Windows 7 RC 1

[_SD_]

Did anyone get either version of the Windows 7 release today? I downloaded the x64 version and installed it on the Mac Pro first thing this morning. Fortunately the Mac didn't turn into the Anti-Christ, nor did the universe implode, as was suggested by a couple of my mates.

It seems to run very smoothly so far and it certainly looks very nice. I spent a while downloading and installing Visual C# Express, XNA 3.0, Mod Tool Pro and all the extra bits and bobs. I was quite impressed that it only rebooted about two or three times during the initial install, and then not at all during all the different software installations.

Interestingly, everything seems to work fine without installing the drivers Apple provide on the OS X discs. Except that Mod Tool tells me I need to sort out something with my OpenGL card even though Windows sees a Radeon 4800 Series: it's an HD 4870. Strange. It would appear M$ have already included Mac drivers as it recognises the aluminium keyboard. It would probably even recognise the Mighty Mouse had the sodding thing not broken once again....

I'm going to spend the next few days fiddling around with it and hoping that it continues to run as well as it is currently. I will also be testing to see how well it runs alongside OS X using Parallels Desktop as they've included support for Windows 7.

Any thoughts from you guys?

[RyanGamerGoneGrazy]

The biggest shortcoming i had with build 7000 before was for laptops, it didn't seem to have much control over heat management. Installed on 6 different laptops (Acer's, HP's, Dell, MSI and Toshiba) and they all seemed to run much warmer than before. Of course this is without the proper windows 7 drivers (I made due with just the vista stuff)

I'm hoping RC1 has fixed these issues, as I really miss some of its features!

[z_killemall]

From what I've been able to see, Microsoft is working a lot in the drivers section. However they still couldn't fix the huge compatibility issues with most of Creative sound cards (which started with Vista). I really hope they fix them, my SB Live! could be helpful while using FL Studio...

[Barc0de]

my SB Live! is listed as "Multimedia Audio Controller" and "PCI Input Device" (For the gameport it has I assume). I m guessing it's some sort of issue with the mobo?

[8bitplus]

I've used the x64 version for a few days now, Seems very good. My system is rather generic so no driver issues.
I like the way it rates my CPU and RAM higher than Vista ;)

[Christer-swe]

Interestingly, everything seems to work fine without installing the drivers Apple provide on the OS X discs. Except that Mod Tool tells me I need to sort out something with my OpenGL card even though Windows sees a Radeon 4800 Series: it's an HD 4870. Strange. It would appear M$ have already included Mac drivers as it recognises the aluminium keyboard. It would probably even recognise the Mighty Mouse had the sodding thing not broken once again....

Was it connected to internet? It might have downloaded the drivers automatically.

[3do]

I got the RC1 about a 4-5 days agoi think before its official release but had been using the 7000 build and i've had no problems whatsoever at least so far anyway.

I have windows 7 RC1 as my main os and i find it to be just as good as XP and much better than vista becuase i had so many problems when i had vista 32bit installed but in all my time using windows 7 i've never had a major problem with it except for the ones i caused myself.

I do have a fairly budget system with a 2Ghz dual core, 2 gig ram with a x1650 graphics card but it runs perfectly fine unless i go mental and try to do way way too much at once but thats expected.

[alf717]

my SB Live! is listed as "Multimedia Audio Controller" and "PCI Input Device" (For the gameport it has I assume). I m guessing it's some sort of issue with the mobo?

Sadly Creative is very very slow when it comes to drivers. You could try the Vista drivers in compatibility mode which might help. I just activated my onboard audio and use that instead. Other than that it seems to be a solid RC build. I've yet to try gaming performance but I heard it is better than gaming on Vista. Smooth sailing so far on my x64 build.

[Barc0de]

Same here Alf. I m on RC 7100 x64 version and also using my onboard sound card. I m confident in using Win7 and it does excite me to discover new features so far, although I ve turned the permissions crap off, I don't need a nanny, I can fuck up my own computer perfectly well without assistance by some all-seeing OS. Funny how 7 made a special 100MB partition to use for itself, which isn't readable by Windows. That reminds me of game console philosophy, on its face at least.

[PhreQuencYViii]

Kicks fucking ass for me.

[phate]

Barcode: the 100MB partition is for EFI compatibility. EFI uses a different partition scheme then MBR. Its mostly a buffer so that systems Running EFI don't get confused when a MBR drive is connected. While normally empty you can install EFI utilities and applications, although ATM those are few and far between, most being written for Apple's implementation of the EFI BIOS and mac hardware.

Also Windows 7 just uses generic drivers, much like XP and Vista, but it just has so many more embedded in it, some being the manufactorers, others being OEM. You really need to go to your hardware vendor's website and get the latest drivers (either Win7, Vista, or XP in compatibilty mode).

I'm loving the RC so far, although I haven't noticed anything different since the last build I played with (7077) but there is a major difference from build 7000 and its almost a different OS from the 6000 builds.

I've got it installed on my Acer Aspire One (Serena) and my Dell XPS m1530 (Singularity). The only problem I've had is the Intel Turbo Memory Card (Robson; Flash Cache), I can't seem to get it to work, oh well I guess I'll got back to using it as a 2GB built in flashdrive like I did with XP (great for hiding stuff) and just enable Readyboost (I'll miss readydrive though).

[PhreQuencYViii]

Also Windows 7 just uses generic drivers, much like XP and Vista, but it just has so many more embedded in it, some being the manufactorers, others being OEM. You really need to go to your hardware vendor's website and get the latest drivers (either Win7, Vista, or XP in compatibilty mode).

Yep. I actually knew a few "computer enthusiests" who seriously thought that was stupid and your suppose to use the damn ones included. And argued with me on it.

What was readydrive? Is readyboost still here/did it do anything?

[phate]

ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive are essentially the same thing, Vista/7 using Flash, with its quicker access times, to speed up read access to the most commonly used files via caching, however the specifics of what gets cached where depends on the whether the flash memory is internal or external.

ReadyBoost
For the most part ReadyBoost tends to be more user centric, meaning user applications and files the user accesses gets cached first, with system files (if the machine lacks ReadyDrive) get cached last and only when its a file that is accessed constantly and consistently (eg a driver file for your graphics card and whatever is needed to speedup standby wakeups (where the memory is kept alive and not paged out for hibernation), but your ipod driver is going to have to hit the HD). The usual medium for ReadyBoost is a USB Flash Drive or a Flash based memory card (CF, SD, MS, etc.) The max size of the cache is 4GB, so a 16GB drive will sit empty most of the time. It also has to rebuild the cache (windows does keep a list of most used items) after every reboot.

ReadyDrive
ReadyDrive is the polar opposite of ReadyBoost, it caches system files and rarely if ever caches user files (though it will if the system lacks a ReadyBoost cache). For the most part it does the same thing, caching the most accessed system files. But it does one thing ReadyBoost can't and thats speedup the boot and hibernation processes. It does this not just by caching the files needed for a cold/warm boot and hibernation wakeups, but also setting up symbolic links to those files so windows will always accesses them first (although there is fall backs if the Flash Cache is removed somehow.) ReadyDrive is the only flash cache that can be used from a cold startup (hibernation included) or after a reboot. This is for 2 reasons: Security and Perfomance. Security is the most important, after a cold or warm reboot Windows can't trust the data on the ReadyBoost drive as its possible that someone poisoned the cache in a bid to hack the machine and bypass System and User security measures, so it rebuilds the cache every session on a ReadyBoost drive. ReadyDrive doesn't suffer this limitation as the only flash memory ReadyBoost uses is either embedded on the motherboard or harddrive or Flash Cache Mod ule attatched to the PCI-E Bus, any of the three are also tied to the TPM module in those systems.

In anycase both ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive are present in Win7

Hehe, I think I deviated a bit from your question :katamari:

[PhreQuencYViii]

Nice explanation!