Do you guys think Windows 7 is usable enough to play games and such? I have a windows vista partition, but all that's on it is steam and my games. I'm thinking of just installing Windows 7 beta over that, but figured I'd ask if it's a good decision first.

I've been playing Paradox RTSs (Because they don't take up much space and the partition I have it on isn't very big) on it since yesterday.

Fallout 3 runs great.

1) Right click drive or folder
2) Properties
3) Security
4) Advanced
5) Ownership
6) Edit
7) Select your user or group... even if Administrators owns the base folder, other sub files/folders could be owned by the user on the other computer, meaning you can't change permissions on those yet
8) Click OK and wait. It will take awhile and use 100% CPU. Hooray.
9) Close out Properties and open it back up... Security again
10) Edit
11) Add
12) Your username, or group, or "Everyone" to include Guest users. Note that the last choice will also apply to network shares accessing the folder so be careful.
13) Check Allow Full Control
14) OK and wait.

Done! Repeat as needed.

If you skip steps 1-8 you risk running into "Access Denied" prompts which will pop up once for every. single. occurrence. When you run into TortoiseSVN-created SVN metadata for a checkout it will happen A LOT. Your only other option is to cancel the entire thing and start over at step #1.

There are two ways to keep from having duplicate copies of apps.

1) Have a third partition with the same drive letter under both OSs, and install all programs there. Then you don't have to worry about paths in files on disk being different. (This is what I do, but I planned ahead.)

2) Use mklink /j in Command Prompt to make a junction from the same location on one drive to the other. mklink /j C:\something D:\something will make a folder called C:\something that will always mirrors the contents of D:\something without taking up any space.

Can't keep registry settings mirrored, but for AppData, Use mklink /j again to keep folders synced across OSs.

Here's the folders of interest (don't mirror these, just mirror individual app settings folders) and their counterparts in each OS:

Windows 7/Vista: C:\Users\<User>
Windows 2K/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<User>

Windows 7/Vista: C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Remote
Windows 2K/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Application Data

Windows 7/Vista: C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local
Windows 2K/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Local Settings\Application Data

Windows 7/Vista: C:\Users\<User>\AppData\LocalLow
Windows 2K/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Local Settings\Application Data (? Not sure... there is no equivalent... so the app will probably pick a different location based on OS. I have to test this because the QUAKE LIVE BETA WHICH I JUST GOT INVITED TO AND HAVE 4 INVITES TO PASS OUT TO OTHERS uses it)

In the Disk Management MMC snap in. Right Click My Computer and click Manage.

Not sure if it'll let you resize the current boot partition though.

I actually did (didn't set it to Everyone) and then I couldn't access the folders in XP anymore and had to wrest ownership back (see previous post)

I didn't see it in XP, but now that I'm in 7, I found it easily. I might shrink it and install Ubuntu..we'll see.

I'm loving Windows 7 so far, except for the static in MP3 playback during HD-intensive stuff..

Just FYI the Ubuntu Live CD / Installer includes a partition manager that comes up during install so if you want to install Ubuntu you don't have to shrink the partition ahead of time.

I'm looking into buying a new laptop in a few months. From the retailer I'm buying from, I can save money if I buy it with no OS installed. Overall, is the beta of Windows 7 adequate enough that I can use it as the primary OS for my new laptop until Windows 7 actually comes out?

How much money can you save?

It's working fine for me, but I had to boot back into XP to get drivers for my wireless card..

It's definitely a beta, though. I get static during MP3 playback if there's HD-intensive stuff going on, IE8 has some rendering issues, etc.

Probably, except that the public Windows 7 Beta expires on August 1st 2009 (I think) which is atleast several months before the expected Windows 7 release date.

Maybe try Ubuntu for a few months as well?

I just upgraded my vista partition. It's nice. I love the desktop wallpaper, I wonder why they didn't do that when it was popular 10 years ago.

Anyways, when I'm in Libraries or whatever, and right click, the menu is really exaggerated on the left.

That's the only problem I've seen so far.

Thanks for the feedback. I would save $97 if I don't have an OS chosen. After the beta expires, I can always result back to Windows XP.

So Windows 7 will be released in 2009? I read somewhere that Microsoft is going to have it released in 2010, but many people are saying it will be released in late 2009?

I heard the 2010 date as well. If your lucky their might be additional Win7 beta testing that occurs between the expiration of build 7000 and the final release.

There will probably be a release candidate sometime during the summer, maybe another in the fall or winter, depending on the schedule. Release seems to be set for Q4 2009 or Q1 2010.

There's also bound to be a several ways to circumvent the cut off date by the time it comes around...

Yeah, you could circumvent the Office 2007 beta by changing your system clock. I thought that was sort of funny.

Anyways, I have found out that booting into 7 breaks sound in XP. And I have also discovered that the fix for it is to boot into Ubuntu. Hahaha.

It didn't break my sound, but then again I couldn't boot back into 7 when I rebooted.

I'm going to do a fresh installation of XP/7 and Ubuntu..we'll see how it goes.

So the 32bit version I downloaded that pommy linked the the thread did not work. But when I downloaded it from Windows website, it did work.

Well, I used to like Windows 7 until I tried installing it again and now my wireless card won't work.

IE8 doesn't display web pages very good

Installed windows 7 tonight! only used it for about 30 minutes, but it looks awesome. I need to look more into the Libraries. Is that anything like smart folders? Or does it just group folders together?

According to Emon it symbolically amalgamates the folders you assign to it into one big 'virtual' folder. Or something.

If you're wondering what happens to the beta copy when August 1st arrives:









I'm starting to lean heavily towards using this as my main OS instead of buying one for a new laptop.

Source

If you're worried about losing a free and completely usable OS, there will be release candidates around the time that the beta expires.

i'm thinking of downloading this, but i'm unsure whether to get the 32 or 64 bit version.

my processor is 64 bit capable, but i've stayed away because of driver/app issues i've heard about since xp64 came out.

what do you think guys?

I think 32bit vs 64bit driver/app compatibility isnt worth a 2nd thought unless your running some very old or very specialized hardware.

In my experiences with Vista x86 and Vista x64 the only thing I have encountered is occasionally you will encounter a 3rd party utility that uses an unsigned driver. Vista x64 enforces only signed drivers by default, but even this can be disabled.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5133771/why-you-should-go-64+bit-with-windows-7


Go with 64, it wont be as stressful as you think it might be

I don't know crap about crap, but I just downloaded this and am attempting to burn it to a dvd now. If that works, we'll see if I can figure out how to install it, and not screw up my whole computer in the process.

Ok, I tried booting from a disc I burned an iso disk partitioner on so I can dual boot, but the screen just stays black, with a _ blinking in the upper left corner.
Anyone know what's up with that?