I have been using the Windows 7 Beta on my system for the last two weeks. Overall I find it a great disappointment.
First the system I am running this on:
Asus P5K Motherboard. Bios AMI 1201. Intel Wolfdale E8400 at 3.0 GHz (not overclocked), 4 Gb of DDR2 1066 OCZ Gold (not over clocked either), Hiper 780w PSU, HIS Radeon HD 4670 Turbo Graphics Card, Dual 22″ LCD monitors on DVI (one is a ViewSonic the other an X2GEN), Seagate 500 Gb HD (16 mb cache), Logitech G11 Gaming Keyboard, Logitech USB trackball.
Now for some of the issues:
The repeated issues with Windows 7 is the incompatibility errors with hardware and software I had been using on my XP Pro SP3 system configuration. BTW; I do have the XP Pro system installed on a different hard drive on the same computer. I select with OS to run during POST.
ATI Catalyst Control Center Beta (designed for use with Windows 7)keeps turning off. I can only use one monitor for the last several days.
Internet Explorer 8 Beta will not install on Windows 7. Incompatibility issue.
Trying to launch games (specifically Crysis and World of WarCraft) freezes the system requiring a forced restart.
Antivirus options are listed as three recommended providers. I don’t subscribe to any of those so I am required to buy a new Antivirus.
Microsoft Office Pro 2003 will not install. I get an “Unsupported” error with Windows 7.
Every time I run certain programs (like speedfan) I keep getting a pop-up asking if I want to permit that program to run and make changes to my system and I am not able to turn the messages off. A complete nuisance.
I am not able to locate the start-up folder so I can place a program in it to automatically launch when the system boots (like speedfan).
In short the current configuration is useful for browsing the internet (thankfully Firefox 3 runs perfectly).
Until Microsoft gets the software makers, Bios writers, and hardware suppliers the option to write patches for this operating system Windows 7 is nothing more than Vista revisited.
If Microsoft insists on keeping the same kind of Vista security system (instead of using the model of XP Pro) the operating system will remain cumbersome at best.
If Windows 7 is a slick way to repackage Vista to convince business license contracts to subscribe to Windows 7, then I think Microsoft will be surprised to discover people flocking to Linux instead.
Windows 7 needs a great deal more work before it can hope to begin living up to the pre-release hype about it.
Benjamin
