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

[Calum Veteran]

seriously the single biggest issue with 7 (and vista) is the tons of wasted space...

can i get more on my screen please!!! no, cos everything is padded out! :(

I don't understand this.

Do you have any screenshots please? I'm interested in what you mean by the wasted space :)

[Hylands]

Hey everyone, I'm currently on a Compaq Presario desktop that has 1.5GB DDR1 RAM AMD Athlon XP 2900+ 2.00 GHz processor. I'm using Windows XP SP3, if I do a clean install of W7 will it run smoothly? I just want to make sure that everything will go well.

[Kevin.]

Hey everyone, I'm currently on a Compaq Presario desktop that has 1.5GB DDR1 RAM AMD Athlon XP 2900+ 2.00 GHz processor. I'm using Windows XP SP3, if I do a clean install of W7 will it run smoothly? I just want to make sure that everything will go well.

It should run smoothly. You want want to install it on a partition first just to be sure though.

[Hylands]

It should run smoothly. You want want to install it on a partition first just to be sure though.

Great, thanks. I'll let you know how it went when I install it. :)

[08993]

seriously the single biggest issue with 7 (and vista) is the tons of wasted space...

can i get more on my screen please!!! no, cos everything is padded out! :(

7 seems to be phasing out 1024x768 unless you use small icons on the taskbar, agreed.

On the plus side though, 7 looks and works well if you mount the taskbar to the left or right, which is what I do because I run on a 26" Bravia limited to 1360x768.

[Gio Takahashi]

I had a hard time understanding what BGM was trying to say...

i don't think 7 is trying to phase out 1024x768. I could still use those two resolutions if I want to. Since the days of XP, I've always preferred to keep my taskbar bottom, with only one extra line of space.

[08993]

The taskbar is too big for 1024x768 at its default. You can select small icons but you lose some functionality. You lose some 20% of the screen with the default taskbar and application toolbars.

It's not a problem though, most people are on LCD monitors and are on 1280x1024 upwards, but 7 is uncomfortable for 1024x768 users, hence why I said it's being phased out.

[Pharos]

The taskbar is too big for 1024x768 at its default. You can select small icons but you lose some functionality. You lose some 20% of the screen with the default taskbar and application toolbars.

It's not a problem though, most people are on LCD monitors and are on 1280x1024 upwards, but 7 is uncomfortable for 1024x768 users, hence why I said it's being phased out.

Well to be honest I'm not uncomfortable with a resolution that low on 7. Netbooks have an even lower resolution and amazingly it doesn't feel cramped at all, in fact I didn't even feel the need to change the Superbar to Compact Mode.

[BGM]

I don't understand this.

Do you have any screenshots please? I'm interested in what you mean by the wasted space :)

yep, no worries.. see attached

i have only highlighted the main offenders.. but even the standard window frame is about 10 pixels thick.. is this really necessary? no

and also look how spaced out the explorer window is (also note that this is not the default view and i have already tried to make everything smaller!)

The taskbar is too big for 1024x768 at its default. You can select small icons but you lose some functionality. You lose some 20% of the screen with the default taskbar and application toolbars.

It's not a problem though, most people are on LCD monitors and are on 1280x1024 upwards, but 7 is uncomfortable for 1024x768 users, hence why I said it's being phased out.

the resolution i am using is 1650x1080

looking forward to some 'compacted' 7 skins

[Calum Veteran]

yep, no worries.. see attached

i have only highlighted the main offenders.. but even the standard window frame is about 10 pixels thick.. is this really necessary? no

and also look how spaced out the explorer window is (also note that this is not the default view and i have already tried to make everything smaller!)

the resolution i am using is 1650x1080

Ahh, I see what you are saying now. I don't notice it as I have the largest icons I can everywhere ('Extra Large' icons in Windows Explorer and 'Large' icons in the taskbar etc). I've not really noticed it in the titlebar of Windows Explorer either but I can certainly see where you are coming from.

Hopefully there will be an easy way to change this for you; at least some skins :)

[Gio Takahashi]

ah yeah, those. There's an awful lot of spacing between these icons and such, I see what you're getting at now.

I agree, hopefully these can be changed later on, at least through a tweak software like TweakVI (I wonder if the next one will be called as "Tweak7")

[BGM]

phew, glad I'm not the only one feeling this :D

another little bug bear is that it 'feels' like a lot of configuration options have been removed (they were already removed in vista), making the OS much less power user friendly.

For example:

there is no way to set "ask me what i want to do" as the action when i press the power button (off, reboot, sleep etc)

there is no way to only show the little flag icon that tells you of problems, only when there is a problem (like windows defender had)

i think there might be some others i thought of when i was setting up my laptop yesterday but these are the ones that i can think of off the top of my head. I just recall thinking this is feeling very restrictive as I configured my machine.

After may 5, i will prob bug these properly through MS.. I couldn't be bothered to wait for the RC1 to appear on MSDN so i used a torrent :)

that is unless anyone else wants to?

[neo1911]

I removed the bluetooth icon from superbar.

Now i cannot find it in control panel. Where is it ?? I remember it being there in vista.

I have to go Devices and printers. Right click on Integrated module and there i find bluetooth settings. Took me an hr to find it out.

LOL :p

I know it sucks and i dont welcome this change

[Hylands]

Hey guys, I just installed Windows 7 and it's working great. I am using build 7100 and I'm 100% satisfied.

[Lord Ba'al]

ah yeah, those. There's an awful lot of spacing between these icons and such, I see what you're getting at now.

The spacing will get less as the taskbar fills up.

[Aramis]

Well to be honest I'm not uncomfortable with a resolution that low on 7. Netbooks have an even lower resolution and amazingly it doesn't feel cramped at all, in fact I didn't even feel the need to change the Superbar to Compact Mode.

1024x768 is just fine for me, too.

Since Office 2007 has such a huge toolbar and I get used to it, 7 is not a problem at all. :p

[BGM]

The spacing will get less as the taskbar fills up.

oh really?

nice :)

[Zain Adeel]

now do u guys know why there is so much spacing???

ppl sent feedback that there isnt much space to select the full row of files or folders..

that is why now u see so much space.

[Napalm Frog]

I am being driven insane that the thumbnails in the Music folder don't work, despite each having a folder.jpg to make that happen. Sure, I could manually customize each one, but I have thousands of folders to do that for, and it seems that although the folder.jpg setting is written to desktop.ini, it doesn't read from it, so copy and pasting a generic desktop.ini doesn't work.

Any fixes that I missed while scouring the forum?

[tranceandy]

there is no way to set "ask me what i want to do" as the action when i press the power button (off, reboot, sleep etc)

Yes I miss that too and don't know why Microsoft feel they need to remove things like this :rolleyes:

[NinjaGinger]

I seem to read a lot about upgrading from one beta or another working but how does it behave from Vista to 7? Cant seem to find anything.

Regards

[BajiRav]

I am being driven insane that the thumbnails in the Music folder don't work, despite each having a folder.jpg to make that happen. Sure, I could manually customize each one, but I have thousands of folders to do that for, and it seems that although the folder.jpg setting is written to desktop.ini, it doesn't read from it, so copy and pasting a generic desktop.ini doesn't work.

Any fixes that I missed while scouring the forum?

All my mp3s have embedded album art and they show up without any problem.

[Fonze]

Bug/Annoyance:

The RC build still does not include drivers for my laptop's wi-fi card. it is an older card (Intel Pro series), but I don't see why the driver would be included with Vista and not Windows 7. Not only that, but there are no drivers for any of the network cards on the system. I have to hunt for drivers and install them off a flash drive so I can get the rest of the drivers off Windows Update.

Bug:

My desktop's motherboard has some compatibility issues with 4gb of ram, x64, and my X-Fi card. Under Vista SP1 the card has random pops/clicks and isn't usable. under Vista SP2 the sound issues seem to have cleared up, although I am still testing it. Under Windows 7 RC no sound will play out of the card at all. Not only that, but any application trying to play sound seems to freeze, even in WMP an audio file will stay stuck at 00:00 as it fails to play.

I understand these are just hardware issues and probably caused by old/incompatibile hardware. Other than those couple issues, I have had a great experience with Windows 7 so far.

[Bill-Gaitas]

I have installed Windows 7 yesterday and it works like a charm, a major improvment over Vista, however, I have a little bug here. I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but here it goes.

Whenever I try to view a picture using the Windows Photo Viewer and Windows Live Photo Gallery, it shows a pink picture, but if I use another program to view photos like IrfanView, it shows up fine. Check the picture.

This happens since build 7000, I reported to MS but it still goes on. Re-installing the drivers of the GPU (NVIDIA 9600GT) doesn't help.

[mitchartz]

I have installed Windows 7 yesterday and it works like a charm, a major improvment over Vista, however, I have a little bug here. I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but here it goes.

Whenever I try to view a picture using the Windows Photo Viewer and Windows Live Photo Gallery, it shows a pink picture, but if I use another program to view photos like IrfanView, it shows up fine. Check the picture.

This happens since build 7000, I reported to MS but it still goes on. Re-installing the drivers of the GPU (NVIDIA 9600GT) doesn't help.

Haven't had any issues like that since I started using it and I think I've looked through around 200+ pictures because I just returned from a trip. Possibly an issue with your GPU, I don't really know.