Hands-On With Windows 7's New Features 662
Barence writes "Microsoft has released the first pre-beta code of Windows 7, and PC Pro has a series of in-depth, hands-on examinations of all the new features. The revamped user interface has clearly gleaned more than a little inspiration from the Mac OS X Dock, but it goes further than the Apple concept with 'jumplists,' new gadgets and an updated system tray. The much-vaunted multi-touch controls were there to play with, and it seemed to work well. Networking has been given the full treatment, with new features HomeGroup and Libraries. Windows 7 debuts a new feature called Device Stage that has the potential to be unbelievably handy ... or a complete disaster. Finally, several new features could make PCs easier to manage and secure for IT departments, such as BitLocker To Go and Branch Cache." All in all, these features together lead some people to the conclusion that Windows 7 will "suck less than Vista" — that last link from reader ThinSkin, who also points to a related sampling of screenshots from the current iteration of Windows 7.
Capabilities (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, but can it run all my old viruses?
Hands on approach (Score:4, Funny)
Get that index finger in shape for pushing the reset button. Also, toughen up your fists for pounding your desk or hitting the wall.
handy disaster (Score:5, Funny)
Hmmm. I wonder which way Microsoft will take this....
Plus ? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What's a gamer to do? (Score:5, Funny)
I was looking at buying a new gaming rig recently but I refuse to buy an operating system that hobbles the performance.
I know what you mean--they all hobble performance. Anything past the BIOS is just bells and whistles that ruins my gaming experience completely.
On a related note, do you know where I can pick up a copy of Tie Fighter that works on IBM's Extended Firmware Interface (EFI)?
Look familliar... (Score:5, Funny)
No more registry? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Capabilities (Score:3, Funny)
Don't worry, they are easy to upgrade.
Re:Hands on approach (Score:5, Funny)
Surprise! (Score:5, Funny)
Next week's news: Windows 7 is actually--surprise!--Windows Mojave!
db
WinFS (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What's a gamer to do? (Score:2, Funny)
It's my main machine and I don't have problems other than the ATI video driver crapping out every now and then but vista is able to restart just the video driver and keep running whereas XP will just blue screen.
Hey, great! AT least they're making progress. At this rate by 2015 they migh catch up with Linux!
The downside is, that old joke "your mouse just moved, please restart your computer" is no longer valid.
Re:Capabilities (Score:5, Funny)
Ah good, so it still won't run my old scanner and laserjet printer properly.
Re:What's a gamer to do? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What's a gamer to do? (Score:3, Funny)
Running GAMECONFIG.EXE to say yes, my SoundBlaster is on IRQ 7, my display can handle 1024x769 in 256 colours, and no, I don't have an AdLib card.
You misspelled 320x200. ;)
(Okay, that was a pointless nitpick, but we didn't really start seeing >640x480 games until well after Windows 95 came along.)
Re:What's a gamer to do? (Score:3, Funny)
Come on, that was most of the fun! Once you managed to convince your system to boot and still retain 620k of basic memory, and you could play the game, you quickly got bored with it. And of course 640k was enough for anyone, it was just that everything wanted a piece of it :P. I do remember having at least 5 boot options depending on what I was doing - by the end, the load all boot option managed to take almost 1/2 of that 640k IIRC.
Anyway - I know it's not practical, but in some ways I really wish that games on all systems were as hard to run now as they were then - You'd only get players that really wanted to play. If you spend 2 weeks tinkering with your system, trying everything known to man (and some things not), you're unlikely to log on to the game servers for the first time and proclaim, after much pondering, "LOLLLLLZ U SUXXORS ADMINS KISS MY ASS I'M A 1337 H4X0R FUCK U N00BZ"
Re:What's a gamer to do? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, I also run Vista and it never cra
Re:Well, if Apple is any indication... (Score:3, Funny)
what vendor *wouldn't* love to lock their users into *their* online services and *their* software to manage content on their portable devices and the like - all the while being able to advertise their other services, products, etc.
Um...Debian [debian.org]?
(Just sayin'...) :)
Re:Capabilities (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What's a gamer to do? (Score:5, Funny)
Then we had to edit the autoexec.bat and config.sys
Edit? I wrote them from scratch! I still have etched into my brain "SET blaster=A220 I5 D1".
Re:What's a gamer to do? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Capabilities (Score:3, Funny)
Audio and video production... on XP.
I'm sorry, but I've never, ever met a professional audio or video producer who used anything but the Mac. And, being an artsy fartsy type, I've met a lot.
Anecdotal evidence, to be sure, but...
Re:What's a gamer to do? (Score:3, Funny)
On many systems the updates http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940510 [microsoft.com] and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931573 [microsoft.com] can cause a lot of problems.