Windows 7

[shoes]

Have just downloaded this from the Microsoft Website. Will be using this to rebuild my laptop later on.

Has anyone else downloaded / installed this yet? All the MSG33ks reckon this is going to be much better than vista although from what I can tell in tech reports is pretty much the same thing with a prettier / more user friendly UI (which can't be a bad thing, Vista is rock solid these days and the UI is already very good).

Any comments?

 

[wmrcomputers]

Hi shoes.

I downloaded an un-official beta a couple of months ago which must have slipped out without Microsoft being aware.

I'm a big lover of Vista, especially the UAC which makes it more secure virus-wise than any previous operating system. However, the beta version of Windows 7 which I downloaded was nothing to rave on about at all.

Having said that, this beta could have much more functionality. I'm not in the position at the moment to wipe my main system to do any trials, but I will as soon as is possible. Therefore thank you very much for the link!!

Anyone else got feedback?

 

[shoes]

I agree, Vista really is very good, especially for domestic users who want an easy going environment. Personally I have the UAC turned off as it annoys me, howver both my parents leave it turned on for their computers and I think it saves a lot of potential hassle.

The download link I posted requires you to have a Live Passport but if you have a hotmail or use any of the Live services then you can use that. The download speeds are very good, I am sharing a 2MB connection (still - damned virgin) and it was sitting happily at 250k/s which I believe is the limit for a 2Mb line

 

[wmrcomputers]

Yeah that's about the speed i'm getting now. 30 minutes it's done 20% so i'm happy enough with that.

I agree totally about Vista, but there's so many people who say "its crap" just based on what somebody else has told them. In most cases people tell everyone its crap 30 minutes after installing it without giving it chance. A few weeks later they realise they quite like it, but by then they've started a huge circle of bad reputation for it i think.

Agree with you about the UAC, but I still leave it on for security. You actually get quite used to it after a while.

BUT... I think XP will still survive for a dozen or more years yet. I know Microsoft will not be issuing new keys for retail systems in about another year, but I reckon there will be as many if not more systems running XP than Vista in 5 years + from now.

I'll definately be sharing my views on this Windows 7 Beta release with you sometime soon

 

[shoes]

Likewise, I'm planning to build it tonight and will use it lots in the coming weeks to see what I make of it.

 

[My Name is URL]

What is a UAC guys?

 

[shoes]

User Account Control.

Its the box asking you to click 'Continue' every time you try to install something or change a setting. Basically it is there to alert you to changes being made to the computer, and if it pops up when you're not trying to change anything then its a good indication that there is some other software on your PC which is trying to mess you about. For example changing things such as firewall exceptions, installing addons for internet exploder or even changing your language settings.

For example:

Its enabled in all versions of Vista by default. To turn it off you can go to Start ==> Control Panel ==> User Accounts and there is an option in there. Requires restart of computer though.

Shoes

Edit: Anything with the little technicolour shield by it will ask you to confirm the action.

 

[wmrcomputers]

To add to what shoes has said, imagine what happens when a virus installs itself within XP... it is basically a program. All be it a malicious one, but still a program nevertheless.

It then spreads, deletes files, installs other programs (viruses) etc, all without you even knowing its happening.
Therefore, in Vista, the same process would throw up a User Account Control window basically making sure it's you that is requesting to install something / run something etc. Hence... a much more secure environment than XP, but does get a little annoying esp0ecially in the early days until you get used to it. WORTHWHILE THOUGH in my opinion!

 

[shoes]

Very true!

Back to the original thread though

I have succesfully installed windows 7 on my macbook, drivers and all. In terms of speed I notice nothing between vista and windows 7 but i have not conducted any stress tests or actually done anything yet lol. It certainly looks shiny and the UI has a very OS X feel to it.

Screeny:

The new taskbar is fantastic though I really like it and when you hover over a group of windows, say internet exploder it makes everything else transparent so you can see which open windows are related to that group. You then simply click on the window itself to bring it to the front.

Will continue testing.....

Shoes

 

[wmrcomputers]

Need to dig out a DVD writer or wait for a customers computer to come in before I can burn it off. My netbook doesnt have one and the DVD drive on my "kids" tower is about buggered.


I like the look from the screenshot you've taken though. I've read that you can put gadgets anywhere on the desktop now in Windows 7, is that right shoes?

 

[shoes]

You can with Vista too buddy, just drag them off the side bar onto the desktop.

That screenshot was taken after i set the windows default size to 125%. Thats because it was on the small macbook screen and due to an unfortunate accident that happened at the weekend my eyesight is a bit screwed up at the moment. I would think at a normal size (taskbar, window borders etc.) it will look very slick.

Do you want my DVD to install it? You're more than welcome to come grab it off me.

Shoes

 

[tek-monkey]

You alright mate? Accident or self induced?

 

[shoes]

Well tilley induced. Stupid idiot thought it would be funny to flick a wet towel at my head and missed the back of my head by a clear 180 degrees and hit me in the eye. My iris was ruptured and drained all the colour out of it, a fair bit of blood and some other goo. Suffice to say my right (and photography grrrrr) eye is bxd now, and will be for a few days.

Here's a pic taken in the hospital, you can see what i mean about the colour draining from my eye:

This was the next day:

The yellow stuff is berium, they poured it into my eye to xray for scratches. First they injected anaesthetic into my eye ball it was like something out of a horror film. Worst experience ever.

Well second worse because I am plotting my revenge!

 

[tek-monkey]

Ouch!

 

[shoes]

Yes, quite.

Think I'm gonna break into his room, well use the spare key, at night and litter his room with primed mouse traps when he's asleep. Then put his mobile on the opposite side of the room. And then ring him.

 

[wmrcomputers]

OUCHHHHH!!!!

I feel for you buddy. I stabbed myself in the eyeball with a screwdriver once putting together a cupboard at 11.30pm after being in the pub.
I had to have my eyeball removed and 34 stitches in it, all whilst fully conscious..... not a nice feeling.
BLOODY PRECIOUS THINGS EYES ARE - Look after them!!

I wouldn't mind borrowing your burn of Win 7 if you're sure you don't mind mate?

Either PM me you address or mobile number so i can give you a ring. Much appreciated, a very kind offer indeed!

PS - BLOODY ELL YOU'RE RIGHT N ALL! I've never even tried draggin gadgets onto the desktop until you said that. It's a feature they're bragging about in Windows 7 aswell, as if it couldn't be done in Vista! lmao

 

[Gramaisc]

There is a user registered on this site who once poked someone in the eye just because he asked her to look at something on the car. Be warned.

 

[shoes]

I'm glad you qualified

I stabbed myself in the eyeball with a screwdriver once putting together a cupboard

With

at 11.30pm after being in the pub.

That sounds infinitely worse than what I had to go through in all fairness! I know what you mean about taking care of your eyes, I would probably lose the will to live if I went blind, music is only uplifting to a finite point!

Yeah thats no problem I'll run you a fresh one off now buddy.

In true shoes form and not being able to leave anything alone i have somewhat damaged my phone, apparently ubuntu mid isn't meant for mobile phones. I've had to source a fresh install jobbie of windows 6.1 and its not a normal install i had to flash the ROM and messed that up a couple of times and its ok now but cannot call out and would appear not in. I can't txt out although it seems to work in. The gprs isn't working at all. The point of all this? I'll email you my number and address and you txt me when you wanna come round

Shoes

p.s. anyone know anything about smartphones?

 

[shoes]

Got this up and running on my desktop machine now and have a couple of strange reports already regard the graphics not being compatible with windows 7, and it does seem to glitch a lot. I'm using an ATi Radeon 3870 X2 card. Interestingly, as you can see from the screenshot, the graphics seem to rate very highly in the experience index.

Another point definitely worth noting is that the windows experience index now goes up to 7.9 as opposed to 5.9. I was looking forward to my system's rating as it was rated as 5.9 throughout in vista.

This leads onto my second complaint. Whilst it appears to have accurately rated my processor and graphics capabilities the speed of the memory has dropped somewhat to 5.5. Secondly my hard drive is reading a pittiful 3.0. Now this is worrying as I am running a RAID 0 setup and it should be blisteringly fast. Well it is blisteringly fast, its certainly not halved in performance rating as the experience index suggests.

On the plus side the UI is incredibly easy to understand and tasks are simplified. For example I just went to burn this image onto DVD for wrmcomputers and out of curiosity right clicked on the image file. There was a lovely option "Burn image to disc". And thats what its doing

So far i'm impressed with ease of use and friendlyness although its not quite as stable as I'd have hoped, the graphics seems to be playing silly buggers a lot.

Shoes

For anyone who wants to make a comparison here is the 'basic' system specs in the familiar vista style dialogue box.

 

[wmrcomputers]

Thanks to shoes, i stayed up late last night installing Windows 7.

On my netbook, the wireless lan drivers would not work, even if set to a vista or xp compatibility mode, which is a wounder!!
Therefore i'm now installing it back with Vista Ultimate.

HOWEVER, in the time spent mucking around with it (connected to web via ethernet cable instead), I can now give these personal views on Windows 7.

Firstly, as Shoes pointed out, the ratings can vary dramatically. My ratings were all way down on those quoted by Vista. Exception being Graphics (for Gaming) which was much higher. WEIRD!! I wouldn't personally look too deeply into rating scores, and agree with Shoes that overall performance seemed to be equal to if not slightly better than in Vista.

User Interface is certainly the big plus point. I wont go over your comments shoes, but agree entirely with all your views.

My big grunt about this is as follows... I PERSONALLY find that this is just Vista with a few (and only a few) tweeks made to it. No doubt the ultimate edition will be shipping out at a few hundred quid upon release and I would realistically say that it's not worth that money to someone who already uses Vista.

SUMMARY - nice UI, but I think this should have been released as a service pack update to Vista, and not "badged" as an entirely new operating system. I'll now probably do as I did with Vista, and wait for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 to be released before I ever consider switching. By that time they've usually sorted out most of the driver issues and updates to the point where MAYBE it's worth shelling out for.

Thanks again shoes for the copy of the disc. If anyone else wants to try it out, your welcome to have my copy which shoes kindly ran off for me.

Wayne