Monday, January 19, 2009

Windows 7 Beta - In Review

Microsoft Windows 7 Beta in Review.

We'll it's been a week and here it is an unbias review of Microsoft Windows 7 Beta. First of all I will say this, the Windows 7 Beta is better then Vista SP1. More of my software works on Windows 7, it's faster, cleaner, and much less annoying. It's true, I am a Mac user but as far as Microsoft Operating systems go, I have not seen one this good since Windows 98se. I hope that when Windows 7 ships many of the bugs and problems in the beta will be gone. My system is a QX9650 with 4GB of Ram, 3x256GB hard drives in a RAID 0 Arrary, P5K Premium Motherboard and a 3870X2 Video card.

The other system running the beta is a QX9650 with 2GB of Ram, 1x320GB hard drive, P5K-E Motherboard and a 8800gts 320MB Video card.

Here are a few of the issues I have with Windows 7:

* Dual monitor displays do not work on N'vidia and ATI cards
* Windows will not recognize SMB shared Drives which is really not good for NAS devices networking with Macs, Linux or Unix systems.
* VNC causes blue screens of death.
* A new networking feature called home group which is annoying and I found did not work well with my other windows, mac and Linux systems.
* To open ports in the windows firewall in really different now and a little confusing. - This will just take some getting use to.
* log me in* does not work in the Windows 7 beta
* Search causes blue screens of death.

Other then that I found The windows 7 beta very stable, quick and reliable. I must say I am very hopeful for windows 7 after that big disappointment with Vista, Microsoft needs a winner and they may have found it. I like the show desktop button in the bottom right hand corner also the live preview is kinda neat, but useless. The task manager is much better organized and structured, the annoying user account authorization has been toned down so it is not annoying you every minute (It appears Microsoft found the right balance when it comes to the UAA, I hope that it remains how it is.).

If Microsoft is looking to the future then Windows 7 will be the next OS for the next 7 years. As successful as XP that remains to be seen. For now Microsoft is on the right track and all I can say is keep up the good work, do go astry, and ship something that works. We don't want another ME or Vista, give us something that works and works well.



The OptionKey

*Correction, I had said go to my PC doesn't work, The software I was reffering to is Log Me In and VNC

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