Windows 7 Beta

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milomak

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At the moment 6801.

Anyone else trying it out? Just installed it. Looks very much like Vista. Feels very much like Vista. Running it on a laptop - Core Duo (not C2D) 2.167GHz with 2GB RAM. Pretty responsive as Vista was.
 
UAC seems to be disabled by default. \o/

Still need to reboot after installing software. /o\
 
So you think this is Vista in a different package possibly? That UAC is amazingly useless and annoying, they should do away with it, maybe they have :D
 
S1ght said:
Is 6801 the version with the new taskbar?
Click to expand...

It isn't by default as it wasn't complete (or ready for user testing, something along those lines) by that stage, but there is now a small "hack" to enable it and other features that were not quite ready although present in that build. To really test out Windows 7 (so far) you should enable all those features.
See:http://www.withinwindows.com/2008/1...its-protected-by-elaborate-scheme-workaround/

The point of the 6801 build is more to provide a stable base for software and hardware partners to start developing for the operating system. User orientated features come slight later.
 
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Grimspoon said:
So you think this is Vista in a different package possibly? That UAC is amazingly useless and annoying, they should do away with it, maybe they have :D
Click to expand...

They've allowed the user to tweak it a lot more (full control basically) and it's less intrusive by default as well. More like Linux's similar prompts I suppose, possibly less frequent.

It is the Vista codebase with improvements and more UI features actually being built onto that base. Not a different package, but an evolved one.

Eg: http://www.istartedsomething.com/20081103/shake-up-your-windows-7-with-aero-shake/ and obviously the new taskbar etc. and of course many features we might not have seen at all yet. This is still pre-beta with features being added.
 
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S1ght said:
Thanx, is the download worth it do you think?
Click to expand...

I'm waiting for the Public Beta which might only come early next year, or possibly by the end of this year, but will be the fully featured beta with code frozen. If you get this version you're already about 6 months behind the current MS builds and you'll want to download the beta when it comes out anyway.

But this would be worth a look, I'd definitely try it out if I had local cap. It's on the newsservers. Apparently it's very stable, even to run as a full time OS, though this is probably not the case with most of the useful features if you chose to unlock them.

Milomak: Don't you want to give that hack I posted earlier a try and let us kow how well the new features work on the PDC build? :D Thanks
This is what should be wrong with them though: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=587
 
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When I got my laptop, I used Vista Ultimate for about a month ( 2 months ago now). So keeping that in my mind, I want to say it feels faster. But I must add that with my specs above, Vista never felt slow.

EDIT: I should rather say that as some have said here, Vista with 2GB runs well (n. ot sure if at least a dual core processor is needed). So the Win7 Beta continues that.
 
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I've installed:

uTorrent (Linux - deluge)
Avast (Linux - not needed)
FrostWire
GIMP
Firefox
Opera
OpenOffice
Thunderbird
vlc

Thankfully my last subscription of PC Format came to be helpful. But if I didn't have it I would have had to visit a number of websites. Being a Linux user for 99% of all I do, that would have been quite tiring. Whereas in Linux, I'd just need to setup repos ( a quick process) and then I could install all of them in one go.
 
Geez ... I guess there is little point in spending thousands on Vista :/
 
Thousands, I got my vista home premium for R650 (Retail Student edition) - it's the full thing, retail too, so if I change my hardware, theres no problem with re-install it
It's the way to go, cheap... ;)
 
leelo said:
Thousands, I got my vista home premium for R650 (Retail Student edition) - it's the full thing, retail too, so if I change my hardware, theres no problem with re-install it
It's the way to go, cheap... ;)
Click to expand...

+1:D
 
Ekhaatvensters said:
It is the Vista codebase with improvements and more UI features actually being built onto that base. Not a different package, but an evolved one.
Click to expand...

Yes, Microsoft indicated that Windows 7 will still use the Vista kernel. So it will not be a completely *new* 'operating system' in the true sense. However, I do expect a major improvement in user experience. Vista with lipstick? :)
 
I have the 32bit and 64bit versions but I've only run the 32bit one so far. Haven't tested any apps on them cos I plan to use the 64bit version. I will test apps on them when I have a chance. The little time I had with it, I really liked it.
 
My intention is that my next OS will be 64 bit. So that will have to wait for a computer upgrade since core duo doesn't support it properly even though the architecture is 64 bit. Otherwise there is no compelling reason to upgrade IMO. Vista 64 was way too expensive, XP64 was very flawed. So I'm holding out great hopes for 7. Would love to hear the reviews of 64 bit 7 if anyone gets hold of it.
 
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