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Friday 9 January 2009, 9:16 AM
Windows 7 beta should you install it?
Well the Windows 7 beta is out there and the big question is if you should install it? As always with Windows Beta programs you will need to be careful. If you are currently running Vista then unless you're a developer I'd suggest that you skip this version.
Points worth noting about this beta:
a) Until you install the fix that Microsoft supply you are in danger of trashing any MP3s that are on the machine. Apparently when Media Player tries to deal with adding album art to your MP3s it can corrupt them. I would suggest if you're installing this on another hard disc that you set your MP3s to READ ONLY before you install Windows 7
b) Don't bother if your graphics card only has an XDDM driver (XP Display Driver Model) the release notes have warnings that Windows 7 will crash and the only way out is to recycle the power. You can test Windows 7 with a plain VGA driver but if my experience from running Vista in this mode is anything to go by I wouldn't bother.
c) If you're installing this on the same drive as your normal windows, don't forget that returning back to either Vista or XP is something that Microsoft won't help you with and could be a real problem. Do a backup first.
On to the good news. On the machine I installed on last night the system seems to be fairly stable, the new task bar is up and running and the whole experience seems fairly painless. One thing that has moved and is a now a little tricker to get to is the Windows device manager. If you right click on the "computer" icon in the Control panel / hardware devices section you can get back to the older style device manager. Alternatively if when in the control panel you select show all then the device manager becomes visible.
Other than that the unrecognised finger print scanner on the machine I had wasn't recognised initially but Microsoft daignosed the problem and with the new messages system sent me off to the vendor for an updated driver. I also had no trouble installing the Lenovo (almost wrote IBM there) Thinkpad Vista drivers which I downloaded to allow me to turn off tap to click on the mousepad.
Final thoughts: Its a little bit early to say for sure but this build feels pretty solid. Unless you have a seperate hard disc or are very confident about your backups I wouldn't recommend just installing it to see what it's like and given some of the display issues I would recommend it on a machine with say an Intel 915 display driver just yet.
Points worth noting about this beta:
a) Until you install the fix that Microsoft supply you are in danger of trashing any MP3s that are on the machine. Apparently when Media Player tries to deal with adding album art to your MP3s it can corrupt them. I would suggest if you're installing this on another hard disc that you set your MP3s to READ ONLY before you install Windows 7
b) Don't bother if your graphics card only has an XDDM driver (XP Display Driver Model) the release notes have warnings that Windows 7 will crash and the only way out is to recycle the power. You can test Windows 7 with a plain VGA driver but if my experience from running Vista in this mode is anything to go by I wouldn't bother.
c) If you're installing this on the same drive as your normal windows, don't forget that returning back to either Vista or XP is something that Microsoft won't help you with and could be a real problem. Do a backup first.
On to the good news. On the machine I installed on last night the system seems to be fairly stable, the new task bar is up and running and the whole experience seems fairly painless. One thing that has moved and is a now a little tricker to get to is the Windows device manager. If you right click on the "computer" icon in the Control panel / hardware devices section you can get back to the older style device manager. Alternatively if when in the control panel you select show all then the device manager becomes visible.
Other than that the unrecognised finger print scanner on the machine I had wasn't recognised initially but Microsoft daignosed the problem and with the new messages system sent me off to the vendor for an updated driver. I also had no trouble installing the Lenovo (almost wrote IBM there) Thinkpad Vista drivers which I downloaded to allow me to turn off tap to click on the mousepad.
Final thoughts: Its a little bit early to say for sure but this build feels pretty solid. Unless you have a seperate hard disc or are very confident about your backups I wouldn't recommend just installing it to see what it's like and given some of the display issues I would recommend it on a machine with say an Intel 915 display driver just yet.
PreviousComments on this post
Hell yeah. I really like the way the documents folder is encouraged for storing documents in, and libraries for everything else. I put it on an acer ferrari 3200 512mb ram, AMD 64 athlon and it goes very quick, with all the bells and whistles enabled. The drivers all worked out of the box, and it went off to fetch the audio driver like a keen dog fetching a stick.
Funny thing is that there are no vista drivers listed on acers website for this model, it seems content with the old XP drivers. Very impressed!
