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

Mark Edward Soper — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:28:17 -0600

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.

Is Windows 7 M3 Build 6801 Really "Vista R2?"

Mark Edward Soper — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:56:08 -0600

InfoWorld's Randall C. Kennedy has put Windows 7's Milestone 3 pre-beta build 6801, a freebie from last month's Microsoft Professional Developer's Conference, through a variety of benchmark tests, and isn't all that impressed:

As I reported on my Enterprise Desktop blog, the more I dug into Windows 7, the more I saw an OS that looked and felt like a slightly tweaked version of Windows Vista.

At his blog, Kennedy complains that Windows 7 is:

Just as slow as Vista...Just as consumer-focused as Vista...Just as confusing as Vista...

Kennedy cites these similarities:

The number of execution threads in key subsystems is almost the same in Windows 7 as in Vista
Benchmarks of Windows 7 and Vista Ultimate SP1 using the DMS Clarity Studio tools suite show almost identical results
Similar amounts of RAM are used by Windows 7 and Windows Vista

From these facts and visual similarities between Windows 7 and Vista, Kennedy concludes:

Bottom line: So far, Windows 7 looks and behaves almost exactly like Windows Vista. It performs almost exactly like Vista. And it breaks all sorts of things that used to work just fine under Vista. In other words, Microsoft's follow-up to its most unpopular OS release since Windows Me threatens to deliver zero measurable performance benefits while introducing new and potentially crippling compatibility issues.

Is Kennedy right? Here's what I think is the problem with Kennedy's performance analysis: he's comparing a pre-beta with a finished product that already has one service pack under its hood, and he's complaining that the pre-beta he tested isn't any faster than its mature predecessor. In my experience, this is actually outstanding performance for a pre-beta.

I'm the author of two books on Windows Vista and I have contributed to several others, and as a consequence I was using various beta versions of Windows Vista from early 2006 on. Those releases of Vista were almost unbearably slow on my HP dv5000-series laptop, but the same computer running Vista Ultimate SP1 is now much faster when performing the same or even more complex tasks. Day 1 performance of Windows Vista was way better than with the early betas, and it's even better now with SP1, and yet a pre-beta of Windows 7 is already reaching comparable performance levels. I'd have been thrilled with this level of performance on the betas of Windows Vista I ran, and we're still many months away from a production release of Windows 7.

Although I haven't had a chance to try Windows 7 yet, many reviewers online and MaximumPC.com readers have tried the pre-beta of Windows 7 and like it, reporting better speed than with Vista and high overall satisfaction, whether running it as a native OS or within the limitations of a virtualized environment.

So, what should you believe? Hopefully, by the end of 2008 or in early 2009, you'll be able to make up your own mind by installing the public beta of Windows 7. In the meantime, hit Comment and tell us your experiences with Windows 7 (good, bad, and ugly).

Longer Battery Life, Faster Boot Times with Windows 7

Mark Edward Soper — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:17:16 -0600

This year's edition of WinHEC, which has already demonstrated Windows 7's digital goodness with Device Stage, has more good news about Microsoft's next desktop operating system:

Longer battery life
Faster boot times

As Maximum PC.com readers know, better hardware support has been a major goal of Windows 7 right from the start, and it looks as if Windows 7, even in its pre-beta stage, is making impressive strides.

Engadget has posted a video from WinHEC that shows a Windows 7 machine providing energy savings equivalent to an extra hour of DVD playback: you won't have to worry about running out of power before the movie ends, and you'll even have enough juice for a special feature or two.

WinHEC also featured Microsoft exec Jon DeVaan, the Senior Vice President in charge of Core Operating System Division, performing a "boot drag race" pitting identical machines running Windows 7 and Windows Vista: Windows 7 won by several seconds. It's part of DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky's keynote address, which you can see at the WinHEC virtual pressroom.

It isn't just Microsofties at WinHEC who are noticing the improvement in battery life; at jkOnTheRun, blogger Kevin Tofel put Windows 7 to work on two systems:

I have Windows 7 on the MSI Wind and also installed it on my Samsung Q1UP last night and there is a noticable difference in terms of run-time. I can't put exact numbers on it just yet and in fairness, it's probably not appropriate since this is a very early test build, but it's looking good so far for mobile devices.

Meanwhile, Lifehacker's Gina Trapani pitted Windows 7 against both Windows Vista and Windows XP on her triple-boot PC: a 3.16GHz Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM. Even with Windows 7 running on a slower PATA (IDE) hard disk than Windows Vista and XP (which are booting from an SATA hard disk), Windows 7 ties with Windows XP and both beat Windows Vista by 20% (measured from the operating system menu to the login screen).

Keep in mind that Windows 7 is still a pre-beta, so this level of performance should continue to improve.

If you're using Windows 7, are you noticing similar improvements? Hit the Comments button and give us the details.

Windows 7's Server Counterpart Takes a Bow at PDC

Mark Edward Soper — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:32:18 -0500

ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley once again lives up to her blog's "All About Microsoft" title, delivering the news that attendees at this week's Professional Developers' Conference (PDC) will also take home a pre-beta of Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2. Here's what's new in what's being characterized as a "minor" update:

Windows Server 2008 R2 represents the end of 32-bit support in the Windows Server family; it's 64-bit only
Windows Server 2008 R2 features version 2 of Hyper-V "bare metal" virtualization, which will include a new Live Migration feature for fault-tolerant failover
PowerShell Version 2.0, which includes a more graphical interface than its predecessor
.NET incorporated in Server Core
Remote Desktop Services replaces Terminal Services

Is Windows Server 2008 R2 in your company's future? Microsoft hopes so. According to Foley, Microsoft is calling the pairing of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 "Better Together," with features such as BitLocker support for removable drives, BranchCache (hosted server caching) and others working better when both operating systems are in use.

What's New in Windows 7? A Sneak Peek at the Pre-Beta Reveals Some Surprises

Mark Edward Soper — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:21:19 -0500

Officially, Microsoft pulls the drapes off the Windows 7 pre-beta tomorrow (October 28) at the Professional Developer's Conference. So, what's new and different? ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley's received the inside scoop on what's coming tomorrow. Look for:

A new peripheral management interface called Device Stage (more info about this is coming in the Windows 7 Partner Showcase at November's WinHEC 2008 conference)
A new self-diagnosis feature called Action Center
A new A/V control method called StreamOn
A new animation framework
New task bar and shell integration features
Multi-touch and gesture recognition
Improved Bluetooth support
Ribbon UI akin to Office 2007 for Windows 7's applets

The version PDC attendees will be seeing appears to be build 6801 M3 (Milestone 3), which was finalized on October 20. You can find screen shots of an earlier version of this build at the WinFuture.de website (the site's in German, but the screen shots are in English).

Stay tuned to Maximum PC for more Windows 7 coverage.

Figure adapted from illustration courtesy ArsTechnica.