I am downloading Winblows 7 Beta as I type this

[DainBramaged]

2.44 GB total compressed. I am going to build a quick little AMD 4000 system with 2 gb of memory while it is downloading, then burn the image on a DVD and install it tonight after watching a few DVDs. It's snowing like hell here so there is no better time to play what did Microsoft fuck up now and how bad.

[Duer 157099]

1. So what are the restrictions on a beta release?

I've never beta tested anything - how does this work?

[DainBramaged]

2. Do you have a computer you don't use as your primary system?

[Duer 157099]

6. yes n/t

[hobbit709]

3. Let us know what happened after the smoke clears

[DainBramaged]

14. I did a huge thread in GD on my adventures

AND FYI, I installed it over a clean install of XP Home, which it promptly tucked away and partitioned itself onto the drive. PLUS I used an old Microsoft wireless receiver to pick up my network and it recognized it instantly.\\




It has been trouble free, and I ran it all day looping Performance test without a crash.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4805125

[BlueJazz]

24. I just got done with installing 7 ...Not bad....not bad at all...Seems to work....

...fairly fast ...found my Drivers quite nicely. I like the Start-up Logo "Thing" :)

Dual 2.6
3 Gig mem

[canetoad]

4. Yep, I'd also like to read

your report.

TIA

[Gore1FL]

5. I should try that myself when things calm down at work.

I'll undoubtedly need to figure out sysprepping and deployment of it sooner or later.

[Old Codger]

7. Did that

I got that last night, burned it this morning and installed it, does not recognize any of my internet connections, no drivers for lan anywhere Wireless won't work with it, both belkin internal and linksys USB. Installed it on an 80 gig I had sitting around in my main computer after disconnecting main drive, system is an ASUS P5Q PRO MB , Q6600 quad CPU , 4 gigs... Win 7 did install fast, less than 20 mins to install, it does boot fast also but that is barebones no other programs on drive so no telling if it will remain that fast after a few additional programs are installed. Desktop look is nice also, some things will take some getting used to I am sure...

Never went to Vista so can't compare it there...

I will keep trying to get it to find my internet connection but I won't spend a lot of time on it right now.

[Old Codger]

8. HEH :)

Replying to my own post, thought of more to add, too late to edit

I strongly advise against using your day to day personal computer to try this on as there is a definite chance of not being able to recover from possible damages this can do.. I would guess that anyone with Vista might have an easier time of it but XP is definitely incompatible.. also tried some vista drivers but no go there either.. hopefully they will come out with some drivers for this one..

[hobbit709]

9. Tried it on one computer here

Got BSOD about halfway through the install. ECS7050 with Athlon X2 BE2300, 2GBH RAM. Don't know what it did to my BIOS-had to clear and flash it so I could install anything on it. Until I flashed it it wouldn't install Ubuntu, Mandriva2009 or XP-all of which worked on that system before.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

10. And I thought I was daring...

With my installing new Mandriva releases on Day 0. You guys are gonna see drivers for these eventually. They will be air-dropped by The 1st Porcine Air Force's MAC wing.

[madokie]

11. I have it downloaded just waiting on a dvd burner

http://lifehacker.com/5126781/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-with-xp-or-vista

If anyone is interested in dual booting with xp here is what I found on the subject. I plan to try this as soon as my dvd burner gets here.

[Old Codger]

12. more

Downloaded and installed the 64 bit version, installed in about 20 mins or so, pretty fast for full install, this one found my lan and actually accepted the drivers from the MB install disk. It does not like my linksys wireless usb , says it won't accept unsigned drivers so need to find out about that. I am using it at this time so obviously it did allow networking. I will now try hooking other drives up and see if I can dual boot with this in here. Then comes the fun of finding out which programs and/or games work with it.. it boots fast so far. At this point I am neutral on it but if not too much trouble to get programs running on it I may just stay with it, have until August 1st to decide.

[madokie]

13. what do you mean by have until august 1st to decide?

I've got it downloaded and plan to make a dual boot with xp.

[DainBramaged]

15. It expires on AUgust 9th, which is the official end of the Beta

Which means to me, a Christmas roll out, and Vista is dead.

[madokie]

17. I was afraid that was going to be the answer

let vista rip.

[Gore1FL]

21. 20 minute install was one of the Vista features

Vista really did do a lot of good things, but most were hidden or misunderstood by the end user.

I am glad they fine-tuned UAC. That will stop people from turning it off. The advertised hardware requirements still seem low--but it appears that the real requirements are no worse than Vista.

I thought they were trying to get a production release out by this Spring.

[RoyGBiv]

16. Deep inside the Windows 7 Public Beta: an in-depth tour

From Ars Technica

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/windows-7-beta.ars

[Old Codger]

18. Interesting

Thanks for the link, interesting read. One big advantage to getting a chance to beta a new release is the chance to really see if you want to use it and if so have time to build your software library up to speed with it,to say nothing of hardware if needed.. so far so good

[Gore1FL]

19. Though the article didn't explicitly say so

I have a feeling sysprepping and deploying should be similar to VISTA.

That is good news for me, because that means I am an answer file away from being able to get this out next year on my Fall or Winter Image.

Thanks for the link.

[Old Codger]

20. So far

Seems that vista drivers work in 7...

[Old Codger]

22. Office

Installed office Xp 2002 and it works fine so far. I never went over to vista so I do not know if it would have worked in vista or not, I was told that it would not which was one reason I didn't change over. So far my video capture card works by going to compatibility and telling to run under XP sp2 compatible , belkin wireless pci card is still a no go as is linksys wireless usb adapter. Have a ways to go with installing other games and programs...

[Gore1FL]

23. 2000 worked on Vista

the linksys usb didn't have drivers for Vista either. I never understood why not.

[madokie]

25. Using windows 7 now

I set up a dual boot with xp home. Everything works fine so far. Its hard to say if its any faster or anything though. I haven't found outlook yet but I'm sure its around here somewhere. Any suggestions as to where to look will be appreciated.

[Gore1FL]

27. Outlook express?

They called it windows mail in Vista. I'm kind of shocked there isn't a stub path to force it to load for all new users.

try C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\WinMail.exe

[madokie]

28. Me too but I couldn't find it anywhere,

maybe it was I wasn't looking in the right places for the right program.

[Babel_17]

26. The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets

http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2009/01/12/the-bumper-list-of-windows-7-secrets.aspx

"The Black Box Recorder. Every developer wishes there was a way that an end-users could quickly and simply record a repro for the problem that they’re running into that is unique to their machine. Windows 7 comes to the rescue! Part of the in-built diagnostic tools that we use internally to send feedback on the product, the Problem Steps Recorder provides a simple screen capture tool that enables you to record a series of actions. Once you hit “record”, it tracks your mouse and keyboard and captures screenshots with any comments you choose to associate alongside them. Once you stop recording, it saves the whole thing to a ZIP file, containing an HTML-based “slide show” of the steps. It’s a really neat little tool and I can’t wait for it to become ubiquitous on every desktop! The program is called psr.exe; you can also search for it from Control Panel under “Record steps to reproduce a problem”."

I tried that and I can see where it would be a useful tool for walking people through stuff like setting up software. Works best when you open it up and use the slideshow feature, imo.