Windows 7

Anyone else interested in the new OS being developed by Microsoft? I'm downloading the beta as I'm posting right now.

Yeah JK, I am very interested. Wouldn't touch Vista with a 10 foot barge pole, but Windows 7 looks promising and has gotten good reviews with the beta even out-doing vista and xp already. I'll be installing it when I get back to China. I am leaving tomorrow, so looking forward to checking it out. Keep us updated as to how you are getting on with it

I played a bit with the beta. Good stuff, looking forward to it!

2 more hours until the download is finished. Anxiously waiting on my crappy Internet connection... (1MiB/sec download)

Originally Posted by tails2

Wouldn't touch Vista with a 10 foot barge pole, but Windows 7 looks promising and has gotten good reviews with the beta even out-doing vista and xp already.

Vista actually isn't that bad, it's a subtle improvement to XP. The only problem was that the launch was badly executed, and Vista gained such a bad name there was no saving it. Microsoft is counting on Windows 7 to create a better image. Of course, now we'll have to call it Windows 7, not "7", since 7 doesn't really refer to anything obvious.

EDIT: If you're considering downloading it, if your system is 64-bit compatible, use that version. People have been downloading the 32-bit version to the point where the download times out. I tried downloading the 32-bit version at first, but it timed out so I got the 64-bit version.

It's finished downloading now, I'll install it first thing in the morning.

Woke up early today. I'm installing now.

EDIT: Crap, it seems that the disc is corrupted, I'll have to download it again...

EDIT2: Second try, seems to be going fine so far...

Yay! It's installed up and running! I must say, this does look very promising. The new taskbar is very easy to use, and the OS has a lot of useful features, eg, the new calculator. It's a long overdue update for Paint as well.

EDIT: I've booted back into Vista. Immediately, the experience feels sluggish. Boot times on 7 only take one minute to start up fully, and 12 seconds to shut down in my experience. My current Vista install? Six minutes to boot, one minute to shut down. Windows 7 still needs more features for me to get it; right now I'd buy it for $50. Hopefully, Microsoft will come out with just, you know, a dozen versions, 6 32-bit flavors, and 6 64-bit flavors. If they are going that route, what needs to be done is this:

Home Basic - Portable (Netbook/Embedded)
Home Premium - Standard (Consumer/small business)
Business - Standard
Enterprise - Ultimate

Eight versions is still seven (how ironic) versions too many. Just give us one edition in 64-bit, and we'll all be happy campers. The 64-bit revolution needs to get a kick-start.

Also, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me!

Hey, you beat me to it! I was just about to start a Windows 7 Beta thread.

How'd you install it? You partitioned your drive and installed Windows 7 on that partition right? The crappy partitioner that came with Vista won't correctly partition my drive, so I either have to get rid of Vista (Which I most likely won't do), or find a good partition software, like gParted. I'm downloading both the x64 and x86, and it seems fine, my x64 download is all set, but the x86 is still going. Oh and you think your internet is slow and 1Mib/s? Try 100kb/s. Took me about 12 hours to download the x64 Beta, which was about 3 Gigs...

Edit: Any idea if I can run the x64 in tandem with my x86 Vista? I've heard of people screwing up their computers while installing x64 Vista while they were keeping and Dual Booting the x86 Vista.

It should be fine, I'm using 32-bit 7 right now, but I'm downloading the 64-bit version for a try. And yeah, my hard drive was already partitioned when it came. I installed it by burning the .iso onto a DVD using ImgBurn, and then I booted the computer onto the disc. Setup took a light-fast 20 minutes. You should have no problems, but like me, you should backup all that is important to you, in case anything goes haywire.

I'm going to test Windows 7 on a junk computer first, just to try it out. You have x86 Vista right?

Yes, it's 32-bit.

How'd the x64 install go?

Originally Posted by JkPwNsTeR

I'm using 32-bit 7 right now, but I'm downloading the 64-bit version for a try.

I'm installing later.

In what way could something go wrong? I have 5 hard drives hooked up to my pc and have a dozen partitions. So in what way could it harm anything other than not work right and I can just format the partition and install again.

Good luck nonetheless.

The 64-bit install screwed up, luckily it's isolated on the other partition. Apparently explorer.exe decided to corrupt itself after I rebooted...

I bet that it's because of your x86 Vista, although it should have nothing to do with something on another partition...

Yes, it's fine, I formatted, maybe I'll install x86 once I feel like playing around with 7 again. See, this is exactly why you should keep a backup of the drive before you screw around with it.

I'll probably just use VBox to emulate Windows 7, so I don't have to run a risk.

Just know that the graphics performance will be beyond mediocre.

Originally Posted by JkPwNsTeR

Just know that the graphics performance will be beyond mediocre.

"beyond mediocre"

Wait that means better right?

Use your imagination lol.