Windows 7 Beta???

[Landro]

Few questions:

Does it run stable? (64 bit)

Are WAR, AoC, LOTRO and such compatible?


Does it use less resources then Vista?

[ThaMan]

It runs WOW just fine. It seems stable, and pretty darn fast.

I can't speak for the other games since I don't own them.

[Enosh]

I have had some stability problems with Windows7 beta around shutdown / sleep / hibernate cycling. Might be a driver issue, but I'm not sure.

Windows 7 is definitely faster than Windows Vista and less of a resource hog. Worth playing with on a secondary machine at least.

[Jerith|Tony]

Please don't load Windows 7 Beta on any machine you aren't comfortable reformatting/re-imaging on any given day of the week, or on any machine where data may be stored however briefly that you wouldn't want to lose control of, etc.

You don't know what bugs may crop up that destroy your files, or compromise your security, or whatever.

It is a beta product, don't use it as if it is release software no matter how many people tell you, "It's good enough for release." If it was good enough for release you could buy it at Best Buy right now.

[Freejack]

And also, it'll stop working in August, which will force you to reformat and reinstall a real OS.

[Ganelon]

I have it installed on two systems, including my main machine.

1) I've installed and run a number of games, including all my Steam games. No problems. Since I'm not playing any MMOGs at this time, I cannot comment on those you are concerned with. I will say that the concensus with other testers is that 7 is more compatible than Vista.

2) 7 is not bloated at all, but it is not a bare-bones OS. I've had it running on a 1.5 ghz system with 514 ram. It felt like XP on 256 ram... very runnable, but could benefit from more ram.

Later, I updated the ram to 1gb, and that machine is fast and sharp.

Now, the bad...

80% of the time my bluetooth KB/Mouse are not working on boot-up. I know they are functioning, as I can use them to toggle the boot loader selections... so this is clearly an OS issue.

My office machine has a Nvidia GF 7 series card and it has artifacting on system screens. If I load the Nvidia vista driver, the artifacting is gone, but the vid card is flagged in device manager as has limited resources.

My old 10/100 Netgear card wasn't detected. The onboard adapter was. No biggy.

Other than that, life has been fine. I very much prefer the 7 interface to XP. The taskbar is pretty sweet... love the media library button.

Expect the first RC to be released in April... and Retail in Oct.

[Landro]

And also, it'll stop working in August, which will force you to reformat and reinstall a real OS.

Ahh thanks. I won't even worry about it then, thanks.

[ThaMan]

And also, it'll stop working in August, which will force you to reformat and reinstall a real OS.The BETA will stop working in August. Microsoft will be releasing the RC before it expires, with an extended cut-off date, which you should be able to install over the beta.

[Freejack]

I look at this the same way I look at beta testing games. If you aren't an active TESTER of the application, then you shouldn't be playing. It's not about playing a game for free, it's about TESTING. The same goes for an operating system, except moreso. This isn't an opportunity to use a free OS, it's to provide testing data to Microsoft. Don't treat it like it's a commercial OS you can use for free.