I know there are already a lot of articles on the Internet about Windows 7 Release Candidate (build 7100), but I aim for this one to be simple and straight to the point. This is why this whole article will only be comprised of bullet point text and simple headings. No images, just a fast brows-able article.
Installation
- Obviously a copy/paste job of the Windows Vista installation with some tweaks like; a better background, more refined fonts and edges
- Windows 7 installs faster than Windows Vista and Windows XP. In-fact, Windows Vista took ages to install from what I remember compared to Windows 7 which took a measly 20 minutes
Bootup
- The boot-up speed is unexpected and very impressive. It’s fast, even faster than Windows XP. It pretty much makes XP and Vista look like the grandparents of Windows OS’s.
- The boot screen no longer has that disgusting progress bar scrolling across the screen, instead Windows 7 RC has a nice animated Windows logo with a nice pulsating glowing effect. If you’ve used Vista or use Vista, you know that it has a fucking dirt ugly boot screen, guess it’s not really a big deal.
Running Older Software
- Windows 7 runs older games and software beautifully most of the time with it’s obviously refined compatibility mode
- It runs Starcraft & Starcraft Broodwar (although the graphics are a bit fucked up and require some hacks, I’m sure this will be addressed by Blizzard soon)
- If you try to install an older application or game that may not be Windows 7 compatible (even drivers), and the installation fails, Windows 7 will ask you if you would like to try again with recommended compatibility settings which seem to work 98% of all cases
Performance
- The RC has yet to crash on me once. Although it’s still early days and Microsoft software loves to crash after a certain period of time. **Update: My PC has been running for over 1 month now and still no crashes
- It’s more stable than Windows Vista SP2
- From login to desktop is amazingly fast, not as fast as superman, but you get the idea
- Although Windows 7 has a fair bit of eye candy like Windows Vista contained which made it an epic failure, the effects in Windows 7 don’t degrade performance whatsoever. In-fact, I’m running Windows 7 on 1 gig of ram as we speak with no ready boost drive. I’ve also got iTunes playing music, Firefox (obviously) and Adobe Photoshop open as well
- Disk drive performance seems to have marginally improved from Vista. If you recall or still do because you’re using Vista, disk transfer speeds were absolutely fucked and far from impressive for many people. Although file transferring is still a dog and I suggest downloading a copy of TeraCopy for lightning fast file copying and it’s completely free.
- Overall memory hogging synonymous with Windows Vista seems to be fairly non-existent, this makes the system feel fast.
- There is a small bug with my ATI Radeon 9200se drivers and Windows 7. On shut-down, Windows 7 will always blue screen, this isn’t so much an issue as it only happens when shutting down, still annoying though. The driver problem is an ATI issue though, not Windows 7.
Other Stuff You Probably Want To Know
- If you’ve used Windows Vista or are familiar with it’s interface, you will notice that it doesn’t really seem that much different. Windows 7 is Windows Vista with new effects and performance tweaks
- The implementation of jump lists actually is useful. Basically if your application supports jump menus you can see recently opened files relating to only that application. Mostly all applications support jump lists, pretty useful especially with Adobe applications
- Implementation of a wide variety of themes for an Rc. Microsoft have said the final release will contain many more and you’ll be able to download more from Microsoft for free
- Ability to set a shuffling desktop background that changes at a pre-defined interval
- UAC is gone, but a similar implementation which is less annoying and intrusive has been added instead. I can live with that
- The sidebar from Windows Vista that was once used to hold all of the widgets is gone and instead Microsoft have decided to allow your widgets to be placed anywhere you want on the desktop
- You can access items on your start-bar via a keyboard shortcut, which means no more alt + tab to switch windows. Simply press the windows key on your keyboard plus the number corresponding to the start menu list
- Ready boost now supports multiple USB drives at once. It also allows for more than 4gb of space on a drive to be utilised
- You will need at least 1 gig of ram, use an old usb drive for ready boost and you will get a marginally significant speed increase. It really does make a difference to the overall system speed.
- Doesn’t seem to like the pretty extreme overclocks on my system. I had to wind down the cpu bus speed for starters because Windows 7’s explorer.exe server kept restarting and crashing, an infinite loop basically. This didn’t happen to me in Windows XP.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts on 7. I am looking to buy a new laptop and it has been quite a debate. I do not want Vista so I was leaning toward a Mac. I was unsure I wanted to run a Mac in Windows mode. So that left me waiting to get a machine with 7. And I am hoping that 7 is not like Vista.
had sin 7 rc installed on 2 computers, a hp pavilion dv5 and a desktop computer(core2quad q6600). 7 is slow and still has major bugs. vista tweaked is faster than win7. hope they fix this os
RC Win seven is pretty fast for an RC os. The final will be faster no doubt and I’ve had no troubles running it on a p4 3.2ghz cpu with 1gb of ram, it doesn’t seem to mess up for me or have any bugs. Therefore your quick review was pretty accurate.
Windows 7 rc update installed a incompatible network adapter driver and I couldn’t completely uninstall and reinstall a older driver because Windows said the one installed was newer; even though I had uninstalled it. When I rebooted, the bad driver was automatically reinstalled. There are still bugs with with Windows 7 rc. Think twice if you are planning to use it as your primary operating system. I formatted the hard drive it was on. I plan on waiting until the final retail version is released and then will read about the bugs using my XP system.
Am I the only one who thinks windows 7 sucks? I have it dual boosted with Vista Ultimate and think windows 7 is vista made ugly. I think vista is way better than windows XP, I just think people had a hard time figuring out all the new features the old timer’s hated it. I bought a new pc after not having one for years it came with vista and I was not use to XP anymore so I liked all the new feature’s. Some people cannot stand change. I have XP on a pc in the other room and when people use it or need help I can’t stand it it’s old, slow, and does not have a lot of option’s
Brian,
Sounds like you are the only one that hates it. I think Windows 7 has a more refined look to it, not too overdone and it has a nice feel to it. Maybe you’re just old and can’t handle fancy eye-candy when you see it.
Windows Vista has so many issues it’s not funny. Slow disk issues are one of them. Ever try copying 4gb+ of files at once with the in-built file copy system in Windows Vista? Not a chance of it happening at a decent speed.
If XP is so old, why did so many people (mainly corporations) not upgrade to Windows Vista and stay with XP instead? I work for a corporation that has over 6,000 employee’s in it and everyone uses XP… I asked the reason for not upgrading it was because Windows Vista wasn’t stable or fast enough to function in a corporate / professional environment.
I know why work is already considering Windows 7, it’s been discussed a few times.
Brian: Vista was great, 7 is better. I agree 100% that people were just cranky about switching from XP, that’s why Vista got the bad publicity. However, there is no contest that 7 beats Vista (and any other OS on this earth) hands down.
Dark, your just an apple fan who won’t admit how amazing Windows 7 really is. I’ve been running the RC as my only OS for two months and there is really nothing wrong with it. Sure there are about 5 very extremely minor things I would change if I could, but they do not affect the usability or performance of the OS in any way.
I asked the reason for not upgrading it was because Windows Vista wasn’t stable or fast enough to function in a corporate / professional environment.
Thanks for the review man.
Too bad I don’t run on Vista. Can I still install 7 even if I’m still on XP (I’m in love XP. LOL.)
The Beta worked great. The RC is junk
Well said Michael.
As an IT professional with 14 years experience I have seen and worked on it all. I am Microsoft Certified and specialize in OS, Application, and Hardware support. I loved the Windows 7 Beta, it worked great, even with heavy multitasking and high memory loads. I recently reformatted and installed fresh on a higher speed hard drive, not even half of what I had installed with the beta. It sucks, it blows, and considering this is an OS and not your girlfriend… these are words you don’t want to hear.
I have experienced multiple multiple BSOD crashes, the hardest freezes since Win ‘95, and more bugs than with the Beta. WTF? I thought the RC was supposed to be much better than the Beta, that’s why we beta tested it, but oh well.
The OS still has my support though, it’s an excellent improvement over past versions, both in performance and compatibility with lots of added features that I like. I only hope they remedy the (in my opinion) bigger and badder bugs in the programming before it goes on shelves next year.
One final thought…. IE is still a piece of junk, Chrome is King
Sly
To answer the question about installing Win 7 if you’re running XP, of course you can! I opted to ghost my original drive and do a fresh install of RC, but the most common way is to create a secondary partition on your HD, this way you are prompted when you turn on your computer as to which OS you want to load… the two are completely separate and you usually can’t see your XP partition if you load the Windows 7 one, which makes transferring music and such a pain without an external HD or a hefty flash drive.
Here’s a link to a site that details how to Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista…
http://lifehacker.com/5126781/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-with-xp-or-vista
Good Luck
Sly
Dual Booting Windows 7 with XP or Vista is simple… keep your old installation and create a secondary partition for Win 7, when you boot your PC you’ll be prompted to choose an OS and BAM! you’re running either or.
Here’s a site with detailed instructions for ya
http://lifehacker.com/5126781/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-with-xp-or-vista
Good Luck
Sly
Dual Booting Windows 7 with XP or Vista is simple… keep your old installation and create a secondary partition for Win 7, when you boot your PC you’ll be prompted to choose an OS and BAM! you’re running either or.
Here’s a site with detailed instructions for ya, just remove the parenthesis from the beginning and end.
(http://lifehacker.com/5126781/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-with-xp-or-vista)
Good Luck
Sly
You absolutely can install Win 7 if you run XP, or Vista. Dual Booting Windows 7 with XP or Vista is probably the easiest way… keep your old installation and create a secondary partition for Win 7, when you boot your PC you’ll be prompted to choose an OS and BAM! you’re running either or.
Just Google: installing Windows 7
Then look like 7 results down the page for the lifehacker.com site, details on how to set it up w/images n all that goodness.
Good Luck
Sly
You absolutely can install Win 7 if you run XP, or Vista. Dual Booting Windows 7 with XP or Vista is probably the easiest way… keep your old installation and create a secondary partition for Win 7, when you boot your PC you’ll be prompted to choose an OS and BAM! you’re running either or.
Just Google: installing Windows 7
Then look like 7 results down the page for: How to Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista – How To – Lifehacker , great site that details on how to set it up w/images n all that goodness.
Good Luck
Sly
Windows 7 probably doesn’t seem like a big difference from Vista because it isn’t.
Windows XP = Windows version 5.
Windows Vista = Windows version 6.0.
Windows 7 = Windows version 6.1.
Windows 7 is nothing more then a service release for Vista. But you’ll pay full price for it.
Remember what Microsoft did in the Mojave Experiment? Well, consider this round 2 of, “we told you this rocked and you suck for not knowing it.”
Sitting idle at the desktop uses 12% of 8GB DDR3 RAM. The task manager reports that 1GB is being used. That’s 983.04MB-1024MB of RAM being used simply to sit idle at the desktop of a broke in version.
x64 still isn’t being taken seriously. Even if you bend over backwards to convert as much of your software to x64, you will still spend the vast majority of your time running in Compatability Mode. We’re talking 10 to 1 on a good day. This sucks because Windows 6.x already runs as a Virtual Machine. So running compat mode in Windows 6.x is like running a VM on a VM. You will compute faster on the whole using XP x86.
There’s like 13 games total that have been released for x64 platforms. Some of these date back 4 & 5 years! And to top it off, consider compatibility mode for gaming. Dx10 looks good but just like everything in Vista/7 it comes at the greatest of costs, tremendous performance reduction.
Develop software much? Prepare to re-write everything or simply go the easy route and compile it as x86 so it will run in compatibility mode on windows vista/7. That’s what everybody else is doing.
I believe Microsoft has another “Great” OS in them, this just aint it. Not even close.
In short, Windows 7 is for suckers.
I am running the Windows 7 RC on my laptop. It is fast and I have no technical issues. There are TWO glaring things that bug the heck out of me though.
- Not being able to pin whatever I need to the taskbar (superbar)
- The new sidebar stinks, The Vista sidebar was much better, I hate having to move my mouse to the corner of the screen to see the gadgets and even if you do that you cannot interact with them until you click the button and minimize all windows. I like the Vista way because I can SEE the gadgets at a glance, and I can interact with them quickly without disrupting my other apps.
Yeah, there are workarounds like using toolbars for devices on the taskbar or the hack to bring back the old sidebar but these things (options) should be available in W7 already.
Fix it MS!
Suka blya !!!! Windows 7 is junk ! Control panel navigation sucks big time ! rearengement sucks ! Microsoft will not support some of theyr own devices that worked with XP/Vista and maximum if you got them not too long ago they will refoun you ….What the FUCK ????!!!! After 2 month of using it , one day all my programs just gone from start menu ….What the FUCK ???!!! Administrative tools lost acces….What the FUCK ???!!!!
And just to let you know I have 100% virus free PC and its well protected.
Windows 7 is junk !!! Dont waised you money and time !!!
For Microsoft :
If you think you know better then go FUCK you donkey !!!!
Suka blya !!!! Windows 7 is junk ! Control panel navigation sucks big time ! rearengement sucks ! Microsoft will not support some of theyr own devices that worked with XP/Vista and maximum if you got them not too long ago they will refoun you ….What the FUCK ????!!!! After 2 month of using it , one day all my programs just gone from start menu ….What the FUCK ???!!! Administrative tools lost acces….What the FUCK ???!!!!
And just to let you know I have 100% virus free PC and its well protected.
Windows 7 is junk !!! Dont waised you money and time !!!
For Microsoft :
If you think you know better then go FUCK your donkey !!!! Suka Blya !!!