Windows 7 is coming...

[Net]

cool looks like they finally finished making Vista, i mean windows 7.

 

[clarkey01]

Got 6801 working in vmware fine, It looks and feels alot snappy then leopard and ever so slightly quicker then vista.

 

[hclarkjr]

Originally posted by: gizbug

Originally posted by: Chadder007

Originally posted by: gizbug
Build 6801 is running very snappy on my laptop.
Definitely a lot quicker than vista 32 did.

MS forgot the bloat this time to slow it down?

Yes , not much bloat. Just feels a lot more responsive than vista does.

is the file system still ntfs and not winfs??

 

[imported_mackintire]

Winfs or something like it is expected in Windows 8 expected sometime in 2012+

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: hclarkjr

Originally posted by: gizbug

Originally posted by: Chadder007

Originally posted by: gizbug
Build 6801 is running very snappy on my laptop.
Definitely a lot quicker than vista 32 did.

MS forgot the bloat this time to slow it down?

Yes , not much bloat. Just feels a lot more responsive than vista does.

is the file system still ntfs and not winfs??

Whats the big deal about winfs anyway?

 

[tatteredpotato]

I thought WinFS was scrapped altogether.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: ObscureCaucasian
I thought WinFS was scrapped altogether.

It was completely scrapped. Elements of it still survive in Windows Seven, but the performance was so bad Microsoft had to scrap it.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: hclarkjr
is the file system still ntfs and not winfs??

WinFS is not a replacement file system and it was intended to enhance, not replace NTFS. NTFS will continue to be the Windows file system for a long time to come.



WinFS

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: BD2003
Whats the big deal about winfs anyway?

It isn't a big deal since the project was pretty much scrapped and most of what it was intended to do is going to be available in Windows Seven.

 

[BD2003]

For anyone who's installed the pre-beta supposedly without the new taskbar, and actually want to try out the new taskbar:

http://www.withinwindows.com/2...ate-scheme-workaround/

 

[BD2003]

So, played around with the new taskbar a bit. Love it.

The version in the pre-beta isnt exactly what was shown at the keynote, but the main idea is there and working well. Keep in mind I'm also using this on a laptop that can't run aero, so that might affect the experience somewhat. But generally it seems to be working as advertised besides the snazzy effects and thumbnails.

Its a bit odd at first, but this is simply a better taskbar, there's no doubt about it.

I didnt really notice this in the videos, but when you have several windows open of a type, it shows a stacking effect so you can tell how many windows of a program are running. They show a pic of it in this preview, on the image with an extreme closeup of the icons.

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_preview_02.asp

One thing I always liked about OS X is that it didnt terminate most programs when you closed the last window. This kept programs in memory and therefore they launched super quick. Win 7 still doesnt do that, but because the taskbar and quicklaunch are now combined, simply minimizing has basically the same effect, while retaining the easy option to completely close those programs that dont need to stay open. Very sweet.

If you've got a ton of windows open and you want to restore or close them all, a right click gives you the option to close or restore them.

The jumplists don't seem complete in this build, but from what is there, its also another killer feature. I thought they were enabled by right click, in this build, each icon has an arrow beside it when you hover.

The bar also still looks quite nice under the aero basic (no glass) theme, short of a mettalic sheen that darkens around the start menu and notification area.

Also, the windows live apps look quite a bit nicer in Win7 than they do in Vista, they have a much nicer toolbar.

My favorite feature of all so far might be the snap to the sides feature - makes comparison, dragging and dropping, and working with multiple apps SO much easier. It's mind boggling that this is actually a new feature and not something we've had since Win95, but it works damn well.

 

[HexiumVII]

I've been playing with the prebeta, and i must was AMAZING. I hate Vista (beta was so much better than final). Sp1 did almost nothing. Server 08 didn't change much. I'm running it on this beat up HP laptop that ran like a dog on XP, Vista, and Server08. Even nlite versions of XP it ran slow for some reason. It has a Turion 1.6GHz, 1Gb ram, 100GB sata 4200rpm, nforce 6100. 7 just flies on it. Everything is super responsive and most of the vista bugs are gone, like simple file transfer, and network discovery bugs seem to be squashed. The menus are organized a lot better than Vista. I'm just sad i have to run HyperV on server08 now. I had it running on Hyper V and was amazed how it felt faster than the native OS, so i decided to just put it on there. Almost all programs just work. Even hardware works, Vista drivers run fine. I can damn near use it full time. Office, CS4, my 6 web browsers. If they had this released now as 7, think i'll be very happy. The new taskbar rox too.

 

[BD2003]

Now that I've installed some programs, I'm really not so sure its much faster than Vista in it's current state. This is of course still beta software, and the ease of being able to leave programs running should also help it be more responsive.

Aside from a few features being incomplete, it has been fairly rock solid though. Some features feel like a beta (monitor calibration didnt work for instance), and the home server connector software wouldnt install, but the overall system feels entirely stable.

 

[hans030390]

Originally posted by: BD2003
Now that I've installed some programs, I'm really not so sure its much faster than Vista in it's current state. This is of course still beta software, and the ease of being able to leave programs running should also help it be more responsive.

Aside from a few features being incomplete, it has been fairly rock solid though. Some features feel like a beta (monitor calibration didnt work for instance), and the home server connector software wouldnt install, but the overall system feels entirely stable.

How about software compatibilities? Drivers? Etc...?

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: hans030390

Originally posted by: BD2003
Now that I've installed some programs, I'm really not so sure its much faster than Vista in it's current state. This is of course still beta software, and the ease of being able to leave programs running should also help it be more responsive.

Aside from a few features being incomplete, it has been fairly rock solid though. Some features feel like a beta (monitor calibration didnt work for instance), and the home server connector software wouldnt install, but the overall system feels entirely stable.

How about software compatibilities? Drivers? Etc...?

Other than the home server connector, none whatsoever. Didnt have to manually install a single driver, the defaults got it up and running, windows update picked up the newest drivers for my video, sound and wifi.

It's a pre-beta, but its nothing like the vista betas or prebetas. Its entirely usable as a full-time OS in it's current state. Two main reasons for this - the first is that since Win7 doesnt change much under the hood, anything that works with vista will pretty much work with Win7. There's also very few broken or incomplete features - it has to do with the way they've changed development - nothing gets merged into a build that isn't basically shippable code, and it really shows. It feels more like a late beta or RC than a pre-beta.

There's a lot of really neat features that I havent seen anywhere in the previews on the web (the troubleshooting wizards, display calibration, cleartype tuning for instance). Also, the new resource manager (basically the new version of the "reliability and performance" tool in vista is totally awesome.

http://community.winsupersite....-resource-monitor.aspx

Using it, you can really figure out what processes are really doing. In the pic, you'll notice the graphs besides the chart - if you click the checkboxes of process(es), it'll superimpose an orange line inside the green graphs, so you can see what part of that 90% CPU/Disk/Network is from what process(es). It's FAR more informative than anything in XP, Vista, or any other OS. It'll even show how much CPU individual services are using (rather than just the CPU usage of a svchost.exe instance). It might seem trivial to some, but its a fairly good example of what they've done with most of Win7 - Vista was about overhauling things under the hood, and Win7 is doing far more with the UI now that the infrastructure is updated.

Also want to give a nod to the new "libraries". I thought they were confusing at first, and these silly search folders were only going to make my life more difficult. Since I have a home server, I was really hoping they would give a way to replace the local user folders for documents/music/pics with the ones on my server so there's less confusion. The libraries consolidate everything, but it's not as if the document libraries are just collections of .doc, .xls, etc files from all the systems - theyre actually collections of the "my docs" (now "personal docs") and "public docs" folders from your local PC and all networked PCs. But you have control over it, so you can add or remove folders, and choose a default save folder. So I just added the doc folder from my home server to the library, set it to default save, and voila - the server is now essentially the centralized location for docs on my network, completely transparently to any user. And since it's per user, I dont have to confuse my GF anymore by telling her to manually save stuff on "her folder" on the server instead of local folders - for her account, the documents library for her account saves to her folder on the server by default. It works REALLY well.

I overwrote my Vista partition with Win7 so I cant do much a side-by-side comparison of resource usage, but then again, this is a beta so it's still fairly irrelevant. I thought Vista ran fine on my laptop (1.2ghz, 1GB), and Win7 runs fine too. Both seem to use about the same amount of memory idle, although Win7 seems a bit less thrashy on the HD.

 

[hans030390]

Ok, what about possibly dual booting Vista and W7? How would one go about that?

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: hans030390
Ok, what about possibly dual booting Vista and W7? How would one go about that?

Should be fairly simple - just have a free partition or hard drive, pop the disc in, and install it to that free partition.

 

[BD2003]

Another neat feature I just stumbled on by accident - Win7 can burn ISOs right out of the box. Just double click an .iso, and a "burn disc image" dialog pops up, the only options being a choice of drive and whether or not to verify. One less program I'll have to install.

 

[hclarkjr]

vista has power toy that does that link

 

[Modelworks]

Very good discussion, a bit funny too, about Vista, Windows 7, etc from guys who were at the conference .
Audio only.
http://twit.tv/167

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: hclarkjr
vista has power toy that does that link

You learn something new everyday!

I think I still prefer ImgBurn though.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: hclarkjr
vista has power toy that does that link

You learn something new everyday!

I think I still prefer ImgBurn though.

I thought I did too, but that iso recorder powertoy in vista burns more reliably for me than imgburn.

I like how the win7 one is built in and gives you only the options you need, but I'd also hope they add one more option for speed - for critical burns, slower speeds tend to be more reliable.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: BD2003
for critical burns, slower speeds tend to be more reliable.

This is why I am just going to stick with ImgBurn. Lacking too many features is sometimes worse that having too many.

 

[Rhonda the Sly]

PC Safeguard in Windows 7. Essentially Windows SteadyState placed in the client OS by default. Looks like a simple way to make sure relatives don't break my computer.

Win7 can burn ISOs right out of the box.

Awesome, but it can't mount them. :/

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: BD2003
So, played around with the new taskbar a bit. Love it.

The version in the pre-beta isnt exactly what was shown at the keynote, but the main idea is there and working well. Keep in mind I'm also using this on a laptop that can't run aero, so that might affect the experience somewhat. But generally it seems to be working as advertised besides the snazzy effects and thumbnails.

Its a bit odd at first, but this is simply a better taskbar, there's no doubt about it.

I didnt really notice this in the videos, but when you have several windows open of a type, it shows a stacking effect so you can tell how many windows of a program are running. They show a pic of it in this preview, on the image with an extreme closeup of the icons.

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_preview_02.asp

One thing I always liked about OS X is that it didnt terminate most programs when you closed the last window. This kept programs in memory and therefore they launched super quick. Win 7 still doesnt do that, but because the taskbar and quicklaunch are now combined, simply minimizing has basically the same effect, while retaining the easy option to completely close those programs that dont need to stay open. Very sweet.

If you've got a ton of windows open and you want to restore or close them all, a right click gives you the option to close or restore them.

The jumplists don't seem complete in this build, but from what is there, its also another killer feature. I thought they were enabled by right click, in this build, each icon has an arrow beside it when you hover.

The bar also still looks quite nice under the aero basic (no glass) theme, short of a mettalic sheen that darkens around the start menu and notification area.

Also, the windows live apps look quite a bit nicer in Win7 than they do in Vista, they have a much nicer toolbar.

My favorite feature of all so far might be the snap to the sides feature - makes comparison, dragging and dropping, and working with multiple apps SO much easier. It's mind boggling that this is actually a new feature and not something we've had since Win95, but it works damn well.

I tried windows 7 but wasn't really that impressed. I mean if you want a program to open up instantly you can always just keep it open minimized on Windows Vista. I do it all the time. I wish windows vista or windows 7 did save in the ram your last few programs you had open so you wouldn't have to worry about clicking minimize instead of close. I always hit the close button more often then I like and have to reopen a program.

I thought it was ok but nothing great. I did find a program that did not work as well at all on windows 7. Sorta surprised me because it has full support for Vista 32 bit and 64 bit. It refused to even install. Always gave an install error that it was closing because the program caused an error. I hope this is the start of things to come. Though all other programs I tried worked fine. I did like the preview of the windows you had open when you hovered over them that was pretty close but pretty much worthless for firefox and I.E. if you use tabs. You must use windows then to be able to see each different page you have open. I counted up to 14 you can see at one time in the preview then it goes back to the normal windows xp and windows vista preview method with just text. Alt Tab is similar and pretty cool I believe you can preview thumbnails there of more than 14 windows at all. I really didn't find anything worth getting excited over. I just hated that the one program did not work because that is a must have for me. It is no big deal because I wasn't going to stay on windows 7 because it didn't offer me anything more than Vista 64 bit. The new menu bar is nice but nothing really different and the instant program starting is only really a illusion sense you have to minimize the program to make sure it will do that. It is neat but not necessary sense you can do the same in any other version of windows just not as pretty.

What I did notice is for some strange reason Windows 7 doesn't seem to superfetch all my ram after booting up it. It does some but not all. Though I think it did sooner or later after I opened and closed enough firefox windows and programs. I prefer the prefetch of windows vista if it has been changed in windows 7. It may just need to be fixed or tuned sense is not even a beta yet.
.