Windows 7, RC Build 7100 *Mini Review*

Lino

Lino

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As promised my general impression of Windows 7, RC Build 7100.

Please note I run the 64bit build of Windows 7, RC Build 7100, on both the laptop and desktop. Both were installed using a beta key

LAPTOP:

Lenovo N200, 1.5GB of RAM, 1.6GHZ Dual Core Processor, 120GB Hard-Disk, X3100 Intel Graphics Chipset.

I formatted the drive and did a clean install. It took roughly about 20 minutes to install. Once loaded every single device (wireless, blue-tooth, audio, graphics etc) worked perfectly on the laptop (except for the finger print scanner:() other than that no problems at all.

General system speed is quite fast, I would say after installing the applications I need to run on the laptop it feels as fast as XP would on it.
Power options such as sleep and hibernate work perfectly (thank goodness.)
Boot-up times are generally quick, great news for a laptop user.


DESKTOP

E6750 2.6ghz Dual Core, 4GB-DDR2(800) Ram, 2x250GB Hard-Disks, Geforce 7600GT (512MB), Audigy 5.1 Sound-Card

I formatted and performed a clean install as well. Installation took about 18 minutes. Once rebooted I installed the Nvidia drivers and tweaked Audigy drivers so that I can get full 5.1 surround on my speaker setup. After both of these were installed it worked flawlessly.

I installed all my bits of software, ranging from Avast to Microsoft Office 2007. Even with antivirus (avast) and installing games, (Guitar Hero 3 and Flight SIM X.) Every piece of software works fine (even Vmware 6.5) works flawlessly.


Generally the operating system feels stable, fast and down right improvement over Windows XP and Vista. The new feature sharing files using home-groups works perfectly, sharing files between two machines with the same operating system could not be easier.

If the RTM version is as good as this, then Microsoft has a sure winner. I for one will no longer be using XP (unless under a virtual machine) or Windows Vista *except at college*.

*Screenshots coming*
 
I agree with that, will fork out for win7 too !! but only on my home system!!! A bit concerned about running 64bit - hate forced driver signing policy! but i want to use all 4 gig of my ram, not just 3.5!
 
W00t w00t my new account for giganews start on friday and by sunday i shall be running the new windows 7, eish all that setting up to do again but 2 hours is not so bad for windows 7 :).

Lino are there any significant changes over my 7048, i mean is it worth wasting 2 hours for pretty much the same thing? IRG what is that forced thing you speak of? all my drivers load without problems.
 
for the nvidia drivers did u install the windows 7 ones or can u still use the vista drivers?
 
Use the vista ones, use vista drivers for everything because i find some of the stock drivers in windows 7 to be dodge.
 
killadoob said:
W00t w00t my new account for giganews start on friday and by sunday i shall be running the new windows 7, eish all that setting up to do again but 2 hours is not so bad for windows 7 :).

Lino are there any significant changes over my 7048, i mean is it worth wasting 2 hours for pretty much the same thing? IRG what is that forced thing you speak of? all my drivers load without problems.
Click to expand...

Yes it is worth it without a doubt. Sorry for not listing each and every improvement it is basically all the improvements found in various builds after 7048.

Quite a lot to list and name, the general OS feels a lot more stable and reliable, not to mention 7100 is much faster than previous builds.


IRG said:
I agree with that, will fork out for win7 too !! but only on my home system!!! A bit concerned about running 64bit - hate forced driver signing policy! but i want to use all 4 gig of my ram, not just 3.5!
Click to expand...

That setting can be changed in properties however usually you will not have a problem.

11masoodt said:
for the nvidia drivers did u install the windows 7 ones or can u still use the vista drivers?
Click to expand...

Nvidia makes proper Windows 7 drivers now, I tend to use those instead. Never use the generic Microsoft ones though. You can use the Vista ones if you want but doesn't make sense with the official Windows 7 drivers from Nvidia that are out now.
 
killadoob said:
Use the vista ones, use vista drivers for everything because i find some of the stock drivers in windows 7 to be dodge.
Click to expand...

Great stuff, its a lot easier for me to find up to date Vista drivers then XP drivers.
 
Beetman said:
Great stuff, its a lot easier for me to find up to date Vista drivers then XP drivers.
Click to expand...

Please note not every single Vista driver works with Windows 7;)

First option should be to find out if there is a Windows 7 driver if not then only install the Vista one.
 
Then what is the difference with the Windows 7 drivers (181.71) and Windows Vista drivers (185.65)? Both supplied off the nVidia site.
I've seen ATi have just decided to bundle the two OS driver packages into one and not split them into two. That's the reason I'm asking
 
killadoob said:
IRG what is that forced thing you speak of? all my drivers load without problems.
Click to expand...

yeah, if they are digitally signed - not all drivers are. I got a USB music keyboard (Casio LK93TV) on my system (like to fark around in fruity loops) and it does not have a digitally signed device driver. So Vista 64 and Win7 64 wont allow the driver to load, cause it forces the device driver signing integrety check!

Used to be able to disable the driver signing, but not any more.... there is a work around, but its a hell of a process. Basically you need the MS dev tools to create your own digital certificate ... bla blah blah - not my scene!!!


EDIT: I lose !.... no 64bit driver available for the casio and non planned either ... sux. so wouldnt matter if it was signed anyway!
 
Last edited:
DJNgoma said:
Then what is the difference with the Windows 7 drivers (181.71) and Windows Vista drivers (185.65)? Both supplied off the nVidia site.
I've seen ATi have just decided to bundle the two OS driver packages into one and not split them into two. That's the reason I'm asking
Click to expand...

One is specially tweaked and designed for Windows 7 and the other one is designed for Windows Vista.
 
Have you managed to install Daemon tools or Alcohol120%?

Really interested to see if they work cause on the older builds they dont :(
 
Linoman said:
Please note not every single Vista driver works with Windows 7;)

First option should be to find out if there is a Windows 7 driver if not then only install the Vista one.
Click to expand...

yip, but won't be expecting any Windows 7 specific drivers soon, you know how slow these laptop manufacturers are with new drivers.
 
Daemon tools lite 4.30.4 has recently been released and works 100% on x64.
Dont know about alcohol have not used it since Vista RTM came out.
 
I'm soooo tempted to install Windows 7 on my laptop, but that would mean having to reinstall everything on my machine, which I use for work, which can easily take up a day.
If only I had a second machine to use in the interim.
 
A day to install stuff? dude what do you run that would take a day?

I use my windows 7 install for work and i have a lot of artwork programs that i use and total install for everything is about 2 hours. Granted i do have a fast computer but a day seems a bit long hey.
 
Messugga said:
I'm soooo tempted to install Windows 7 on my laptop, but that would mean having to reinstall everything on my machine, which I use for work, which can easily take up a day.
If only I had a second machine to use in the interim.
Click to expand...

just get a new HD (bigger one) Partition it, clone old drive on one partition, run Win 7 on second.;)
 
killadoob said:
A day to install stuff? dude what do you run that would take a day?

I use my windows 7 install for work and i have a lot of artwork programs that i use and total install for everything is about 2 hours. Granted i do have a fast computer but a day seems a bit long hey.
Click to expand...

one thing that truly sux for a gaming rig is STEAM..... if i ever have to go through another steam install ever again .... uuuggghhhhhhh:mad: stupid bloody HL2, only reason i ever used it.... it was enought to make me wanna run pirated HL2 versions!!
 
killadoob said:
A day to install stuff? dude what do you run that would take a day?

I use my windows 7 install for work and i have a lot of artwork programs that i use and total install for everything is about 2 hours. Granted i do have a fast computer but a day seems a bit long hey.
Click to expand...

Bunch of different DB apps (SQL takes forever), a couple of different versions of Visual Studio and of course all my different IDE's for the MCUs and modems I do dev work for.
That being said, I included the time it'll take to backup everything I need and make sure I'm not missing anything, in that 8 hours as well.
 
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