Print
Is it time to put a shiny new Windows 7-based computer on your holiday shopping list? Yes, it is. Redmond has finally made it official - Windows 7 is coming out this year. In an interview with Cnet's Ina Fried, Microsoft Senior VP Bill Veghte confirmed that "We [Microsoft] are tracking well to a Windows 7 holiday."
So, what makes it possible to roll out Windows 7 early? Veghte points to a couple of factors:
To learn more, keep an eye on the Microsoft Tech-Ed 2009 conference opening today in Los Angeles. If you're using Windows 7 RC as your primary OS, how close do you think it is to being "ready to roll?" Hit Comment and tell us what you think.
Comments are closed on this article
lostcause64
May 12, 2009 at 8:18pm
Just remembered that I've seen no love from HP for my c4580 wifi printer as of yet. The drivers for Vista won't cooperate in Windows 7, but I'm quite certain it's because of the HP installation shell that won't let me install anyhow. Even my 32bit games are working fine so far, just the printer.
Update: I solved it, with a tech's best friend - Google! A search led me to the HP forums with a simple fix for my glitch, now I'm 100% running on Windows 7 and it's great!
John
Try to be smarter than the object you're working with! It will make things easier, and might just save your life...
skhills
May 12, 2009 at 9:53am
It seems like Microsoft is ahead of their software developers on this. I had two programs that aren't compatible, Canon Camera Window, and Norton Internet Security. Symantec has a Windows 7 beta out for NIS 2009. No love from Canon though for Win7.
Running fine otherwise on all Vista drivers after an upgrade install from Vista.
horzo
May 12, 2009 at 11:02am
The release is still many months off. 3rd-party devs shouldn't really be expected to have their Win 7 updates ready yet.
ajuhawk
May 12, 2009 at 7:17am
I did an upgrade (figured I'd do the clean install once the final is released...) from x64 Vista to the x64 RC and once I smoothed out a few hiccups it's been working great. I'm looking forward doing the clean install. That said, win 7 fixed many of the remaining issues I had with Vista (that I'd mostly forgotten about) and is working extremely well on my main machine! Faster, more responsive, much stabler, just overall a much more XP'esk OS.
I'm also running 7 on a 6-7 year old P4 with no issues. It took to the old hardware surprisingly well where I would never have attempted to install Vista.
I think back to the XP betas and I remember them doing a pretty much the same rigor back then...after botching ME so badly. So M$ seems to be on a hit, miss, hit, miss cycle.
johnny2874
May 12, 2009 at 4:30am
I had some problems running win7 64 beta with drivers and older programs. Not so with the RC, I just install an old flight sim game from the late 90's and it runs like a dream. Online play also functions, hard to believe people are still playing.
GHETTO.CHiLD
May 12, 2009 at 4:28am
nvidia needs to fine tune their windows 7 drivers. i have a dell xps studio that runs sli and when i use the beta nvidia drivers my computer will show a please wait screen then freeze if i let the screen saver pop on. i but the nvidia vista x64 drivers back on and haven't had a problem since...
dracoman08
May 11, 2009 at 6:42pm
I installed the Windows 7 RC on a 6 year old dell. P4 2.66ghz with only 512mb of ram and its running fine. A bit slow because of the hardware but it runs good. Can't wait
Keith E. Whisman
May 11, 2009 at 5:08pm
The production of Windows 7 by Microsoft shows almost complete perfection in action. I hope that Microsoft has learned from the Experience of building Win7 and will do it this way for now on with all future OS's they make. I for one am very proud of the Windows 7 production team.
I am going to purchase Windows 7 as soon as I have my pennies saved up. But because MS was good enough to give a very generous evaluation period I will have the time to save my money and still have no period of not having Win7 available to me.
As for completion.
If Microsoft were to package Build 7100 and ship it I would be happy. When was the last time anyone was this excited and pleased with a Microsoft Windows release? I don't think there has been an equal.
It appears MS has the equivalent of J.J. Abrams running the Windows 7 Development team.
I suggest that everyone send a heartfelt thank you to the MS development team by sending a happy Feedback.
skhills
May 12, 2009 at 10:02am
It was starting to feel like a Mac forum where Apple can do no wrong...
Yes, Windows 7 is awesome, but its much more of an incremental updgrade from Vista, where Vista was a major overhaul from XP. It's logical that it should go more smoothly this time. I don'[t think it's necessarily that MS has "seen the light."
It is kinda nice to see Apple desparately trying to get new propoganda ads out against windows before people get a chance to try it. I'm a Mac, and, hey, where are you going? Just so you know, future PCs in 2050 won't work either, no need to look anywhere else. Hey, COME BACK!!
d_dimov16
May 11, 2009 at 4:37pm
I'm using it for 5 days and I can say that it has the stability of an XP and the UI of Vista. So far it's great and I'm sure that i won't go back to Vista or XP.
billveik
May 11, 2009 at 4:12pm
the beta did not play well with my generic DVD-RW drive. It would read it as a CD-ROM only. That was the only issue I faced-I ran it untill I absolutely needed the DVD drive and then I let it go.
The RC has addressed that issue. I set up a separate partition (a first for me) to set up a dual boot situation. 2 years without issue with Vista, 7 kicks it up even further.
A philosophical question-what could a computer be without the legions of A$$holes hell-bent with the idea that VA Tech-style attacks on people's lives and equipment qualifies as acceptable behavior?
horzo
May 11, 2009 at 4:07pm
Hard to believe Win 7 is going to move a lot of hardware. I'm running the RC on a two year old laptop with eye candy on full, and it's fine.
Slipk487
May 11, 2009 at 4:10pm
Been running the x64 rc since its release. been running smoothly on my rig. check my sig.
http://www.l33tsig.net/sig/1/slipk487.png
Keith E. Whisman
May 11, 2009 at 5:00pm
Absolutely you can. I have quad booted the Win7 Beta with XP, Vista, Win7 Beta and Ubuntu just using the standard Windows Bootloader.
The trick is that you have to install the oldest OS first. Install in this order.
Windows XP
Then
Windows Vista
Then
From within Windows Vista install Ubuntu Linux
Then
Install Windows 7 RC1 Build 7100 and enjoy.
Doing things this way you will use the Windows Bootloader and everything will be available to boot up from the bootloader screen.
Caboose
May 11, 2009 at 2:56pm
I'm loving Windows 7! I'm using it as my primary OS and think it's pretty much ready now. Could use some better support from Creative though.
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
ChiefChuck
May 11, 2009 at 2:56pm
ChiefChuck
64 bit Win 7 RC will not print to my Kodak 5500 printer. Windows claims that the printer installed correctly but any attempt to print results in the application crashing. Win 7 recovers from the crash but no attempt to print works. I had the same experience with the 32 bit Beta. The drivers for this printer were included in the installation dvd. This is the only issue I have noted so far with this release.
I like the speed of startup and shutdown. The eye candy is pretty but printing is a requirement.
seatownrocks
May 11, 2009 at 2:49pm
i need open gl support for my radeon 9800 pro on windows 7 rc. :) (I know, time to build a new comp... hard to justify without having an actual job tho...)
also, sound blaster x-fi xtreme fidelity does not seem to work in windows 7 (it does however detect and work properly on my plantronics gamecom 777 so this is just a minor thing)
other than those, it seems good to go to me...
tonymus
May 11, 2009 at 2:28pm
Windows 7 Beta seemed a little underdone, but that could have been the immature state of the drivers. RC feels polished enough to release "as is", even though my motherboard is having problems waking up from sleep...
lostcause64
May 11, 2009 at 1:56pm
I'm very happy with my Windows 7 experiencein both beta and RC. While I don't remotely need a new computer, I might use the release as an excuse to get a new mobo and proc...
John
Try to be smarter than the object you're working with! It will make things easier, and might just save your life...
bingojubes
May 11, 2009 at 1:45pm
My PC can't wait! A definite must-have christmas present (or birthday present). can't wait to see my score of 7.9, and new interface...
RedAnt751
May 11, 2009 at 9:43pm
I too have been running windows 7 64bit and have had no major issue with it.As far as the 32bit, my netbook it too is working well (the wireless set up was a piece of cake).Will be updating all 3 of my PC with this as soon as they do an official release.
