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Fuzzy Bob

A quick impression.
Well I'm up and running on Windows 7 thanks to the people at PC Wank, and up to now I'm very impressed with it, boots up in 45 secs and shuts down in 15. Ok, there were security patches to apply after installation but that's Micro$oft for you. The layout is impressive and easy to navigate (Anything is better than Vista). WMP 12 has been improved with it's layout and has it's own codecs but it doesn't play flv files. It's a hell of a lot faster than Vi$ta and not as many "are you sure you want to run this" security prompts. No crashes (Yet). I'm running Firefox 3.5.3 without any problems and apparently Mozilla will be releasing a 3.6 beta on the 21st with improvements for Windows 7.
Installation took about 45mins on a clean install.

Butterfly

is it Oct 22 yet ? I thought you couldn't get any official version before that date,

what beta are you running ?

Fuzzy Bob

It's genuine. It must have been shipped early to beat any Royal Mail strikes on the 22nd & 23rd in the UK.

Fondles

Upgrade from RC to RTM here bout 2 months ago, it is one superb OS, i had planned on dumping the dodgy copy for a purchased legit one but fcuk me, not for the bux they want.

Fuzzy Bob

Windows 7 delivered early to U.K. customers
Windows 7 delivered early to U.K. customers | Crave - CNET
Some lucky Brits received their preordered copy of Windows 7 earlier Monday--several days before it goes on sale--proving that there is at least one good thing to result from postal strikes.
One excited CNET U.K. reader--Tom Brown, from Hertfordshire--dropped Crave UK a line to express his delight that he had come home to a package from retailer PC World. It was his copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, which he preordered a couple of months ago.
Naturally, he was confused. "(PC World) sent me an e-mail saying that Windows 7 would not leave their warehouse until the 21 October--a day before the official release," he told us in an e-mail.
The reason appears to be the looming threat of industrial action at Royal Mail.

Butterfly

actually you could get it cheap online for 50 Euros, directly from MS

Fondles

Where, 50 Euro's sounds a damn sight better than $400.00 AUD.

Butterfly

that was a few months ago, don't think the offer is still there, it was during their beta program

Takeovers

Here in Germany they sell the Home Premium System Builder Version for 89 Euro and this version is already in the stores. The full version is a lot more expensive and the only difference is three free (and also worthless) calls to the help desk.

So anybody who wants a legal copy should look for the system builder version.

I had a few problems getting the printer to work. The OS includes the printer driver, no problem there. But my ancient but reliable Laserjet 6P requires a parallel port and getting a 64bit driver for the interface card was tricky.

Now I have to wait for the official sell date. At that date they will put online a virtual machine running Windows XP as an integral part of the OS, so I can use my not so ancient Scanner on the 7 desktop as if drivers were available for it, which they are not.
This is not the same as running a virtual machine and a separate XP. The XP-OS is part of the package and available free for the professional and ultimate packages.

Added per edit

If you are interested and have access to a copy, you can use Windows 7 without a key for one month. Microsoft also provides a tool to reset the counter three times so you can run it legally for a period of up to 4 months. After that period you can enter a key to legalize the system, if you wish. No need for a reinstall.

TizMe

I think I'll wait for SP2.

Takeovers

Just look at Windows 7 as another name for Vista Service Pack 2.


But yes, if you don't want any troubles with drivers and other stuff, waiting a bit may be wise. I still have to install device drivers from Vista because ASUS has not yet developed any 7 drivers, although the board I am using is still on sale.

daveboy

I waitng for mine to turn up.

slackula

Does winver in 7 report 7 or 6.1 now?

Takeovers

It shows 6.1 (Build 7600)

melvbot

read up a bit if youre upgrading from XP to 7, theres a few issues apparently.

Takeovers

For hardware concerns there is a piece of software, the

Upgrade Advisor


Funny enough the general advice is:

If you have Vista, you should upgrade urgently, there would be a big improvement.

If you are running XP, you don't need to upgrade, if you don't want to.

slackula

Thanks for that.

Odd though; since they must know they are wide open to accusations that 7 is simply a service pack that fixes Vista it's strange that they wouldn't take the time to hide that potentially embarrassing little thing.

Thetyim

Does that apply to 32 bit and 64 bit ?
I'm running a 32bit XP on a 64bit computer.

Fuzzy Bob

When you get Windows 7 you get both 32 bit & 64 bit dvd's so take your pick.
If you are planning to install on a xp computer you have to backup all your files and any software you're running and do a clean installation. Then you have to reinstall all your software again. It's not that bad, I did a clean install on my 32 bit Vista machine and reinstalled my software (Some don't work )

Takeovers

That depends. You would need 64bit only if you want to use more than 3.2 MByte RAM, because that is the limit 32bit OS can address. Or if you use one of the few genuine 64bit-Programs. I think some video processing programs and large picture processing programs with big memory requirements are available in 64bit versions. But your 32bit Software will most likely run in the 64bit OS.

I chose to jump to 64bit because I have installed 4Gig RAM, not sure I really need that, but did it on very little extra cost. This way I am prepared for what is coming. However it is sometimes more difficult to get drivers. But with some search I was able to find everything required. For my parallel port the supplier had nothing. But I took the card out and identified the chip that was used and the 64bit driver of another supplier with the same chip worked.

BTW if you buy a 32 bit OS now, the key will work with a 64bit system later on.

If you buy an expensive full version it will come with both 32 and 64bit OS, but you have only one license and can use only one of them at a time. The much cheaper System Builder Version will come only with the chosen 32 or 64 bit OS, but the key will be accepted if you can get a DVD with the 64bit OS later.