Windows 7 Gets Dose of High Octane...Wallpapers

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ErikStenger

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Those who have already gotten their hands on Windows 7 will notice several things that are different. For one, Microsoft has been more transparent than ever in its development process. That could be due to the change in how people use the internet these days as compared to Windows Vista.

One thing is for sure though, and that is that Windows 7 feels more geared towards the user experience than ever. Microsoft feels that part of that has to do with the operating system’s personality; and while the company has never been one filled with character (at least compared to some of its competitors), it has gone to lengths to make Windows 7 feel more inviting.

How did Microsoft start by making Windows 7 different? Wallpapers.

“When folks send us screenshots using the feedback button, we are regularly inspired by the rich diversity and personality of the wallpapers that people choose,†read an entry from the Engineering Windows 7 blog, written by Denise Trabona and Samuel Moreau. “We wanted to stretch into some new content that felt unique, timely, and with a distinct point of view. Our goal was content that balanced the timelessness of great photography with graphical illustrations that are energetic, modern, and fresh.â€ÂÂ

“Inspired by our neighbors in Zune, we worked with an agency called 72 and Sunny to search for illustrators around the world to create one-of-a-kind art work for you to have in Windows 7,†the blog continued. “Finally, we wanted to recognize the global audience of Windows by seeking out illustrators with varied backgrounds and styles with the intention of representing and appealing to people all around the world.â€ÂÂ

For more information on the individual pieces, there are links in Microsoft’s blog post.
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/05/02/a-little-bit-of-personality.aspx
 
Fuck... I'm giving it a test drive.

BTW for those who don't want to use any shitty ie8 plugin downloaders (Fuck whoever at microsoft came up with the idea!), here's a torrent of what looks to be the official MSDN/TechNet 64-bit version:

http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1901941/775222/

You can get a key at the official website and use it with this. I'm very sure this is the real deal, but I'm still downloading it for myself and will verify the checksum from technet when it gets done and post here that it is the real deal (no early leaks, no repacks).

Download speed isn't all that amazing... I was getting 150k at the beginning, but now it's down to 30k... meh. I'll just wait it out. Better than installing plugin shits in ie8 by far.
 
Edit:
Torrent is done, I checked the CRC and it's the real shit. MSDN TechNet official Windows 7 RC Ultimate 64-bit. Not modified, repacked or anything at all... Burn iso and install ;-)
 
Win 7RC is also available as a download for the general public right now-as of yesterday if I remember correctly.
 
Yeah if you read above though, if you don't wanna use their shit browser downloader, you can just get the key from the page and use the torrent above with 100% success. It's official (not messed with by anyone), I checked the CRC against microsoft's published CRC on MS technet after I downloaded it.
 
Good deal then , I'll do that tonight when I get home. I probably shouldn't have, but I just ordered a G.SKILL FALCON 128gb SSD. I'm not sure if I'll bother with XP and the SSD, I might just use the SSD with Win7 exclusively and run my games and other fun stuff off of that drive. I'll let you know how it works out when I actually get the hardware and install everything.
 
Is this particular SSD running on the Indilinx controller or the JMicron controller? Every SSD I've seen with the JMicron has sucked balls.
 
http://www.nordichardware.com/news,9113.html

It looks like it uses the Indilinx (Indilink in the news article?!?!? and others) controller, so sixer you got lucky if you didn't specifically know that :-D

It should be quite awesome. Just make sure you don't set windows to write stuff to it like page files or temporary files or whatnot and it should be very very fast.

BTW FYI if someone's downloading the torrent above, note that this is the 64-bit Ultimate RC version of win7. If you don't want 64-bit, you'll have to either find another torrent (make sure the CRC matches with microsoft's so you know there's no crap in it like viruses/bootloaders/repackaged crap) or use their crap downloader plugin...
 
It has the Indilinx controller. I kept reading about too many problems with the jmicron, and it's not just lucky-I do my homework:
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2747/g_skill_falcon_fm_25s2s_128gbf1_solid_state_disk/index.html

This is from the summary of the above review "As we saw in the benchmarks the Falcon was not able to completely outperform Intel’s X25-M in all tests, but it is the first drive to compete and take a few of the benchmarks."
 
Windows 7 and Optimization for Solid State Drives

Solid state drives are in our computing futures. While prices right now make them mostly impractical for those of us without unlimited cash cheat codes, prices will fall and we’ll be buying more of them instead of the standard magnetic, spinning hard disk drives.

Perhaps by the time that SSDs are affordable, we’ll still be using Windows 7 (which means within the next few years). Thankfully, Microsoft has included several features in Windows 7 that accounts for the presence of an SSD.

“Windows 7 tends to perform well on today’s SSDs, in part, because we made many engineering changes to reduce the frequency of writes and flushes. This benefits traditional HDDs as well, but is particularly helpful on today’s SSDs,†wrote Michael Fortin, one of Microsoft's Distinguished Engineers, in the Engineering Windows 7 blog.

When a solid state drive is present, Windows 7 will disable disk defragmentation, Superfetch, ReadyBoost, as well as boot and application launch prefetching.

“These technologies were all designed to improve performance on traditional HDDs, where random read performance could easily be a major bottleneck,†explained Fortin.

One of the more notable advancements in Windows 7 is support for the Trim command. The reason for the command deals strictly with the way that data is written to NAND memory. For an exceptional explanation of why Trim is important, check out AnandTech’s article on the topic.

Fortin detailed how Trim will work in the upcoming OS:

“In Windows 7, if an SSD reports it supports the Trim attribute of the ATA protocol’s Data Set Management command, the NTFS file system will request the ATA driver to issue the new operation to the device when files are deleted and it is safe to erase the SSD pages backing the files. With this information, an SSD can plan to erase the relevant blocks opportunistically (and lazily) in the hope that subsequent writes will not require a blocking erase operation since erased pages are available for reuse.

“As an added benefit, the Trim operation can help SSDs reduce wear by eliminating the need for many merge operations to occur. As an example, consider a single 128 KB SSD block that contained a 128 KB file. If the file is deleted and a Trim operation is requested, then the SSD can avoid having to mix bytes from the SSD block with any other bytes that are subsequently written to that block. This reduces wear.

“Windows 7 requests the Trim operation for more than just file delete operations. The Trim operation is fully itegrated with partition- and volume-level commands like Format and Delete, with file system commands relating to truncate and compression, and with the System Restore (aka Volume Snapshot) feature.â€ÂÂ
 
Don't trim it too much though, because it might decrease the life of it needlessly... only when it REALLY starts slowing down. People have said it takes weeks for it to really bog down at normal usage so it shouldn't be a problem (I don't own one though so I can't comment on that). For read performance it doesn't matter anyway... it's always fast.
 
Windows 7 Drivers Download Roundup

With some of you running Windows 7 RC now, we’re going to be keeping a list of the latest driver releases for reference.

ATI/AMD Radeon
ATI Catalyst 9.4 (32-bit) http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?driver=VideoCard/win7-32-suite
ATI Catalyst 9.4 (64-bit) http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?driver=VideoCard/win7-64-suite

Nvidia GeForce
GeForce Driver Release 185 (32-bit) http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_x86_185.81_beta.html
GeForce Driver Release 185 (64-bit) http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_x64_185.81_beta.html

Creative
Click here for driver list
http://support.creative.com/kb/showarticle.aspx?sid=61105

Of course, to take advantage of some of the new performance tweaks to the way Windows 7 handles desktop video memory, you’ll want to try some of the WDDM 1.1 drivers. As for chipset and SATA drivers, current WDM drivers supplied by your motherboard manufacturer for Vista works well in Windows 7.
 
I downloaded the RC last night and surprisingly, the Win downloader (800kbs)was faster than torrent (550kbs) for me. Anyway, I got that downloaded and I'll receive the SSD tomorrow so I'll play with that this weekend.
 
I think I'll download it when I get home. I tried the beta and was thoroughly impressed, just didn't want to fully test it at the time.
 
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

In general, if your PC can run Windows Vista, it can run Windows 7. But if you're not running Windows Vista, or are just not sure if your system is ready to run Windows 7, there's a quick way to do a simple check.

Just download, install, and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta. You'll get a report telling you if your PC can run Windows 7, and if there are any known compatibility issues. If the issues can be resolved, you'll get suggestions for next steps. For example, it'll let you know if you need an updated software driver. You'll also get advice on how to upgrade to Windows 7.

Note: Information about your computer will be sent back to Microsoft; however, no information will be used to identify or contact you. For more information, read our privacy statement.

Before you begin
Before you run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor beta, be sure to plug in any USB devices or other devices such as printers, external hard drives, or scanners that are regularly used with the PC you're evaluating.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15

Important: The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta is a pre-release version, and is available in U.S. English only. While we consider this a stable and high-quality beta, it's not the finished product.
 
My guess is that 99% of systems are compatible.

You should only be worried if you have odd hardware (scanners, old printers, webcams, video surveillance systems etc.) that require updated drivers from manufacturers who couldn't be asked to give a shit... or very old hardware in general.
 
Windows 7 Starter Edition - Is It Really That Bad?

The Windows 7 beta and release candidate that some of us have been running are the Ultimate versions. Given the option to test any SKU that we want, why not go for the best one?

The thing is that the version that most of us will be using won’t be the top one. Microsoft said before that it expects that the Home Premium version to be the most popular one – especially bundled with decent pre-built machines. While Home Premium will be enough for most of us, what about lesser versions?

Windows 7 Starter Edition is expected to be the OS for low-cost netbooks. With the lowest licensing fee, OEMs wanting to keep costs low will go for the cheapest version of Windows 7. But will Starter Edition do? With the three-applications-open-at-a-time limitation, many users are already writing Starter Edition off as something unusable. To find out more, Ed Bott last month blogged on ZDNet about his time with Starter Edition, and some of his findings might surprise you.

“For starters, that three-app limit isn’t as cut and dried as it sounds,†Bott wrote. “Well, for starters, you can open as many windows as you want from a single program. So if you want to open 15 tabs in your browser, six images in your photo-editing program, and a couple of instant messenger windows, you can do it.â€ÂÂ

System applications such as Windows Explorer, Control Panel, Task Manager, Command Prompt and even desktop gadgets do not count as applications, so you can navigate through your system tools as much as you like without stepping into the three-application limit. Antivirus software also seems to live outside the three-app limit, as does some system utilities that start up and reside in the system tray.

Bott concluded that Starter Edition proved adequate for netbooks when used as the way they are intended. “In short, when I used this system as a netbook, it worked just fine. On a netbook, most of the tasks you’re likely to tackle are going to take place in a browser window anyway. … If I tried to use this system as a conventional notebook, running multiple Microsoft Office or OpenOffice aps, playing music in iTunes or Windows Media Player, and using third-party IM programs, I would probably be incredibly frustrated with the limitations of Starter Edition.â€ÂÂ

How do you use your netbook? Would Windows 7 Starter Edition be good enough, or will upgrading be one of the first things you'll do?
 
Ok, I've got an odd problem I'm hoping somebody can help me with. I installed the new ssd I got, formatted it, burned the Win7 ISO image to a disk and am ready to install Win 7. However, when I set my pc to boot from the DVD drive once it starts to do that it reboots every time. I get to the "booting from CD" message and boom-reboot. I tried unplugging my traditional HD to see if that was the problem, but it still reboots every time with or without the traditional HD connected. Any suggestions?
 
Did you make sure that, when you created the image, you made it a boot image? It could also be something to do with a bad ISO. I don't think it has anything to do with the SSD.
 
I made the ISO a boot image. This is the 64 version. I'll try the 32 and see if the problem persists. I downloaded it directly from Microsoft's Win 7 site so I don't know why it would be a bad image.
 
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