Windows 7: Model For Microsoft Reinvention

[Guest Reimar]

Well I installed the 32 bit version and the result is the same (second core running 100% all the time + can't connect to access point) + now only 3GB is available according to the task manager.

I reported the bugs.

I have to admit W7 looks nice but if it doesn't work it's useless.

For now it's back to WinXP for me.

OK Phil, here we go:

Pic 1:

Pic 2:

Pic 3:

Pic 4:

Pic 5:

My Acer is an Aspire 5593, 2 Core Duo, 1.66 GHz, 4 GB Memory UMAX 667, Hdd WD 320 GB 7.2 k/rpm.

Installed Vista on Partition 1 with 160 GB and Windows 7 on Partition 2 with 160 GB both are Ultimate.

The screen shots above from Windows 7.

Unfortunate they still using the old Taskmanager which is in it's 32 bit version limited to 3 GB but using the Resource Monitor you get the real figures.

If you have some problems like WiFi and it wouldn't work there is maybe something wrong with you machine or it came from some of your installations. My Laptop is from October 2006, quite old already and works perfectly well.

Cheers.

[Phil Conners]

Actually I found some references to second core using 100% CPU, for example this http://xxhiroshi21xx.blogspot.com/2008/05/...-100-usage.html - seems to be a bug in Windows Defender still leftover from Vista. I'll try the suggestions and see if that solves the core problem.

My laptop btw is an Acer Aspire 5052NWXMi. I don't recall exactly how old it is but it's probably around 3 years old now - the generation that came out just before all the "Vista ready" laptops were released.

[Guest Reimar]

Ok, let add something else about the memory problems.

In Vista as in Windows 7, MS use the physical address extension for to use a total of max 4 GB of memory. 3 GB of that memory are reserved for programs while 1 GB is reserved for Hardware use only. That also make sense because ALL 32 Bit programs are limited to an maximum use of 3 GByte memory while even the most of them are just able to use a max of 2 GB memory.

As you can see in Pic 3 of the pic's posted in my last port here, there 5 different parts of memory in use:

1. Hardware reserved (that's the 1 GB memory out of the 4 GB)

2. used memory (at the time at capture)

3. Standby Memory used as cache memory

4. modified memory which is just in real use

5. free memory.

Hope the above clears a bit of the memory.

Cheers.

[Phil Conners]

I'm not that concerned about the memory, in fact as it shows the 32 bit version has exactly the same problems as the 64 bit version I'll probably reinstall the 64 bit version at some point.

First I need to get the "100% cpu use in core 2" problem fixed. Stopping "windows defender" didn't solve it, so it is obviously some other problem introduced with W7.

Also, I appreciate your screenshots, but I never doubted it works on your PC. I'm just saying it doesn't work on mine, at least not in it's current state. Well, it's a beta version, maybe the fix the problem at some point.

[Guest Reimar]

I'm not that concerned about the memory, in fact as it shows the 32 bit version has exactly the same problems as the 64 bit version I'll probably reinstall the 64 bit version at some point.

First I need to get the "100% cpu use in core 2" problem fixed. Stopping "windows defender" didn't solve it, so it is obviously some other problem introduced with W7.

Also, I appreciate your screenshots, but I never doubted it works on your PC. I'm just saying it doesn't work on mine, at least not in it's current state. Well, it's a beta version, maybe the fix the problem at some point.

Phil, do NOT use the 64 Bit version until you really need it because of 64 Bit Application software. Running a 32 Bit program on 64 Bit OS downgrades the work below the real 32 Bit OS! You can see this special if you use high performance Games like the FS-X I use. On the same computer with 64 Bit OS and 16 GB of memory FS-X runs bad compare to how it runs aon 32 Bit with 4 GB of memory. Again, that's on the same computer just change the OS and add or remove the memory.

Cheers.

[livinthailandos]

Regardless of windows 7, I think microsoft screwed up big time, while using windows vista I had 2 major complaints

1. Updating windows, after doing updates and rebooting a few times it would get stuck in that step 3 process and never get complete

2. Even with 2 GB of ram, turning most visuals off, it still ran slow. But I should thank microsoft for pushing me over and learning how to use ubuntu.

3. Note I bought a labtop from apple back in 2005 when it was still running a powerpc not intel, version tiger, I must admit apple did a better job at convincing me why people went to apple. Not slowness, no need for hunting for drivers. Wonderful system but ( won't buy one again though, not really in my price range anymore.

I can do everything already in ubuntu, why need windows anymore, plus every 6 months get a new release, note linux isn't perfect, but if your willing to learn, ask questions, it can get easier. I think for microsoft though, they really should do something for its customers, like i've read on zdnet / digg. Come out and say We admit vista sucks, it was a complete failure, so here's what well do, for those of you who still have vista well upgrade you for free. Pricing will be under $200 dollars for a business / ultimate copy of windows 7. Home Version will be $125. I understand microsoft has to make money its a business, but dam_n if microsoft can screw up my xbox 360, vista, windows mobile, don't they think its time to do something right.

[Phil Conners]

I went to a friends house an connected fine to his access point. The difference is he is using WEP while I use WPS-PSK. Seems Win7 doesn't know how to use the latter. Further, as soon as I was connected, the load on core 2 went back to normal.

Maybe a problem with the Acer Wifi driver? Should I try placing it with the Acer provided WinXP driver, would that be likely to work?

[Guest Reimar]

I went to a friends house an connected fine to his access point. The difference is he is using WEP while I use WPS-PSK. Seems Win7 doesn't know how to use the latter. Further, as soon as I was connected, the load on core 2 went back to normal.

Maybe a problem with the Acer Wifi driver? Should I try placing it with the Acer provided WinXP driver, would that be likely to work?

You can try that but not forget to set the driver to first to XP Compatibility Mode.

By mine I even didn't have to install the WiFi Driver from Acer, the one from Win 7 was working just fine.

Cheers.

[Phil Conners]

I went to a friends house an connected fine to his access point. The difference is he is using WEP while I use WPS-PSK. Seems Win7 doesn't know how to use the latter. Further, as soon as I was connected, the load on core 2 went back to normal.

Maybe a problem with the Acer Wifi driver? Should I try placing it with the Acer provided WinXP driver, would that be likely to work?

You can try that but not forget to set the driver to first to XP Compatibility Mode.

By mine I even didn't have to install the WiFi Driver from Acer, the one from Win 7 was working just fine.

Cheers.

Well it seems as long as you dont use WPS-PSK it works ok.

How do I set it to XP compatibility mode? Or will that be obvious when I try to install it?

[Guest Reimar]

I went to a friends house an connected fine to his access point. The difference is he is using WEP while I use WPS-PSK. Seems Win7 doesn't know how to use the latter. Further, as soon as I was connected, the load on core 2 went back to normal.

Maybe a problem with the Acer Wifi driver? Should I try placing it with the Acer provided WinXP driver, would that be likely to work?

You can try that but not forget to set the driver to first to XP Compatibility Mode.

By mine I even didn't have to install the WiFi Driver from Acer, the one from Win 7 was working just fine.

Cheers.

Well it seems as long as you dont use WPS-PSK it works ok.

How do I set it to XP compatibility mode? Or will that be obvious when I try to install it?

Do a Right Click on the driver executable file, choose Properties -> Compatibility Mode and set the mode to XP SP2.

Cheers.

[Phil Conners]

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I inserted my Acer driver cd and clicked install, then selected the Athenas driver and off it went. It didn't in itself fix the problem, I still can't connect to my home access point.

When I go to device manager it now shows the driver to be the Athenas driver - but nowhere do I see an option to choose XP SP2 compatibility mode.

[Guest Reimar]

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I inserted my Acer driver cd and clicked install, then selected the Athenas driver and off it went. It didn't in itself fix the problem, I still can't connect to my home access point.

When I go to device manager it now shows the driver to be the Athenas driver - but nowhere do I see an option to choose XP SP2 compatibility mode.

First: Search for the driver file on the CD, it should be an *.exe file and copy that file to tha HDD in some Directory e.g. c:\drivers\.

Now set the file to XP Mode as decribed before.

Second: unistall the driver from the OS via the Device Manager

Third: install the driver from e.g. c:\drivers\*.exe

Problem, just PM me.

Cheers.

[Guest Reimar]

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I inserted my Acer driver cd and clicked install, then selected the Athenas driver and off it went. It didn't in itself fix the problem, I still can't connect to my home access point.

When I go to device manager it now shows the driver to be the Athenas driver - but nowhere do I see an option to choose XP SP2 compatibility mode.

First: Search for the driver file on the CD, it should be an *.exe file and copy that file to tha HDD in some Directory e.g. c:\drivers\.

Now set the file to XP Mode as decribed before.

Second: unistall the driver from the OS via the Device Manager

Third: install the driver from e.g. c:\drivers\*.exe

Problem, just PM me.

Cheers.

Phil, I send you an PM!

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Any idea yet what the pricing on Windows 7 will be like? If it is like Vista, it's going to be another disaster. They should at the very least sell it here for the same price as in the U.S.

A bad joke having to pay 500 USD here for something that cost 100 USD there.

Best regards.....

Thanh

[sjaak327]

The words redemption and reinvention are painfully out of place for an OS that still uses a central registry which virtually guarantees a gradual performance degradation.

Better than Vista - for sure. But reinvention.... eh, no.

A reinvention of Microsoft would be a brand new OS which has a fast emulation layer for the old OS. Why they never did this is beyond me. Oh wait, it's because they didn't have to. Spoils of a monopoly

What they could do is throw out all the old code, get their many smart OS people to design a new one, write it all in c# so it will be much more stable, run old Windows programs in a perfectly integrated Virtual PC instance, and provide development tools that make switching to the new system as simple as flipping a switch. That would be reinvention, and redemption.

Hmm let me see if I remember correctly, ah yes that's what Apple did when they scrapped OS9 in favour of OSX (which of course was more bought then developed in house). It was an utter fail, and most mac users ended up having to buy updated software that would run on OSX, as the classic mac envirornment was flawed and utterly slow.

Now you don't need to be a rocket scientist to realise Microsoft cannot pull the same stunt in this case. And I don't really see the need to pull that stunt either. There is also nothing really wrong with the registry concept either, it's better than having applications store there settings in .ini files all over the place. If only software developers would program efficiently and clean up the mess they created when their app was installed on the system.

But I also disagree with the article, as Windows 7 is Vista with a few added features, a lot of removed features , but it is largly based on Vista, and core changes that were introduced wtih vista. Funny how a little marketing can create a placebo effect

Edited February 2, 2009 by sjaak327

[Guest Reimar]

The words redemption and reinvention are painfully out of place for an OS that still uses a central registry which virtually guarantees a gradual performance degradation.

Better than Vista - for sure. But reinvention.... eh, no.

A reinvention of Microsoft would be a brand new OS which has a fast emulation layer for the old OS. Why they never did this is beyond me. Oh wait, it's because they didn't have to. Spoils of a monopoly

What they could do is throw out all the old code, get their many smart OS people to design a new one, write it all in c# so it will be much more stable, run old Windows programs in a perfectly integrated Virtual PC instance, and provide development tools that make switching to the new system as simple as flipping a switch. That would be reinvention, and redemption.

Hmm let me see if I remember correctly, ah yes that's what Apple did when they scrapped OS9 in favour of OSX (which of course was more bought then developed in house). It was an utter fail, and most mac users ended up having to buy updated software that would run on OSX, as the classic mac envirornment was flawed and utterly slow.

Now you don't need to be a rocket scientist to realise Microsoft cannot pull the same stunt in this case. And I don't really see the need to pull that stunt either. There is also nothing really wrong with the registry concept either, it's better than having applications store there settings in .ini files all over the place. If only software developers would program efficiently and clean up the mess they created when their app was installed on the system.

But I also disagree with the article, as Windows 7 is Vista with a few added features, a lot of removed features , but it is largly based on Vista, and core changes that were introduced wtih vista. Funny how a little marketing can create a placebo effect

Maybe we should say that Windows 7 is more Server 2008 than Vista!! With just from features of Vista on it!

That's the feeling you get if you work with the 3 different OS's!

Cheers.

[ozsamurai]

It doesnt seem to matter what anyone else thinks, I think Reimar must have shares in MSoft.... but as to my experience I have had the blue screen of death twice now in the past week on Win7 32bit ...... I am still in the wait and see pile...

Oz

[Guest Reimar]

It doesnt seem to matter what anyone else thinks, I think Reimar must have shares in MSoft.... but as to my experience I have had the blue screen of death twice now in the past week on Win7 32bit ...... I am still in the wait and see pile...

Oz

It really doesn't matter what YOU think about me but I'll let you dream further if you like! Anyway it's quite personal to write such scrap!

And post like that about BSOD brings nothing to anybody just to admit you get some BSOD's! If you're serious you would write how and why, on which situation to give other users the benefit to profit from your experiences and that incl. screen shots please as evidence that you really use Windows 7.

[wolf5370]

The words redemption and reinvention are painfully out of place for an OS that still uses a central registry which virtually guarantees a gradual performance degradation.

Better than Vista - for sure. But reinvention.... eh, no.

A reinvention of Microsoft would be a brand new OS which has a fast emulation layer for the old OS. Why they never did this is beyond me. Oh wait, it's because they didn't have to. Spoils of a monopoly

What they could do is throw out all the old code, get their many smart OS people to design a new one, write it all in c# so it will be much more stable, run old Windows programs in a perfectly integrated Virtual PC instance, and provide development tools that make switching to the new system as simple as flipping a switch. That would be reinvention, and redemption.

It would certainly be nice to be open source, but I can't see that happening for a host of reasons (not all financial either). As to C#, I think it would always be C++ or Assembler. C# can't be used directly for many low level tasks - this was intentional so as to reduce the risk of C# written Viruses (apparantly - they obviously think black-hats can't code in C++) - to do many of the OS things needed, like accessing the hardware directly (Disk sectors etc) usually requires API calls (sometimes in .Net wrapper - sometimes unmanaged PInvokes etc).

The problem with Vista was that there were so many promises about OS improvements, including a new file system and so on, M$ pulled almost everything to get it out 'in time' (actually it was ery late), so in the end it wasn't much more than a new GUI with some bells on (at least from a company needing to be convinced to upgrade point of view). When Vista was released M$ was already talking about the next OS - it was going to have mainframe-like memory regions (i.e. programs run in pre-defined and locked memory regions which can be managed independantly and directly and does not allow external addressability - except read only OS memory area reads of course) - this was to spell the end of malware/viruses as they could not affect anything they did not 'own' at run time. I wonder if this actually materialised in Win7 - any one?

Again, all the press I have seen concentrates on a few new gimmicky toys and interface nice-to-have improvements.

Also, on the 32bit/64bit thing - people are implying that having 32bit software on a 64bit system (with 64bit OS) somehow slows the machine down. To my understanding (which may be wrong of course) it would just limit the addressing to 32Bit and half fill registers (using low order word only). While this leaves a lot of the CPU bandwidth empty, it shouldn't slow it down. With clever coding in fact, it could actually speed it up (32bit on 64bit system compared to 32bit on a 32bit machine) - thinking back to the old Mainframe days of 3 bit coding - when IBM moved the OS to 8bit, 3 bit programmers (who had illegally used the 4th bit of the word as checkbits and adhok flags etc) started playing with their code to use the upper word and lower word (1/2 registers) as separate areas of highspeed memory - in affect doubling the amount of registers! I do not know if M$ thought of that, or they do leave the top half empty, but coders of 32bit Apps could well make use of the extra addressing and register space with a simple test to see if they are running on a 64bit machine - but I guess if they cared that much they would simply compile at 64bit and 32bit and allow DLL choice based on the OS...

[ozsamurai]

I'm sorry but during the memory dump, the screen shot function failed, go figure!! I made some valid points about things in a constructive manner in you last 'I love Win7' post, of errors (specific), incompatibility etc... your advise, well it doesn't happen to me....

1) I have had a few problems with Outlook 2007, it just wont remember passwords and throws a bug screen up constantly to enter passwords, even checking the remember function doesnt work.

Works fine on mine without problems.

Switched to Thunderbird, problem solved

2) Japanese Language support is proving a headache, I need to type as well as read, this is a problem I thought they may have fixed now, doesnt recognize a 106 keyboard etc...

That is a Keyboard Problem well known if use an normal Laptop or Desktop Keyboard.

I hate Mac, but they can handle this, and have done since 8, ????

3) Again MS makes it just that little more difficult to use anything outside IE, myself I run Chrome, Firefox and IE to proof webpages, and the compatibility is as you would expect a little off esp in firefox

Chrome is the one which didn't remember the password after rebooting! Other are ok.

Windows updates WILL NOT load in anything other than IE

Its not personal Reimar at all! Its an objective opinion on my experiences with the operating system , its NOT all roses and light. I have not seen a blue physical memory dump screen since Windows 98....

Oz

[sjaak327]

It doesnt seem to matter what anyone else thinks, I think Reimar must have shares in MSoft.... but as to my experience I have had the blue screen of death twice now in the past week on Win7 32bit ...... I am still in the wait and see pile...

Oz

You do realise that you're running beta software ?

I really think it is not very clever of Microsoft to mass release beta software as they did for Windows 7, I mean go to a lot of forums, and you'll see people

installing Windows 7 on their main machine, who don't even grasp the simple multiboot concept, or don't even know about partitions. And these people then come complaining about it afterwards

[ozsamurai]

It doesnt seem to matter what anyone else thinks, I think Reimar must have shares in MSoft.... but as to my experience I have had the blue screen of death twice now in the past week on Win7 32bit ...... I am still in the wait and see pile...

Oz

You do realise that you're running beta software ?

I really think it is not very clever of Microsoft to mass release beta software as they did for Windows 7, I mean go to a lot of forums, and you'll see people

installing Windows 7 on their main machine, who don't even grasp the simple multiboot concept, or don't even know about partitions. And these people then come complaining about it afterwards

I am a beta tester, this is not my main PC, its the laptop, am I allowed to complain about the problems, yes, thats the understanding when you run a Beta, feedback!! good and bad, which I do.

Oz

[wolf5370]

Is Win7 bundled with IE8? or still IE7?

I have been testing IE8 and the last beta before candidate 1 was good, fast (at least as fast as Opera and faster than FF and Netscape - Chrome isn't on my test list). Unfotunatly, Candidate 1 seems to suffer from the same problems that IE7 did, frequent crashes and large memory leaks (at one point I has one instance open with two tabs - Task Manager had 6 IExplorer processes sucking up 140Mb phyical down to about 16MB - top three all arounf 100MB, bottom 3 all aound 20MB - IE8 was frozen and I had to force at process level to get any response - it also made Explorer unresponsive)

Sorry to be slightly off-topic, but seemed a little overlap (especially if Win7 is budled with IE8 - though it probably runs better on Win7/Vista than it does on XP)

EDIT: Oh, just to add: test rig that crashed above was XP Pro SP2, fast dual core laptop with 4GB (32bit with hack to use 1GB for system and 2 for software - and 1 for b*gger all ) and half a TB of HDD space

Edited February 2, 2009 by wolf5370

[Guest Reimar]

I'm sorry but during the memory dump, the screen shot function failed, go figure!! I made some valid points about things in a constructive manner in you last 'I love Win7' post, of errors (specific), incompatibility etc... your advise, well it doesn't happen to me....

1) I have had a few problems with Outlook 2007, it just wont remember passwords and throws a bug screen up constantly to enter passwords, even checking the remember function doesnt work.

Works fine on mine without problems.

Switched to Thunderbird, problem solved

2) Japanese Language support is proving a headache, I need to type as well as read, this is a problem I thought they may have fixed now, doesnt recognize a 106 keyboard etc...

That is a Keyboard Problem well known if use an normal Laptop or Desktop Keyboard.

I hate Mac, but they can handle this, and have done since 8, ????

3) Again MS makes it just that little more difficult to use anything outside IE, myself I run Chrome, Firefox and IE to proof webpages, and the compatibility is as you would expect a little off esp in firefox

Chrome is the one which didn't remember the password after rebooting! Other are ok.

Windows updates WILL NOT load in anything other than IE

Its not personal Reimar at all! Its an objective opinion on my experiences with the operating system , its NOT all roses and light. I have not seen a blue physical memory dump screen since Windows 98....

Oz

That really didn't show that you use Windows 7 in real! And about the loss of screen shot because of memory dump?! And you can't produce some after rebooting?!

Outlook 2007 even has the common problems as you described in Vista!

Japanese language works very well with an japanese Keyboard and japanese keyboard bios and an MB Bios able to switch to japanese! A Beta Tester should know that!

Chrome has the problem with "remember" passwords in Vista as well as in Windows 7!

And it is personal to admit that you think I have shares in MS and post that on an public forum without to know the person to talking about and without any piece of evidence. Get real!

On several occasions I also wrote in the past that I didn't like many of the MS Software which includes mainly the OS's! But I've to work with them on daily basis by all of my customers. And the MS OS's are covering much more that 80% worldwide which means in praxis that most of the users of computers can't avoid to work with MS Software.

[Guest Reimar]

Is Win7 bundled with IE8? or still IE7?

I have been testing IE8 and the last beta before candidate 1 was good, fast (at least as fast as Opera and faster than FF and Netscape - Chrome isn't on my test list). Unfotunatly, Candidate 1 seems to suffer from the same problems that IE7 did, frequent crashes and large memory leaks (at one point I has one instance open with two tabs - Task Manager had 6 IExplorer processes sucking up 140Mb phyical down to about 16MB - top three all arounf 100MB, bottom 3 all aound 20MB - IE8 was frozen and I had to force at process level to get any response - it also made Explorer unresponsive)

Sorry to be slightly off-topic, but seemed a little overlap (especially if Win7 is budled with IE8 - though it probably runs better on Win7/Vista than it does on XP)

EDIT: Oh, just to add: test rig that crashed above was XP Pro SP2, fast dual core laptop with 4GB (32bit with hack to use 1GB for system and 2 for software - and 1 for b*gger all ) and half a TB of HDD space

Yes, Windows 7 use IE8! And it really runs better on Win 7 than on Vista.

Cheers.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

That Outlook problem was identical to what I faced with Outlook XP under Vista - it wouldn't remember passwords no-matter-what, and i just didn't want to buy a newer Office version just to get my Hotmail (as Vista's "Windows Mail" didn't support Hotmail and MS's "Live Mail Desktop" refused to work, i even opened threads regarding that on numerous forums and never got help). Then i didn't know that Thunderbird can "do" Hotmail

And yeah, i know that Outlook XP isn't really Vista compatible, Vista even told me so upon installation.

How is that with Windows 7, does it have a mail software and if so, does that support Hotmail accounts..??

I think it's a joke that a Microsoft mail program under a Microsoft OS does not support a Microsoft mail service, but a third-party mail program (Thunderbird) under a non-Microsoft OS (Ubuntu here) DOES.

Best regards......

Thanh

Edited February 3, 2009 by Thanh-BKK

[Guest Reimar]

Hi

That Outlook problem was identical to what I faced with Outlook XP under Vista - it wouldn't remember passwords no-matter-what, and i just didn't want to buy a newer Office version just to get my Hotmail (as Vista's "Windows Mail" didn't support Hotmail and MS's "Live Mail Desktop" refused to work, i even opened threads regarding that on numerous forums and never got help). Then i didn't know that Thunderbird can "do" Hotmail

And yeah, i know that Outlook XP isn't really Vista compatible, Vista even told me so upon installation.

How is that with Windows 7, does it have a mail software and if so, does that support Hotmail accounts..??

I think it's a joke that a Microsoft mail program under a Microsoft OS does not support a Microsoft mail service, but a third-party mail program (Thunderbird) under a non-Microsoft OS (Ubuntu here) DOES.

Best regards......

Thanh

In Germany we would say Poverty certification! And you're right with that!

Cheers.

[Thanh-BKK]

Indeed!

I'm German, too, in case you didn't know... "Armutszeugnis" is the word in German, but i don't know a proper equivalent in English.... something like "confession of failure" or similar.

But as you are using Win 7, does it support Hotmail (respectively does it have a mail software such as Outlook Express which does)..?

I have downloaded the beta but haven't installed it yet - i don't have a spare computer, and i don't think a virtual machine under Ubuntu would be powerful enough (as i can't give it more than 1 GB of RAM). I have a laptop which i was planning to use for that test but it's broken and i don't have the $$ right now for spare parts (needs a mainboard and a HDD).

Kind regards.....

Thanh

[Guest Reimar]

Indeed!

I'm German, too, in case you didn't know... "Armutszeugnis" is the word in German, but i don't know a proper equivalent in English.... something like "confession of failure" or similar.

But as you are using Win 7, does it support Hotmail (respectively does it have a mail software such as Outlook Express which does)..?

I have downloaded the beta but haven't installed it yet - i don't have a spare computer, and i don't think a virtual machine under Ubuntu would be powerful enough (as i can't give it more than 1 GB of RAM). I have a laptop which i was planning to use for that test but it's broken and i don't have the $$ right now for spare parts (needs a mainboard and a HDD).

Kind regards.....

Thanh

Thanh, unfortunate I can't answer that question because Hotmail is one out of a few programs which I will never use again!

Try to use an 2. HDD in that computer with Linux and install Win 7 on that HDD and than use the Bios Boot function for to start the HDD with that OS you want to use.

Cheers.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Sorry that won't work - it's already got two HDD's (one Linux, one data) and two DVD burners - no available IDE ports..... and i don't have a spare HDD either......

But don't worry, i'll get that laptop going sooner or later, it'll be my test machine, or maybe i'll slap another PC together (got everything except a case and a HDD). I still got some 5 months for that beta, so nothing to worry.

Kind regards.....

Thanh