Windows 7 RC now on TechNet

[mb2k01]

Left mine downloading at home when I came to work today! Awfully slow download though - I guess the rest of you are clogging up MS at the same time!

[AyatollahPies]

May the 4th be with you.... Always

 

That's the one.

 

This RC is also usable until Summer next year apparently, which is rather nice of them.

[cookie_monster]

that you’ll buy a netbook with a version of Windows 7 that will only let you run three applications simultaneously and that won’t have a media player or simplified networking

 

Typical attitude, you buy a cheap computer you get a crap OS if you want a real OS you have to pay twice the price of the hardware

 

Windows 7: MS plays a Jedi mind trick on netbook owners • The Register

[Simcfc73]

Wow, very impressed with the Ultimate version, I take it this is the version we will have through our lovely Schools Agreemenr.

 

Solitaire is very slick too

 

Totally pee'd off they haven't got any new games, come on Microsoft you tight gets.

 

IE8 is miles better on W7 too, very fast.

[cookie_monster]

I think we'll get Windows 7 Professional or Enterprise through schools agreement.

 

I wish they would just go back to home and pro

[Diello]

It'll be Enterprise Edition via VL, though Ultimate will be exactly the same as Enterprise, just minus the VL requirements.

 

Professional is like Home Premium "Plus" - It'll be missing things like BitLocker and the nicer networking features like Branch Cache.

[EduTech]

May the 4th be with you.... Always

 

I still have last years edugeek "May The 4th be with you" logo :~D

 

I need to have a look at our licence's i think, as i would like to see if we have a school agreement. if not i will either 1) Sign up for it myself or 2) Get the school to buy one!

 

Role on Tuesday!

 

James.

[Gatt]

Downloaded and installed on my Laptop

Nice to have Win7 back

 

Now whats all this about XP Mode? Hmm..

[Diello]

Technet Downloads --> Applications --> Windows Virtual PC --> Download "Windows XP Mode Beta".

 

Install... be quite impressed...

 

Could have really big ramifications for future versions of Windows.

[Gatt]

Cheers will take a look over the weekend

[Simcfc73]

Completing Solitaire has some nice graphics when you win... now to beat Spider Solitaire

[leco]

Completing Solitaire has some nice graphics when you win... now to beat Spider Solitaire

 

Is this what it's come to? Microsoft invest millions of $ just for some nice games graphics? Technicians of the world rejoice:)

 

No of course I'm not serious

 

:note to self: try solitaire as soon as 7 is installed.

[mb2k01]

Well...

I didn't spend much time using the build 7000 release as it was a bit clunky and clumsy for me, so was not holding much hope for 7100.... WOW was I wrong.

 

I actually decided to perform an upgrade from Vista Business on my home machine and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! This machine has a new lease of life! No more lagging from application to application, no more typing faster than the computer can process (that's half a brag and half the slowness of my machine!)

 

I can't remember the last time I've been this excited about something IT related!!

[cookie_monster]

Not sure XP mode is as good as it sounds, the hardware requirements notably virtualization extensions required are a PITA. As for issues with the software it's beta so we'll see when it's released.

 

Windows 7's XP Mode - Virtually worth the effort • The Register

[OverWorked]

I've just had a look. The RC is only available to Technet Plus subscribers. I'm only a normal Technet member, so can't download. The Beta has also been withdrawn. I'll have to wait until 5 May and download it with everyone else.

 

Effective April 30, the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) will be available to MSDN subscribers and TechNet Plus subscribers.

 

On Tuesday, May 5 (PST), the RC will be available to everyone via our Customer Preview Program. As with the Beta, the Windows 7 RC Customer Preview Program is a broad public program that offers the RC free to anyone who wants to download it. It will be available at least through June 30, 2009, with no limits on the number of downloads or product keys available.

 

So you don’t need rush to make sure you get your copy. When you’re ready to download the RC, it’ll be waiting for you.

 

Windows 7 Beta downloads are no longer available. However, you can still register for a product key or look up the key you’ve already gotten.

[mb2k01]

Still delighted with the RC of Win 7 however.... less than impressed with Norton!

As I'm currently evaluating at home, and saw that Norton support Win7 on this page Windows 7: Security software providers I thought I would have a go and install it (as I have a personal subscription anyway)

 

Well - If anyone's thinking of doing it, don't! It slows the RC right down and doesn't actually work properly!

Normally, as it's not a full release I wouldn't have bothered anyone about it, but I returned to the webpage above and re-read. It certainly looks like Norton should have a working product for the RC - so I contacted Norton Support...

 

Parthiban: You are being transferred to Parthiban.

Parthiban: Welcome to Norton Support, my name is Parthiban. Can I please have a minute to go through the information you have provided?

Mr. mb2k01 : Sure

Mr. mb2k01 : Additional information which will probably be useful is that I'm running Windows 7 Build 7100

Parthiban: Thankyou for the information

Parthiban: mb2k01 ,I see that you're having problems with Error: "3039,1" after you install a Norton 2009 product.Am I right?

Mr. mb2k01 : Yes

Parthiban: mb2k01,Any Norton product is not tested in the beta version of Windows 7 operating system

Parthiban: So please revert back to Winows vista

Parthiban: If you install Norton product in Windows 7 it will not functions and some features will not work properly

Mr. mb2k01 : Windows 7 advises that the Norton product is one of three products (the other two being Kapersky and AVG) which work with Windows 7

Parthiban: Yes,It works

Parthiban: But it will conflict with some feature

Parthiban: Once the Windows 7 operating system released fully.

Parthiban: Norton product can be installed

Mr. mb2k01 : Not to be padantic, but "works" and "conflict" are conflicting statements! I'm evaluating the RC in a professional role so can't return to Vista. Would your advice therefore be to uninstall Norton?

Mr. mb2k01 : (and use a competitor?)

Parthiban: mb2k01,Please revert back to Windows vista or Windows Xp

Parthiban: Then install Norton Internet Security

Mr. mb2k01 : As I stated, I can't as I'm evaluating Windows 7 in a professional capacity (I'm **job title** at **place of work**).

Mr. mb2k01 : If Norton specifically do not support a fully working product under WIndows 7 RC then they shouldn't be on this page Windows 7: Security software providers

Parthiban: Okay

Parthiban: Please wait until the Windows 7 releases

Mr. mb2k01 : Interestingly we currently use the Symantec Endpoint client in our production enviroment. I am due to test a couple of machines there over the coming weeks - do you know if Endpoint has similar issues with Win 7?

Parthiban: No I don't,mb2k01

Mr. mb2k01 : Thank you for your time. I will remove your product as suggested and seek an alternative!

Parthiban: I'm sorry for the inconvenience that this is causing

Mr. mb2k01 : Thank you. Have a good day

Parthiban: Is there anything else that I can help you with?

Mr. mb2k01 : No!

[Dos_Box]

On the media center front though it is an absolute dream!

I can now tune into, watch and record BBC HD in all it's glory

I did an in place upgrade of my Vista media center and all went swimmingly, and the upgrade only took an hour or so. I think it would be a bit faster had I done an installation from scratch, but to date I have had zero driver issues with my ATI 4670, Balckgold BGT 3540 and Hauppauage Nova-HD-S2 tuner cards. I am quite a happy chappy

I just have to delete tons of useless satellite channels from media center now

[Ric_]

@Dos_Box: Told you it was good

[mb2k01]

On the media center front though it is an absolute dream!

I can now tune into, watch and record BBC HD in all it's glory

I did an in place upgrade of my Vista media center and all went swimmingly, and the upgrade only took an hour or so. I think it would be a bit faster had I done an installation from scratch, but to date I have had zero driver issues with my ATI 4670, Balckgold BGT 3540 and Hauppauage Nova-HD-S2 tuner cards. I am quite a happy chappy

I just have to delte tones of useless satellite channels from media center now

 

It's venturing a little bit off-topic, but does that card record from Sky?

I have been playing with Windows 7 Media Centre and want to buy a tuner card that I could hook up to Sky (if that's at all possible!?) but know next to nothing about this side of things!

[Dos_Box]

It's not a Sky card, but I have the Blackgold which is standard Freesat (+ DVB-T) and the Hauppauge S2 card is Freesat HD.

Oh, and Kaspersky Intenet Security Suite 2009 works flawlessly too

[synaesthesia]

Windows 7 RC is fantastic on a media streaming POV, setting it up to stream to my xbox was a piece of cake, I doubt it would be difficult for non technical users to do either.

Security wise, I'd not dream of wanting Norton on here Kaspersky runs somewhat better than it does on Vista, although I'm sticking with Avast! anti virus out of personal preference.

 

Makes me wonder - if Vista was like this in the first place, back in 2007, what sort of impact it'd have had on the likes of Apple, and if MS/Dell/HP etc would be offering licence downgrades etc.

[cookie_monster]

Lets face it Vista was just a 2 year beta and the only way for MS to force software houses and device manufacturers to create software and drivers to their new guidelines, while Vista was in beta they just carried on with the XP model once Vista was out things had to change. Also it's version two of all of the new code that went into Vista so they've had time to iron out the bugs and netbooks have given them the incentive to invest the money to re engineer code and make it more efficient, usually they just expect you to buy better hardware and pass the cost to the consumer.

[synaesthesia]

Not strictly true though is it. Development on W7 started at the same time as Vista. Naturally there's a fair bit of stuff shared between them, but regardless, it's a hugely bitter pill to swallow for Vista purchasers. Not to say I'm disappointed with Vista, it's a mile ahead of XP on my system in performance and ability, but when compared with 7 it really does look a lame horse (and of course we all know what it's like in a corporate/business environment.

 

Still wince every time I get a laptop to deal with in a school with a "Celeron" sticker next to a "Vista Basic" sticker. Waiting for it to past the POST and see if it's been XP'd or if it's been used with Vista, with half a gig of ram

[cookie_monster]

I think MS should offer every Vista owner a Win7 upgrade so they can draw the curtains on it ASAP

 

it's a mile ahead of XP on my system in performance and ability

 

Really I thought XP consistently outperformed Vista in most benchmarks, at least that's what most articles i've read said.

 

 

Development on W7 started at the same time as Vista

 

Vista and Win7 are the same code base, MS wouldn't be developing two clients at the same time. It was on the roadmap but the product team work on one version at a time.

Edited May 4, 2009 by cookie_monster

[synaesthesia]

According to various technet blogs development was started by mostly separate teams. Might take a look later and make sure I'm not just mixing up my memory

 

As for the performance: it's a varying thing really. After a certain point a properly set up Vista system should really cane Vista in application and gaming performance, but there's a huge array of hardware and even higher amounts of developers struggling with drivers for said hardware. I ran XP SP2/3 and Vista simultaneously (32bit in both cases originally). Up until around August 2007, XP was the system of choice on my system for performance reasons, mostly down to shoddy driver support from nVidia and Creative. At about that time the drivers were sorted out (with 3rd party help for Creative) and reliability issues were solved, with performance about equal. By Jan 2008 (nearly a whole year after it's release) updates and driver tweaks had Vista running clear of XP in gaming performance, and there was noticeable difference in performance of Photoshop, 3DSMax and Cubase, enough to get rid of XP entirely. Not that it mattered, within the next month I'd upped the ram and made the only worthy choice of an OS, Vista x64.

 

So yeah, it took a while to get there, but then again XP is now 7 years old and has had that amount of time to get a decent driver base, a huge support system and the mantra "if it aint broke, don't fix it" keeping it alive. And I wouldn't want to see XP moved from large network systems just yet. It works and it works well and reliably, which is the important thing.

 

Windows 7 has brought about a lot of improvements - it's certainly a hell of a lot quicker than XP let alone Vista, it works on lower end systems surprisingly well and MS have taken the above "if it aint broke" mantra and applied it with the Virtual XP addition. I'm interested to see how that will pan out in the larger network sense.

 

It's important to move forward, and it grinds me daily that we're still using 32bit systems in this day and age, let alone clinging onto old systems because people just can't keep up. That alone makes me wonder (horribly) if the future lies in Mac's (or mac like systems) due to the fairly consistent hardware base. It's a horrible thought of course, the day Apple is the standard is the day the economy gets even worse than it is now.