Windows7

[Dak]

Here is the ultimate in free software.    http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/Windows-7/download.aspx

Windows 7, the successor for Vista, is available for download, free. Its the final release candidate, and appears to be reasonably  bug free. Microlimp is offering you the use of Windows 7 to test it, so they can iron out the last of any bugs they may find, and you can download it from their site free of charge, with a license that will expire on July 1st next year, which is about when its due for paid release.

This is a 2.3GB .iso file download that I downloaded in a little over an hour at 500+kbs, burnt to disc and installed. If you are running Vista, it can be run as an upgrade, but if you are running XP as I was, its necessary to totally reinstall, so backups are necessary!

For those that felt XP needed improvement, but who HATED Vista..  (that would be me...) Windows 7 seems to have the best of both worlds. It has the great aero look of Vista, with a lot of the extra rubbish removed, and it is as easy to navigate and modify as XP is.
Its best feature in my opinion is an excellent new taskbar, kind of Appleish but different. It also uses about HALF the resources that Vista does.

I installed this a couple weeks ago, and the ONLY complaint I have about it so far is the inevitable compatibility issues that arise with a new OS. For example, my old versions of Nero dont work, and the only version of Nero which does work on Windows 7 is Nero 9, which I dont like and cant afford anyway. I had to download a special version of Trend Micro Internet Security, as my version was regularly causing a BSOD. Many software programs will run using the inbuilt compatibility wizard, but some simply wont run at all.

I'll perservere with Windows 7 though, more apps will adapt to the new OS, and its a very, very nice OS to use... loads spectacularly fast, uses very few resources, seems very reliable, easy to navigate, etc.

I even found on installation that I didnt need to add the endless extra applications to run stuff like audio, graphics cards, USB and LAN, or even the wireless network card! Everything just worked.....

I'm sold I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has tried it.

[Mitz]

No I haven't tried it yet but it sounds great. I can't believe they are giving it away.. I just need another computer to install it on because I i am still needing Windows XP and VIsta for screenshots for articles.

I have ended up liking Vista, after you majorly tweak it and shut down all the running services that are not needed. But it sounds like they have fixed that problem with this version.

Bringing out another operating system is such a nightmare for us because now we need to know about all three to solve peoples problems. Its not like Windows XP is going anywhere for a long time either.

[woodyblade]

I haven't tried it either, I don't really have a Spare Comp to put it on, I could put it on my old XP Laptop with 512MB RAM and a 1.6GHz Celeron Processor but I don't have the Recovery Discs for it (Never got them in the First Place, tight arsed Computer Manufacturer) but since my old Laptop doesn't have enough RAM I guess I can't run it on that, other than that I only have the Vista Laptop I'm on now but I don't want to touch that it has a 1 year warranty from the Shop it was bought at (Till about 21st December this year) and it has a 2 year UK Warranty (Roughly till about 21st December 2010) with Samsung, plus a 1 year International Warranty (Again till 21st December this year), so as you can see I'd rather not mess about with it.

Guess I'll just wait to see what Windows 7 is like when I get a New Comp in about 18 to 24 months time (Probably a Laptop), there is bound to be problems found with it just like they did with Vista before SP1 so they might be ironed out by then, I think I read a rumoured release date for Windows 7 is around the end of November although that is at the earliest, most likely is that something will delay it so the 1st Quarter of 2010 in my opinion is the best bet

[Mitz]

What are the minimum requirements for Windows 7? It can't be too bad because they are meant to be bringing it out to compensate for Vista's failures.

[Dak]

I am using Windows7 RC1. So far, all claims appear to be true. I have found RC1 to be totally stable, clean, fast and user friendly.

It does indeed install in about 10 minutes flat. It does indeed load, ready to go, in less than 10 seconds.

It needed NO 3rd party drivers at all, not even the motherboard audio drivers or the wireless card drivers. Even my fancy graphics card needed no additional drivers installed, my dual screens worked perfectly from the moment RC1 first loaded. Media player 12, for the first time, can play DVD all on its own, without the use of a 3rd party DVD decoder!

 I wasn't given the option of installing RAID on installation though, so sadly I dont have RAID at this point. I'll look into this further.

I have found so far that RC1 seems to have everything that Vista should have had, and none of the extra crap that Vista has that no-one really wanted. Its very slick, nice to look at, and genuinely uses much less resources than Vista. In fact, its my opinion that its using less resources than XP was in this same computer prior to installing RC1.

I have no doubt that RC1 would run just fine with 1GB of RAM, though the Aero look may have to be disabled if you dont have more RAM or an addon graphics solution. Windows quotes the minimum requirements of 7 as 1GB RAM, but I suspect you could even run it (with Aero disabled) on 512MB RAM. I haven't tried this though.

The new Windows taskbar is a triumph, a major step forward in ergonomics. It is similar in some ways to the Apple taskbar, but even more functional in my view.

I only installed RC1 to take a look at it, and fully intended to revert back to my beloved XP Pro. I've changed my mind. I will be using RC1 till the temporary licence expires, and then buying a copy once its released.

I am going to do a major review on Windows 7 for this forum over the next few days, with screenshots and video of the best features. Watch this space!

Microlimp has finally got it right. I LOVE IT.

[Mitz]

This just sounds too good to be true...and its free...I love it too and I haven't got it yet...LOL

[Dak]

Further on the compatibility problems I mentioned. I did have problems initially with the anti-virus. Microsoft has quoted Trend Micro, among others, as having a compatible anti-virus, and since I am a big Trend Micro fan, I went to their site to get a trial version. I looked at the options available and (me being me! ) chose the PRO version. I found that I was getting a BSOD (blue screen of death) regularly, and Windows was clearly indentifying Trend Micro as the cause.
On returning to their website, I discovered that there is only one version of Trend Micro that is suitable for Windows7. The PRO version which I had downloaded was not the one!
I uninstalled PRO and installed the correct, dedicated version of Trend Micro, and haven't had a problem at all since.

With Nero, I installed version 6.6.1.4. Windows has warned me that this version isn't compatible, but allowed me to install it anyway. So far I have run into no problems at all, but when I do, a wizard will pop up offering to fix the problems by using an XP compatibility mode. This wizard didn't work with the anti-virus, but I am hoping it will work with Nero. I will let you know if I run into problems, and how well windows copes with dealing with them.

[Dak]

For those of you who haven't had a chance to take a look at Windows 7, here is a quick look at it for you.  Note that many technical aspects of Windows have been improved in 7, and although in many aspects it seems very similar to XP, it has many more hidden ablilities which XP did not. These include the ablility to use more RAM, and the ability to use a flash drive or dongle as further 'virtual' RAM. Windows 7 has all it needs to cope with upcoming touchscreen technologies, and so is much, much more than just a souped up XP.

In this 'First Impressions' article, I've concentrated more on the visual effects and innovations than on the technical or performance aspects. My bottom line - in my opinion this is faster and even more user friendly than XP, uses about the same resources, and has been totally stable so far. This is in comparison to the XP Pro installation on the same computer which Windows 7 replaced.

http://daksters.com/files/windows7.pdf

[Dak]

Heres a further update on Windows 7. I am having some problems, but I still plan on sticking with it.
Most of my problems appear to be related to the drivers for my NVidia graphics cards. I am getting intermittent freezing and crashes of the NVidia drivers, which means I regularly ( and it appears to be happening more often each day) get total freezing of the computer for a few seconds, then it all frees up again. Maybe 10% of those events are more extreme, my screens both go black for a few seconds, then everything comes back and Windows pops up a message saying the graphics drivers crashed, and have now recovered.

I am about to revert the graphics cards to an earlier driver, I'll keep you posted on what happens.

The other problem I am having is with Windows Media Player 12. Occasionally, as I listen to streaming radio, I'll get a wierd humming noise totally replacing the sound, just for a few seconds. Sometimes when watching a video, the same thing will happen, but the sound will mess up and the video carry on just fine. I like Media Player 12, but I am going to try going back to 11 to see if this solves the issue. I am suspicious that the NVidia drivers have something to do with it, even though the video carries on. If the problem still occurs with Media Player 11, I'll come back to 12 again.

I have some kind of issue which occasionally slows the computer to a crawl, as opposed to its normal sprint speed (this is a very fast computer most of the time). There are no clues in processes, memory use, cpu use, event logs or anything so I am scratching my head a little over that one. I'll let you know when I work it out.

The graphics driver problem is getting worse, and is starting to be a major problem. Hopefully reverting to an older driver will fix it. Apart from that, I am still very happy with Windows 7, and still willing to recommend it to all.

Further info as it comes to hand will be posted.

I'd be very interested to see if anyone else has made the transition to Windows 7, and what problems if any they are experiencing.

[Merlin33069]

Yeah, its the only one i use, i even installed it on my laptop, over vista. I use it to host my Servers and to do pretty much everything on.

I love the was the quicklaunch integrates with the startbar, as a start. Loads quick, B-U-tiful

Whats more?
Free trial, till next year-ish (release candidate, not actual final product)

[Mitz]

Ok I have finally got windows seven...Thanks to dak...He bought it to me on a dvd disc ready to go...I just didn't get around to doing one for myself..Anyway we formatted a few computers with Windows seven...How easy is it to even format with...Unreal. Doesn't even take long to install. Although it seems like a long time when you are watching the screen because it doesn't flick through with updates and where it is up to like windows XP...Anyway got the kids testing it for me...My daughter has been changing the desktop backgrounds every five seconds on a timer...driving me crazy...Also she has been playing with paint...and found some really cool features in this...

The networking aspect was a bit confusing for me at first...I like to set everything up myself but it does it for you...Wheres the skill in that...Anyway I wanted to view the computers on the network which is easy to do on Windows XP and Vista...but not so on Windows Seven....Theres my first article idea in the making...lol

[Dak]

Windows 7 is now running totally reliably and stable on my computer. Automatic updates appear to have fixed all of the issues I was having. There is a lot of stuff online regarding others having the same problems I was, so it appears that Microsoft are finally actually listening to their customers and fixiing things!

I'm now a Windows 7 convert. I love it, and I won't go back. Its the fastest, prettiest, most stable and user friendly operating system I have ever used. When I am forced to pay for it next year, I will do so, and I will be getting the Ultimate version that is the RC trial, or its equivalent, whatever the cost. Interestly, I have heard that 7 will be substantially cheaper than the ridiculously overpriced Vista was too...

I'm experimenting with some other stuff now. I am playing with one of the P4s that Mitz and I have been working with. This is a 3GHz hyperthreading P4. I've added some RAM to it, so it now has 2G DDR400 (4x512). I've also added an additiional hard drive. The board supports 4 Sata devices, but the power supply has only one Sata power plug. This is easily remedied with the addition of molex to sata adapters, but I dont have any lying around, so for now, I have used an IDE drive as a second drive, giving it 2x80GB drives.

The Graphics are onboard and although they are handling 7 just fine, some features of Aero have been automatically disabled. This is definitely the weakest point at the moment.

I'm going to add a cheap DX9 graphics card, just good enough to make Aero run properly, and change the IDE drive to a SATA as soon as as I can get into town and get some connectors. I will then reinstall Windows 7 again, and see what improvements have been made. Sadly, the motherboards in these computers do not support RAID, and I have never been a fan of addon RAID cards, so that wont be happening. If I can get my hands on a 128G Solid State drive that would be interesting though... hmmm Mitz now theres a nice prize for a competition

The point in all this drivel? I think in this computer Vista would have struggled. There would have been a lot of finger tapping going on while you waited for Vista to get around to it. Windows 7 is running noticably faster on this computer than XP did. Its stable, clean and user friendly. Everything just works.

I've installed a Wireless networking card to it as well. Its the only thing so far that 7 couldnt run. It went into compatabilty mode and gave me a list of previous operating systems with which this card had worked. I chose XP Home.

When you are installing Windows 7, you are also installing XP, its a part of the package! When running in XP compatability mode, it is actually using XP to run the program, and emulating it to look like Windows 7. Amazing stuff. I chose to use XP and the Wireless card is working exactly as it should.

Well done Microsoft.

[Menka]

Windows 7 is ultimate....never saw anything like that.