Tag: Windows 7
Acer Exec confirms Windows 7 release date: 23rd October
“23rd October is the date the Windows 7 will be available” says Bobby Watkins, Acer’s UK MD. The company will be releasing its all-in-one Z5600 PC on that date, and it will come pre-loaded with Windows 7.
Microsoft is still claiming a release date of January 2010, but the company has acknowledged that it’s running ahead of schedule on the follow-up to its poorly-received Vista. Any Vista-based PCs purchased within 30 days prior to 23rd October will be eligible for a free upgrade.
Stay tuned for more news on Acer’s 2009 lineup. We’ll have the full details for you shortly.
(via Pocket-Lint)
Windows 7 Release Candidate now available
Ladies and gentlemen, start your browsers. The release candidate for Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 7, is now available. Well, available to MSDN and Technet subscribers, anyway. If you’re not one of them, then you’ll have to wait till next Tuesday, May 5th.
The release candidate is what Microsoft hopes to release commercially in a few months time. They claim they’re still aiming at a January 2010 release, but they’ve been running ahead of schedule up to this point, so it’s entirely possibly that’ll be brought forward a couple of months to hit the holiday season if there are no major issues with the OS between now and then.
The release candidate will be available from now until the release of the OS, and it’ll work until June 1st 2010. Microsoft’s basically giving you 12 months of a free operating system, in exchange for you letting them know when you have difficulties with it.
The company has seen well over a million downloads of the Windows 7 beta, and over 100,000 of those in the UK. They’re hoping that demand for the release candidate will be even higher.
If you’ve been running the Windows 7 beta, then you’ll already know about what it gives you over Vista or XP – considerably improved performance, security, usability and support for touchscreens and internet-enabled appliances, so that you can right-click files to send them to your television, for example.
Since the beta was released, Microsoft’s made more than thirty major changes to the OS. There’s changes to taskbar scaling, improved driver support, remote media streaming and more gestures for users of touchscreens, but the biggest addition is a virtual machine running Windows XP. This’ll be available to small businesses who might be running software that has trouble with Windows 7 in the ‘Professional’ edition of the OS,
Microsoft has also removed a couple of bits of functionality from the beta. They’ve taken out Bluetooth audio support, as well as the ability for people to log on as a ‘guest’ to the computer. Interestingly, they’ve also taken out the ability for USB sticks to autorun programs when they’re inserted. This is to help guard against virus infection by rogue USB sticks.
If you want to give it a shot, then keep an eye on this website on May 5th. When we get a proper download link, we’ll update this post.
Windows 7 gets laundry list of changes
Have you been testing out the Windows 7 beta, and clicking that little ‘feedback’ button in the top right of every Window? Well, Microsoft has been listening, and they’ve just announced a massive list of the changes they’ve made as a result of the feedback.
The full list is here, but there’s a few highlights that I’ll share with you if you can’t be bothered to read the whole thing. Firstly, there’s plenty of functionality for making things more obvious on the taskbar, along with keyboard shortcuts. There’s also a multi-touch onscreen keyboard (so you can shift-tap stuff).
There’s better format support too, and anything that can’t be played will be filtered out of Windows Media Player, so it doesn’t bother you. There’s also resuming video from sleep with actual files, like you would with a DVD, and some changes to what the Windows team call ‘needy windows’ – so you can see when a program wants your attention.
The full list is worth a look, because it’s got a lot more detail in. Most of this stuff we’re unlikely to see until release, though. Are you looking forward to it? Is there anything missing that you think needs changing? Let us know in the comments.
Windows 7 gets schizophrenic, multiple personalities emerge
Oh dear. It’s the move that everyone was hoping Microsoft wasn’t going to make, but it looks like it’s going to make it. Seems that Windows 7 will come in a bunch of versions – much like Vista – titled Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate.
The news surfaced in a screenshot on a Chinese blog depicting Beta build 7025. Most people are running 7000 – which is the version currently (but not for much longer) available to the public.
Microsoft’s forthcoming OS has been getting rave reviews from all corners of the internet – even those traditionally very pro-Apple. I’m a big fan myself – I’ve got it installed on a laptop that struggled with Vista, and it runs like a dream. It remains to be seen exactly how cut-down the ‘Home’ versions will end up being, and if unlike Vista, the Ultimate edition is worth the extra cash.
(via Engadget, image courtesy of regular commenter Leon)
Related posts: Microsoft extends availability of Windows 7 beta | Windows 7 public beta available NOW
Microsoft extends availability of Windows 7 beta
Did you have trouble picking up the Windows 7 beta over the weekend? I sure did. I didn’t manage to get my hands on it till last night, when I finally got it burnt to DVD and installed on a spare laptop.
In light of the massive demand, Microsoft has wisely decided to drop the 2.5 million downloads limit, and is instead letting you download it as many times as you want within the next two weeks – until the 24th January. Every time you download, you’ll be given a CD key.
As a result of not getting my hands on the OS till last night, I’m still formulating my first thoughts. So far, though, I like what I’ve seen very much. It’s very responsive, and usable. It seems to fix almost everything people didn’t like about Vista and improve a bunch of other features, too. Full thoughts later in the week.
Get Windows 7 (via Lifehacker)
Related posts: Windows 7 public beta available NOW | Windows 7 hits public beta on Friday – here’s how to give it a try
Windows 7 public beta available NOW
Thought you might like a heads-up that the Windows 7 beta is available for download right now. I’m pleasantly surprised, I was expecting more like sometime this evening. Of course, you can’t get near the download page right now, because it’s so busy. Don’t worry, within an hour, it’ll be all over Bittorrent.
A quick recap, for those of you who didn’t see this post. Windows 7 is Microsoft’s new OS, and they’re looking at a release somewhere in the second half of this year. This is a public beta, which means that it’s unsupported. If it screws up your PC, then you’ve got to fix it, so unless you’re happy mucking about with PC innards, don’t install it.
Download Windows 7 Beta (via Ars Technica)
Related posts: CES 2009: Windows 7 hits public beta on Friday – here’s how to give it a try | Merry Christmas extremely bored men – Windows 7 beta hits the torrent sites
CES 2009: Windows 7 hits public beta on Friday – here's how to give it a try
As of this Friday – the 9th January, Microsoft is going to release a beta version of its new operating system – Windows 7 – to the first 2.5 million people to download it. The new OS is eagerly anticipated, which Microsoft must be pleased about, given that Vista has been a PR disaster.
Windows 7 promises a tonne of improvements to Windows’ basic functionality. It’s quicker, less bloated and more secure than Windows Vista – which suffered from bloat and compatibility issues on release. Although it’s dramatically improved since, many users are refusing to upgrade from XP, and Microsoft continues to trickle users away to OS X.
Merry Christmas extremely bored men – Windows 7 beta hits the torrent sites
If you haven’t already had ENOUGH of BLOODY WINDOWS after having Vista forced down your throat and onto your hard drive, you may now start worrying about driver incompatibilities anew – Windows 7 has been leaked.
The Beta 1 build of the next MS OS, which has been reviewed very favourably by a man here and is scheduled for a much wider beta test early next year – has popped up on Bittorrent for downloading. A good 20,000 or so users are currently nicking Windows 7 off Mininova, with a similar number taking it just because it’s there and is a nice thing to have from The Bay.
Those links are for information purposes only, by the way…
Apple patents idea for complex "3D Desktop" layout – development of Windows 7 thrown into chaos
Attention Microsoft! Apple has patented a new thing! There’ll be emergency meetings going on in Microsoft’s Seattle HQ today, thanks to internet scavengers tracking down some 3D desktop ideas Apple’s been toying with. Which means MS is going to have to start pretending it actually had the idea six years ago.
The patented potential “Multi-Dimensional Desktop” layout looks a little bewildering compared to Apple’s traditional locked-down simplicity, but the concept of having all your documents sitting behind each other in a little line waiting to be flipped through seems decent enough. It could work. Here’s how it looks. The finished thing will probably be in colour, if it ever comes out.
it also makes your monitor…
Windows 7 – the full details, with screenshots
Okay, as promised, here’s the lowdown on Windows 7 – Microsoft’s new operating system – which could be launched as early as the middle of next year.
The UI is rather different to XP and Vista, contrary to what I said the other day about things not changing much. The taskbar is the biggest change – you can see it above. All words have been replaced with big icons, which then show window previews when you move your cursor over them…
