Windows 7 Rc Ready For Download

[Guest Reimar]

Hmm... I have an old Acer laptop lying around I am going to try this out on, I guess. Will put it on a new HD just to make sure - if things go wrong I will just pop the old HD back in.

Can I put this on a USB stick and install from there? Or do I have to burn a DVD?

If your laptop is able to boot from USB/Flash drive, you can use the bootable USB otherwise you'll need to use an DVD. Check the BIOS!

Cheers.

[Crossy]

Hmm... I have an old Acer laptop lying around I am going to try this out on, I guess. Will put it on a new HD just to make sure - if things go wrong I will just pop the old HD back in.

Can I put this on a USB stick and install from there? Or do I have to burn a DVD?

If your laptop is able to boot from USB/Flash drive, you can use the bootable USB otherwise you'll need to use an DVD. Check the BIOS!

And there is an excellent instruction on how to make a bootable USB here:- http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Improve-Cust...28#entry2615228 thanks to Reimar

[Tywais]

And there is an excellent instruction on how to make a bootable USB here:- http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Improve-Cust...28#entry2615228 thanks to Reimar

Be aware though that diskpart under XP will not recognize a USB Flash drive, Vista does. So to create the USB bootable flash using the above instructions, it will need to be done from Vista.

Several sites showing how to do it.

http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!...!1665.entry

http://kmwoley.com/blog/?p=345

Dotnetwizard

[surface]

If you want to dual boot, in the betas you were able to enter Custom (advanced) installation and choose a partition you'd already created to install Win 7 onto. I haven't installed the RC yet, but you can start the installation to see if it's still possible.

[Guest Reimar]

For those who having problems with download from the MS Server, try direct links to Microsoft's servers. It bypasses their lame download manager and load balancers:

x86: http://bit.ly/RCx86

x64: http://bit.ly/RCx64

You MUST drag and drop this link into your address bar. DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK.

Cheers.

[Daffy D]

Windows 7 is getting a lot of positive reviews and a a XP user not having migrated to Vista I have the urge to give it a go.

Thanks to Reimar's detailed info and instructions have now got a working disk and activation keys from Microsoft.

A couple of questions to clarify some issues that I should know the answers to. If I create a partition on my system drive "C" and install W7 on the new partition to Dual Boot, will I have to install all my programs and Internet connections and antivirus stuff also on the new partition also or will these programs be shared by both systems?

I have an old 40gb HD that I could use and install W7 on (not partitioning "C") would this Duel Boot?

In other word have the two operating systems on two separate HD's (not partitioned on one drive) - would the Dual boot still work, or does it only work if the two systems are on the same disk?

Cheers.

[Guest Reimar]

Windows 7 is getting a lot of positive reviews and a a XP user not having migrated to Vista I have the urge to give it a go.

Thanks to Reimar's detailed info and instructions have now got a working disk and activation keys from Microsoft.

A couple of questions to clarify some issues that I should know the answers to. If I create a partition on my system drive "C" and install W7 on the new partition to Dual Boot, will I have to install all my programs and Internet connections and antivirus stuff also on the new partition also or will these programs be shared by both systems?

I have an old 40gb HD that I could use and install W7 on (not partitioning "C") would this Duel Boot?

In other word have the two operating systems on two separate HD's (not partitioned on one drive) - would the Dual boot still work, or does it only work if the two systems are on the same disk?

Cheers.

You can use either of them and the Dual Boot will just works fine!

Cheers.

[Guest Reimar]

And there is an excellent instruction on how to make a bootable USB here:- http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Improve-Cust...28#entry2615228 thanks to Reimar

Be aware though that diskpart under XP will not recognize a USB Flash drive, Vista does. So to create the USB bootable flash using the above instructions, it will need to be done from Vista.

Several sites showing how to do it.

http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!...!1665.entry

http://kmwoley.com/blog/?p=345

Dotnetwizard

I just tested with an old computer, USB 1.1 and non bootable from USB, XP pro installed and I wasn't able to create an bootable stick. Than I checked with an new computer with USB 2, which Bios were able to boot from Flash and USB Drives and here I could create the bootable USB stick.

So it seems to be that you can use Diskpart on XP for to create an bootable USB stick if the computer is able to boot from USB.

But you'll need to test on your own system it works same as on mine.

Cheers.

[Guest Reimar]

Just tested to install Windows 7 NOT from DVD but directly from HDD on an computer without DVD Drive.

On that machine XP Pro was installed and it has 2 40 GB HDD's.

I hat copy via Network all Windows 7 Files to an Dir on the primary HDD and than started the setup from within XP. I had choose the 22 HDD for Windows 7 and started the install. It was took 13 minutes to finish the install to the first full boot. The Dual Boot Manager was installed perfectly and that computer can run now both: XP and Windows 7.

It's an old AMD Sempron 1800 with Asrock MB Socket 462 and 1 GB memory. AGGP 1228 MB Ati.

Another "Oldtimer" which works well with Windows 7 but couldn't work with Vista Ultimate.

Cheers.

[Tywais]

So it seems to be that you can use Diskpart on XP for to create an bootable USB stick if the computer is able to boot from USB.

But you'll need to test on your own system it works same as on mine.

Tested on 4 systems including 2 newer ones all have boot capabilities in BIOS - diskpart does not show any USB flash drives when using LIST DISK. Also, it is a known issue showing up on several support forums and has to do with Flash drives showing up as removable. From Microsoft Support (see below). It may be that XP Service Pack 3 has changed this and why yours works but I had problems with SP3 and no longer use it on my systems.

"You cannot use Diskpart to create a partition on removable media. Windows supports at most one MBR partition on removable media. If the media is manufactured with an MBR, that MBR cannot be altered, but the MBR is followed even if multiple partitions or logical drives are configured. If the media is manufactured without an MBR, the media is treated as a "superfloppy" and no partition structure is written to the media."

"You need one of the very rare USB flash drives which have not set the 'removable media bit' (RMB) in their device descriptor. Windows then handles them as 'Local drive' as known from USB harddrives." (from another forum)

[Wolfie]

I just did an "Upgrade" from Vista 32b to Windows7 32bit - downloaded the ISO, copied all the files to the HDD on the laptop and ran it from there, took 2hrs but everything worked without a problem... found all the drivers (sounds, gfx, wireless etc) - Upgrade complete

[Guest Reimar]

Today I tested an program for to save all drivers from an old installation to reuse in Windows 7.

The name of that program is DriverMax and can be downloaded from here: http://www.drivermax.com You also need to signup for to get an registration code and to be able to download the newer driver from the developers site. But that registration is free as well.

The advantage of that program is that it uses an available database at the developers site which is quite huge and has most of new drivers ready for to download. It also uploads drivers from your system if they not in their database. From my point of view that's just ok!

After saving the drivers from the old system, you can just do an automated re-installation in the new system. You can also check for drivers for unknown devices pp.

Cheers.

[Guest Reimar]

So it seems to be that you can use Diskpart on XP for to create an bootable USB stick if the computer is able to boot from USB.

But you'll need to test on your own system it works same as on mine.

Tested on 4 systems including 2 newer ones all have boot capabilities in BIOS - diskpart does not show any USB flash drives when using LIST DISK. Also, it is a known issue showing up on several support forums and has to do with Flash drives showing up as removable. From Microsoft Support (see below). It may be that XP Service Pack 3 has changed this and why yours works but I had problems with SP3 and no longer use it on my systems.

"You cannot use Diskpart to create a partition on removable media. Windows supports at most one MBR partition on removable media. If the media is manufactured with an MBR, that MBR cannot be altered, but the MBR is followed even if multiple partitions or logical drives are configured. If the media is manufactured without an MBR, the media is treated as a "superfloppy" and no partition structure is written to the media."

"You need one of the very rare USB flash drives which have not set the 'removable media bit' (RMB) in their device descriptor. Windows then handles them as 'Local drive' as known from USB harddrives." (from another forum)

The MB I used for to test was an MSI MS 7550 with AMD AM 2 6000 CPU. Interestingly it were only the on board USB ports (on the back) which was able to recognize the USB Stick running XP Pro and Diskpart ->List Disk

But I'm just on testing to use an FAT32 formatted stick and will test that tomorrow in XP as well. Let you know, it works or not.

[Tywais]

The MB I used for to test was an MSI MS 7550 with AMD AM 2 6000 CPU. Interestingly it were only the on board USB ports (on the back) which was able to recognize the USB Stick running XP Pro and Diskpart ->List Disk

But I'm just on testing to use an FAT32 formatted stick and will test that tomorrow in XP as well. Let you know, it works or not.

One thing I didn't try and is to be sure the BIOS was set to USB Legacy devices, perhaps another difference. Will try that tomorrow as I will be installing Win7 RC on my MSI Wind which doesn't have a CD/DVD drive. Though the Wind now has Vista on it so will be able to make the USB bootable flash drive using it.

[Plus]

I have two hard disks and usually the system boots from the one that has Linux on it.

Win 7 refused to install into partition I created for it on the disk with Windows, so I took Linux drive out, install Win7, plugged Linux back in and everything worked, I get the same old Linux boot menu, if I choose "Windows" from there, it takes me to Win7 boot where I can choose "Earlier Windows version" for XP, though I haven't tried booting XP yet.

Win7 works like a charm on that machine, with 768MB ram.

The only problem is that ATI hasn't released Win7 drivers for Radeon 9200 series yet, I don't know if it's big problem or not, I'm searching Win7 forums for solutions at the moment.

Can I use my original ATI installation CD? It was from pre-Vista days. Can I try to install Vista drivers? Without proper drivers I can't set native resolution on my 22'' LCD, fonts are difficult to read in non-native, low resolutions.

[Tywais]

Can I try to install Vista drivers? Without proper drivers I can't set native resolution on my 22'' LCD, fonts are difficult to read in non-native, low resolutions.

My experience has shown that the Vista drivers work fine for Win7. Plus you can try to install them using compatibility mode.

[Plus]

No luck - no Vista drivers for 9200 series either.

Tried the original installation CD that came with the card in compatibility mode - XP SP3+Admin, doesn't work. Tried a driver downloaded from drivermax, recommended above in the same comp. mode - no luck.

Will try driver tool from that website next, and other ideas in Win7 forums. Work in progress.

At least the old XP boots just fine.

[Guest Reimar]

No luck - no Vista drivers for 9200 series either.

Tried the original installation CD that came with the card in compatibility mode - XP SP3+Admin, doesn't work. Tried a driver downloaded from drivermax, recommended above in the same comp. mode - no luck.

Will try driver tool from that website next, and other ideas in Win7 forums. Work in progress.

At least the old XP boots just fine.

You can use the Vista or XP driver.

You can also check here: http://www.guru3d.com and/or: http://www.donotargue.com/ for an modified Driver.

Normally the Vista driver just works well. All you need to do is to copy the driver to the HDD, access the Setup file with right click ->properties ->compatibility Mode and set to Vista or even XP!

All my VGA Cards working well, the old and the new cards.

Cheers.

[Plus]

Ok, got it.

Clicked update driver in Win7, then select from the list, have disk, browse to win2k-xp folder on ATI Cd and that was it.

Don't remember the steps exactly, they are pretty obvious once you see it on the screen, I'm posting from a different machine.

I guess it would have worked the same if I pointed to any folder with Xp drivers, don't know about Xp own driver folder, but Ati installs usually create their own directory from where their setup copies files to xp. I have them left on every partition now, even after unsuccessful installs.

Next question - what's with the Homegroup? From Windows help I understand that it's visible only to other Win7 machines, my Xp notebook doesn't detect it in "Microsoft Windows Network" at all.

Off to solve that one.

[Guest Reimar]

Ok, got it.

Clicked update driver in Win7, then select from the list, have disk, browse to win2k-xp folder on ATI Cd and that was it.

Don't remember the steps exactly, they are pretty obvious once you see it on the screen, I'm posting from a different machine.

I guess it would have worked the same if I pointed to any folder with Xp drivers, don't know about Xp own driver folder, but Ati installs usually create their own directory from where their setup copies files to xp. I have them left on every partition now, even after unsuccessful installs.

Next question - what's with the Homegroup? From Windows help I understand that it's visible only to other Win7 machines, my Xp notebook doesn't detect it in "Microsoft Windows Network" at all.

Off to solve that one.

Don't use Homegroup as workgroup! Set the network to Work Network, allow Sharing of files and share your HDD's. If you use an Firewall you will also need to change the Rule for to allow access from and to each computer. The security of Windows 7 is a bit higher than Vista!

Cheers.

[Plus]

Got that, too.

Changed to "work" in Control Panel, then start-computer-rightclick-properties and change the default workgroup name to my own, couldn't find the way to change workgroup name from Control Panel itself.

Got Talesrunner installed, with Thai menus and crap, kids are welcome to enjoy.

>>>>

Win7 boots just a tad faster than WinXP, actually it loads Personal settings a LOT faster, in XP desktop is there but it needs another half a minute to come to life, in Win7 I can start any program I want already.

Copying files is about the same - XP doesn't give speed details, Linux does, and the speeds are comparable. Linux also runs 3d desktop effects ala Aero that is not available for my video card according to Win7.

>>>>

One more question - how to set timeout on windows boot menu where I get Win7 and "earlier windows"? It seems I have to hit enter to start Win7. Can I set 10 sec timeout somehow?

[Guest Reimar]

Got that, too.

Changed to "work" in Control Panel, then start-computer-rightclick-properties and change the default workgroup name to my own, couldn't find the way to change workgroup name from Control Panel itself.

Got Talesrunner installed, with Thai menus and crap, kids are welcome to enjoy.

>>>>

Win7 boots just a tad faster than WinXP, actually it loads Personal settings a LOT faster, in XP desktop is there but it needs another half a minute to come to life, in Win7 I can start any program I want already.

Copying files is about the same - XP doesn't give speed details, Linux does, and the speeds are comparable. Linux also runs 3d desktop effects ala Aero that is not available for my video card according to Win7.

>>>>

One more question - how to set timeout on windows boot menu where I get Win7 and "earlier windows"? It seems I have to hit enter to start Win7. Can I set 10 sec timeout somehow?

Hold down the Win-Key and press R ->type msconfig -click BOOT and viola, here we are!

You can chosse the default OS and set the time for your convinient!

Cheers.

[Plus]

Great, all in all it was a very productive morning.

Got Opera with all my settings, wallpapers, uTorrent up and running, time for lunch.

Thanks a lot.

[Daffy D]

You can use either of them and the Dual Boot will just works fine!

Cheers.

Thanks Reimar will give it a go with the spare HD.

Thanks by the way for posting the CD labels will definitely use them to give that "professional" touch

Daffy

[nikster]

I got to the page where I got the product key, logged in and all, and a "download" button. Then it failed with the message that I need either Active X (unlikely, I am on Mac), or Java (which I have, but apparently it still doesn't work). And this gem: If this does not work for you... Download products using the Web Browser method.

However, that's not a link, just a statement, and I can't find the so-called "web download method" by which I guess they mean a bog normal download without any "managers".

Edit: Afer some digging in the source code for the download page, I found the URL in the JavaScript source code.

Direct download to paste into your very own download manager here:

http://wb.dlservice.microsoft.com/dl/downl...in7-rc-32/enus/

Am I the only one who got really annoyed with the download page? First, it explains at length how easy this download is. Then, it has lots of information that's completely uninteresting and unimportant. Certainly nothing about a web download. Then, there is the "download" button. But it doesn't get you to the download. It gets you to the login page, where you log in, then wait, and if you are on Safari or any normal web browser, nothing happens. On firefox, it will eventually come up with the "real" download button. Which then fails despite Java being installed.

It's really a classic Microsoft experience. They can't make it easy for the life of it, they are just incapable. It doesn't bode well for Win 7, I must say.

/rant

I may have to torrent this....

Edited May 10, 2009 by nikster

[Guest Reimar]

Nikster, listen please: You have to sign up to TechNet or MSN Connect and than you just can download the OS!

Go to: http://connect.microsoft.com/ and sign up with your e-mail address.

You can also use the links I posted here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Windows-7-Rc...71#entry2718271

Cheers.

[lopburi3]

As I recall they advise to download only with IE as they use facility of that downloader to create a download icon for your desktop to continue later if you want to stop. Indeed that does work.

[Guest Reimar]

As I recall they advise to download only with IE as they use facility of that downloader to create a download icon for your desktop to continue later if you want to stop. Indeed that does work.

You're right Lop!

Using the IE8 and the FTM from MS nwhile later you may need to download and install first.

Cheers.

[Plus]

I had problems with IE download, then copy pasted the address into Opera and dowloaded from there.

[Guest Reimar]

Windows 7 RC to receive test updates on May 12th

Those involved with Windows 7 will remember a while back the beta received test updates, to check if how well the update system worked within Microsoft's new operating system. Well, a similar thing is happening, this time in the Windows 7 RC variety.

This has come straight from the company itself, via the Windows Team blog, as well as being reported on TechNet. Keeping it the same as the previous updates, they will deliver no fixes or anything of the sort, and there should be around about 10 of them. According to the TechNet post, most of these will install automatically, but some of them won't, as this will, "test a new update notification feature that provides detailed information about available updates that need to be installed manually." They'll be clearly identified as test updates, also, to prevent any confusion.

So folks, keep an eye out on May 12th and be sure to let us (and Microsoft) know how it goes.

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