5/19/2009...we have moved and installed to the new RC 7100 version of Windows 7 beta by Microsoft, we tested, installed 32 and 64 bit versions on a custom built desktop. The desktop all worked well except for the onboard audio on the Asus AS8-X motherboard(AC97 Audio), this driver was never updated for Vista so it is left behind, its alright we had added a Creative Audigy SE sound card to this system and Windows 7 correctly installed the driver for it without using the install disc from Creative on both 32 and 64 bit versions.
We also installed the 32 bit on a 5 year laptop with a Intel Pentium 4 and just a gig of RAM it ran fine but could not get the ethernet port to work. The driver for this apparently has also been abandoned and was never updated for Vista. It's a shame because its the only thing that didnt work.
They're are many changes from the beta version 7000 in RC, like they changed the paint icon, post it program icon in the start menu. The Feedback link in each window has been removed. The performance is better or about the same, I personally not impressed with Windows Media Player 12 in 7, I liked WMP 11, they seem to have really stripped down it in 7 and took out functionality and conviences from it, don't like the layout.
Besides that one dislike, I can live with it, we are still very impressed with Windows 7 and from what we are seeing on the web it is getting good reviews, people seem to really like it as well. This is a direct opposite response from the Vista beta 2 years ago from people.
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From January 2009:
Windows 7 is the next version of Windows from Microsoft, here at Berntech we are currently beta testing it on a couple of our built Desktop PC's. We like what were seeing, it is a whole lot better than the beta version of Vista two years ago, which was a mess. Even though Vista has been fixed and runs better, stable in SP1, Windows 7 runs zipperer and doesn't feel bloated.
All drivers for the ASUS motherboard and even the Geforce 9500GT graphics card we have installed, correctly from the Windows install and Windows update. We did not need to use the discs from the ASUS motherboard or the XFX graphics card. Also even a fairly old HP PSC all in one printer, the driver installed from the drivers built into Windows 7 and work fine. Everthing worked the first time round after original install.
Microsoft has not given a official release date for Windows 7 and so it is not available at this time. It will be added to available OS's to choose from for Berntech Custom Desktops when it does.
BJ
Berntech.com
