Windows 7 Build 695x revealed at WinHEC 2008 China

[Roger H. Veteran]

i disabled ACHI in the BIOS (apparently the OS wasn't installed with ACHI enabled onw hatever machine they got it from (i'm guessing) so turning it off allows the system to boot. As a result i got the full boot up screen (on video) instead of just 2 seconds then BSOD. I still however get a BSOD after changing the BIOS to standard IDE mode. I am now getting error 0x00000012F or something like that.

(will post video shortly)

[SoapyHamHocks Member]

Shotta35, have you tried booting into safe mode first? I did that and it installed all the drivers.

[Roger H. Veteran]

yeah, safemode and all. I have one more idea though so i'll test that in the morning. Copying all the data from the VHD to the partition then edit the boot tables to point there and then repair the instalation and go from there.

(zip file with 2 videos from my AT&T Fuze. LOL Sorry it's not better quality. The first one is when i had AHCI enabled then the second is without)

VIDEO0001.zip

[sharp65]

Your video 2 is pretty much what happens to me, It goes through the full video and then blue screens. I can't get it to but into safemode, the only options are start windows or boot into the recovery partition for 6801. I guess I will just wait until beta 1 in mid january unless something better gets out their.

[drlacus]

Wooo ! Got in. I've disabled and it worked for me. No we need to figure out, how to get back the new boot screen :D

[White Cuban]

source sounds fishy at best

[ToneKnee]

Right, everyone, I'm pleased to tell you all that I got it working, with no problems whatsoever. haha!

I must be the lucky few. But all I did was mount the image via Disk Management, copy all the files except the 'System Volume Information' folder. To my second hard drive (I guess a separate partition would be completely fine). After that, I booted straight into my 6801 DVD and did a 'Start Up Repair'. It found that something was wrong, and asked to reboot. I let it. I then booted back into the DVD again and ran 'Start Up Repair' again, and I could see the 'Windows 7 (Recovered)' and my normal Windows 7 (6801) installation was two of the options I could select. So I selected the 'Windows 7 (Recovered)' and it did some repairs. I restarted, select 'Windows 7 (Recovered)' and I booted into Windows normally. I didn't need to go into safe mode or anything like that. It picked up most of my drivers and asked to restart. I did that, and I'm posting within the latest build. And I must say, there is some definate speed improvements.

Aero peak works. The WEI takes longer (At least for me), nearly 5 minutes. But my CPU score went from 5.3 (from build 6801) to 5.8, so it looks like Microsoft are changing the rating scores.

If anyone has any questions about 6956, don't hesitate to ask.

[jphillips59]

If anyone has any questions about 6956, don't hesitate to ask.

so once you got it working did you think to sysprep it and make a wim using imagex so other people wouldn't have to do this?

[edgarf28]

there's a new guide on the aeroxp.org forums!

you get the new bootscreen with this guide ^^

[Ci7]

Right, everyone, I'm pleased to tell you all that I got it working, with no problems whatsoever. haha!

I must be the lucky few. But all I did was mount the image via Disk Management, copy all the files except the 'System Volume Information' folder. To my second hard drive (I guess a separate partition would be completely fine). After that, I booted straight into my 6801 DVD and did a 'Start Up Repair'. It found that something was wrong, and asked to reboot. I let it. I then booted back into the DVD again and ran 'Start Up Repair' again, and I could see the 'Windows 7 (Recovered)' and my normal Windows 7 (6801) installation was two of the options I could select. So I selected the 'Windows 7 (Recovered)' and it did some repairs. I restarted, select 'Windows 7 (Recovered)' and I booted into Windows normally. I didn't need to go into safe mode or anything like that. It picked up most of my drivers and asked to restart. I did that, and I'm posting within the latest build. And I must say, there is some definate speed improvements.

Aero peak works. The WEI takes longer (At least for me), nearly 5 minutes. But my CPU score went from 5.3 (from build 6801) to 5.8, so it looks like Microsoft are changing the rating scores.

If anyone has any questions about 6956, don't hesitate to ask.

just liked to point it out if you clicked F8 before windows boot screen , you get the option to repair the computer

you don't need the disc for diagnostic/repairing the boot

[ToneKnee]

just liked to point it out if you clicked F8 before windows boot screen , you get the option to repair the computer

you don't need the disc for diagnostic/repairing the boot

I was loosely following a guide on another forum. That method probably works, some other methods don't with others. It seems to be a mixed bag.

[George P Global Moderator]

I guess the first question would be what new stuff have you found so far?

[ToneKnee]

- Start Menu button has been changed.

- Windows Media Centre has had a bit of an update. Though, these updates are pretty much in 6801, there is just less bugs.

- Task Bar yet again has had a small UI change. When you are viewing a window, you get a proper highlight on the task bar. It's nothing major, just something noticeably better.

- Notepad is still the same.

- When you right click on a Task Bar item, you get the old standard right click context menu. This has been removed and replaced with the 'Up Arrow' menu which was in 6801. The Arrow menu next to the Task Bar Item which it's related to. It's a little bugged. For example. When I click to 'Close' a window, I would expect it to close the menu, but it doesn't. And I need to click off onto something else to force it to hide again.

- Library functions have changed slightly, how it's layed out is different, but I don't like how they've done it. They have improved the speed of the Library itself. But rather than combine all the folders (like multiple download folders as an example), it puts them in sub categories. While I guess that's useful for others, I preferred it how it just combined everything together so I could view it as one big folder.

At the moment, I'm just browsing around, I'll try and write down any more changes. But so far, the only real difference is that it 'feels' faster. For example. I was tested Counter-Striker Source before, and closed it etc. Browsed a few websites and so on, then I decided I wanted to play a bit of Counter-Strike online. As soon as I double clicked 'Counter-Strike' in the Steam window. I waited literally a second or just after and Counter-Strike was loaded. So it looks like they've improved the Superfetch feature. :)

[ToneKnee]

Just to add-on. My method of installing meant I couldn't have the new Boot Screen, I still have the old Vista one. So I tried the 'No GUI' boot option, and as we all know from Vista, it gave a different boot screen. But Microsoft literally meant 'No GUI' with this option. Completely black.

Also, they've removed the 'Aero' boot screen for when Windows starts up. So it looks like the new GUI boot screen is going to be an actual boot screen this time and not some stupid progress bar and then the 'Aero' boot screen.

Some of you will be wondering what the resource usage is like with the latest build. Currently, just before I opened up this Firefox window. Windows was using 29% of my 2GB RAM, with Windows Live Messenger 8.5 running and uTorrent. Not bad! :)

[Ci7]

Just to add-on. My method of installing meant I couldn't have the new Boot Screen, I still have the old Vista one. So I tried the 'No GUI' boot option, and as we all know from Vista, it gave a different boot screen. But Microsoft literally meant 'No GUI' with this option. Completely black.

the change has been there in 6801 . i tried it , it give the same result ==> black screen

[George P Global Moderator]

29% with 2 programs running, not bad, and still not fully optimized/tweaked I bet. Probably have to wait for the first RC to get a true indication of resource usage. But how does that compare to 6801?

[ToneKnee]

Someone posted before me that Aero feels 'lighter', I agree with that assessment, it is feeling pretty much perfect. Compared to 6801, I find that speed has increased, but there are some bugs to be worked out. We'll have to see how it goes over the next week or so. :)

Any more questions?

Also to add-on, Windows Live Messenger 9 (can't remember the build number, but it's one of the latest ones) doesn't work properly. Keeps saying that the service is unavailable. I've installed 8.5 and it's working fine. Even though they are both alpha/beta products, I'm not going to start complaining.

[bkp_duke]

Is the version out only 32-bit?

[Calum Veteran]

Paul Thurrott has updated his website with a new article on that build and a very nice screenshot of the boot screen :D

[HERE]

[ToneKnee]

Is the version out only 32-bit?

Yep.

[bkp_duke]

Bummer. I refuse to go back to a 32-bit OS.

[Denis W. Veteran]

@NeoFlux: When windows animate, does the transparency still turn off or does it stay on? (Open/close a window, or use Flip3D)

[Digitalx]

*edit*

Edited December 6, 2008 by Digix

[Barney T. Administrators]

We're not allowed to link or talk about it really here on neowin but i'll say the usual places.

There is to be NO talk, discussion, hints, or links to warez of any kind.

Community Rule #2- No Warez (links) & Cracks.

Help, requests or posts that discuss circumvention. This includes linking to illegally obtained software, movies & music files - posting about it, and suggesting obtaining it.

Thank you!

[Digitalx]

Sorry