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Windows 7's Pre-Beta is "Safe, Solid - Exciting?"

Posted 11/18/08 at 04:28:17 PM  by Mark Edward Soper

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The Register says that Windows 7 is "Safe and Solid"

As a counterpoint to InfoWorld blogger Randall Kennedy's controversial review of the Windows 7 pre-beta , we bring you a contrasting view from The Register's Tim Anderson:

During the press briefing for Windows 7 at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC), corporate vice president for Windows product management Mike Nash insisted Microsoft had learned from the Vista experience.

Judging by early Windows 7 code released at PDC, the signs are that it really has....Windows 7 feels more polished than Vista, even in the preview, and performance is good.

Some of the high points Anderson noted include:

  • A revamped taskbar featuring jump lists and recently opened documents
  • A customize option for the system tray area
  • Adjustable UAC options
  • Better window management
  • Sidebar's gone, but gadgets remain (now on the desktop)
  • Libraries, which collect multiple physical locations into a single logical folder for searching
  • Multi-touch display support (though Anderson says some icons are too small for finger control)
  • Device Stage control center
  • Improved Paint, WordPad (both with ribbon UI)
  • Souped-up Calculator
  • Windows Media Player's been updated with new codecs and support for DNLA media streaming
  • BitLocker to Go encryption for removable media drives
  • Direct Access for easy IPSec access to internal network shares on a Windows Sever 2008 R2 system
  • Action Center replacement for Security Center

Anderson praises Windows 7 head honcho Steven Sinofsky (senior VP of the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group) for what he calls "a methodical and disciplined approach" to developing Windows 7. Anderson doubts that there will be "a repeat of the Vista debacle, in terms of slippage, bugs and massive code rewrites."

Have you tried Windows 7 pre-beta? Hit Comment and tell us your favorite features - or features Microsoft still needs to fix.

COMMENTS:7
TAGS: microsoft, operating system, Software, Review, OS, windows 7, pre-beta, The Register
COMMENTS
avatarThanks to everyone who have written up their Win7 experiences

Submitted by Marcus_Soperus on Thu, 11/20/2008 - 4:35pm

I appreciate everyone who has written in with their hands-on experience with Win7. Details about compatible and incompatible programs are especially useful to those who are considering using it as a primary OS or for serious experimentation. Keep it up, everyone!

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It's amazing how illogical a business built on binary logic can be.

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avatarWindows 7 6801 is Outstanding as a Pre-Beta

Submitted by DBsantos77 on Thu, 11/20/2008 - 7:08am

I finished installing it last night as a dual-boot with Vista. W7 works flawlessly, and I see no reason to not use it as a primary OS. The only problems that I've encountered are Application Compatability.(Obviously). For example, Daemon Tools doesn't run for me. I saved the file to my desktop, unblocked it, and set W7 to use it in compatability mode for windows Vista, and XP, but no avail. It states that the system needs to re-boot in order to install. That's fine, I'll re-start my computer, but then when my computer boots and Daemon starts again, Daemon says that it needs to re-start to install, while I just did! This sort of incompatability with Applications does plague W7, but it's not W7's fault, developers aren't making a W7 compatible App because the OS is still in Pre-Beta. But there are alternatives!

1.Daemon Tools - Won't install correctly. Instead I recommend using [u]PowerISO[/u], along with it's MagicDisk app to mount ISO images in W7.

The only other compatible App that I've been able to install due to time availability is :

1.CCleaner - Works perfectly in W7 6801 (32-Bit) with no compatability mode.

 I will continue to install other Apps and see if they install correctly or not. I'm very interested to see if some Adobe CS3 apps will install correctly. If so I'll use W7 as my primary OS.

All in all I'm very pleased for W7. I can't wait for the public release next month, it's going to kick so much more ass then 6801+ did.

I still disabled UAC because I know when I'm insalling something that I myself want to install. I don't need an echo from W7. The UAC options are very much better then the simple disable or enable UAC in Vista. Now there is a slider that basically measures the level of Pop-Up alerts and security.

Internet Explorer 8 is significantly faster then IE7. Pages seem to load instantly, something that IE7 was struggling to do.

I like the new Defrag tool in W7, it tells you the percent of fragmentation so you can decide whether or not to defrag.

I also noticed that when using W7 my computer is significantly quieter. With Vista my hard drive will constantly be thrashing because of the Index, or in the event of just regulating system processes. With W7 my hard drive is very very quiet.

I'm happy to see what a success W7 is. I think I may become a fan of Microsoft again :)

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avatar"Adjustable UAC

Submitted by jwalch.hawk on Wed, 11/19/2008 - 7:29am

"Adjustable UAC options"

 

Thank God.  This has always bothered me.  I don't like that I have to turn it off, but I have a couple things that just don't play nice with it...  Hopefully this will let me pick a "medium" setting I can tolerate.

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avatarwindows 7

Submitted by anonuser on Tue, 11/18/2008 - 3:30pm

I have so far only tested windows 7 in a VM, but even in a VM, with fairly gimped specs, it runs more quickly than either winXP or Vista on a hard machine.  granted i was never a vista-hater (and still maintain that as long as you have a machine that can handle it, it works better than XP for the VAST majority of users).

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avatarWin7 And Vista

Submitted by xRadeon on Tue, 11/18/2008 - 7:00pm

I think that Windows 7 has the potentional to rebuild Microsoft's stance in the software world. I think its saying A FREAKING LOT when a PRE BETA!!!!!! OS out preforms a battle harden OS, which being XP and Vista. I can't wait for it to come out. :)

(I would like say that anonuser is right, Vista is NOT bad, now with a service pack under its belt its pretty nice really. I think people who say its sucks are the people who HAVE NEVER tried it, they just say it because HE said it, and HE being a die hard Linux guy. Also they are the people who try to run it on a computer that can barely run XP, which is just dumb.)

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avatarRegarding Vista: The UI

Submitted by hades_2100 on Wed, 11/19/2008 - 12:41am

Regarding Vista: The UI sucks (totally non-customizable, unlike XP). Aero is nice for a total of 5 minutes. The sidebar is a gimmick. UIC is begging to be turned off.

Very curious if Windows 7 will turn out to be Vista with a few things tacked on...

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avatarI bet my left nut you're

Submitted by atomaweapon on Wed, 11/19/2008 - 9:22am

I bet my left nut you're running some version of linux. Why do you want to subject the world to a drab grey interface, and to get anything done you have to do it through the "command line".

Just stick to linux dood.

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