First impressions of Windows 7 RC1
The general public will have to wait until May 5 to get their hands on Windows 7 RC1. The press and Web sites are being given early access to it. Being a writer for this site does have some privileges and I was able to download the RC early. Here are some first impressions, but a full review will be coming later.
It is best if you set aside a partition for Windows 7 to install to and then if it takes to your system well, you can wipe it and overwrite Vista.
To partition the drive head to Computer Management by right clicking “Computer” in the start menu and go to Manage and then Disk Management. Right click the drive you want to partition and select “Shrink Volume” and to make things easier, it will automatically shrink the volume by 50percent though it can be changed. For simplicity’s sake, use the automatic settings.
After you have done that, right click the new partition and format the drive, I used a quick format but you can go the longer and more painful route if you want.
Once that is done, burn the ISO (I used Nero) for Windows 7 which will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit variants. If you have a 64-bit system with Vista and access to the drivers that originally came with your system, feel free to use them, they’ll work. Vista drivers are backwards compatible with Windows 7.
If you have an existing 32-bit Vista install, obviously go with the 32-bit version of Windows 7.
I chose to perform a full install and format over Vista but it does offer an upgrade path, I don’t ever recommend using an upgrade path for any version of Windows so just wipe it.
The RC is build 7001 and is more or less the same as build 7000 with few notable differences. It feels snappier but oddly likes to use more memory than Vista.
New hardware installs faster and there were few driver issues, unlike an upgrade to Vista would have been. The only problems I encountered were the display driver for my nvidia 9800GTS card did not install which were easily acquired using both Windows Update manually and nvidia driver downloads. Note that nvidia’s drivers are still beta for Windows 7.
Network setup was as easy as it has ever been. If the drivers install then it will ask you to set up your network and enter a password if security is set up on the router. Windows 7 also sees networks and connects to them faster than Vista.
Another issue is always Bluetooth, with every single version of Windows it appears to have different issues with Bluetooth. I wound up having to download the widcomm stack for another system in order to get it configured properly.
And my mass storage device identified as an 02 Micro Integrated Controller was not recognized and I had to download this from my laptop’s manufacturer support site. As I said, Vista drivers are 100 percent backwards compatible with Windows 7 and you will not have an issue getting them to work. The exception is if you try to use 32-bit Vista drivers on a 64-bit installation of Windows 7, they will not work.
I do not like the way some of the items in the UI changes are organized such as the Control Panel – where’s the classic view? I can’t stand the “organized” default view because it’s harder to find stuff. On the other hand, start menu search almost always finds what I’m looking for and it will for you to, if you know what to call it.
A more in-depth look at Windows 7 will be coming soon.
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