA [Updated Regularly]

[Darren1981]

I am beta testing Windows 7 and i must say it feels so much cleaner and a lot more responsive than windows xp & also windows vista.

I am an article writer for the community based Windows 7 website: http://windows7info.net/

I know that not everyone has access to Windows 7 beta as of yet and may not wish to make the move as soon as windows 7 comes out, So if you have any questions or even opinions about windows 7 please yell out and i'll do my best to answer them.

So I would like to ask the PC enthusiasts here at XS what they want from the new OS.. besides the obvious (NO BSOD).

Today i will be looking at Windows 7 ultimate and writing a review on that over the coming days, Previous builds (Before 7000) have not been complete or for that matter close to 100% stable, so the latest build is 7004 but the official beta is labeled 7000 seems strange but MS assure us that this is the most stable and full featured Windows 7 to date, So keep an eye on this thread and i will update with my experiences of Windows 7 as it progresses to a full retail release.

Again dont be shy, the more questions the better, I left Windows vista to late as i was put off by all the negative comments i heard about it, Microsoft actually takes user feedback and idea's very seriously these days so your thoughts will be addressed. Microsoft is giving us an exclusive detailed Q&A session at the end of January so the more questions / idea's we can throw at them will help shape the future of the next gen OS.

[luie]

Great to hear. :-)

Suggestion/question:
I would like positioning of opened windows to bind to shortcut keys.
I'm aware they already have something like that in Windows 7 (dragging the window to the left or right or top edge of the monitor) but using keyboards are much faster. Maybe they have this 'key-binding' feature already but I never saw an article about it?

Something like (for Vista/XP):
GridMove (http://jgpaiva.donationcoders.com/gridmove.html)
or
WinSplit Revolution (http://www.winsplit-revolution.com/)


Comment:
Anyway, from the youtube videos, I really like the 'peek' feature where you can have the mouse over the taskbar to see where the opened window is underneath all the other opened windows. lol.


Question:
When is this new OS ready for sale? haha

[gillll]

well i have specific question,
why ain't ms give us os who can read most audio and video files ?

why i always have to install k lite codec pack ? xp and vista (hadn't tried to install it on win7 but i have a feeling :P)
it's not that there are too many codecs ... i'm talking about the most used codecs like xvid,divx,h264,ac3, and only few more.
it's not that those codec haven't got open source projects.

most people will only benefit from having build in support for the most useable codecs nowadays.

another thing is almost been done by ms it self but not fully implemented (it's kind of a linux feature)
make a different partition for user data .

what is so bad about it ? it's free us users from some accidental formats and will help data recovery.

i have more .... i'll try to add later.

[firebane]

What I want from the OS won't happen. Because it won't happen simplify for the fact that Microsoft is trying to cater more to the simplified user of a computer I remain with Windows XP.

I used Vista and have tried this beta and will simply say for the most part Win7 is nothing more than a prettier Aero to sucker people into having to buy another OS.

I'll be interested in what you have to say tho.

[gillll]

it's not quite like what you say firebane.

vista came out too early for the hardware that was on the market. if it's ms fault that's another issue
especially in terms of gfx. x-server and windows manager in vista are new ones compared to all ms os before.

u can say for sure that win7 is like 2gen vista and the code is better compiled while hardware on the market even mid range can run the os easily .
compared to the time when vista came out.

u can also see that on linux only in the past year or 2 took out also improved gfx like beril.
you can sum it up saying that gfx went up to a new level but it's not due to software but to hardware.
and the hardware software dance is and will continue always.

[Warboy]

What I want from the OS won't happen. Because it won't happen simplify for the fact that Microsoft is trying to cater more to the simplified user of a computer I remain with Windows XP.

I used Vista and have tried this beta and will simply say for the most part Win7 is nothing more than a prettier Aero to sucker people into having to buy another OS.

I'll be interested in what you have to say tho.

Is that really your professional opinion? Because if that's the only thing you see, You need to look harder.

[firebane]

Is that really your professional opinion? Because if that's the only thing you see, You need to look harder.

So why did they pull things like classic logon? or classic start menu? There wasn't a need to at all.. just microsoft felt it wasn't needed so get rid of it, but what about all of us who like using it? Don't matter we don't count.

Yes it seems memory usage has gone done in Win7 which is nice and that things like Windows Defender isn't annoying you and the firewall got reworked to actually be useful.. the OS itself to me is just more prettier overall.

[XS_Rich]

What have they done to the firewall for Win7 then?

I was surprised when I found out that Vista had outbound security but only through an MMC snap-in lurking behind the scenes.

Have they put together a proper GUI for it now?

[firebane]

What have they done to the firewall for Win7 then?

I was surprised when I found out that Vista had outbound security but only through an MMC snap-in lurking behind the scenes.

Have they put together a proper GUI for it now?

Yes and something I was quite pleased about.. but for average people it could be a bit overwhelming so I assume they set it up default for a good average user..

[HuffPCair]

What I want from the OS won't happen. Because it won't happen simplify for the fact that Microsoft is trying to cater more to the simplified user of a computer I remain with Windows XP.

I used Vista and have tried this beta and will simply say for the most part Win7 is nothing more than a prettier Aero to sucker people into having to buy another OS.

I'll be interested in what you have to say tho.

You have not obviously used Windows 7 fully I have the latest beta 7000 and it is much better then Vista using hardware. They have improved a few things that I can see so far I am still messing with it a little, so I wont say to much because I do not want to look like an idiot yet, but so far Windows 7 is impressing me.

[dan7777]

im useing windows 7 and i got to say its much smoother than vista and xp been useing it for 3 weeks now no problems, only thing i dont like is UAC so turned off from day 1

[HuffPCair]

On the latest beta I did find a bug. I have my Q6600 clocked to 3.5GHz and it shows on the system info that I am clocked at 3.95GHz, but everything else is showing ok

[Papu]

running the 7000build and everything is sweet so far , got gadgets working , Xfi drivers installed , gonna do soem gaming ;0

[dan7777]

running the 7000build and everything is sweet so far , got gadgets working , Xfi drivers installed , gonna do soem gaming ;0

plzzzz plzzzz cud you test GTA4 cuz i cudnt get it working on my windows7 6801 every other game fine apart from that 1 cheers in advance.

[Papu]

ha sry mate , i dont have GTA 4 , If i bought it now , I'd be sure to fail my exams in February

Css , Tf2 and l4D all play great , on par if not better than vista but I havent gone into detailed tests , they play I'm happy

The new UI is GAWJUS , i mean
<3
Link

sidebar was a bit iffy to get working , but theres a thread about it on mydigitallife , you just need to replace the sidebar folder with that of vista or a previous win7 build ;0

[Speederlander]

it feels a lot more responsive than windows xp & also windows vista.

Please put numbers on this. "More responsive" means what? Please be very specific with claims like that. Practically everything I do on my comp is instantaneous. How would W7 improve on that?

[Mav451]

Are you guys just using Vista drivers? I wasn't aware there were W7 driver releases yet...

[Papu]

Are you guys just using Vista drivers? I wasn't aware there were W7 driver releases yet...

you can sue the drivers in compatability mode works every time i've tried

ATI have win7 drivers out , dunno bout nvidia

[Papu]

Please put numbers on this. "More responsive" means what? Please be very specific with claims like that. Practically everything I do on my comp is instantaneous. How would W7 improve on that?

it comes out of sleep faster than vista , boots faster , having allot of programs open doesnt seem to bother it , i have 4 gigs o ram tho.
Give it a week or 2 of programs and junk it might slow down , we'll see

[Speederlander]

it comes out of sleep faster than vista , boots faster , having allot of programs open doesnt seem to bother it , i have 4 gigs o ram tho.
Give it a week or 2 of programs and junk it might slow down , we'll see

Yeah most of that is just dependent on it being a new clean install for an OS I would think.

[SteveLord]

Good stuff. Keep it coming.

[Papu]

i see myself just flying through windows , its really nice that the taskbar isn't cluttered , ive 9 or 10 different programs open and its still less than half the task bar used up.



i also found this
http://windows7info.net/files/windows-7-circle-dock/

can be used in vista , don;t know about XP , its really really useful ;0

i also found this funny



not bad on ram usage

[dan7777]

i see myself just flying through windows , its really nice that the taskbar isn't cluttered , ive 9 or 10 different programs open and its still less than half the task bar used up.



i also found this
http://windows7info.net/files/windows-7-circle-dock/

can be used in vista , don;t know about XP , its really really useful ;0

i also found this funny



not bad on ram usage

i use similar program mate called...http://rocketdock.com/ good luck and happy new year.

[Warboy]

So why did they pull things like classic logon? or classic start menu? There wasn't a need to at all.. just microsoft felt it wasn't needed so get rid of it, but what about all of us who like using it? Don't matter we don't count.

Yes it seems memory usage has gone done in Win7 which is nice and that things like Windows Defender isn't annoying you and the firewall got reworked to actually be useful.. the OS itself to me is just more prettier overall.

It's called out with the old, in with the new. You can still have all the classic stuff if you really know what your doing.


Win7 build 6956/7000 performs better then WinVistaSP2,WinXP-SP3.

Here is a source.

[scottc19]

Can you run both ati and nvidia drivers at the same time, meaning both an ati card and nvidia card at the same time like you can in xp?