[RobtRoma]

For those not technically aware, Microsoft is preparing the replacement for Windows Vista. It's called Windows 7. They released a Beta version last Friday to the general public so I downloaded and installed it over the last few days. Unfortunately, my computer is unable to display the new interface in all its glory. Basically it looks like Vista 2.0. It also has the new version of Internet Explorer. Here is the current desktop:

I will try to upload more screen captures as I use it. I just wish I could see the revised Aero interface.

 

[jonas1022]

Looking more like Apple OS desktops...or is it just me?

 

[RobtRoma]

'lil bit...

 

[JIMMYJOHN]

Hey that is one good looking STANG :wave: :wave:

 

[stone]

I like that mustang on your desktop RobtRoma. Will be interesting to find out if Windows 7, is a reasonably stable operating system.

 

[Ajax]

Will be interesting to find out if Windows 7, is a reasonably stable operating system.

:hyst: :hyst: :hyst:

And Stone thought that I said funny stuff!!!!

:hyst: :hyst: :hyst: :hyst:

 

[RobtRoma]

Thanks Jimmy & Stone. I like the new 'Stang too. P eace:

There are quite a few issues so far. IE8 doesn't display some pages right. The frames aren't right. I also couldn't log into Facebook. It just kept bringing me back to the login page. I installed FireFox 3 and I haven't had any browsing issues. I also installed a trial version of MS Office. Initially it wouldn't work. I couldn't type anything. Nor could I paste anything into a document. It's working now. Not sure why I had that issue. There seems to be a few issues with copy and paste. I tried to install the free version of AVG anti-virus but it had problems. It would not update. I uninstalled it and installed the 15 day trial of Norton Internet Protection. Norton seems to be working just fine.

There are lots of things I like so far. The system tray is a lot cleaner and it's much easier to get to the hidden icons. The networking seems easier so far. The explorer window is tidied up a little. The taskbar combines the quick launch toolbar and the running programs toolbar. These icons can also be animated. An example: when you are loading a page in IE8, there is a progress bar behind the icon. All in all, things seem to be better organized and cleaner than in Vista.

In case anyone is interested, these are the specs of the PC that I'm running this on: It's a 3 yr old, the processor is a P4-3.0 GHz, It has 2 gig of RAM running single channel, the graphics card is an ATI Radeon 8500 with only 64 mb of memory and the hard drive is an old 160 GB Maxtor IDE drive. It's a little slow and the graphics card is a dog (mostly because there are no Vista drivers for it) but it's good enough to get an idea of how things are progressing. The system seems basically stable. I haven't had any crashes yet but I don't have much installed either. We'll see how things work over the weekend as I add programs and work the machine a bit. I will try to keep things updated

 

[Surfscape]

My next PC wil not be a PC... I started life with a Mac LC II. I should have stayed there. It had windows before windows had windows. circa 1990

 

[DarkScape]

People always bad mouth vista when the fact of the matter is that MOST users don't do anything with VISTA that would enable them to see the bugs it has. You are just re-stating what you hear. Obviously Apple did a tremendous job on their advertising campaign against Windows Vista. I am almost certain that this 7 will have all the "bugs" ironed out. Most likely Windows 7 is just Vista re-packaged with minuet differences, this way they can get away from all the bad publicity associated with the Vista name. The version you are testing now is a BETA version so their is going to be quite a few bugs and software incompatibility issues at the moment.

 

[Surfscape]

We have all suffered with the Windows improvements for decades now. They have a horable track record of failed OSs riddled with bugs. I'm not sure who does their testing but somehow I always find the problems. In any other industry if you had to come out with complete re-writes and service packs like Microsoft they would not be inbusiness long. So I think it is Microsoft that has done the marketing magic here.

 

[DarkScape]

Every major company has to deal with service packs. Sometimes fixing bugs, sometimes adding new and improved services. Windows is the most user friendly OS. It is IMPOSSIBLE to create ANYTHING that is bug free.

In 2007 MAC had 4 new OS's(SERVICE PACKS) in 1 year(PUMA,PANTER,TIGER,JAGUAR) and now has LEOPARD.

 

[RobtRoma]

I didn't intend this thread to be a discussion of MS or Apple practices or which one is better. Different strokes for different folks... ya know.

I know this is a Beta product and there are going to be issues. Maybe I should have made that clearer in my original post. I'm kinda using this thread to jot down notes as I use Win7 so that when I am contacted by MS I have a place to look back to to refresh my memory of the issues and thoughts I've had. I also thought it would be interesting to some of the folks on this site to read my impressions of what the new operating system is like and what Beta testing is like.

As for my impressions of Vista... it's not that bad but there are a lot of compatibility issues with the software and hardware I use. That is why I keep a PC running XP. I was an early adopter of XP too. It was not a great OS when it first came out. There were a bunch of compatibility issues that worked themselves out over time. It took the second service pack to really make it a solid product. Vista was over-hyped initially and it never lived up to the hype. I figure Win 7 will be a much better product than Vista in the details but the overall user experience will be similar.

I don't use MACs. I know they are great products and if they can do what you need them to you can't go wrong. My issue with them is that they can't run the software I need (mostly AutoCAD and some engineering programs) without additional expenses on top of an already expensive product. PC's do what I need them to at reasonable cost. That is why I stick with them...

 

[DarkScape]

Haha well said! PC vs MAC is like COKE VS PEPSI, there really isn't a definitive answer to which is better. XP is a REALLY solid OS that really is NT rewrapped. So hopefully they make this Windows 7 better then XP so I will also actually upgrade.

 

[jpark]

Copy and paste the last two posts, and that's my opinion, too. I really like to build PCs, and I play with several apps that aren't available on a MAC.

I have Vista on my latest laptop, but to me, it's sort of like XP with transparency and extra animation. It's like what Windows ME was to 98: an stopgap upgrade that wasn't worth the cost. XP is still fine with me, and Windows 2003 Server is as far as I'm going to go with a server OS, at least until I'm forced to go elsewhere.

 

[jonas1022]

Where I work, we have yet to move off of XP Pro. I have XP at home as well, plus some other junk that needs deleted to free up some space. I don't use any longer, crap from the old PC. Win 7 should be a more stable product. But I am following the lead of others. I just don't want to allocate any of my limited expendible income to software.

 

[Charles]

I took the plunge and downloaded the Windows 7 Beta and installed it on a desktop dual-booting Win 7 and Vista Home Premium.

So far, I like what I see.

Film at 11.

 

[Charles]

I decided to go into the deep end and ended up upgrading my laptop from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7. The only hiccup I ran into was having to uninstall Version 2 of Norton 360 and installing the beta of Version 3 of Norton 360. The audio driver is not completely compatible with Win7 but it works.

I really like the new version of IE8.

I haven't been this excited about a version of Windows since Windows 95. :woohoo: :woohoo:

 

[Colleen]

Rob and Charles, please keep us posted. I am currently running Vista home premium. I can most definitely see myself upgrading if y'all post good reviews.

 

[Charles]

I encountered my first BSOD with Win7 (Blue Screen of Death) on my laptop. I think it was related to the website I was visiting in IE8. :shock:

It rebooted in Safe Mode then I restarted into Win7.

There are many antivirus and firewall programs presently released that do not work in Win7. :violin:

 

[Scooter Scott]

I installed Win7 64bit on my machine...got it installed no problem. I then went over the installation cuz I wanted to put my 2 hard drives back into RAID using Vista 64-bit...I'm bound and determined to get 64-bit working lol. I have a 3rd hard drive that I am going to reinstall Win7 on. My first impressions were ok. I never got a Blue Screen but I couldn't install anything to test it out like I wanted which was quite frustrating. Primarily my concern is gaming...

I guess I need to find out what kind of testing is really what they are looking for...