Windows 7 (beta 1)

[Aboobie]

Ok. After a bit of hassle getting the product key of MS I've installed the Windows 7 beta.

So far I'm very impressed. Installation was fast and painless, it feels like a much more refined faster version of Vista and I love it.

Anyone else having a play?

[NokkonWud]

Is it free?

[Daz]

Public beta was due yesterday but they've put it back a little bit so they can throw more resource behind the servers apparently. Been on MSDN and Technet since mid-week.

Reports so far have been very favourable, surprisingly in terms of performance. One of the design goals for 7 was to run comfortably on the same basic hardware requirements as Vista, but it seems to be outperforming it - which is nice.

[Garp]

Yes it's free and still perfectly accessible. Managed to nab a copy of it this morning.

Things to note: 1) It's a beta. They've already made significant progress (reportedly) since the version that's been released.
2) It's a limited time period piece of software. It'll work up until August 1st but after that it'll stop.

How to get it:
32 bit: http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...FRE_EN_DVD.iso

64 bit: http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...FRE_EN_DVD.ISO

To get your beta key you really need a passport account (e.g. hotmail account)

Go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx and at the top right corner select "Sign On", then log in using your passport/hotmail account details. Now choose the appropriate link to get your key:

32 bit: https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperi...2-ww&LCID=1033

64 bit: https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperi...4-ww&LCID=1033

You might need to refresh those pages a few times.


N.B Just to emphasis, this is beta software. DO NOT trust anything important to beta software. There is one bug that has already been identified with Windows 7 that means if you use it to access MP3 files it can accidentally corrupt them. Apply this bug patch but expect potentially many more data or file affecting bugs.

[divine]

Woooooo 100KB/s on those links.

Tempted to try a torrent but none will have any seeds :S

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4602...-GENUiNE.iMAGE

ISO.File.....: 7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULFRE_EN_DVD.iso

MD5..........: f9dce6ebd0a63930b44d8ae802b63825


Seems to be the same ISO file...

[Joe 90]

only 1MB/sec here

will have to try and find a spare partition to put this on

[Admiral Huddy]

Installed on one of my workshop PCs but not had time to have a play yet.

[Daz]

A nice look over at ars, I like a lot of what he says, particularly on UAC:

One of the bigger annoyances with UAC was that it somewhat second-guessed the user by asking them to confirm actions that they'd already (implicitly) confirmed. For example, if an Administrator started up regedit or Computer Management, they'd be asked to confirm what they were doing. "Well duh, of course I want to let that program run—that's why I just started it".

Windows 7 provides a resolution for this situation. In Windows 7, user-initiated actions are distinguished from software-initiated actions. If the action is user-initiated (such as clicking a button in Control Panel) then by default, Administrator-level users don't receive any prompting; the action just happens. If, however, the action is software-initiated, a UAC prompt is shown, much like the existing Vista ones. I took a look at UAC in detail at PDC, but lamented that the Administrator confirmation prompts were a bit too easy to dismiss. The beta resolves that by reintroducing the screen dimming that Vista's UAC does whenever it shows an Administrator a prompt. The slider described at PDC still exists to allow UAC to be easily changed in a granular way, but overall I'm happy with the default; the number of prompts is significantly reduced, but it still traps the important things.

As a home user I rarely see UAC, as a network admin I see it all the time - and a lot of those times it's not neccesary (I normally only start computer management to tinker with something on a remote machine, yet am always prompted), so that's great news for me. The guy's only real concern is IE8.

[Garp]

Originally Posted by Daz

As a home user I rarely see UAC, as a network admin I see it all the time - and a lot of those times it's not neccesary (I normally only start computer management to tinker with something on a remote machine, yet am always prompted), so that's great news for me. The guy's only real concern is IE8.

On Kari's laptop I seem to routinely come across it for the often the most bizarre of reasons; e.g. If I plug in my external hard disk, I can't access it without confirming a UAC prompt, even just simple stuff like copying files from my user location to it causes it. From how that description of Windows 7's UAC reads hopefully that should fall under "user initiated action". UAC under Vista annoys me in ways gksudo never does under Gnome. At least it's appearance under Gnome always seems logical to me.

[Kainz]

Installed it on my NC10 last night since XP felt clunky, old and pretty much useless. Have to say that it runs like a dream. Vista was too 'heavy' so there isn't really much of a middle OS bar OSX. Win7 feels light and quick enough on my 2GB NC10 anyway and I'll most likely stick with it until August 1st.

The only issue is that Aero snap needs turning off. Due to a netbook's small resolution windows keep snapping all over the place the moment you move them lol