Windows 7

by **r3loaded** » 08 Jan 2009, 20:23

Release Candidate Update: Microsoft has now released the RC of Windows 7 properly on their website. The main download page is http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... nload.aspx. Also, if you wish to test out XP Mode, the download is available at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtua ... nload.aspx

Direct Download Links:
32-bit: http://wb.dlservice.microsoft.com/downl ... en_dvd.iso
64-bit: http://wb.dlservice.microsoft.com/downl ... en_dvd.iso

Windows Virtual PC:
For 32-bit systems: http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... 59-x86.msu
For 64-bit systems: http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... 59-x64.msu
Virtual copy of XP: http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... dowsXP.msi

You need to install the appropriate MSU update package first, reboot, and then you can install the virtual copy of XP.

Your previous beta key will activate Windows 7. If you haven't got a beta key, either register on the website or use any of these keys: KGMPT-GQ6XF-DM3VM-HW6PR-DX9G8, 6F4BB-YCB3T-WK763-3P6YJ-BVH24, P72QK-2Y3B8-YDHDV-29DQB-QKWWM, MM7DF-G8XWM-J2VRG-4M3C4-GR27X, 9JBBV-7Q7P7-CTDB7-KYBKG-X8HHC

Remember, the RC expires on 1st June, 2010, and will start shutting down after 2 hours on the 1st March, 2010. Enjoy!!

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BIG UPDATE: Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC), build 7100 has leaked onto torrents. I'm currently downloading both the 32-bit and 64-bit images, and will seed them over my LSE connection (refer to the speedtest box below left :wink:

) It's been confirmed as the genuine thing by various sources too.

Torrent download links:
32-bit: http://www.mininova.org/get/2521167
64-bit: http://www.mininova.org/get/2521354

If you're hesitant about downloading from torrents, just wait until the 5th May.

UPDATE: Both images downloaded, I'm seeding them at 2MB/sec each (yes, that's 2 megabytes, or 16 megabits)
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Old post as below:
Microsoft will be posting the first public beta of Windows 7 (build 7000) on their website very, very soon. I've played with it and it's already awesome, much faster than either XP or Vista, it's extremely stable for a beta and runs nearly all my Vista apps and drivers fine!

Paul Thurrott will be keeping you informed: http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_b ... ilable.asp
Here's his review of the beta that will be released: http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_beta.asp

Get the beta and your key from: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... nload.aspx

Alternative Direct Download Links:
32-bit: http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... EN_DVD.iso
64-bit: http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... EN_DVD.ISO

by **Troops** » 09 Jan 2009, 00:30

Tried it, looks like vista,feels like vista
Just a tweaked version tbh, the way vista should of been in the first place, another microsoft ripp off.

by **GTFO. NachoDuck** » 09 Jan 2009, 10:32

Took me a good while to move to Vista, which I only did in November so I won't be jumping at this opportunity any time soon.

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 09 Jan 2009, 16:48

i might try it in VMware, i'll tell you how it goes

or not

by **GTFO. NachoDuck** » 10 Jan 2009, 11:18

Microsoft delays first Windows 7 public beta
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/10 ... eta_delay/

by **r3loaded** » 10 Jan 2009, 12:17

It's been taken off their website temporarily, but those direct download links above work perfectly fine..

by **GTFO. al** » 10 Jan 2009, 13:36

its nearly impossible to get a key for it.

can you install it without one? i'd go the VMware route too i think just to play around

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 10 Jan 2009, 13:41

it comes in at a hefty 16GB of space once installed, i only have 20Gb left

, but the upside is that it states it will only take 30 mins to fully install, nice

by **r3loaded** » 10 Jan 2009, 15:16

Just like Vista, no key is required to install. However it'll expire after 30 days, so just reinstall or use the re-arm trick every 30 days.

by **GTFO. al** » 10 Jan 2009, 16:23

i was able to get 2 keys in the end.

installing vmware again and will see if i can get it to install. i'm not sure if the ISO i downloaded is the full size though or whether it failed downloading.

by **GTFO. al** » 10 Jan 2009, 17:06

yep the ISO is dodgy. redownloading lol.

they've fixed the key issue and seem to now have a set of generic keys they're giving out to everyone. i have 8 keys from the official technet page that spits them out but google the keys and lots of people have them. so it's a free for all now it seems.

482XP-6J9WR-4JXT3-VBPP6-FQF4M is a 64bit key
4HJRK-X6Q28-HWRFY-WDYHJ-K8HDH is a 32bit key

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 10 Jan 2009, 17:59

i don't get what you put Al, do you need a key to install it? if so give us one of your please

btw i got to the setup stage and then i got an error, i think its definantly the ISO, but it looks cool, even down to the installing page

EDIT: Just got the product key from the technet website and am downloading it now

EDIT 2: THE BETA IS OUT, GO GO GO!

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/eval ... 53205.aspx

I'm allready on 11% and its been downloading 2 minutes

by **r3loaded** » 10 Jan 2009, 23:57

I wonder why Microsoft didn't just go and create an official torrent, put it on their own website, and also upload it to torrent sites. Would have saved them a lot of time, money and bandwidth, as BitTorrent is especially designed to transfer huge files to a large number of people quickly and efficiently.... :roll:

by **GTFO. al** » 11 Jan 2009, 15:06

played around a bit with it last night. had it installed in vmware but the network wouldn't work so couldn't access the net or do anything. reinstalled in virtualbox and it ran nicely.

seems quite good performance wise and pretty easy to navigate around. not sure about the superbar thing...need to see about modifying it.

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 11 Jan 2009, 16:40

i've dual booted it with my XP, just need to change some of the boot options,

i must say WOW to the boot screen as it looks awesome

by **-NanoCorp- CyberPower** » 12 Jan 2009, 08:48

by **GTFO. vito** » 15 Jan 2009, 21:59

couldn't get it going in virtual pc but, after googling, i might not be the only one.

Think i might have a corrupt iso though to be fair

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 15 Jan 2009, 22:13

GTFO. vito wrote:couldn't get it going in virtual pc but, after googling, i might not be the only one.

Think i might have a corrupt iso though to be fair

i got it working in VMware but it was laggy like hooker on speed, just dual boot it

by **Echelon** » 15 Jan 2009, 22:16

Works fine on my laptop.

by **r3loaded** » 16 Jan 2009, 01:42

Just make sure you don't edit the metadata in MP3 files or let WMP download any metadata - there's a nasty bug which can end up permanently shaving several seconds off your songs.

Patch is available, but tbh, just keep your music collection away from WMP for the time being.

by **GTFO. al** » 16 Jan 2009, 04:06

if you find vmware is slow or stuff doesn't work then download virtualbox from sun instead.

by **GTFO. G** » 21 Jan 2009, 18:06

Might have a play around with this for a laugh, have 40GB unpartitioned....

Anyone using this daily for normal tasks (gaming ofcourse included) ?

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 21 Jan 2009, 18:14

well G you got to download it before January 24th as after then they are taking the download page down :wink:

by **GTFO. G** » 21 Jan 2009, 18:15

luckyg wrote:well G you got to download it before January 24th as after then they are taking the download page down

Downloading from work...

Started about 5 mins ago, oh it's finished

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 21 Jan 2009, 18:29

GTFO. G wrote:
luckyg wrote:well G you got to download it before January 24th as after then they are taking the download page down

Downloading from work...

Started about 5 mins ago, oh it's finished

STFU and your fast internet

by **r3loaded** » 22 Jan 2009, 01:08

Using W7 x64 as my primary OS now, it's really stable!

by **GTFO. G** » 22 Jan 2009, 10:19

r3loaded wrote:Using W7 x64 as my primary OS now, it's really stable!

So 64bit drivers aren't an issue?

by **r3loaded** » 22 Jan 2009, 12:16

Not at all, just load Vista64 drivers on, works a treat. Microsoft deliberately didn't change the driver model this time around, since it's been "fixed" in Vista - hence causing the majority of negative perceptions of Vista when ppl tried to load unsigned XP drivers on it...

by **Echelon** » 25 Jan 2009, 12:57

Here's my report on Windows 7 32bit:

My system:
AMD dualcore 6000+ 3GHz
4GB RAM
Nvidia 9600 GT

GOOD:
- Fast install, 18 minutes and no need for exstra driver installation
- Fast copy/paste and delete
- Fast boot
- The new Action Center is good to help you find solutions to driver problems, network problems and other stuff

BAD:
- tray icons suddenly disappears (ie. the Steam tray icon)

- all my fullscreen games start, BUT they minimize or are "invisible". Can still hear sounds from menu buttons when i move the mouse, but all i see is my desktop wallpaper... The games will work if i run them in window mode. Only solution to this is to disable Aero visual styles. Not good enough.

- new fonts installed in windows/fonts are not detected by any Adobe programs for some odd reason.

- sometimes both monitors flicker (turn black for 1 sec then goes back on). This Could be driver issues, but still, this is my experience with newest possible drivers installed.

- UltraMon doesn't work - using alternative: MultiMonitor (not as good as UltraMon but at least the taskbar shows up...)

- Daemon Tools doesn't work - using alternative: PowerIso

- This one doesn't really matter, but im gonna mention it anyway: Windows Update will not work if your date/time are set back to ie. June 2007.

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Because of all these "BAD" issues i will reinstall Win XP and stick with it untill the full version of win7 is ready.

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 25 Jan 2009, 13:49

GTFO. Echelon wrote:BAD:
1 tray icons suddenly disappears (ie. the Steam tray icon)

2 all my fullscreen games start, BUT they minimize or are "invisible". Can still hear sounds from menu buttons when i move the mouse, but all i see is my desktop wallpaper... The games will work if i run them in window mode. Only solution to this is to disable Aero visual styles. Not good enough.

3 new fonts installed in windows/fonts are not detected by any Adobe programs for some odd reason.

4 sometimes both monitors flicker (turn black for 1 sec then goes back on). This Could be driver issues, but still, this is my experience with newest possible drivers installed.

5 UltraMon doesn't work - using alternative: MultiMonitor (not as good as UltraMon but at least the taskbar shows up...)

6 Daemon Tools doesn't work - using alternative: PowerIso

7 This one doesn't really matter, but im gonna mention it anyway: Windows Update will not work if your date/time are set back to ie. June 2007.

---------
Because of all these "BAD" issues i will reinstall Win XP and stick with it untill the full version of win7 is ready.

hummm.... either my pc is better or something was wrong with your iso,

1. My tray icons have never disappeared and allways stay in tack

2. N/A

3. N/A

4. My monitor has never flickered when using it

5. N/A

6. Power ISO is awesome

7. Why would you want the date set back to june 2007 anyways

Finally you can always send feedback on your problems to get them fixed :wink:

(P.s. I edited your post in my quote so the numbers match mine)

by **GTFO. G** » 25 Jan 2009, 13:54

luckyg wrote:7. Why would you want the date set back to june 2007 anyways

Oh, didn't you know, Echelon lives 1 year and 7 months in the past

by **r3loaded** » 25 Jan 2009, 15:37

1. That's odd, are you sure that it's not hidden under the pop-up arrow? Also check whether Steam is running in Task Manager.
2. In my experience, this problem occurs both on Vista and 7, and occurs when you launch a game, but while it's loading, you click and bring focus back to the desktop. If I do this, TF2 starts in a "fullscreen window" (if that makes any sense?) and then minimizes. Once you launch a game, don't touch anything till the menu comes up.
4/5. To quote that Apple guy - multi-monitors is a bag of hurt, more hassle than it's worth in my experience. This has been true of XP and Vista on my desktop, where I used the CRT from a really old comp as the 2nd monitor...
7. It's 2009 mate, not 2007. :wink:

The rest I can't comment on.

by **Echelon** » 25 Jan 2009, 16:58

i had to set back the date to make a cracked version of 3ds max work during install. forgot to turn it back, until i found out about the windows update issue.

r3loaded: i know that the steam process was running, just the icon that didn't display. it would return after a log off/log on, but who want's to do that all the time? also i am not a noob, who clicks around when loading a game? lol.

And dual monitors have never been a problem, not in XP and not in Vista.

What ever is causing the problems, i know it is either a problem with the beta, or with the drivers. I had newest drivers for everything, so for me, the win7 beta is not an option for now.

by **r3loaded** » 25 Jan 2009, 18:57

GTFO. Echelon wrote:i had to set back the date to make a cracked version of 3ds max work

Naughty naughty!

The Steam issue is kinda strange - but then again i only run it when I need to play a game. My main problem is that in WLM, half of my contact list is missing, but they're all there in Vista. Resetting the contact cache made no difference :/ I managed to alleviate the problem by exporting the contact list from Vista and reimporting in 7. Works (sort of).

by **GTFO. al** » 25 Jan 2009, 19:30

r3loaded wrote:
GTFO. Echelon wrote:i had to set back the date to make a cracked version of 3ds max work

Naughty naughty!

The Steam issue is kinda strange - but then again i only run it when I need to play a game. My main problem is that in WLM, half of my contact list is missing, but they're all there in Vista. Resetting the contact cache made no difference :/ I managed to alleviate the problem by exporting the contact list from Vista and reimporting in 7. Works (sort of).

seen a few people on other forums talking about the problem with contact lists in messenger. not sure if theres a reason/fix

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 25 Jan 2009, 23:30

GTFO. Echelon wrote:i had to set back the date to make a cracked version of 3ds max work

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/run_as_date.html :wink:

by **GTFO. G** » 28 Jan 2009, 16:39

I'll give this a shot this evening...

by **GTFO. Luckyg** » 13 Mar 2009, 23:58

Bit of a bump as i have some new info which might be the official RC client has been leaked on bittorrent websites:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/03/1 ... -download/

looks good now i must say

by **Malteserr** » 14 Mar 2009, 00:17

luckyg wrote:Bit of a bump as i have some new info which might be the official RC client has been leaked on bittorrent websites:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/03/1 ... -download/

looks good now i must say

Doubt it. At the current rate of build releases, I'm almost sure we'll have another build, perhaps 7070 ready by the time Microsoft decides to post the RC download links on their website/servers. (Some are saying in the second week of April)

Also, in case you guys didn't know this, it's much easier to use Sun's Virtualbox or a similar program instead of installing Windows 7 on another partition etc if you're just curious about it.

by **r3loaded** » 14 Mar 2009, 00:47

Since I'm using Win7 build 7000 as my primary OS, I'm waiting for the official RC before upgrading...