# Windows 7 Beta



## Fiestamk5 (Feb 15, 2007)

Windows 7 Download Page

I got it installed on my PC last night and it looks very similar to Vista but a little faster. Hopefully it will be what Vista should have been


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## beardboy (Feb 12, 2006)

I've been using the Alpha version for a while now, so will give this a go :thumb:


EDIT: Once i've chosen the x86 or 64 version i get a 'page cannot be found' error


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## Chris_R (Feb 3, 2008)

Its great IMO
The enhancements to the touch screen/pen based input are leaps and bounds ahead of anything I have seen and a real boon to those of us with Tablet laptops 
Performance is way above Vista (running the 64 bit version) and is at least as good as my XP install playing some games and general work in applications.
So far its been stable, though I have used only a couple of the builds - 2 previous to the official release the other day, but both my PC and my laptop have been rock steady eddy.


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

Downloaded the beta before it was released, but both copies I burned failed to install, so deleted it. Might try the official release, may have just been a corrupt download.


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## Matt197 (Dec 27, 2006)

I have just got it set up on my computer, and I am unsure about it.

Never had a problem with Vista being slow and I actually liked all the eye candy, but with 7 I am having constant screen flashing when opening programs.

Have to run my games in D3D as OpenGL produces flashing lines all over the screen, this all might be down to the fact I am running 64bit and using drivers made for Vista.

Websites are hit and miss if they will load as well, took 5 attempts to log on here as it would just sit there doing nothing, both in FF and IE.

At this early stage I think I much prefer Vista, I like eye candy :argie:


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

I decided to upgrade my existing Vista x64 installation to Vista 7. Upgrade was going fine until it came up with an error saying "required driver not found", then some text saying Windows would go back the way it was. So restarted.

Bootmgr not found.

Bugger.

So out with the Vista DVD (probably could of used the 7 one) and went in to recovery console and ran bootsect /fixmbr then /fixboot and /rebuildbcd, restarted and got past the bootmgr problem.

It was at this point I was expecting Vista to load up, but no, Windows 7 was on and working BUT all my applications and documents can been shoved in to subfolders and the applications weren't installed, I assume this is because of the driver problem which interupted the installation.

So backed up all the data that I needed and deleted the extra folders Windows had created and installed some of the applications from scratch again. Been fine, only drivers I had to reinstall was for my X-Fi sound card but that has always been a pain in the ****.

I don't have any flashing screen problems (I have the Nvidia 8800GTS), haven't tried any games yet, but have Steam and all my games set up and ready.

Websites have been fine. Firefox and IE8 both worked straight away, Google Chrome doesn't work at all and it came up saying so when I tried to install it.

Taking a while to get used to the navigation tabs at the bottom, I know you can go back to the old way but I feel that this new way can grow on me.

Xvid support out the box is pretty good. No major problems with any applications, I had warnings from Dreamweaver and Photoshop about using an unrecognised operating system but let me carry on. X-fi drivers as I said before were a pain, had to install them in compatiability mode.

To remove the send feedback button on all windows do the following:

Go to Start > then type regedit in the search box and open it up.

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.

There should be a 32-bit DWORD value called FeedbackToolEnabled, set this to 0.

Restart and the message is gone.

To remove the message on the desktop requires a DLL modification which I haven't made as it makes no difference to me.


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## Grizzle (Jul 12, 2006)

hmmmmm all of a sudden mac seems a whole load easier.


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## nsanity (May 7, 2007)

Custom Detailers said:


> hmmmmm all of a sudden mac seems a whole load easier.


Why, they are trying a beta version of a OS, the whole point being for testing, its not a final release so inherently has problems. Pretty happy with XP/Vista tbh and got them running how I like (took a while figuring out Vista tho lol) but will try 7 soon


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## leviathan_uk (Dec 4, 2008)

i was using the leaked version but got rid due to it not being activated i am about to put the beta on but a question for you guys what av are you using on it i was thinking of using avast


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

leviathan_uk said:


> i was using the leaked version but got rid due to it not being activated i am about to put the beta on but a question for you guys what av are you using on it i was thinking of using avast


I have a 3 user licence for NOD32 so used that.


Custom Detailers said:


> hmmmmm all of a sudden mac seems a whole load easier.


For beta software this is bloody stable and very good.


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## Matt197 (Dec 27, 2006)

jamest said:


> I have a 3 user licence for NOD32 so used that.


+1 best AV around.


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## GeeJay (Jun 10, 2007)

I'm just installing the 32bit version now  Took me long enough to actually get to the download page without errors.

Tip - use IE to download as it seems to connect better!


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## GeeJay (Jun 10, 2007)

Christ! That didn't even take 20 mins to install! Now to use it


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## isherdholi (Sep 18, 2007)

I might give it a whirl in a VMWare machine.


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## GeeJay (Jun 10, 2007)

isherdholi said:


> I might give it a whirl in a VMWare machine.


14.5GB used on a fresh install is something to bare in mind :thumb: :doublesho


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

GeeJay said:


> 14.5GB used on a fresh install is something to bare in mind :thumb: :doublesho


Fresh or upgrade?

If it's fresh, Microsoft must have some miracle compression on the DVD to cram it in to 3.2GB or there must be a lot of duplicate files and large file creation such as hibernation file and pagefile.


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## Serkie (Dec 8, 2007)

Installed this on my Mac using VMWare Fusion. Size is 6.2GB on my disk.

I'm quite impressed so far, much cleaner in execution than Vista.


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## Matt197 (Dec 27, 2006)

I have sorted out my problems, and its very stable now.

If you have a Nvidia gcard you have to do the following, i installed Vista drivers and ran into problems.



> 1. After a fresh installation of the Windows 7 Beta, click on the Start button.
> 2. Click Windows Update (it will be pinned to the top of the start menu). You can also type "Windows Update" into the start menu Search to locate Windows Update.
> 3. Within Windows Update, locate and install the NVIDIA driver update (it will either be an important update or an optional update depending on your system).


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

Silverberry said:


> I have sorted out my problems, and its very stable now.
> 
> If you have a Nvidia gcard you have to do the following, i installed Vista drivers and ran into problems.


I did that straight away. I heard that the beta corrupted MP3 files and there was a patch so I ran Windows Update, but it wasn't on there, it's a seperate file, but installed the Nvidia update anyway.


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## popey (Jan 4, 2009)

can you run it alongside vista (duel boot)?


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## GeeJay (Jun 10, 2007)

jamest said:


> Fresh or upgrade?
> 
> If it's fresh, Microsoft must have some miracle compression on the DVD to cram it in to 3.2GB or there must be a lot of duplicate files and large file creation such as hibernation file and pagefile.


Sorry for the delay, that was a fresh install, no windows update yet :doublesho


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## Matt197 (Dec 27, 2006)

popey said:


> can you run it alongside vista (duel boot)?


Yes, you will need to create a new partition though, not sure if you can do it from the Windows 7 install part. I just used "EASEUS Partition Manager 3.0 Home Edition" its free and works just like PartitionMagic



GeeJay said:


> Sorry for the delay, that was a fresh install, no windows update yet :doublesho


To be fair, mine took up 12.5G from a fresh install, god knows where it all went.


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## reign (Oct 6, 2008)

seems to work better with mozilla, but mozilla is a strong browser anyway..


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## Fiestamk5 (Feb 15, 2007)

I already had a Vista/XP dual boot and set it to install in the XP location so now I have Vista/Win7 dual boot

I like a few of the new features like dragging a windows to the top of the screen to maximise it and the preview when hovering over icons in the taskbar


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

The best feature I have come across so far is dragging the windows to the side of the screen to make a split plane between 2 windows, so much better than manually changing the size. Unfortunately not all programs do it, such as Dreamweaver or Photoshop.


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## Scott2 (Jan 4, 2009)

I might give this a go!


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## swiftflo (Jul 28, 2008)

I am using Vista 32bit and downloaded Windows 7 64 bit but could not get it to load, so am now downloading 32bit to give that a go.


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

One thing I have noticed with 7 is it takes a lot longer to be usable when coming out of sleep.

Vista was usable within 3 seconds as the networking took a while to get itself back up. But applications opened almost immediately.

Windows 7 on the otherhand takes a good 15 seconds to get in to a usable state.


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## Rickyboy (Oct 14, 2008)

Been using this for a couple of days now and I'm immpressed. Not crashed yet, and the only issue I've had was when I left the Volume Mixer open for a while in the background it suddenly started taking up 100% CPU and needed to be closed.

I've not noticed any change to my comp coming out of sleep... I will have a check tomorow morning when I wake up and see if it's taking longer for me.


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

Rickyboy said:


> I've not noticed any change to my comp coming out of sleep... I will have a check tomorow morning when I wake up and see if it's taking longer for me.


My install was an upgrade from Vista that went wrong, so it didn't actually install cleanly so that may well be the problem.


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## Chris_R (Feb 3, 2008)

jamest said:


> My install was an upgrade from Vista that went wrong, so it didn't actually install cleanly so that may well be the problem.


I got issues last night doing similar. I decided to convert the Vista (64bit) installation on my laptop to Windows 7 using the upgrade option. I had installed it on another hard disk previously on the same machine as a clean installation and it worked fine.
This time it resulted in not being able to get into Windows at all, kept telling me that the Verisign service cannot start and wouldn't let me passed the login screen on any account. Couldn't get to the bottom of it...I didn't have a service by this name.
Gone back to the original hard disk again and using it right now.


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

Chris_R said:


> I got issues last night doing similar. I decided to convert the Vista (64bit) installation on my laptop to Windows 7 using the upgrade option. I had installed it on another hard disk previously on the same machine as a clean installation and it worked fine.
> This time it resulted in not being able to get into Windows at all, kept telling me that the Verisign service cannot start and wouldn't let me passed the login screen on any account. Couldn't get to the bottom of it...I didn't have a service by this name.
> Gone back to the original hard disk again and using it right now.


Mine was slightly different, just said that a driver couldnt be found during installation then restarted, boot manager had gone, so I fixed the boot manager and 7 was installed but hadn't put all the applications on from before.


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## monzablue16v (Jan 24, 2008)

I keep getting a lot of crashed explorer and IE errors even though I am using FF. I have it running dual boot with my install of mac os x leopard on the laptop. Might go back to an XP, Mac, Linux boot options not overly keen on it tbh.


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## parish (Jun 29, 2006)

I've just installed Win 7 in VMWare Fusion on my Mac. Dunno about anyone else, but Solitaire just hangs Win 7  May as well uninstall in  

The exercise was as much - if not more - to test Fusion (30-day trial). I'm impressed. The last time I used VMWare was ages ago when it was still fairly new and was a major resource hog. Right, now to install Linux on my Mac


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## JasonRS (Aug 8, 2006)

You'd be better off with virtualbox or parallels over VMWare...


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## parish (Jun 29, 2006)

JasonRS said:


> You'd be better off with virtualbox or parallels over VMWare...


Why, what is better about them?


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

I'm loving it so far. The only thing I miss is the Quick Launch - how do I get it working like it does on Vista?

I think I might put this on my Netbook too.


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## Rickyboy (Oct 14, 2008)

RussZS said:


> I'm loving it so far. The only thing I miss is the Quick Launch - how do I get it working like it does on Vista?
> 
> I think I might put this on my Netbook too.


http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=quicklaunch+windows+7

So I found my first bug just there - everytime I save a file with Photoshop CS3 it is changing my date/timezone to USA. Hmmmmmm.


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## leviathan_uk (Dec 4, 2008)

RussZS said:


> I'm loving it so far. The only thing I miss is the Quick Launch - how do I get it working like it does on Vista?
> 
> I think I might put this on my Netbook too.


anything you want down in the bar just drag and drop the icon onto the bar or you can right click on an icon and click "pin to taskbar"

hope this helps

or you could install rocket dock and have a mac style interface i use it and finds it maakes life easier and its free


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## swiftflo (Jul 28, 2008)

Installed 32bit version as an upgrade. At the moment the only problem I am having is with either sleep or hibernation, neither of these will work correctly. In the power options if I enable the "moon" button for sleep or hibernation, then press it on the keyboard the computer goes off, but then after about half an hour the computer starts up again on its own accord.


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## parish (Jun 29, 2006)

Hmm, that's a thought, Core Duos are 64-bit aren't they? I grabbed the 32-bit version :wall:


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

swiftflo said:


> Installed 32bit version as an upgrade. At the moment the only problem I am having is with either sleep or hibernation, neither of these will work correctly. In the power options if I enable the "moon" button for sleep or hibernation, then press it on the keyboard the computer goes off, but then after about half an hour the computer starts up again on its own accord.


Do you have wake up on LAN event or similar enabled in your BIOS or wake up on mouse. I have wake up on mouse enabled and just the mouse cable moving a slight bit triggered the computer to come out of sleep.


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## jamest (Apr 8, 2008)

parish said:


> Hmm, that's a thought, Core Duos are 64-bit aren't they? I grabbed the 32-bit version :wall:


Yes they are.

Haven't tried 32-bit Windows 7. I found 64-bit Vista a lot more reliable than 32-bit Vista.


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## swiftflo (Jul 28, 2008)

jamest said:


> Do you have wake up on LAN event or similar enabled in your BIOS or wake up on mouse. I have wake up on mouse enabled and just the mouse cable moving a slight bit triggered the computer to come out of sleep.


No checked both wireless mouse and keyboard for that.


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