Should I? Shoudn't I? (Windows 7 Beta)

[Jesterarts]

I have windows 7 beta on my portable HHD and I'm toying with the idea of installing it.

Anyone use it? Should I install it?

[Tom_1569]

Im using it.... I first installed it on a spare 20gb drive to try, on the week of release. Just yesterday I installed it on a 160gb because I got sick of not having room, i havent used my XP or Vista drive since installing Windows 7, its just awesome.

BUT Im pretty sure you can only use it until Septermbar sometime, and then it locks itself, so you need to think about that.

[Astranomical]

Actually RC1 is usable until June 2010. Over the weekend I'll probably have a bit of a play around with it in a VM.

[JBDrifter]

Can you not just dual boot it?

[Hunter SS]

i heard that as soon as they release W7 they (Micro$oft) are dropping all support for XP. It's a shame..... i like XP

[FstStig]

Can't see why not. If someone wants to give it ago, i say go for it. I' am going to download RC1 tonight when i go to bed and will install tomorrow. Yeah RC1 is available unitl June 2010 Beta 1 expires on 2/7/2009.

[Astranomical]

i heard that as soon as they release W7 they (Micro$oft) are dropping all support for XP. It's a shame..... i like XP

Actually, MS is still supporting XP under "extended support" up until 8th April 2014, just that mainstream support has been retired.

Microsoft Support Lifecycle

Windows XP: The Future

[SMIT]

Actually RC1 is usable until June 2010. Over the weekend I'll probably have a bit of a play around with it in a VM.

Man i tried to get it going in VMware without luck.

[Jesterarts]

... What is VMware...?

Ok... I'm going to bite the bullet this weekend... and install it... I've been told that I can expect everything to run better... which is good enough for me.

[Tom_1569]

... What is VMware...?

Ok... I'm going to bite the bullet this weekend... and install it... I've been told that I can expect everything to run better... which is good enough for me.

VMware is a program to run virtual operating systems. For example I use to run VMware on my XP Pro drive, within the VMware I had 2 Virtual 2003 server operating systems, and one XP Pro Operating system(Client). All on one computer, but could run them together, without affecting my original XP Pro which I still used to do all my daily tasks, its essentially an operating system within an operating system..... Have I confused you? lol

Good thing about installing Win 7 is it only takes about 25 minutes and its all done

[Astranomical]

There's also Virtual PC, which is free (hence the reason I use it instead of VMWare)

[cdtoaster]

i'd install it if you were gonna format anyway otherwise it seems like a hassle with all the updates and crap espec if you dont like it/run into problems then you gotta reisntall vista and patch it.......

[Jesterarts]

So you're saying I should just install it on my girlfriends computer instead and see if it work and i like it before I install it?

[Jesterarts]

OK... running Windows 7 now...

First impressions... I like it... only thing I don't like is startbar... its too wide...

Other than that... cool!

Good on them for copying the MAC with the slideshow wallpaper...

[Stressball]

Yeah I'm on 7 now. First impressions are good, have been running it stable for about a month now. No issues, a few compatibility things with Logitech software though, Logitech have announced formally that they are deliberately not supporting beta OS's yet though.

I'm dual-booting it with XP, I'm yet to find a reason to boot into XP again.

[Jesterarts]

Ok... issue number one... device manager see's the in built sound card... and yet windows toolbar says it can't find a sound output device... hmmm

And i have a mono logitech steering wheel... hmmm... shall look into this soon with some GRID... once I'm over GTA...

[VS Omega]

I played around with 7 since before 6591, it's come a long way and definitely a step up from Vista in terms of performance. I have severe issues with networking however and as such refuse to use it again until they fix my problems (non-windows machines connecting to shared resources). I've also been using Windows Server 2008 R2 RC1 (7100).

I have to recommend Server 2008 R2 RC1 if you're a tech savvy person who can find work arounds to some problems (modifying MSN installer, etc.), exactly as free as Windows 7 RC1 only it's server class so rock solid (still presents those networking issues though) though it lacks native bluetooth support.

I couldn't bare going back to Vista (which has it's own set of networking issues) after 7 so I played around with XP SP2 x64 (based on the Server 2003 codebase) which is FAST, it reminded me how slow Vista/7 are in comparison though the lack of a nice interface (even with Royale Noir theme) turned me away.

Now I'm using Ubuntu Linux 9.04 x64 with the KDE environment 4.2.3 installed on top (so it's basically Kubuntu) and I love it so may never go back to Windows (it just works).

All of this experimentation and playing is on my main box

[Jesterarts]

Ok... thick start bar fixed... audio issue fixed... all my programs seem to work... I can start using them quicker after start up.... I like it!

Thumbs up from me...

[Stressball]

Yeah it's going to be fantastic once the OEM release to the public is out, then other companies will develop support for it and i wont have any more issues In a perfect world

[ruggj]

definitely give windows 7 a go, i haven't installed it myself yet but from what others have told me, windows is quicker, a lot easier to use (just like from xp to vista you just have to get used to it, but the 'getting used to it' stage isn't as long as xp to vista) but they are all having problems running dx10 games with aero on, so i don't know what the problem is there but hopefully a patch comes out or something to fix it.

[Leigh_G]

GTFO of vista

[Astranomical]

I've got it running on my Windows partition on my MacBook. Since I've only got a gig of RAM, its a tad on the slow side, but other than that, I'm impressed, it seems to have come a fair way since the beta back in January.

Btw, a bit of a heads up to anyone installing Windows 7 64 bit on a Mac, you'll need to patch the DVD, with the instructions here:

...::: S e r g i o.......M c f l y :::...: Select CD-ROM Boot Type when installing Server 2008 64-bit with Hyper-V