[Major Payne]

What if Microsoft waved a magic wand and everything people hated about Windows Vista went away? You might have an operating system that you liked--and that's what Microsoft appears to be striving for with Windows 7. We checked out an early beta of the future OS, and though at this point many features are either missing or works in progress, the improvements to everything from user interface to memory management look highly promising.

Along with several dozen other reviewers and analysts, we got our first real look at the OS, preinstalled on loaner notebooks, over the weekend at a workshop on the eve of the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference. Microsoft planned to hand out installation discs later Tuesday, after the head of engineering for Windows and Windows Live, Steven Sinofsky, delivers his scheduled keynote formally introducing Windows 7 to PDC attendees. (We'll report on our experiences upgrading PCs from Vista to 7 later on.)

More...

Additionally: A Closer Look at Your Next OS?

Edited by Major Payne, 03 November 2008 - 08:04 AM.

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Ron:

Thanks for this information!! I was wondering if any Geeks would be testing Windows 7, and I had read something on Yahoo Tech about Windows 7, so I will check this information out!!

Brian

[**Brian**]

Ron:

Thanks for this information!! I was wondering if any Geeks would be testing Windows 7, and I had read something on Yahoo Tech about Windows 7, so I will check this information out!!

Brian

[Major Payne]

You're welcome. I've been using Vista Home Premium on my laptop and have never had any problems with it. Seems to be very fast even with all the default bells and whistles so Windows 7 is going to be interesting to keep track of as far as solving Vista "problems".

[Troy]

I agree, Ron. I've been enjoying Vista right from day 1, and I definitely rate it a fantastic improvement over Windows XP. It will be interesting to see what "problems" they fix...

[PedroDaGR8]

I have been running Vista Ultimate for a while now and I am glad to see there are other people besides me who absolutely love it. Win7 looks really nice. Device Stage will be AWESOME, expect this to be somethign Apple copies from Windows (just like the ability to change the sound levels on individual programs). Integrated multitouch ability will be awesome as well.

[Broni]

I installed pre-beta Windows 7 (build 6801) on virtual partition couple of nights ago.
I didn't have much time to play with it, but from I saw so far, there is no dramatic change from Vista, at least comparing it to changes from XP to Vista.
If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer.

Edited by Broni, 07 December 2008 - 12:18 AM.

[Troy]

Screenshots?

(Yes, I can use Google, but that's not as fun)

[Broni]

This is how it looked, at the very first moment after installation:

[PedroDaGR8]

This is how it looked, at the very first moment after installation:

Doesn't surprise me too much. Up until Beta 2 Vista looked VERY similar to WinXP. I think they just do minimal changes to the UI initially, instead working on the system underneath, then they start bringing in the UI changes.

Edited by PedroDaGR8, 07 December 2008 - 11:10 AM.

[Broni]

You're right. In this pre-beta release, all eye-candy features are disabled.

[Axelion]

Is it true that windows 7 uses less memory and cpu than windows vista?

[Broni]

Axelion
It's hard to answer your question, because, as it's always the case with new/fresh install, barely anything is running in the background.

[PedroDaGR8]

I have heard that right now its system usage is about EQUAL with VIsta, maybe a SMIDGE less. They are not at the optimization stage yet (which comes right before bug fixing usually) which is promising.

[jt1990]

Currently installing Windows 7 Beta on my laptop

[jt1990]

So far, it looks like 7 is a much faster and revamped version of Vista...But I like it a lot better...Don't ask me why...I only had to reinstall drivers for my wireless card, other then that, everything seems to be pretty compatible...