Update: Howdy Digg readers, if you're interested in the goings on at CES this year, make sure to check out Maximum PC's coverage of the trade show, as well as our liveblog of last night's keynote.
Here's some breaking news: At the Microsoft CES Keynote, Steve Ballmer has just announced the launch of the Windows 7 Public beta. Customers of Technet and MSDN can get the beta right away (if you hadn't already been tempted by the various leaks) while the rest of us will have to wait until 2 days from now to snag the trial OS. The beta will be available on the 9th at the Windows 7 site.
In his keynote address, Ballmer stressed that Windows 7 will provide faster performance, longer battery life, faster boot times, and a less obnoxious security alert system. Early reports from people who have tried the beta seem to back these claims up, and we're very excited to see how the public will react to this beta.
More as it happens.
Comments are closed on this article
tampatip
January 12, 2009 at 9:17pm
Has anyone put the Windows 7 to gaming tests yet? I am curious to see if the Direct X 10.1, or potentially higher now, does not detract 10 - 20 fps as Vista does when going from XP.
ScottProdigy
January 09, 2009 at 2:30pm
Thanks for the tip. Didn't realize those programs weren't there. I typically use Outlook instead of Windows Mail, but the Movie Maker is a good little app and quite useful.
Lokonopa
January 09, 2009 at 6:50am
I've been using Win7 beta 7k build for a couple of weeks. The new Super Taskbar is nothing like I've seen before in any other operating system. It did not affect my multiboot configuration of Fedora 10, Windows XP, and SabayonLinux. Incredibly stable in a beta with potential to be the first O/S Microsoft has released to simply work out of the box. XP took until SP2, 98SE took until 2.1a, and most software will not install on 2000 without SP4.
I have to admit I was disappointed with Vista, though I did not hate it, but working a tech bench for the first seven months after Vista's release was somewhat painful. I wrote a big old blog on my early impressions of Vista on my website. I have not had any experience using HomeGroup just yet. Also, Movie Maker and Windows Mail are not included by default. Downloaded separately.
HagarTheHorrible
January 08, 2009 at 4:15pm
So I am running a 32 bit Vista on my Quad Core HP. Any potential problems in doing a dual boot with a 64 bit build of 7?
ScottProdigy
January 08, 2009 at 6:43am
To answer a few questions:
1. You can do a full install and not just an upgrade, unlike the Vista Beta from a few years back (it's closer to the Vista RC.)
2. At the moment, it appears to be MUCH faster than Vista. In comparison, the Vista Beta was slower than the final release, sans the slow network transfers, unpacking archives and flash drive transfers that felt like I was on my G4 Mac! The Windows 7 Beta boots up about the same as XP, and doesn't get "stuck" on a loading screen like Vista. The file transfer methods mentioned above were A LOT smoother as well. (Still running the same system from the Vista Beta, a Core 2 1.8ghz 3gb DDR2 800mhz SATA 3G system.)
3. Of course, most of the MS crap I would expect on the system is not there yet. IE8 (still in beta) and WMP11 are installed by default. No signs of Windows Defender or Firewall at the moment, so one less thing loading at startup. UAC is FAR less intrusive than it is in Vista, which is great. On the downside, it still hogs at least 512mb on bootup, and that was before loading any additional apps.
4. The new taskbar. The Windows "start" button lights up. The menu is the same as Vista, but faster. The taskbar buttons can be grouped, and by default do not have text labels. The coolest features are the thumbnail previews, which they have now added an "x" to to close the windows from the thumbnail. Also, the taskbar buttons can show a progress bar, say if a program is downloading or being installed. Both features are very handy to keep you from switching between windows. Also the new start menu pairs recently opened documents with their program. If you were to mouse over MS Word, another menu pops up next to it with "doc1, doc2, etc." that you recently used with the app. Pretty neat feature.
5. I installed a few apps. Firefox 3 ran smooth and stable, as did all plugins. To install AntiVir, I had to right click on the setup executable and "run as administrator" since it would not load the setup just by clicking on it. I didn't have the fortitude to even try iTunes, considering the fiasco when Vista was launched. Also, the Snipping Tool (built into the OS for screenshots) locked up in the taskbar, and I was unable to close it. Outside of those issues most tasks were smooth sailing for a beta OS.
Keith E. Whisman
January 08, 2009 at 1:53am
There are already Technet copies of Windows 7 Beta X64 Build 7000 flooding the bittorrent websites. So yes it's build 7000 but what's neato is that both 32bit and 64bit versions are available and from what I read MS will only allow 2.5 million downloads to the general public starting this Friday. Also from what I read this version only supports an upgrade from Windows Vista SP1. I think that you can still do a clean install but if you want to upgrade then you need Vista SP1.
Of course I would recommend only those people that do not know how to use bittorrent to download the beta from MS website. The rest of us should climb onto thepiratebay.org or demonoid.com this way that 2.5million downloads will go the furthest.
Print
