First Look at Windows 7 Beta 1

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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A ZDNet blogger took a look at Windows 7 Beta 1 and posted a ton of screens and some observations. Follow the jump for the shots and notes.

Judging by the quality of this build, I expect Windows 7 to be released June/July of ‘09. I really can’t see Microsoft dragging out the release a year.
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According to previous articles and my own personal knowledge of the release schedule, MS is hoping to get Win7 to manufacturers to be packaged and OEMs by mid '09 so that the actual PCs and retail boxes will be ready for the holidays.

Also, it's a bit misleading to call it Beta 1. There will be only one beta for Win7.
 
I hope to god they don't follow suit with Windows 7 as they did Vista with the Home Basic, Premium, Ultimate, Business etc etc and just keep it simple this time.

I am looking forward to the new features though but they ditch the vast quantity of different versions this go around.
 
I can't wait for Beta, I've read a lot of good things with Windows 7. I will be upgrading as soon as Windows 7 hits retail.
 
Well Evil, they are evaluating Windows 7 Ultimate ...

7 is going to be badass. I can't wait. I love Vista, but it will be toss when 7 arrives :D
 
BTW, the Windows 7 M1 (7000) build has been leaked to various torrent sites. I echo the warning Download Squad has though:

DownloadSquad said:
Also keep in mind that this is a leak, and there's always the possibility that the ISO has been tampered with.
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Terry Olaes said:
BTW, the Windows 7 M1 (7000) build has been leaked to various torrent sites. I echo the warning Download Squad has though:
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I don't know if this is appropriate for this forum or not. However, the iso floating around is apparently from the msdn subscribers download pages, people have verified the md5 hash.
 
Evil said:
I hope to god they don't follow suit with Windows 7 as they did Vista with the Home Basic, Premium, Ultimate, Business etc etc and just keep it simple this time.

I am looking forward to the new features though but they ditch the vast quantity of different versions this go around.
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Dude, you and me both. Desktop version and server version, that's it.

There is no reason why there should be multiple SKUs. Hell, it might actually help Microsoft's bottom line since they will end up with fewer unsold copies sitting on shelves. I know keeping things simple is anathema to the Microsoft way, but FFS, keep it simple.
 
Also, I can't wait. Everything I'm reading about the streamlining of menus, windows, and settings panels in Windows 7 has me very excited. Vista is stable as hell but goddamn its a convoluted counterintuitive mess.
 
hahah I really should dig out the thread on this forum where I said Win7 would be out for Xmas-09 and MS funboi were going on "no wai!!!" as well as one thread where someone was saying that by 2010 all XP users would be using Vista
 
Nice! You have to be a technet subscriber to get a beta copy though right? At least legitimately is what I am implying...
 
Well I cant wait to see what 7 looks like. I have yet to migrate over to Vista. I tried it and didnt like it at all. So I went back to XP.
 
got it, used it, doesnt feel any diffrent from the prebeta, havnt looked all too much into it, im using the leaked beta, well i can tell you guys this my experience belov, you might feel diffrent about it, but most applies to all.

Memory usage is abit higher than xp, but cut off a 600 mb from vista.
Taskbar works EXCELLENT, with minor issues in some applications, and one not fully so practical issue Desription:
1.\i cannot get a shortcut of amd overdrive to work, only application ive found till now, amd gpu clock tool and well, ive filled it up, managing is easyier in most cases(not all).
2.\Shortcuts also works as tasks open in that task catagory, meaning msn icon, ohh i press it, ohh snap i got 20 windows open, file manager 20 and i often open 10 control panels(i go in everytime i switch from headset to speakers and HDMI. but you get space for alot down there, and often used applications is lovely to have down there, there is some indication that you have an window open, but not how many, feel of it feels nice but far from perfect.

but still, filling up an taskmanager with opened windows and applications, running 70 processes, i rare exceed 1.1 gb memory usage.

used it since the day it got leaked and is my main OS nowdays so the, vista gave me loads of bluescreens, i thought the disk or memory was the failure, but installed windows 7 and havnt had a single bluescren yet.

my conclusion
it feels so solid, faster, but still heavy, loads of stuff to improve but gave my favorite operating system a challenge. (linux and unix based)
it does get alot slower by time, just like any other windows operating system, but they have added features and made it go just as fast as windows xp, but thats when comparing with a quadcore in use, the result would not be the same with an dualcore or single core i reccon, since win7 is written way better for an quadcore than XP.

Still it struggels to even be comparable in terms of speed and cool features and effects which linux have, drivers are still far from easy to install where ubuntu have done great things.( its 4 clicks away there i reccon)
its abit un user friendly, they have struggeled soo hard with ease of use, while windows 95 is more easy, bloated with wizards for smallest things, i do training and its gotten harder with vista.
But a big leap in the right direction, keep this up Microsoft!
 
if microsoft wants my business, they'll have to give vista users a massive discount. I'm not paying money for windows 7 when vista just practically came out... vista isnt exactly cheap at 200-400 depending on the version and when I have 4 PC's, that adds up really fast.

I'm not dumping out anything more than $70 to upgrade, I've already invested a grand for a fricking operating system that is clearly not done yet. I adopted vista early because I assumed MS would be supporting it and it would develop into something respectable... Not simply swept under the carpet, justifying EXACTLY what everyone who said wait for the next windows was saying... A free upgrade to windows 7 for anything besides basic users would be a stunning PR move on MS's part if you ask me... but thats like asking for a snowstorm in hell...
 
I have been using vista on a number of computers and have been very happy. My main rig (sig) runs it very well, and I have had zero issues with it (related to the OS at least). My netbook, an Acer ApireOne, has it and is perfect, except for one bothersome missing driver.

Now, if I could get the new taskbar in Vista (SP3 please!?) I would be happy.
 
Running W7 beta 1 now and it is pretty damn good. The difference between it and the Vista beta is just astonishing.
 
Modred189 said:
I have been using vista on a number of computers and have been very happy. My main rig (sig) runs it very well, and I have had zero issues with it (related to the OS at least). My netbook, an Acer ApireOne, has it and is perfect, except for one bothersome missing driver.

Now, if I could get the new taskbar in Vista (SP3 please!?) I would be happy.
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Then don't buy it. TANSTAAFL folks.
 
And if it aint broke, don't fix it. But that doesn't mean I don't wish I could get it. ;-)
 
I "aquired" it, running it in a VM now with 2Gb of ram and its very snappy. The OS itself used just over 7GB of space, hopefully they will keep the space requirement down
 
Vista is awful after using W7.

I had issues with 6956 though, Securom wouldnt run so I couldnt play GTA IV. Everything worked fine in 6801 though. Just grabbed 7000, gotta test it.
 
eeyrjmr said:
hahah I really should dig out the thread on this forum where I said Win7 would be out for Xmas-09 and MS funboi were going on "no wai!!!" as well as one thread where someone was saying that by 2010 all XP users would be using Vista
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I like Vista but considering I work on PC's daily I know that will never ever happen. We still have users that use Windows 95, Windows 98SE, Windows Millinium, Win 2000, WinXP, etc etc etc. Some people simply don't like changing operating systems no matter what a company touts as a improvement someone needs in the newest shiny OS.
 
About damn time they made some progress, lets hope for some performance gains instead of just eyecandy.
 
ianken said:
Running W7 beta 1 now and it is pretty damn good. The difference between it and the Vista beta is just astonishing.
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How about the difference between it and Vista SP1?

Are the reports of streamlining the UI, menus, submenus, etc, true? Does something simple like changing file permissions still take five steps (which takes only two in OS X) or has that been reduced?
 
dnottis said:
Vista is awful after using W7.

I had issues with 6956 though, Securom wouldnt run so I couldnt play GTA IV. Everything worked fine in 6801 though. Just grabbed 7000, gotta test it.
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Any examples? I think Vista is a rock solid base, just horribly, unnecessarily convoluted and counterintuitive with its menus, settings, where most things are placed, etc. I keep reading on tech blogs that this is being fixed in a huge way but I would love to hear specific examples. :)
 
That taskbar is fugly, the Vista one is so much nicer looking, and I'm not really digging the icon only running program buttons on it either. Hopefully there are more options or you can change it easily.
 
ScreamingBroccoli said:
That taskbar is fugly, the Vista one is so much nicer looking, and I'm not really digging the icon only running program buttons on it either. Hopefully there are more options or you can change it easily.
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Me too. I don't like KDE in Linux (well, I don't like GNOME either...) and I sure as hell don't need a KDE-esque desktop running over Windows.

I don't see a need to reinvent the wheel, just streamline what's existing in Vista (there are way too many steps nearly everywhere), throw some ribbon UI concepts in there, and I think everyone will be really happy.
 
ScreamingBroccoli said:
That taskbar is fugly, the Vista one is so much nicer looking, and I'm not really digging the icon only running program buttons on it either. Hopefully there are more options or you can change it easily.
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There are options to make the taskbar look more like vista's as well as options to add labels to the taskbar icons.
 
Looks like crap, I'll stick with Vista thank you(yes I know, people said the same thing about XP and Vista, but XP and Vista didn't hide shit from me, like 7 is)
 
Chilly said:
Looks like crap, I'll stick with Vista thank you(yes I know, people said the same thing about XP and Vista, but XP and Vista didn't hide shit from me, like 7 is)
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I just hope it gives me the option of running in Windows Classic mode. I'm not concerned with appearances. I want it clean, simple, intuitive and free of glitter/bling/bloat. I know that's asking for a lot.
 
ICOM said:
I just hope it gives me the option of running in Windows Classic mode. I'm not concerned with appearances. I want it clean, simple, intuitive and free of glitter/bling/bloat. I know that's asking for a lot.
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You may not care about appearances, but why not make it look nice too if you can? Windows Classic is actually slower in Vista than Aero if you have a reasonable video card, so performance is not an issue here.
 
RyanLucier said:
if microsoft wants my business, they'll have to give vista users a massive discount. I'm not paying money for windows 7 when vista just practically came out... vista isnt exactly cheap at 200-400 depending on the version and when I have 4 PC's, that adds up really fast.

I'm not dumping out anything more than $70 to upgrade, I've already invested a grand for a fricking operating system that is clearly not done yet. I adopted vista early because I assumed MS would be supporting it and it would develop into something respectable... Not simply swept under the carpet, justifying EXACTLY what everyone who said wait for the next windows was saying... A free upgrade to windows 7 for anything besides basic users would be a stunning PR move on MS's part if you ask me... but thats like asking for a snowstorm in hell...
Click to expand...

XP is the exception, no operating system will ever have the long of a life anymore, nor did MS's previous OS's

What a horrible argument :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
anyone know where to get the x64 release? not willing to try the x86 version.
 
ScreamingBroccoli said:
That taskbar is fugly, the Vista one is so much nicer looking, and I'm not really digging the icon only running program buttons on it either. Hopefully there are more options or you can change it easily.
Click to expand...

Disagree 100%. Have been using the Pre-beta for a while, it is better, nevermind the fact you can use the Vista task bar in the pre beta as well
 
Technically the beta is not out yet, you folks realize. All the articles, all the websites (including this one), all of it is basically walking the fine line and reporting on an OS that legally isn't "out" yet, anywhere, not even to the actual beta testers... amazing how fast shit spreads though, ain't it?
 
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