Windows 7 Beta

I guess I was part of the crowd who took the Microsoft server down by downloading the new beta version of Windows 7.

Surely I am not the biggest Windows fan on earth - and never will be as I cannot use an operating system that eats my resources for graphical bling instead of providing them to the user. But anyways, a test on a virtual machine won’t harm.

As Microsoft now didn’t enforce the downloading limit and the servers finally recovered, I was able to finish the download of the Windows 7 Ultimate DVD iso and boot it on a virtual machine.

The first impression of the installer is a modern and colorful image of windows throwing shadows on the background image, just as we’re used to it from vista. The installation assistant guides you through the setup in a nearly fool proof way. But regarding speed, I can’t really give an objective opinion as I was running it on a virtual machine that got quite some overhead due to the emulation.

After the setup completed, Windows 7 greets us showing the common security warnings which we already know since Windows XP SP2 and something completely new: a betta splendas (siam fish) on the background image. Regarding hardware compatibilities I had some issues on the virtual machine, but I was expecting them and tried my workarounds.

The mandatory activation and installation of the system updates didn’t cause any further troubles. Just the network connection got something new: a generated password for the workgroup.

As the updates and the required reboot were finished, we’re ready to run our first sightseeing tour on the system which really reminds me of Windows Vista - the only difference is the taskbar which you’d have to talk into showing the current windows.

So overall - in my opinion, Windows 7 is more or less nothing brand new for the user and smells like the Vista design and the headache it caused before. But there are some interesting ideas under the hood which might be interesting after all.