Windows 7 Hits The Market

[bwalker1973]

I hosted a windows 7 house party on october 1st, I got 30 free copies to give away from microsoft. Which we had to host a windows party and each guest received a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate in a retail box.

The new version is better, runs on older machines. You even get XP free to run as a virtual machine inside. The software is faster. But I still think its vista with a new coat of paint and took a few steroids.

[Wolfie]

P.S. I'll be waiting to buy Windows 7 until I get my hands on a proper DVD in an actual brick and mortar store. I'm not going to waste my time trying to order online. No upgrade DVD either, give me the full OS please!

I want the Full version and not the upgrade pack - although i do own a Vista Key (it came with my laptop)

The one i am looking for is the Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack - gives you three licenses and should be around the $150-200 mark - i have seen the upgrade version of this but not the full version - if anyone can find a link to buy it anywhere - please let me know

[Always18]

Bought a Dell Studio laptop with X64 Vista installed in the UK a couple of months ago, before moving to Thailand, as it came with a promise of a "free" upgrade to X64 W7 when it is released (not exactly free since they charge an admin fee of £15 for each disk they send out).

From everything I've read online about the migration of previous Windows OS's to W7 I'm definitely going down the "clean install" route rather than the "upgrade path" route - it's more hassle in that you've got to re-install most if not all of your programs but the end result seems more likely to be successful.

My 18mth old HP laptop is still running XP Pro (very nicely, thank you) and I've no intention of changing that!

Still have intentions of running a dual boot with Ubuntu at some stage soon.........

[JAS21]

Windows 7 hits the market

NEW YORK: -- Although the official U.S. launch event is still some hours away, Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system has hit the market, going on sale in a number of countries across the globe.

Executives from Microsoft have fanned out to celebrate the launch of the company's core product upon which the rest of Redmond's empire has been built. The software giant is counting on favorable reviews and new features to help Windows rebuilt its image in the face of a disappointing response to Windows Vista.

Microsoft is touting the value of Windows in the face of a resurgent Apple. As part of the launch, Microsoft is celebrating seven days of deals in a number of key markets, including the United States. Among the specials is a $1,200 package from Hewlett-Packard and Best Buy that includes a Netbook, laptop, desktop, monitor and router as well as in-home installation.

"The Best Buy offer is a home makeover," Microsoft Vice President Tami Reller told CNET News. "For the price of a Mac you have a new notebook, a new Netbook, a new desktop, and a new router to bring it together with the help of the Geek Squad."

In addition to landing on new PCs, Microsoft will also sell stand-alone versions of Windows 7 that can be used to upgrade an existing PC. Although Microsoft still offers a half-dozen different flavors of the operating system in all, Redmond is focusing its energies around two versions--the Home Premium and Professional versions.

It will sell both a full version of the operating system that can be used on any hardware as well as an upgrade version to be used on existing PCs. Although both Windows XP and Windows Vista can be upgraded to Windows 7, only Vista can be done without backing up and reinstalling both programs and data.

A huge marketing blitz will accompany the debut of Windows 7, with Microsoft continuing its "I'm a PC" campaign, by featuring average users who point to various aspects of the new operating system as representing their idea.

Microsoft plans to formalize the launch with an event here with CEO Steve Ballmer (CNET News will cover the 11 a.m. ET event live). The software maker is also opening its first retail store, in Scottsdale, Ariz., as well as a "Windows Cafe" in Paris.

Steven Sinofsky, the divisional president who has spearheaded the development of Windows 7, is presiding over the Japanese launch of the product, while designer Julie Larson-Green is at an event in London.

Microsoft employees in Redmond's Building 37 plan to remotely ring the bell to open Nasdaq trading on Thursday, while Microsoft and its computer maker partners will ring the closing bell.

The product has already gone on sale in Australia.

-- CNET 2009-10-22

I decided to order ultimate, it's in the UK now waiting for someone to bring it over. I pre-ordered it from Amazon UK. In the meantime, well today I found out that you can get Windows 7 Enterprise. Me who knows FA about computers downloaded it, burnt the ISO file and installed it. I haven't found anything that does not work yet...but guess I will...and be back here!...as Iam still installing bits and pieces. Enterprise will work for 90 days and it comes with the product key embedded. To get it you just have to tick the box saying that you are an IT worker...advise from Wanda whatever in Bangkok Post Data...she said if you read my column then you probably qualify!

[harrisben]

mmmm , you must be a newbie in mac

Newbie??? It's about more than 20 years that I follow Apple (MacIntosh) computers.... and never liked Sorry, it happens. I've also made my studies on MacOS 7 (I will always remember the bomb ), the same nightmare as Windows 98. I've really enjoyed windows since Windows 2000.

Perhaps it's a language barrier, but I have to agree that it sure does sound like you don't know what you're talking about.

[stolidfeline]

My, my. What a lot of uninformed and negative comment. It would be so nice if you would all stop knocking Microsoft unless you have some really useful comment to make.

The RTM version of Windows has been available for some time and has been evaluated by many of us ever since MS released it. It has been 100% stable and fast. I have not seen a single blue screen yet, with normal office systems (including Office 2010 beta) nor any of the home/technical/diagnostic/test software I have run on it.

I have installed it on dozens of computers with no problems. It has had built in drivers for all motherboards I have tried (and some were quite old) except for a couple of really ancient ones by small manufacturers such as PC Chips (with weird onboard graphics and bug ridden HDD and RAID controller). The muiltilanguage support has also been rock solid.

It transforms notebooks - especially those struggling to run Vista.

For XP owners, it runs much more sweetly than XP even on older hardware with smaller amounts of memory.

It is easily the best operating system produced by Microsoft. XP can now safely be upgraded and Vista can be tossed in the nearest Klong. I already find myself migrating away from Ubuntu.

Edited October 22, 2009 by stolidfeline

[TheNerd]

I'll wait until all the bugs have been ironed out and the final verdict comes in.

What bugs, I have been using Win7 now for more than 2 month, best ever OS from Microsoft

[rambling]

The RTM version of Windows has been available for some time and has been evaluated by many of us ever since MS released it. It has been 100% stable. I have not seen a single blue screen yet, with normal office systems (including Office 2010 beta) nor any of the home/technical/diagnostic/test software I have run on it.

I have installed it on dozens of computers with no problems. It has had built in drivers for all motherboards except for ancient ones by small manufacturers such as PC Chips (with weird onboard graphics and bug ridden HDD and RAID controller). The muiltilanguage support has also been rock solid. It transforms notebooks - especially those struggling to run Vista.

For XP owners, it runs much more sweetly than XP even on older hardware with smaller amounts of memory.

It is easily the best operating system produced by Microsoft. XP can now safely be upgraded and Vista can be tossed in the nearest Klong.

It's interesting to see how most people who have tried Win7 really like it and think it's a great OS, while on the other hand the Mac fanboys, Linux, and Dos 1.0 guys are all trying to convince and reinforce to themselves why they shouldn't like it.

[solai4]

I am using Windows 7 and also windows XP

Windows 7 Is a awesome OS Like Xp......

But 100 Times Better then Vista Too

[SNGLIFE]

Good luck trying to buy it from the MS Store! After several failed attempts to buy online, followed by calls to my credit card company to confirm and reconfirm nothing was wrong there, followed by 6 calls to Microsoft Store to place the order via a human, I finally got an order confirmation:

Aaaaargh! Things to come, perhaps?

I have to retract my last post. The process sucked, but I just received my download link email. Downloading the 3 GB 64bit ISO now. Est. @12-15 hours on Maxnet 3MB THB 590 cheapo DSL plan in Chonburi (and happy with it!).

[rayw]

No, I wont go for it - I use Linux. Windoes is too expensive and slow.

Yep as I never went over to Vista. But I need a 64 bit OS now as XP 32 can only address 4 GB total memory which leaves me about 3 GB after my graphics card and other bits take up 1 GB. With a 64 bit OS such as Windows 7 it can address more memory than I could possibly want in the foreseeable future and runs faster too. Now waiting for a working hacked copy to become generally available (it wont be long !) as somebody said the pucker version is way too expensive to afford in Thailand with a weak pound especially Will wait a few weeks for any obvious bugs to become apparent though

Edited October 22, 2009 by rayw

[lucky2103]

No, I wont go for it - I use Linux. Windoes is too expensive and slow.

Windows way to slow??? Well it depends of your computer specifications and the use you have for it. I can't wait to see linux with Adobe CS on it, if faster, I may want to switch

Yep, WIN is too slow, thats common knowledge and no secret.

My specs are quite high (Quadcore CPU, 4GB RAM), but thats not the point: I will get an OS which runs well on my machine, not vice versa.

And yes, Adobe CS runs on Linux (use WINE, man).

Edited October 22, 2009 by lucky2103

[Pib]

I'm running Vista Home Premium on my Toshiba laptop which was made in late 2006. I pre-ordered Windows 7 from NewEgg a few months ago when Microsoft reduced the price by approx half for about 10 days. Got notice NewEgg is shipping my Win 7 within 48 hours since Win 7 has been officially released.

So, I now go to the Toshiba web site to start downloading Win 7 unique drivers/utilities for my laptop, but I' greeted with the notice that Toshiba is only directly supporting Toshiba models made in 2007 - 2009 with drivers/utilities. Now, that don't mean models made earlier can not run Win 7, it just means Toshiba is leaving many of it customers on their own to see how their laptops run after a Win 7 install/upgrade and probably do a shot in the dark in loading a driver/utility that was made for a 207-09 model. The Win 7 upgrade advisor says some of the Toshiba drivers may or may not work probably because Windows does not have an compatibility info; but otherwise, the advisor says my machine can run Win 7 and all the other software loaded is Win 7 compliant.

Yes, I'm some-what unhappy with Toshiba...here my laptop is still a few months short of being 3 years old and they are not providing support driver/utility support. Sounds a little like the Vista release days when many hardware/software manufacturers were still playing catchup make compatible software/drivers/etc.

Edited October 22, 2009 by Pib

[ryladie99]

Windows 7 hits the market

NEW YORK: -- Although the official U.S. launch event is still some hours away, Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system has hit the market, going on sale in a number of countries across the globe.

Executives from Microsoft have fanned out to celebrate the launch of the company's core product upon which the rest of Redmond's empire has been built. The software giant is counting on favorable reviews and new features to help Windows rebuilt its image in the face of a disappointing response to Windows Vista.

Microsoft is touting the value of Windows in the face of a resurgent Apple. As part of the launch, Microsoft is celebrating seven days of deals in a number of key markets, including the United States. Among the specials is a $1,200 package from Hewlett-Packard and Best Buy that includes a Netbook, laptop, desktop, monitor and router as well as in-home installation.

"The Best Buy offer is a home makeover," Microsoft Vice President Tami Reller told CNET News. "For the price of a Mac you have a new notebook, a new Netbook, a new desktop, and a new router to bring it together with the help of the Geek Squad."

In addition to landing on new PCs, Microsoft will also sell stand-alone versions of Windows 7 that can be used to upgrade an existing PC. Although Microsoft still offers a half-dozen different flavors of the operating system in all, Redmond is focusing its energies around two versions--the Home Premium and Professional versions.

It will sell both a full version of the operating system that can be used on any hardware as well as an upgrade version to be used on existing PCs. Although both Windows XP and Windows Vista can be upgraded to Windows 7, only Vista can be done without backing up and reinstalling both programs and data.

A huge marketing blitz will accompany the debut of Windows 7, with Microsoft continuing its "I'm a PC" campaign, by featuring average users who point to various aspects of the new operating system as representing their idea.

Microsoft plans to formalize the launch with an event here with CEO Steve Ballmer (CNET News will cover the 11 a.m. ET event live). The software maker is also opening its first retail store, in Scottsdale, Ariz., as well as a "Windows Cafe" in Paris.

Steven Sinofsky, the divisional president who has spearheaded the development of Windows 7, is presiding over the Japanese launch of the product, while designer Julie Larson-Green is at an event in London.

Microsoft employees in Redmond's Building 37 plan to remotely ring the bell to open Nasdaq trading on Thursday, while Microsoft and its computer maker partners will ring the closing bell.

The product has already gone on sale in Australia.

-- CNET 2009-10-22

Yep I will upgrade for my new computer. So far 2000 is working okay?? Thanks for posting and you are sooo awesome...Have a good night...US time...

[screamingeagle]

No, I wont go for it - I use Linux. Windoes is too expensive and slow.

Might consider it when Service Pack 1 comes out....

[wineman]

Not until it's proven reliable. Remember Vista when that was released?

[SNGLIFE]

Good luck trying to buy it from the MS Store! After several failed attempts to buy online, followed by calls to my credit card company to confirm and reconfirm nothing was wrong there, followed by 6 calls to Microsoft Store to place the order via a human, I finally got an order confirmation:

Aaaaargh! Things to come, perhaps?

I have to retract my last post. The process sucked, but I just received my download link email. Downloading the 3 GB 64bit ISO now. Est. @12-15 hours on Maxnet 3MB THB 590 cheapo DSL plan in Chonburi (and happy with it!).

Switched to Orbit downloader and it says just 3.5 hours!

[Beggar]

Good that it hits only the market and not me...

[anuban]

Any body got links to prices for buying locally? Also if you look at this page it looks like I will HAVE to buy the ultimate version in order to use Windows 7 in English, since I am assuming that all local versions will be in Thai. The beta and RC version that Microsoft gave out were Ultimate versions of course.

According to Microsoft the Thai release date is October 24th, which is a bit late due to Thai language support issues. However, I have talked to a few of the sales people around Panthip etc and nobody has any idea of the prices.

Any info would be great.

[barry]

I'm waiting for WINDOWS 8

[ryladie99]

Got the RTM version since July and it's runing well. I'm using Windows

7 Ultimate 64bits. I do not notice so much difference with Windows

Vista 64Bits on my desktop. Well, it takes less memory and boot a bit

faster.

My specifications :

Q6600 @ 3.2GHz<br>8GB RAM PC8500 GSKILL

3To combined Hard Disk<br>GC HD3870 (soon will be replaced by HD5850)

Anyway, there was more improvement on my Laptop and gain much more battery life. For light use as internet, some Photoshop use, I get over 4Hrs (3h15 with Vista 64bits) and when watching FULL HD Movies I get about 3h20mn (2h30 with Vista 64Bits).

For now I don't have nay bad thought about Windows 7. It's running very well as good as Vista 64bits on desktop, but much better than Vista on Laptop.

Thanks for telling and I hope you enjoy your Window 7 ( WOW ).. I like Bill and Malinda Gate..Both are doing so much for India and Africa..unlike others CEOs in US opp I forget to mention CEO Nike did give Stanford for 100 millions for undergraduate students first year admission...my take and opinion...

[fiercesnake]

I won't be using it just now, the test program says My graphics card is no good and I will not buy a new card just to upgrade to a new OS.

Ahh! That's the trick. It is a constant ruse within the IT industry; many cannot just upgrade one item without having to upgrade a lot of other peripherals or associated software programs. It is a constant struggle to keep up with all and the devaluation on computers means that as an investment, they are simply NOT an investment for resale.

Windows 7 is NOT a rethink. This is still the same base operating system with a large amount of tweaks and improvements. Insiders say a complete revamp to the Windows base is quite a few years off and for now it's just improvement on the central Microsoft Windows package. There is a common-sense reason for this, economic return. There are many experts that could move this technology ahead even quicker but due to the millions already invested in R&D, clearly corporations want to rake in as much as possible before moving on. Logical for shareholders and corporate strategy.

Vista was a flop and did not achieve the expected sales nor did it reach the expectations given the advertising hype. The few companies that went with Vista were mostly disappointed and many even rejected it completely and returned to XP. Windows 7 has been hopefully designed without as much hype and let us hope the claim of increased start-up speed and improved overall operating will be achieved. For now I'm not rushing out. XP still performs to a good standard for all that I and many people require. However I am hopeful that Gate's team has made some genuine improvements over Vista, but beware, just as "Victor15" found, do you need new gear to upgrade along with it???

[chefshane]

My friend upgrade his Samsung nc10 to win7 and battery time go down from 8 hour to 3,5-4 hour! Good reason skip this suxx product.

Wow - I had opposite experience.

I upgraded from XP - formatted & installed Win 7 trial version.

Got increased battery life, programs opened twice as fast, no memory issues, and no compatibility issues (except skype - now rectified)

Had massive problems with XP - most notebooks have issues with drivers - as a way to move people to Vista.

Also had many dramas with vista (first release, and then an upgrade) - until my laptop got stolen - then the new laptop I had to buy with Vista SP2 was fine.

My concern is that nobody in Thailand is gonna sell a registered copy.

All are pirated knock offs.

The ones who do have no idea about computers and sell them unopened from the box - so you cannot look at the laptop or use it first.

I wouldn't upgrade to win 7.

Format and get a clean version, or buy a laptop with it already installed and all drivers complete and ready.

It is an awesome OS that should make up for the twin disasters of win 2000 and vista

[ryladie99]

The REAL FORCE ... for Productivity, Security and Performance is called "Mac OS"

i stop using windows at NT 4.0 already .. and so far it did not getting better at all until vista

Really, Really?

lifehacker.com/278898/reset-your-lost-os-x-password

Ups! Anyone can see anything in "Mac OS".

Good Luck for you! Don't take osx outside your home...

Wow?? I wish you were here?? I live not far from Steve's Jobs Apple Company...8 months ago he went to my city Hall ( 6 months ago he was at home...sick??? ) for his new campus...the North Vallco..I did a study for him and the city hall. I heard so much good thing about Steve Jobs...very very down to earth person. By the way, you own a new Mac computer yet?? It is a real thin one..and very very cute...Well I am a fan of Bill Gate so I will not trade my window for Apple...Good luck for all the techgies....enjoy what you have and 2000 window is not so bad?? my opinon...thanks to everyone...

[Djaotchou]

I'll be dumping windows as soon as I can - I'd rather use an untested OS like Chrome than anything form Microsoft.

Chrome is a browser, not an OS. Thanks for sharing your informed opinion with us though.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/int...-chrome-os.html

Edited October 22, 2009 by Djaotchou

[ryladie99]

"Wait until the bugs are ironed out"????

Windows 7 first beta had less bugs and was alot more stable then both windows XP and vista. I've been using Windows 7 RC for a while now (thats probably the one sold in pantip ). It's faster then vista (and xp) and a lot easier to use as well.

I have 5 computers with vista and xp with windows 7 as the second operating system on them. A family pack with windows 7 already on the way.

No doubt i'm going to change to 7 afther using the RC version (release candidate - last test version before it's out in the shops) .

Another thing that is important to me is the security when you are online. That as well is far better on windows 7. I wouldn't dare use windows 2000 online today

Hello my friend??

I use window 2000 and have the virus protection year in year out...So far I am all right with 700 e-mails a day..no problem at this point??? Ready for window 7 anytime...those hackers will work day in and day out..I wish we have the international law that sending these pp to jails for life from stealing others identifications....my point...and opinion.

[Wolfie]

Not until it's proven reliable. Remember Vista when that was released?

This is a whole different beast my friend. I was an early adopter of Vista and yes, that sucked a$$ for the first few months, none of the driver vendors were ready with Vista compatible versions, the OS was buggy and unstable - a total disaster! Windows 7 however, even from the early public beta release just 'worked' out of the box, it found all drivers automatically during install (maybe not the latest, but drivers that worked) and once the install was completed another 20 minutes with the Windows Update program brought all my drivers upto date and current. It was a stable opperating system with a much smaller memory footprint and much faster than Vista. Non-scientific tests showed me that Windows 7 felt faster than XP - and all of this with the early beta release. I have since moved to the Release Candidate version and i have the same experience, so unless Microsoft go and break something between Release Candidate and the Full Final Release - Windows 7 is a very stable opperating system.

I think you will find that people with experience of Windows 7 will generally echo my comments

[Fabdial]

No, I wont go for it - I use Linux. Windoes is too expensive and slow.

Windows way to slow??? Well it depends of your computer specifications and the use you have for it. I can't wait to see linux with Adobe CS on it, if faster, I may want to switch

Yep, WIN is too slow, thats common knowledge and no secret.

My specs are quite high (Quadcore CPU, 4GB RAM), but thats not the point: I will get an OS which runs well on my machine, not vice versa.

And yes, Adobe CS runs on Linux (use WINE, man).

You have to emulate Adobe CS to use on Linux. I know it's much slower than with windows so I pass. The other problems are also Graphic Card driver on Linux...

[Fabdial]

Not until it's proven reliable. Remember Vista when that was released?

This is a whole different beast my friend. I was an early adopter of Vista and yes, that sucked a$ for the first few months, none of the driver vendors were ready with Vista compatible versions, the OS was buggy and unstable - a total disaster! Windows 7 however, even from the early public beta release just 'worked' out of the box, it found all drivers automatically during install (maybe not the latest, but drivers that worked) and once the install was completed another 20 minutes with the Windows Update program brought all my drivers upto date and current. It was a stable opperating system with a much smaller memory footprint and much faster than Vista. Non-scientific tests showed me that Windows 7 felt faster than XP - and all of this with the early beta release. I have since moved to the Release Candidate version and i have the same experience, so unless Microsoft go and break something between Release Candidate and the Full Final Release - Windows 7 is a very stable opperating system.

I think you will find that people with experience of Windows 7 will generally echo my comments

For my desktop computer, I didn't have to install any driver, everything was running well and ready to use after 20mn installation.

[d0ndela]

Any body got links to prices for buying locally? Also if you look at this page it looks like I will HAVE to buy the ultimate version in order to use Windows 7 in English, since I am assuming that all local versions will be in Thai. The beta and RC version that Microsoft gave out were Ultimate versions of course.

According to Microsoft the Thai release date is October 24th, which is a bit late due to Thai language support issues. However, I have talked to a few of the sales people around Panthip etc and nobody has any idea of the prices.

Any info would be great.

Windows 7 is already available from the Thai distributors, they have not yet given any SRP (Suggested Retail Price) so I guess no one knows where the price is going to settle. You can have a look here for the 4 Win7 versions available, shop4thai have added windows 7 as well, all at the same prices.

All versions have English language.

Edited October 22, 2009 by d0ndela