Windows 7 Build 7100 RC (Changes/Bugs/Tweaks) Discussion

[dt]

Has anyone done an UPGRADE install from Build 7000 (Beta) or from at least a build earlier than 7077 and would like to comment on how that went? I am considering the upgrade to RC from Beta (I plan on doing a clean install when the final version comes out) :D

[Astrum]

Build 7100 seems to run a bit faster in Sun VirtualBox than 7077.

Screenshots

Yet I still don't like the dancing taskbar buttons.

[BoDEAN]

7100 is faster than 7077

[Kevin.]

im disappointed.. its a bug or either its intended...

when i delete sumthing.. it parmanently deletes it ... AS IN .. dun put it in recycle bin unless i drag it to the Bin..

??? WAT SAY??

That doesn't happen with me. Make sure it's set to send files to the recycle bin and just not delete them outright.

[dwhall]

ill be disappointed if the Released RC HAS THE BETA **** WALL!!! :(

Microsoft is doing well for the code i knw... but they are a little bak in the graphics department...

there are many small UI flaws..

Don't dis Bettas... Betta fish rock!!!

[Chris89]

Hi,

is it recommendable to upgrade from build 7068 x64 to build 7100? (a clean install)

My Windows 7068 build is working perfectly for me.

"Never touch a running system..."

I love build 7068 :-)

What do you think?

[Monotremata]

Well dont really notice any change at all from 7077.

My damn laptop display still wont go to sleep!

Using an NVidia Quadro NVS140M on a Dell Latitude D830 and I guess MS made some change in 7077 that broke the drivers or something.

The whole system still goes to sleep just fine if I hit the power button but nothing goes to sleep anymore based on the Windows Control Panel settings.. Worked just fine in every build previous to 7077!

[funkyblue]

The superbar/taksbar/wtf ever its called, lol......still has the damn blur when you place it at the top of the screen. Not an issue at the bottom. You have to be chittin me, not one single tester at ms likes the superbar at the top? really? you serious? lol

I had it too. Downloded the NVIDIA drivers from Windows Update. Restarted and it has gone.

P.S I never understood why the taskbar is not at the top by default. Most program options are at the top...

[Kevin.]

Now that I've gotten to play around with the RC for a bit. Here are my thoughts on it:

All I have to say is: WOW!

Gone are the bugs I had in the beta. Gone are any program incompatibilities I had. The install time was roughly 15 minutes from start to finish. The UI is faster than the beta, and the new tweaks and features are simply amazing! I threw pretty much everything I had at the RC, and it still boots faster and is more snappier than my XP installation. Vista may of been bad, but Windows 7 took everything that was bad about Vista, threw it out, took the good stuff, and amplified it.

This doesn't scream "Release Candidate" to me at all. It screams "Done!". This is simply the best Windows release yet!

Edited April 26, 2009 by Kevin.

[DSLJay]

Now that I've gotten to play around with the RC for a bit. Here are my thoughts on it:

All I have to say is: WOW!

Gone are the bugs I had in the beta. Gone are any program incompatibilities I had. The install time was roughly 15 minutes from start to finish. The UI is faster than the beta, and the new tweaks and features are simply amazing! I threw pretty much everything I had at the RC, and it still boots faster and is more snappier than my XP installation. Vista may of been bad, but Windows 7 took anything that was bad about Vista, threw it out, took the good stuff, and amplified it.

This doesn't scream "Release Candidate" to me at all. It screams "Done!". This is simply the best Windows release yet!

Thank you Kevin for giving your honest opinion. Personally I am waiting for the official release, but it does sound very promising.

[Argi]

This doesn't scream "Release Candidate" to me at all. It screams "Done!". This is simply the best Windows release yet!

To be fair that is the definition of what a release candidate should be. :p If there's no blocking bugs then any RC should be considered able to become the RTM build.

[Calum Veteran]

Now that I've gotten to play around with the RC for a bit. Here are my thoughts on it:

All I have to say is: WOW!

Gone are the bugs I had in the beta. Gone are any program incompatibilities I had. The install time was roughly 15 minutes from start to finish. The UI is faster than the beta, and the new tweaks and features are simply amazing! I threw pretty much everything I had at the RC, and it still boots faster and is more snappier than my XP installation. Vista may of been bad, but Windows 7 took anything that was bad about Vista, threw it out, took the good stuff, and amplified it.

This doesn't scream "Release Candidate" to me at all. It screams "Done!". This is simply the best Windows release yet!

Fantastic. I may well install it when it is officially released. I can't believe they have stopped us from upgrading from the beta; I just hope Microsoft's work-around is safe seeing as they don't recommend it :/

[Kevin.]

Fantastic. I may well install it when it is officially released. I can't believe they have stopped us from upgrading from the beta; I just hope Microsoft's work-around is safe seeing as they don't recommend it :/

I wouldn't recommend it either. A clean install ensures that nothing bad can carry over during an upgrade process since you're starting from scratch.

I can confirm that my laptop now properly goes to sleep and that I don't get this weird "fade" effect when I shut down like I did in the beta.

[Nagisan]

I just timed my boot and it took around 2 minutes from initial BIOS output to usable desktop. Only took maybe 15-20 seconds to get through the BIOS (to the point of "Windows is loading" or whatever).

Any way to monitor your bootup sequence and check what exactly is causing your computer to take so long to boot up? I just installed Windows 7 yesterday and have all my main programs installed on it. One thing I noticed is I didnt need to install any drivers except my video card, does windows 7 already have all my up-to-date chipset drivers or could that be a reason my boot is so slow? 1:30 on a fresh install is pretty slow, slower than Vista even (it takes about as long to boot as my Vista partition does, and that has been installed for over a year).

[Subject Delta]

I never upgrade beta build to beta build, I prefer to install them fresh to get a better oversight of what has improved and so on

[Calum Veteran]

I never upgrade beta build to beta build, I prefer to install them fresh to get a better oversight of what has improved and so on

I wouldn't upgrade if I had the time to do a clean install :D

[funkyblue]

I wouldn't upgrade if I had the time to do a clean install :D

Yet you have the time to be a moderator? Clean install is important. Takes me like half an hour to re-install stuff after a reinstall. I have everything stored on a second drive.

[Calum Veteran]

Yet you have the time to be a moderator? Clean install is important. Takes me like half an hour to re-install stuff after a reinstall. I have everything stored on a second drive.

Being a moderator does contribute to my lack of time, along with university work and my part-time job; especially when I have exams and many assignments, like I do now.

Currently, I am happy with that balance and the little free time I currently have. Doing a clean install wouldn't be feasible for me as I would have to get hold of the many different programs I have installed. Also as a programmer, studying many different languages, I would also have to download and configure every IDE I use, setting the path variables, syntax colour, etc - all of that takes a fair bit of time in itself.

Copying over all of my music, videos, pictures and projects takes up a considerable amount of time too.

What about my Firefox installation? Is there an easy way to back-up my profile so all of the extensions and themes I have are still in tact as well as my bookmarks and all of their tags? The bookmarks and tags are vital and I can't lose them.

What about my copy of Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student? It says I am only able to use the license key 3 times. I'm unsure what would happen if I clean-installed the Windows 7 release candidate and tried to install my copy of Office again? I don't think I should risk trying that at least until university is over for this year.

Yes, a clean install is important, but not that important to me when I'm going to be clean-installing once the RTM version is released.

If you or anybody else could tell me of a much easier way for me to back-up my programs and configurations, for every program I use, then I may re-consider :)

[dt]

Hey Calum be sure to let us know how the upgrade goes if you do end up performing it :)

[ProiektHat]

Yet you have the time to be a moderator? Clean install is important. Takes me like half an hour to re-install stuff after a reinstall. I have everything stored on a second drive.

+1

all in a store drive...then +- 2 hours to get system fully functional

[Inctye]

What about my Firefox installation? Is there an easy way to back-up my profile so all of the extensions and themes I have are still in tact as well as my bookmarks and all of their tags? The bookmarks and tags are vital and I can't lose them.

Yes, you can backup your entire profile. Go to the start menu and type %appdata% into the search box, hit enter. Simply make a backup copy of the Mozilla folder. When you install Firefox again, replace the existing version (if there is one) with the backup. Simple as that. Great way to sync your settings, customizations, and addons across multiple computers.

[Nagisan]

Yet you have the time to be a moderator? Clean install is important. Takes me like half an hour to re-install stuff after a reinstall. I have everything stored on a second drive.

It takes me about an hour or two to get my core programs reinstalled (programs I cant use my computer without).

After that it takes me a few days to get everything re-configured to my liking (program settings, themes, etc), including the small apps I dont need, but like to have.

Overall a clean install takes awhile, it takes time to get all your programs reinstalled but it takes even more time to get your computer working how you want it.....but in the end it is totally worth it.

[Calum Veteran]

Hey Calum be sure to let us know how the upgrade goes if you do end up performing it :)

I will do :) It may be risky, but we'll see :)

+1

all in a store drive...then +- 2 hours to get system fully functional

Are you able to backup programs and configurations of these programs this way? If so, may you please let me know how you do this? :) As far as I am aware (and I am quite naive with this side of things) I thought you could only really backup the setup files of programs?

Yes, you can backup your entire profile. Go to the start menu and type %appdata% into the search box, hit enter. Simply make a backup copy of the Mozilla folder. When you install Firefox again, replace the existing version (if there is one) with the backup. Simple as that. Great way to sync your settings, customizations, and addons across multiple computers.

Brilliant! :) I didn't know it was that simple :D Thank you.

[Inctye]

Hey Calum be sure to let us know how the upgrade goes if you do end up performing it :)

I know you seem eager to find out how the upgrade from 7000 to 7100 works. Why not just create a backup image of your current 7000 and give it a shot? If it does not go as smoothly, you can always restore to the backup image.

The biggest downside to the upgrade for the one time I chose to use it from 7048 to 7057 was it takes at least an hour to fully install the new system files and then transfer all the previous files into their proper directories. With that time, I am just better off doing a clean install since its faster.

[funkyblue]

Yes, a clean install is important, but not that important to me when I'm going to be clean-installing once the RTM version is released.

If you or anybody else could tell me of a much easier way for me to back-up my programs and configurations, for every program I use, then I may re-consider :)

I keep all setup files in an install folder ready to go. Followed by that all music/pictures/data is on a second drive.

I have Mesh, keeping a online backup of data as well that is stored on drive c. (Such as Mozilla profile directory, Foobar config directory etc.)

I also use Office 2007 Student edition and have installed it 20+ times.