http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2009/05/04/fortune.techmate.windows7.fortune

Sounds Intresting
And possibly this year too

I always like this... View the video over at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8026736.stm - this is what's is revolutionary about Vienna...

The phrases "clutching at straws" and "ive seen that somewhere before" come to mind.

Needless to say, I had Vista forced upon me, and won't be changing to another Microsoft mess anytime soon...

First Look
[youtube]CYnSGTUU4P0[/youtube]

Just looks like Windows Shitsta with a New cover.. I dunno but they seem to be adding more and more shit thats why it needs so much memory an hd space.. I still use Windows 2000 or XP which is on the laptop..

Vista for lazy peeps

Thing with Vista is, if you kick it about enough, you can return to most of it's NT5 roots. You just have to have the will and the time on your hands (aka me ).

And the other thing is, I can't actually say I use it any different to how I use XP on the media cantre... Aero is nice to look at and does some things that are visually appealing, but theres nothing practical in any of it.

One thing I will say though, is Vista is reliable/stable and fast to boot up - shame it takes 2 hours to close down!

Ive been testing windows 7 for the past six months, you can download a free twelve month trial of its flagship ultimate version from their website.
Things to remember, its only for twelve months, technically your a beta tester media center is brilliant I have a HD card hooked up and can record HD stuff too.

What happens when your trial runs out?
Do you get a cheaper copy

sure i read somewhere that microsoft aren't doing cheaper copies for the beta testers. they have to pay full price

There is suggestion that Vienna will be free for Vista users... its merely suggestion at present though, in the hope that Microsoft realise they need to rebuild consumer confidence after the Vista fiasco.

I can't really see it happening, but the reasoning behind it, certainly makes sense.

Microsoft very rarely offer cheaper licensing options for MSDN testers, so the likelyhood of them doing this for public BETA testers is about as remote as them giving everyone a free copy.

Id never suggest anyone run a BETA copy of any software in a production enviroment, so anyone thinking "yeah I can have Windows 7 to replace my XP/Vista to show off" should seriously re-consider it. There will inevitably be bugs (even now, they are finding bugs in NT5 nevermind Vista and Vienna).

Interestingly, I found an early Longhorn BETA about a year ago (may have posted about it on here even) probably from around 2002ish hidden away on my media centre whilst cleaning up the partitions. I ran it, it suffered from the Blaster virus lol, but once I eradicated that it was pretty smooth; early versions of Longhorn were very closely tied in with Blackcomb (the main difference being the lack of support for the then highly touted WinFS file system - havent heard much about WinFS for many years, I know they ported it for use with MS SQL on Windows 2008 but not sure if it will make it to Windows 7), which is what became Vienna after it hit massive delays, I may reload the BETA when 7 finally gets released, and see how much made it through!

It's about time they thought about the end-user. If the new one is free for the vista users, then I will change happily as this new one looks so much better

But, thats the whole problem mate; Microsoft have spent the last 5 years more concerned with how Windows "looks" as opposed to how it actually performs.

Case in point; a Mazda RX8 "looks" very nice, but when it comes to every day use for 99% of people, it is useless, practicality wise.

I personally feel that Microsoft are beginning to realise they have hit a brick wall, and are starting to see their revenue stream dwindle a bit; Windows has always been the core industry for Microsoft, their real profit maker, and since NT5/2000, they have struggled to offer anything particuarly innovative, that makes both consumers, but more importantly, corporates, think "I have got to change to that". As Lee Mills will recall, I always used to say that Microsoft would never release Windows 2000 Professional as a general public operating system, simply because they know if they do, they will struggle to better it. They made the conversion to 5.1 very buggy and lacklustre, and consumers complained, so with Vista, they have tried the same trick, but at the same time tried to answer the critics with regards security and stability, and by all accounts, they have finished Windows off.

The future for Microsoft is Red Dog, and they know it. Though 7 will be the true (and planned) replacement for XP (it was always supposed to be Blackcomb, Longhorn was never meant to replace it, its just they hit massive delays, especially with WinFS), itis quite simply 3 - 5 years too late, and we are now entering an age where isolated computing is just about reaching the end, and cloud computing will start to become big business over the next decade. Even within my industry, cloud computing is starting to become big business and I have been investigating the options available to me.

Microsoft probably arnt too fussed about Vienna, because they know it will have a relatively short-term life cycle (though they will be hoping it will live longer than Vista has). They will already be ploughing most of their efforts into Red Dog.

They just have to hope they can get it right, and someone doesnt beat them to it, because its one area where Microsoft will have establish themselves, as opposed to being able to take for granted the automatic monopolist position they have experienced for the past 20 years. And love him, or hate him, they will sorely miss the input that Uncle Billy has had in defining the future of operating systems and computing in general, and Steve Balmer is simply an inadequate pretender, he always has been and always will be.

windows 7 is totally new and many users comment that its got the flow of windows xp and the functionality of nT. you can remove components such as internet explorer indeed theres a whole host of things you can remove.

here go download a free twelve month trial either in x86 or x64
but remember it must be a clean install, not an upgrade, that after twelve months you will be given the option to buy the product. if you have a spare hard drive why not give it a go
you will be supprised.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

I gave it a whirl about 6 or 7 months ago and then thought to myself, I have far better things to do with my time than sit here and find bugs for Microsoft.

Blackcomb has been in development since 2001ish iirc, so hardly new; it is basically a finished (and some may say fixed) version of Longhorn/Vista. Of course it is going to have the flow of XP and functionality of NT, Windows XP is NT5.1 ... NT7 is still NT at the core, it may have been severely updated, but they are all building upon the successful core of NT5 and furthermore NT5.1, no matter how much MS like to spin it.

As for the removal of IE etc, I think you will actually find this is one of the consequences of the Antitrust battle Microsoft have been fighting for sometime, in particular, there has been a hell of a lot of pressure applied by the European Union and Microsoft don't fancy paying $2.4m per day fines again for being in breach of the EU ruling. So not through choice, rather through force, have Microsoft implemented this change.

Don't get me wrong, I am a "big" fan of Microsoft and Uncle Billy, and thank them for what they have done to the industry and indeed the world, but they have spent the last 5 years totally missing the point and ignoring what their own MSDN members and the general public as a whole have been screaming at them, and as a result, they have a lost a LOT of ground. It's not that the competition has suddenly got better, its more that Microsoft have suddenly stumbled big time, and not thought it particuarly interesting to rectify their mistakes.

The next OS I will change to will most likely be Azure, or whatever Red Dog derivative comes along. I won't be paying to upgrade my Vista laptop to 7 and even if it was a free "apology" upgrade, id think about it carefully. I certainly wont be putting my media centre or other XP system anywhere near any new Microsoft OS.

Windows 7 however, will have one thing to say about it, and that is it will be the last operating system Microsoft will produce, as we know and love them. Cloud computing is just around the corner and I think it will have a big impact upon how we use our computers over the next decade. And Microsoft themselves have hinted as early as 2006 that Vienna would be the final OS as we know it.

As for Windows 7 being touchscreen rich, total waste of money and time imho, it will be a novelty, but in 10 years time, we will still be using a keyboard and mouse, for the simple reason, they work and are the best tools for the job. No touchscreen will ever replace a keyboard. I have a stylus board, finger board and keyboard (widely regarded as the best mobile phone keyboard) on my HTC Universal and out of choice I would never use the fingerboard for typing. Aother feature to "define" the difference between Windows 7 and all previous OS's, another area where Microsoft are simply clutching at straws.

I have been running the Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 for the past few days now.

I have included a couple of screenshots,

Nothing major to report. Imagine Vista but a lot faster and that pretty much sums up Windows 7.


Please Note: The desktop background shown here is my own image. It is not included in Windows 7


Main Screen, showing the new tabbed interface and MS Paint:



My Computer, couple of new features here along the left:



User Folders:



Control Panel:



The RC1 is available for download on the Microsoft Website:

CLICK HERE This links to the pre-download page, not the file itself

Also recently, Microsoft has released thier shipping date for the full version as 22nd October 2008 (estimated)

We bought a new computer a few months ago.It had Vista installed on it and because of the adverse publicity about Vista, I wasn't very happy about having it. However, we have had no problems with it, it loads up quickly, is easy to use and shuts down quickly as well.All in all, we're happy with Vista

Windows 7 now available for pre-order in the UK

Windows 7 Home Premium £44.99
Windows 7 Professional £89.99

Please bear in mind that the European version of this software DOES NOT ship with Internet Explorer.
You need to download a copy of Internet Explorer from the Microsoft site (preferably to a usb disk/external hard drive) before installing Windows 7

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/editorial/windows7-preorder


Amazon are also doing Windows 7 Professional for £89.97

Click Here to go to Amazon UK

I've been using it for the past month or so, and I hate the obtuse depth you have to go through to get anywhere. I miss the simplicity of XP, but I can live with it, but I still dread having to do things like sorting network problems out - click - click - click - click - click - click - click - click - click - click - click - click - click - etc.
It's only crashed once, and it crashed on the intro screen for a week, but it's back to normal after a restore.

The thing about IE not coming with Windows, some people are going to have problems downloading a browser.

You are advised to download a browser of your choice to a memory stick or external hard drive before installing Windows 7.

Currently having the hard drive going ballistic on start up. 15 minutes later, and it's still whiring around. Windows 98 used to do this with the swap file.

The professional edition was only available for about 24 hours at the price of £89.97 from the 15th July on amazon before it 'sold out'. The home premium edition was available for a few days at £44.97 before it too 'sold out' on amazon. (The prices are now £179.97 and £74.97 respectively). Go to one of the following to get it at the discounted price.
currys
http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/editorial/windows7-preorder?int=1043_windows7_preorder
(£89.99 and £49.99)
pc world
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/editorial/windows7-preorder
(£89.99 and £49.99)
tesco direct
http://direct.tesco.com/p/inc/specials/windows7/
(£99.97 and £49.97)
staples (a bit dearer than others above)
http://www.staples.co.uk/ENG/static/wrapper.asp?CT=1


Just Pre Ordered Mine the Pro Version.
About time i went with a legal copy lol

Jesus just said print receipt after doing the PC world link
thanks for the 7 pages of terms and conditions.

Now i only need a PC lol

Im sticking with XP and Vista until Red Dog or Windows 8 whichever makes it. Microsoft aint getting another penny of my hard-earned prior to 2011.

xp was great, but jumping into vista was like a downgrade!
im sticking with the linux OS, mod it to do whatever i want great system

What flavour?

Ive got the release candidate and installed it on Virtual Box it took 10 minutes to install.. Impressive and thats on a Virtual PC ? Maybe it was meant to install that quick cause its a Trial LOL.. But im playing around with it and it just reminds me of vista with high heels but it does run smoothly i might upgrade the laptop to it when it ships just for the hell of it or just keep it.. Im not a fan of vista but seems Windows 7 is vista but i think it might have a better back ground ? Who knows but it does sure run fast..

2000 runs faster lol

Yer i know matt LOL it runs like a dream on the pc upstairs hehe

Yeah and none of the "Microsoft knows better" shite with it, it just does what you tell it, when you tell it, without questioning your judgement. As well as being the most reliable and stable OS Microsoft have ever produced.

I wonder if 7 turns out to be a mess, they will build 8 on the NT5 core and then make a few changes to make it look different lol. Like what happened when Wasabi went tits up!

What they should do is build a NEW os on the Windows 2000 platform dont change much but just update it.. I think it should be still updateable i did get a Service Pack 5 for it but it wasnt from microsoft

Looool yer, to be fair though, SP4 wasnt really needed and was quite a surprise, by SP3 it was all running perfect.

Its as we always used to say at Asset init, the reason Microsoft will never release Win2k Pro to the mainstream, is because it is almost flawless - nobody would ever want to change - XP sort of proved that, because being essentially a bloated version of 2000, still the majority of people refuse to optionally upgrade to Vista.

Most people running Vista are doing so, because they bought a new PC with it installed. Whereas within a year of XP launching, most people had already/wanted to migrate away from 9x.

Microsoft need to keep developing broken OS's to make the next upgrade "worthwhile".

yellow dog on the ps3 atm, want to build a proper pc with it installed

As much as I love Linux, I prefer to use it from the command line and have yet to find a single GUI that actually feels comfortable or negates the need to use the command line. Whenever I use Ubuntu, Fedora or Mandriva at the GUI level, I have always found it far simpler to just do everything through the command line, the GUI methods always seem clunky and haphazard.

As far as Linux goes, it will be many year's before it is in a position to seriously challenge or compete with Windows or OSX, in the home-consumer market. Mind you, we in the industry were saying that 8 years ago and it still hasnt happened.

The most promising attempt I ever saw was conceptual and BETA versions of Lindows (now Linspire iirc) - that must have been getting on for a decade ago now, and after a promising start they got lazy and eventually it went the same way as all distro's and became a half-hearted attempt at building a GUI on top of the commend line. It reminds me of the iPhone GUI I can get for this phone, it works okay but delve beneath the surface and you soon realise its still Windows Mobile running everything. The same with all the new HTC (including the SE Xperia) devices that are trying to move their GUI's away from the standard Windows Mobile GUI.

Linux plays a massive part in my life, but I doubt it will ever be a serious contender for me within the home enviroment. I use Windows at home on both the laptop and media centre and even on my phone, long live the king lol.

Any reccomendations for a Linux that can actually do wireless WPA2 PSK AES, tried Ubuntu and Fedora, that has been the sticking point with me for the last two years, the wireless network needs to be as secure as possible.

I've been using Win7 in lab at work, I know many will disagree with me, but I think it's the best o/s yet. Also used it on a netbook and it flies. Haven't found fault with it yet - but still using in lab environment. I know work will need me to update my certs so I have to get nitty gritty with it for 70-680.. I will keep you posted with how it performs in the "real world" Looking forward to installing at home, mind you I dont have to pay for it...
I used to like W2K, wasnt keen on XP, then liked XP, wasn't keen on Vista, liked Vista and now.... Like Win7...

i take it thats using wicd network manager? as there are knows issues with it but no fix as of yet

yea im using the terminal when adding new stuff but find it easier to mod the command files on the GUI, its my first crack at linux an has impressed me, bugs fixed instantly if u know what ur doing. somethings just confuse me tho, but getting used to it now, hence y i dont want to go back to winblows.

Does anyone know why Windows 7 is currently thrashing my hard drive for an hour before it settles down (maybe). I've turned indexing off, but I can't find anything else. It's a new Windows installation and it's been pretty much doing it since it was on.
I don't really want to lose my hard drive.
I'm not impressed, it's such a pain in the arse to use and I'll put XP back on when the trial is over.

Windows 7 Has arrived,

Well my pre ordered on has with 32bit and 64 bit discs on DVD.

Not installing it until i find out its cons.
But i have it at work on virtual pc and its not WOW
from what i can see. But then again i still love XP

cool

Tell us when Windows 7 SP2 comes out,then I might change from XP

For my main system, im sticking with Vista till I get a new laptop (probably 3 years away tbh as this is an untra-portable only just bigger than a netbook but with a full fat Core2Duo on Merom and I only use it for business, and it never ever slows-down).

I was reluctant to leave XP, only ditched that last year due to me wanting an ultra-portable laptop and the new lappy coming with Vista pre-installed.

Got it how I like it now, severely hammered it down and it does as I tell it, no longer what it wants, and runs all my proggys both modern and old-school, with ease and no hassle.

The media centre is XP still, and it is staying that way forever, the OS has been installed since May 2003 and has only ever given me one problem, a few weeks back, which was quickly fixed with a quick RTLKGC.

7 has no advantage for me or my needs, XP/Vista/2000 do everything I need, and more besides.

I don't disagree with you. Win 2000 (NT 5.0) Was a joy especially after NT4, Win95 ,98 & ME not to mention Win 3.1. It worked straight from the box so to speak so it is Windows 7 (NT6.1).
Have been running it (Builds 7100 & 7600)for over 6 months now and once the the third parties fixed their drivers and software it it remarkably stable and considerably faster than XP or Vista.
Don't expect it to be XP & Vista, once you get the hang of it you will find it so much easier to use.
Just because it doen't do things in quite the same way doesn't mean it no good. Go with the flow and you will find its their best yet.
I have 2 clients one aged 86 and another 90 (both regular surfers) and they both love it as they found a lot easier to use than anything before, especially the libraries and being able to pin icons to the taskbar keeping the desktop tidy.

Just been watching the Windows 7 promotional video's, and I have to say, the vast majority of the "new features" that they are touting, are already present in Vista and have been since it's inception. They would only look good if you were running XP... so how is 7 more usable and functional than Vista? It seems they are actually trying to educate people to use the features correctly, instead of just laucnhing a new OS with no clue's as to how to use the new features. The "Start Search" for instance, is being touted as new and vital to Windows 7 increased usability, yet it is in Vista... the problem with Vista, is nobody really uses it, because everyone is used to using the start menu, and Microsoft never promoted or educated users about the new and much faster way of getting to programmes and files.

The few isolated changes that are different to Vista are generally unimportant, and certainly do not warrant me to pay £60 to upgrade to it. £20, maybe, but £60, no way.

If the backend has been changed to make it more stable and secure, that does not really interest me - my install of Vista is 100% stable and my security... ive only had one problem in the last 5 years that I can remember, and that was when I knowingly and stupidly downloaded one hell of a virus a few weeks ago and spend a few hours fixing it all manually.

They say a big improvement is that it only takes a few seconds to come out of standby??? Errr, yeah, every NT OS only takes a few seconds to come out of standby, in fact they should take less than 2 seconds, you usually end up waiting longer for the screen to warm up than the OS itself. That's why its called standby - and standby is for losers or people who simply like wasting electric. For people like me anyway, I hibernate, and it takes Vista what, 20 seconds maybe, to come out of hibernate. Say 7 cuts down to 16 seconds, big frills.

And the new way of just clicking "Connect" to connect to a wireless network... well XP with SP2 and Windows Vists both do that as well.

Oh yeah, Windows 7 incorporates Windows Media Centre... er, so does Vista! As for arranging icons and customizing your desktop, yeah, been able to do that since time began. Amazing, isnt it!

It appears to me a lot of people will buy it simple because "its the new system". Windows 7 has not moved on all that much since Longhorn was in BETA in all honesty, I think Microsoft are going to play on Vista being regarded as a failiure and 7 being the saviour, rather than 7 actually being any good or better.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, they lost their way quite a few years ago. It's been known for quite some time that the OS market will become limited and releases of new OS's will have to become further and further apart to remain sustainable. I always said that the reason Microsoft won't release Win 2000 as their main OS is because they would find it hard to improve upon it, or move customers away. And it seems they are hitting this idea now - they are clutching at straws to make changes, and in some cases, like Vista, making changes (such as the start menu) simply to make it look and feel different, and these changes more often than not wreck the usability of the system and make no sense at all. Red Dog will be their make or break OS for me.

Good stuff Matt. Being just an ordinary user it does my head in when they keep changing OS just as you get used to the last one. I'm sticking with Vista now, didn't like it at first but comfortable now. I've only got it because I couldn't get my XP back on so it was a cose of the devil driving. It's good to have a heads up from someone who knows their stuff though, cheers.

Just look at it this way, Windows 7 is essntially a glorified service pack for Windows Vista. But one that Microsoft are hoping to make shed loads of money out of, and remove the stigma that has become attatched to Vista.

Im no massive Vista fan myself, still prefer XP and overall I still prefer 2000 Professional to anything. But Vista isnt all too bad, once it's been kicked into touch, and you have disabled the little annoyances it has (UAC and folder view problems for instance - easily fixed) and learned to deal with the start-search utility instead of using the somewhat Microsoft-damaged start menu.

£59.00 for a fookin service pack? Errr, no thanks, and ill remember in the future how shady Microsoft are being with Vista customers/users. Its probably not far off a scam in all honesty.

And before you all start slating me as just another member of the "anti-MS" crew, read through my postings on Wiki over the years, I am a strong supporter of Microsoft as a whole and have had many run-ins with Microsoft haters, but I don't agree with everything they do or say and use Linux on a daily basis as the main OS my business is built upon, so I do feel I am in a very good position to understand one of the two main opposition systems to Windows (the other being OSX which im not so familiar with - we can't be a master of all trades), just like ive been a proud member of the Conservative party since I was 16 and a lifelong supporter but I don't agree with everything they say or do or disagree with every labour policy or objective and am not afraid to voice my opinion either way.

what am I missing being on vista?

faster boot times
nicer interface (still very similar to vista though)

that's pretty much it

touch screen technology Media Center has vastly improved to accept both freeview and fresat with the right card (without hacks) recording the tele too in hd.

better memory handling and processor too
Windows 7 Maximum Supported RAM - 192 GB
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-7-Maximum-Supported-RAM-192-GB-RAM-119101.shtml

but still only upto 4gb RAM if you run the 32bit version

hi i have just downloaded and installed lynux mint as i couldnt find my vista disk for a laptop i have just bought .and have to say its really cool all drivers and software are free as is the operating system well worth a try

My laptop won't fit 192GB RAM in it lol. Microsoft must be planning Windows 7 to be around in decades haha! That won't do their share price any favours

With regards the boot times, it's all well and good Windows loading up a bit faster, but the amount of crap the likes of Dell put on their systems, counter-acts any such time savings.

My dad has Windows 7, but I bet my 6 years old install of XP on my media centre wipes the floor with it with regards startup times. Its all down to fact my install's are highly optimized and have nothing running that isnt needed, whereas most people have just about everything loading up at startup lol.

Ive always been of the philosphy, don't fix something that isnt broken, and right now I see no problem with Vista.

However, I will change to Red Dog, despite Microsofts recent embarrasment with the Sidekick.