Rushing to Get Windows 7 RC? Redmond Says "Relax"
Posted 05/06/09 at 04:54:35 PM by Mark Edward Soper
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Microsoft's latest Windows version, Windows 7, has already proven to be too popular for the Internet's own good. Back in January, Microsoft planned to offer the Windows 7 beta to only 2.5 million lucky downloaders over a two-week period, but that didn't last long. As servers crashed under the weight of digital "gold rush" fever, Redmond extended the date to February 10th while lifting the download cap.
This time, with early demand for Windows 7 RC from TechNet and MSDN members crashing servers at the end of April, Microsoft is telling the public to relax:
You don't need to rush to get the RC. The RC will be available at least through July 2009 and we're not limiting the number of product keys, so you have plenty of time.
You can get an additional product key here.
Another tip: back up your data before installing the RC - and don't test the RC on a primary home or business PC.
And, I'd add, don't expect a bulletproof restore if you used the Windows 7 Beta's Backup and Restore Center to create a file backup. I had problems with restoring my files with the Restore function, but was able to retrieve my files by extracting them from the .ZIP files created by Backup and Restore Center. I had hundreds of backup files, and found that the open-source 7-Zip File Manager is a great way to extract multiple files. I extracted the files to a folder on my desktop, used 7-Zip's auto-renamer feature to deal with duplicate files, and dragged the folders containing my files to the appropriate locations in my user folders.
How has your experience with Windows 7 RC been so far? Hit Comment to share your war stories, tales of woe, tips, and tricks.
Windows 7 has no security
Submitted by periodhyphenund... on Sat, 05/09/2009 - 7:45am
I'm only interested in security and since Windows 7 has no security, I won't be using it!
Submitted by paschal on Fri, 05/08/2009 - 6:38pm
Microsoft as well as many companies have been down this same path before. MS did not do so well with Windows ME, although it had decent enhancements leading up to XP, which blew away the past. Vista came out, and the big fault with it was very poor coordination and execution of a half decent product on the part of MS and or vendors that have to do the driver thing to make an OS actually work.....period. No matter who was at fault, the release of the OS left such a bad taste in the user mouth, no one really got the warm and fuzzies when problems were fixed.
I started with Win 7 32, and it was too easy to use, so when the next round was available this week, having 4 gigs of ram in the machine, I jumped to the x64 version just to be testy and make it fail....Down to two devices which are not supposed to be win7 supported anyway and if I get them to work, I am a doulbe thumbs up on this OS. Looks good, has a fast engine, and it works, Outside of Windows Home Server, best product out of Redmond in about eight years.
Submitted by godforbidarmy on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 4:32pm
hey maximum pc people i have win xp still old school here i download windows 7 to me i like so far no problems here on a clean hard drive is it true about vista it tells on you what you are doing wrong when win 7 comes out am going get it and skip vista
Anyone installed this via a Virtual Machine?
Submitted by mkarias1 on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 2:03pm
I have VirtualBox and would like to install Windows 7. Anyone has done so? Any issues? Tips???
Thanks!
Submitted by billveik on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 5:25am
Submitted by gtubbesing on Wed, 2009-05-06 20:16
Has anyone tried setting up Win7 in a dual-boot configuration with either Vista or Ubuntu? I'd like to try it out, but I don't want to blow out my current setup, and I have enough hard drive space I could easily setup a dual boot. However, I haven't seen any mention of dual-boot configuration yet!
back up your current info, then get a copy of a free partition manager (download.com).Split part of your drive to the new partition, set it to NTFS type. When you acquire Windows 7, installing from the ISO disk you burned will install, you can tell it to put in the new partition space.You can right click Computer, go into the advanced settings and set your options. You can tell the machine which partition is the default, and you can set a delay screen for a number of seconds to give you time to select between the two OS.
Dual-booting
Submitted by zstadt on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 6:38am
I'm dual-booting right now, but with XP and 7. It works like a charm.
You might find this guide useful. It's the guide I used, and everything went over without a hitch. Make sure you back your files up though.
Submitted by GHETTO.CHiLD on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 3:27am
i have it running on a dell studio xps laptop and so far so good. my windows home server connected fine and it shows up in my console correctly. the only issue i have seen so far is the hibernate is a little sketchy, but i don't think redmond has ever got this right...
My system is running great,
Submitted by yogurt80 on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 10:48pm
My system is running great, exceopt my creative x-i fatal1ty pro, with creative's win7 beta drivers. I have it set as my default audio device, and spdif as my output, and the volume up, but I'm getting no sound- not even the the windows startup sound.
Other than that, it's a huge step up from my XP 32bit.
Submitted by Vincent Oddo on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 7:38pm
Yeah I set up a dual boot system with XP on my computer yesterday. I just created a seperate partition a long time ago when I installed XP. Reformateed the partition and installed Win7 to it yesterday. I didn't run into any problems at all. It's working great for me.
By the way how to I change my username? I have looked everywhere under the account info but nothing for a new user name...
Dual boot?
Submitted by gtubbesing on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 7:16pm
Has anyone tried setting up Win7 in a dual-boot configuration with either Vista or Ubuntu? I'd like to try it out, but I don't want to blow out my current setup, and I have enough hard drive space I could easily setup a dual boot. However, I haven't seen any mention of dual-boot configuration yet!
Submitted by paschal on Fri, 05/08/2009 - 6:49pm
No, no dual but triple boot here with one case and two 500 gig drives....one is dedicated xp......the other is split.....it does double duty with win vista home premium and win 7 x64.....and I might even add onto that that I used the Vista partition tool to shrink the vista drive by 60 gigs without issue to accomodate the win 7 install. No Probs here, pretty happy so-far
Easy if you're willing to
Submitted by horzo on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 9:01pm
Easy if you're willing to wipe out your current config. Just install Win7 first, and then Ubuntu. Ubuntu is smart enough to install Grub on the MBR, and add an option to boot Windows.
If you don't want to wipe out your current install, things get more complicated. One option is to install Win7, let it wipe out the MBR, and then use the Ubuntu boot disk to restore Grub.
http://reillyblog.com/index.php?/archives/24-Re-install-Grub-to-hard-drive-on-Ubuntu.html
BTW, I'm currently running Win7 RC and Kubuntu 9.04 dual-boot. I used the first option since all my data is backed up and I don't mind wiping/reinstalling.
Everything Successful
Submitted by forumdude123 on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 4:35pm
I downloaded and installed the Windows 7 RC today and I backed up my data manually since I don't trust the one built into windows. I did a clean install over the windows 7 beta OS i had before. It was easy to restore from my manual backup and all was smooth.
Drivers were great even for my cheap and pretty low end WLAN card. I get a 5.3 WEI rating and it's very smoothly performing. Office 2003 installed without a hitch and also runs flawlessly.
I look forward to installing Call of Duty World at War on my Windows 7 Install.
Submitted by periodhyphenund... on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 3:30pm
Read the Licencing Agreement before you click OK!
What?
Too dumb to read?
OK sucker, just hit the refresh button when Microsoft offers you the activation code for the Windows-7.ISO Download and you will get a new activation code if you need one.
All the activation codes are generic
The same activation codes will come up over and over even if you use a different email address to download the ISO
Submitted by mgalletly on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 2:56pm
But I had also used the WDSynch software on the WD 320GB USB drive I recently bought. Belt and suspenders kind of thing. Restoring from the WDSynch backup was fast and flawless. I still had to manually re-enter my email server settings, but cest la vie and all that crap.
Submitted by dude99 on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 2:28pm
I kind of have a problem. I downloaded the RC, however I have tons of data on vista, if I install the rc, I wont be able to directly update to the retail version and will have to reinstall all programs.
Make a partition!
Submitted by Pentium 0 on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 2:56pm
Make a partition!
Submitted by dude99 on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 11:19am
I have no more partitions. Vista=main, recovery=another, linux=another, some dell shit=another. I don't know what to do!
Submitted by dude99 on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 11:27am
But I don't really use linux that much at all, and I suppose I could just run it in a virtual machine.
Submitted by jhonka232 on Wed, 05/06/2009 - 3:35pm
I had the same toolbar complaint. I searched the forums and found a "fix". If you mouseover the WMP icon on the taskbar, there will be controls(if a song is currently playing).
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