Well, I got my hands on the x86_64 build of Windows 7 beta 1 yesterday and installed it on a free partition I had left on my laptop (Dell Latitude D830).
All I can say is that I'm DEFINITELY impressed. I have been putting Windows 7 through its paces looking for a reason to rag on it, and have come up empty-handed.
The ONLY issues I have come across were with IE8 (which is buggy... surprise, surprise...). The core OS is solid, even in the beta version.
Boot/shutdown times are a definite improvement over Vista, and I would venture to say even a tad faster than XP. And so far ReadyBoost seems like it makes a bit more of a difference in Windows 7 than Vista.
Application compatibility is good so far, although I haven't had the chance to install a bunch of apps yet. Some applications would come up with "Unsupported OS" when I tried to install, but going through Windows 7's compatibility wizard (and selecting Vista64) cleared up those problems without a hitch.
The new interface is (in my opinion) a vast improvement over Vista. it has a clean look that reminds me a good bit of KDE 4.1. Coming from a hardcore Linux buff, that's a compliment ;-). Most of the Vista eye-candy is there, although I can't figure out how to enable Flip3D (and even though I installed Windows 7 Ultimate, I don't see DreamScenes available as an option).
So far, I can honestly say that Windows 7 is what Windows Vista SHOULD have been at launch. It is a vast improvement over Vista, and I would whole-heartedly recommend that any current Vista PC owner upgrade to Windows 7 when it releases.
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
I have a Latitude D830 as well, and I'm having a hard time getting the video working correctly. My D830 has a Quadro NVS 140M video card. I have reinstalled Build 7000 (x86) three times: Once accepting the prerelease WDDM 1.1 driver through Windows Update, once installing the Vista x86 driver from the Dell support site, and once installing the Vista x86 driver from the nVidia website. In each instance, I end up stuck with 16-bit color at the display's native resolution of 1920x1200. Everything else seems to work, but it doesn't make for the greatest user experience. Did you experience any similar issues? If so, I'd love to know how you got Aero working.
I am happy to hear that but I am not suprised. After all, the rumors I was hearing about Windows 7 was that it was basically going to be Windows Vista without all the crap people were complaining about.
Do you find that to be the case?