Microsoft have released the Release Candidate version of Windows 7. They're not limiting the number of product keys and this version won't expire until June 2010, so there's no rush to get it and try it out. The initial reports for Windows 7 are not too bad at all, so if you have a spare box and some time to kill, it might be worth a look.
You can download it from the
official Windows 7 site now. Due to Microsoft's
licensing policy we can't mirror it (and you'll find most T&C-abiding other sites won't mirror it either); as a result because it's a brand new and popular release you might struggle to get it quickly - so be patient!
Posted 02:52pm 06/5/09
Posted 03:07pm 06/5/09
There are like only 4 keys
Posted 03:12pm 06/5/09
GG Windoze!
Posted 03:25pm 06/5/09
Downloaded it yesterday, will try it out tomorrow.
Posted 03:26pm 06/5/09
2hr auto shutdowns - how nice! Sounds like AoC servers were built on Windows 7 (LOLOLOLOL)
Posted 03:53pm 06/5/09
Posted 04:30pm 06/5/09
edit: md5 98341af35655137966e382c4feaa282d
sha1: fc867fe1ab2e0a9796f9e4d155b44ea6998f4874
Why MS don't publish these I'll never know
last edited by trog at 16:30:27 06/May/09
Posted 04:11pm 06/5/09
It's a trap. There are some operating systems out there that don't make you go through this annoying process involving money and licensing.
Posted 04:24pm 06/5/09
Apparently the keys from the beta still work as well.
Posted 04:29pm 06/5/09
Posted 05:09pm 06/5/09
That key is a "beta" key, and is the one I'm using with RC1.
I got Win7 7100 to install from a USB stick, by following this guide.
Just remember, at step six, the author forgot an extra space between D: & CD BOOT
It isn't that much faster. The only step in the install process that was faster then installing from a DVD, was the "copying files" step.
Posted 05:14pm 06/5/09
Shut up.
I'm running the RC, and it's awesome. I already find Windows 7 to be stable enough to release (on my machine, anyway). I'm really, really happy with how it looks, performs, and the new bits and pieces, like the revamped taskbar. Unless there's some terrible change, anyone who resists updating from XP to 7 is just being a stubborn fool, imo.
Posted 05:27pm 06/5/09
Can you do an inline upgrade from XP to 7 or do you need to do a fresh install?
Posted 06:03pm 06/5/09
Posted 06:05pm 06/5/09
Posted 06:21pm 06/5/09
Posted 06:38pm 06/5/09
Posted 07:26pm 06/5/09
Posted 07:49pm 06/5/09
I'm thinking of trying Pro.
Posted 08:18pm 06/5/09
Posted 08:22pm 06/5/09
Posted 08:26pm 06/5/09
Turns out it was just my crappy windows burning software. Copied it over to the mac and it burnt fine :D
Up and running now, wish they would polish the UI a little bit more (its soooo close to being pretty), but performance wise its running very nice, also the most effortless windows install process ever!
Posted 10:59pm 06/5/09
Posted 11:03pm 06/5/09
Posted 12:59am 07/5/09
Posted 01:13am 07/5/09
Posted 01:26am 07/5/09
Posted 01:32am 07/5/09
Posted 08:43am 07/5/09
Downloading it now anyway tho.
Given how easy and how popular MS's download and preview beta/RC has been.
Hopefully they think about Selling Windows the same way via Direct Download, Get rid of all the packaging cost and crap and sell it for half the price Please!!
Posted 09:25am 07/5/09
last edited by Coochie at 09:25:06 07/May/09
Posted 09:25am 07/5/09
Posted 09:30am 07/5/09
that said, it's prolly got more to do with the beta nvidia driver and my pos SB Live soundcard.
game performance wise, it's not as efficient as XP here.. though it's early days, and I've yet to begin tooling around with cutting down the OS.
Win7 does run laggier than my old XP install, though it's certainly snappier than Vista Ult was out of the box.
Posted 09:34am 07/5/09
Posted 09:59am 07/5/09
I've since installed proprietary LOB CRM apps on it which the vendor has stated has not yet been tested on Win7 and won't work in IE8. Works perfectly for me so far. Am really happy with it. Will see if that holds true to the end of the day :)
Posted 10:07am 07/5/09
lol. or, alternatively, some people might not care to pay microsoft a heap of money to get a shiney new os that does nothing new for them. i'll be trying this free rc ... but i won't be upgrading my regular pc's os to win7 unless i score a free copy... f*** paying phat $ for essentially a different look to the os. it's not being stubborn, it's about value for money, imo. :D
Posted 10:25am 07/5/09
Feels much faster than Vista
Only thing that annoys me is I can't get my Telstra 7 Mbit Wireless USB thing to work, anyone got any mad tips
Posted 10:37am 07/5/09
Played around with 7 last night on my wife's computer - I'll be fastracking plans to try and get it onto my dev machine. This may nor may not be doable, Visual Studio is notoriously difficult to deploy to new OSes.
There's actually productivity improvements in 7, believe it or not.
last edited by Hogfather at 10:37:11 07/May/09
Posted 10:49am 07/5/09
Posted 11:00am 07/5/09
Urr... Live's weren't even supported by Vista were they?
Seriously, don't go bashing Windows because your 10+ year old SOUND CARD won't work anymore.
Posted 11:23am 07/5/09
So, did you stay on Windows 3.1 when XP first came out? You know, it'd run heaps faster on your machine.
Posted 11:33am 07/5/09
nope. i never used win3.1 as i went straight from dos6.22 to win95. i never said anything about it running heaps faster on newer hardware, dingleberry.
nor did i say that no one would gain anything from the os upgrade... i said some people. nor did i say that i'll never upgrade to win7... i said when i get a free copy... it will happen eventually.
Posted 11:55am 07/5/09
LOL
Posted 12:10pm 07/5/09
you dumbass
Posted 12:34pm 07/5/09
to be more specific it's a SB Live! 24-bit
meh.. it's a dressed-up 5.1
Posted 01:24pm 07/5/09
Posted 01:28pm 07/5/09
Posted 01:29pm 07/5/09
Posted 01:37pm 07/5/09
Posted 01:44pm 07/5/09
Posted 03:19pm 07/5/09
for those of us who've walked into new admin positions in the last 6 months where Vista has squeezed it's evil little ass into our otherwise perfect network this is now a commonplace solution
last edited by koopz at 15:19:09 07/May/09
Posted 03:24pm 07/5/09
We put a full bar on all Vista installs so nobody ended up with it. The reasoning was purely on cost since there was nothing in Vista that warranted an upgrade. However with XP support coming to an end it's inevitable we will need to move to Win7 plus we're due for a desktop refresh next year (3yr cycle comes to an end) and no matter how much I want a Linux desktop it ain't going to happen.
So here I am evaluating Win7 and it's quite nice so far. The taskbar changes are nifty although still lacking an Expose/Scale feature is just s***. I only enabled it last week on Ubuntu and can't believe I've used a PC this long without having it, goddamn it makes finding the right window such a breeze.
Posted 04:59pm 07/5/09
No you are.
Posted 06:20pm 07/5/09
I'm glad that my work hasn't rolled out vista. Hell, I'm still doing our Office 2007 upgrade at the moment.
Also note: XP Mode / Hyper-V.
Posted 06:30pm 07/5/09
Try Windows key + tab. Its called Flip3d and its in Vista.
Not quite as cool as Expose, but still pretty handy.
Posted 02:05pm 08/5/09
Looks good :)
Posted 02:25pm 08/5/09
Posted 02:53pm 08/5/09
Hi Jim, you must be new around here! Nice to have you aboard. This is teh QGLs ...
Posted 07:45pm 11/5/09
Posted 09:09pm 11/5/09
Posted 11:07pm 11/5/09
Posted 11:11pm 11/5/09
Posted 12:44am 12/5/09
But yeah, I installed this on the weekend, and so far I'm really impressed, I couldn't see myself going back to XP at all from this.
Posted 01:23am 12/5/09
Posted 02:06pm 12/5/09
I had a friend post me a DVD copy of it, and i can't see where to register for a key without downloading the actual product (i assume?)
Posted 02:13pm 12/5/09
Posted 03:04pm 12/5/09
Bought the drive, burnt the CD, was installed and playing WoW within 25 minutes.
Only thing I find annoying right now with it is that you can't use 2 sound outputs for the 1 application.
IE i can't switch from speakers to headphones for raiding without restarting WoW whereas in XP I can have the dual sound output working. Beyond that it is working a treat.
Every driver installed from the CD and there were minimal updates to be done. I am still yet to install the rest of my misc applications to test them.
Posted 03:05pm 12/5/09
Posted 03:17pm 12/5/09
Sick.
Posted 03:44pm 12/5/09
Yeah this happened in Vista, they gumby'd up the sound options, makes it a pain in the ass to change things.
Posted 03:57pm 12/5/09
So much effort!
Posted 04:00pm 12/5/09
Might need to google to see if there is a solution out there
Posted 04:20pm 12/5/09
Posted 04:38pm 12/5/09
Posted 04:56pm 12/5/09
If it prompts you to update your DX install, just let it do its thing...
Posted 05:06pm 12/5/09
I've just done a clean install of Win 7 RC1 and haven't touched any DirectX installers and GRAW2 and all my Steam games work without any issue.
I'd just try grabbing the latest dx9 web setup from Microsoft's site and running that then see how you go.
Edit: Just tried COD4 and it tells me I'm missing some DirectX dlls, but I think the above should fix it.
last edited by reso at 17:06:17 12/May/09
Posted 05:05pm 12/5/09
Posted 05:09pm 12/5/09
I think I read about a bug which pops up depending which version of DX you install first. If you try and play any DX9 games you might need to install DX9 and then DX10 again over the top of it.
Posted 05:55pm 12/5/09
actually going to enter my info this time instead of choosing to cancel to skip it
Posted 05:59pm 12/5/09
Posted 06:15pm 12/5/09
Posted 06:47pm 12/5/09
Windows update isn't reporting any available updates, so I've probably got it installed already. Maybe the fix is what's causing the issue? =P
I might Google it, see if someone else has the issue. It's strange that it hasn't been happening in any of the previous builds though.
Posted 07:02pm 12/5/09
Posted 07:15pm 12/5/09
Posted 08:14pm 12/5/09
http://www.nirmaltv.com/2009/05/02/how-to-upgrade-from-windows-7-beta-to-rc-build/
Posted 08:17pm 12/5/09
Thats alot of s*** in brackets right there
word
Posted 06:30am 13/5/09
Been using it for work and general web stuff.. loving the new features and functionality.. looks like a winner.
Posted 08:15am 13/5/09
My only concern is my video card. Sweet it supports directx9 but I only have 1 gig of ram... in my laptop, then theres the whole 16 gig for space problem. 16 gig for an os is uber heavy.
last edited by Corrupt at 08:15:52 13/May/09
Posted 08:41am 13/5/09
In 2009, HDD's are now available up to 1500GB (at least 15x larger) but the OS being 4x larger is too big?
wtf?
last edited by mongie at 08:41:56 13/May/09
Posted 12:47pm 13/5/09
i have a spare p4-3.4ghz / 2gb ram / 200gb sata hdd so i thought i'd throw this win7 rc on it. burnt the dvd, booted from it, get the usual windows is starting up bs, nice light blue screen with a flower to stare at for around 15minutes! so quick! :P then it says 'setup is starting' with the little spinning circle... i get to stare at that for about 20minutes. accept terms nps, delete the old partition from the hdd, creat e new partition, format nps. click next & it says :-
so i scour through the boot drive it's created in ram for log files & i find 3 which are called :-
setuperr.log
setupact.log
NetSetup.log
setuperr.log is empty... 0bytes. setupact has this guff :-
NetSetup.LOG says this :-
nG!
any ideas?
Posted 01:05pm 13/5/09
Posted 01:11pm 13/5/09
(edit) the windows7 forums are full of people getting the same error but none of the suggested fixes work :[
last edited by demon at 13:11:47 13/May/09
Posted 01:15pm 13/5/09
other than that, nfi.
Posted 02:03pm 13/5/09
Pfft all these new OS's with their flashy graphics are just f*****g annoying little twerps.
last edited by Corrupt at 14:02:55 13/May/09
last edited by Corrupt at 14:03:37 13/May/09
Posted 02:08pm 13/5/09
Posted 02:09pm 13/5/09
Posted 03:48pm 13/5/09
Then this isn't the OS for you..
Posted 04:35pm 13/5/09
XP. 5GB.
Posted 04:24am 14/5/09
The spec on this guy is:
Via 1.3Ghz 800Mhz
1GB RAM
VIA VX800 Chrome9™ HC3 DX9 Graphics Card
It runs Windows 7 very well which is why I was so suprised, so recommend throwing it on your laptop to see how it goes. Looks they fixed Vista's performance issues.
Posted 12:02pm 14/5/09
one minor whinge was that i couldn't see a way of getting windows explorer to use the standard(ish) folder view on the left & file view on the right... i got it to display the folder view on the left but when you are navigating there it doesn't mirror the movements in the file view if that makes any sense :P
otherwise seems pretty decent... still wouldn't pay for it though :p~
last edited by demon at 12:02:07 14/May/09
Posted 12:08pm 14/5/09
Posted 01:31pm 14/5/09
Took a little bit of adjusting to get used to the new ones, because turning them off is always the first thing I did whenever I reinstalled XP, but I think I'm mostly used to them now.
Posted 01:49pm 14/5/09
I'll install it on a VM under VirtualBox on Vista, but will keep Vista as my main OS for now. No sense in installing something that will need a reinstall in <9 months, imo.
Posted 03:51pm 14/5/09
Despite best efforts I've normally managed to ruin my OS within a year or so and need to format anyway.
Posted 10:36am 15/5/09
Posted 08:08am 31/5/09
went back into XP, so when it came time to install the RC I got rid of the XP install completely.
I've had one BSOD and that was a dodgy sound card driver install which was easily fixed.
But not everyone is so lucky
Posted 08:31am 31/5/09
Have Win7 RC installed on my Dell Mini 9, and it runs awesomely.
Posted 10:13am 31/5/09
Posted 10:17am 31/5/09
Posted 10:20am 31/5/09
Posted 10:33am 31/5/09
Posted 11:00am 31/5/09
Uncheck the box
Posted 10:50am 01/6/09
Posted 11:21am 01/6/09