Windows 7

[Lee Bartholomew]

Just got hold of the Beta verson of Windows 7. MS seem to have been quite quiet with it.

Going to install tomorrow but from what I have heard, it is pretty much the final development.

Anyone come across it or use it yet? Strangely MS are not codenaming it anything either ???

[Brian Doolan]

Strangely MS are not codenaming it anything either ???

Not sure if this is what you mean:

• Windows 7 Release Information
  
  Current Release: Milestone 3 (M3)
  Build: 6.1.6801
  Release Date: October 2008

[Lee Bartholomew]

Not sure if this is what you mean:

• Windows 7 Release Information
  
  Current Release: Milestone 3 (M3)
  Build: 6.1.6801
  Release Date: October 2008

Nope. Windows 7 release is end of 2009 / start 2010.

Only thing on MS pages is http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

It was unveiled at a confrence in San Fransico this week where the Beta versions were given out. It was said to replace Vista as the next OS.

Will try installing later

[ducasi]

This beta has been out for a month or so. After the hype and disappointment of Vista, you can't blame MS for trying something else...

Interesting to see how much more they've been copying Apple...

[Dreadful Scathe]

can I just say "meh"

[straycat]

Well - I hope it's a serious improvement. After several months of Vista at work, I upgraded it to XP - and it truly feels like an upgrade. My machine's running considerably faster, crashing far less, and the only feature that I truly missed from Vista was replaced fixed by a nice little donationware app called Launchy.

From the look at the MS blog, they do seem to be giving considerable thought to the interface - seems to be some nice stuff in there that goes (unlike Vista) a long long way beyond the cosmetic. If they manage to sort out Vista's speed, stability & memory issues as well, this could be a pretty impressive new version...

[Robin]

Well - I hope it's a serious improvement. After several months of Vista at work, I upgraded it to XP - and it truly feels like an upgrade. My machine's running considerably faster, crashing far less, and the only feature that I truly missed from Vista was replaced fixed by a nice little donationware app called Launchy.

From the look at the MS blog, they do seem to be giving considerable thought to the interface - seems to be some nice stuff in there that goes (unlike Vista) a long long way beyond the cosmetic. If they manage to sort out Vista's speed, stability & memory issues as well, this could be a pretty impressive new version...

hmmm.. have to say that from my own experience a lot of vista "woes" tend to come from lots of additional applications, extra features installed that aren't used etc. Also, if its run in a domain with group policies set restrictively - ala corporate installs - this tends to play havoc.

Run it on my 3 yr old laptop and its around the same speed and slighlty more reliable than xp

isn;t windows 7 supposedly the server 2008 base?

[straycat]

Run it on my 3 yr old laptop and its around the same speed and slighlty more reliable than xp

Perhaps so - but I'm running XP in exactly the same office environment, and I have installed exactly the same set of applications as I did under Vista.

I'm quite willing to believe that if I knew how, Vista could have been made to run far better on my machine... but the point remains that in downgrading to XP, the only thing from Vista that I actually found myself missing was the 'search' box in the Start menu. So from where I'm sitting, in terms of effort & cost vs. reward, XP still seems like the vastly better bet.

[Robin]

Perhaps so - but I'm running XP in exactly the same office environment, and I have installed exactly the same set of applications as I did under Vista.

I'm quite willing to believe that if I knew how, Vista could have been made to run far better on my machine... but the point remains that in downgrading to XP, the only thing from Vista that I actually found myself missing was the 'search' box in the Start menu. So from where I'm sitting, in terms of effort & cost vs. reward, XP still seems like the vastly better bet.

funny enough, vista search is one of the most intensive tasks and its best disabled - along with about 50% of the rubbish that gets installed by default!

[straycat]

funny enough, vista search is one of the most intensive tasks and its best disabled - along with about 50% of the rubbish that gets installed by default!

Given that, as previously mentioned, it was the only new feature which I made any real use of, that's ironic, to say the least...

Mind you - Launchy is way better

[pmjd]

isn;t windows 7 supposedly the server 2008 base?

Apparently Vista and sever 2008 share the same codebase but for some reason server 2008 seems to run better from what I've read about it.

Nope. Windows 7 release is end of 2009 / start 2010.

Only thing on MS pages is http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

It was unveiled at a confrence in San Fransico this week where the Beta versions were given out. It was said to replace Vista as the next OS.

Brian's info is right, windows 7 uses the vista codebase (build 6.something) so for the moment any windows 7 releases are based on vista and are still called build 6, it won't be until a lot later when development is further along that windows 7 builds will be designated 7.something. There was rumours that Microsoft was going to start from scratch using the bare minimum with a microkernel nicknamed miniwin with a more component based OS rather than the current monolithic all-in-one but instead they seem to be using the vista codebase instead. Windows 7 will be it's official name, as according to Microsoft it's the 7th version of windows...but by other reckoning it's the 25th version of windows

[Lee Bartholomew]

Just backing up all the files etc on my machine and will do a clean install of it.

I every so often format and re-install my os just to keep it clean and fresh (and so my desktop doesn't span 3 screens).

Will post again when I have win 7 up and running with some screenshots.

[Lee Bartholomew]

Well up and running with Win 7

Not worth printing screenshots as looks exactly the same as Vista. Im off out in a bit so not much time to play with it, but so far

*installation is different. Bit rough around the edges but quicker to install fresh than XP or Vista. More streamlined but long periods of machine doing nothing, but this is a pre-release so expected.

*Home networking is easier and quicker.

* Interface is same as Vista incl background image. There is a notification center with messages about and problems Win 7 is having ie drivers that need installing or anti virus being out of date

*Comes with a program called poweshell which is a scripting environment. Not sure if this is included as it is beta development version or because it is the Ultimate edition. Can't see it being included in any home editions.

* My Documents is now Librarys. Also easier to see what has what permissions.

Will have a better play with tomorrow when I have more time.


--Oh and it comes with explorer 8 Beta. Not much difference from 7 but better URL autocomplete

[Robin]

*Comes with a program called poweshell which is a scripting environment. Not sure if this is included as it is beta development version or because it is the Ultimate edition. Can't see it being included in any home editions.

Ermm .. powershell is microsoft's scripting environment that's design for administrators to play around with things - sort of an advanced command line/batch replacement system with bells on. Been available for a while and not specific to vista /win 7

[Lee Bartholomew]

Ermm .. powershell is microsoft's scripting environment that's design for administrators to play around with things - sort of an advanced command line/batch replacement system with bells on. Been available for a while and not specific to vista /win 7

Yup but was not bundled with Vista I don't think.

[Mr Darcy]

The M3 pre-beta is a bit early to be judging Windows 7 on, a lot of the new UI stuff just isn't in there yet. I'm expecting a proper first beta around Christmas time and that will be representative of the final product. Also worth noting that there are changes 'under the hood' that should make it a lot better that previous versions. The kernel has been tidied up and reduced in size (know as MinWin), the way it uses processor time and disk access have been optimised so laptop battery life will be longer (and it has been shown running quite nicely on the new Atom based small netbooks). There is a new audio sub-system that now lets you do things like switch audio output between soundcard and usb headphones without the app that's playing it needing to know (or be upgraded). If you want to know all the details I suggest you google on 'msdn channel9' where you can find many interviews with the developers who have been working on the different features.

Also of interest is that they have now got a different way of organising the actual development engineering which means that most features only get added when they're pretty much complete and tested. They used the same strategy for visual studio 2008 and that actually came out ahead of schedule for a change.

Finally, Windows 7 will be able to use Vista drivers, which should mean excellent support for 32 & 64bit systems as soon as it comes out (since Vista will be 4 years old by then).

I think I get too excited by this stuff... But then I am a software developer by choice.

[Robin]

Also of interest is that they have now got a different way of organising the actual development engineering which means that most features only get added when they're pretty much complete and tested.

Now there's a novelty ... only add features that work !

[Dreadful Scathe]

i just want to interject with another "meh".

carry on

[Robin]

i just want to interject with another "meh".

carry on

meh away

you could vary it with a "ni" now and again if you like.

[Lee Bartholomew]

Some more findings with it.....

Claire tripped the fuses in the house yesterday resulting in loss of power to the PC and an hour or so's worth of coding to diss-apear. After some cursing and resetting the fuse I powered up the machine to find windows loaded all my windows and code up just as I left it !!!!!!!!!! UPS are so yesterday .

The way it handles media is also different. many more sound options (virtual surround etc) and when you change sound devices (ie plug in a usb headphones or sound cards) it automatically switches within the program. No more exiting the program and re-loading to get sound out of the new device.

Streaming media playback seems jerky though through IE Firefox and Chrome . I dont like the new media player either. The playlist has gone and now it is all done through an explorer interface.


Also DVD access isn't great. Sometimes it recognises DVD-R's and sometimes it doesn't