Microsoft has pushed out its first patch for the Windows 7 public beta. The update saves your MP3s from a rather nasty bug that trims seconds off any song that's been edited, either by you or via automatic updates from Windows Media Player. If you've got afflicted files, there's a chance they're salvageable via properties window, according to the patch notes -- and if not, then here's hoping you backed up your library. Additionally, a new update has gone out to Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Server 2003 / 2008 that fixes some vulnerabilities in the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. Beta users won't get their fix until the next public release, explains Microsoft Security Response Team's Christopher Budd, since it's only considered a "moderate" risk for the new OS.
Read - Microsoft issues first Windows 7 beta patch
Read - Patch notes / how to fix afflicted MP3s
Read - Security update
posted Jan 14th 2009 7:25AM
"since it's only considered a "moderate" risk for the new OS."
read: it's beta, deal with it.
I'm glad the word is finally getting out. I've been telling all my friends to please not load their MP3s on Windows 7 and at least one of them did it anyway, the idiot.
Why exactly would you load your music or a lot of programs onto a beta. Back it up people.
@Samboini: that's a little harsh, seemed like a perfectly reasonable comment to me, yours on the other hand was both offensive and completely irrelevant to the topic at hand, so i propose it is you that goes forth and procreates.
@Zioncat: You are absolutely right... Why load all apps and music on the beta?
I am dual-booting with XP on my Aspire one. So I can access all my data from C drive.
And as of the apps, I just portable apps, so I don't have to install them.... And the music, netbooks are not meant for it so I use my iPod....
FIX UAC! If I say a program is OK, don't ask me again on reboot. Also sidebar doesn't work with UAC off.
@ Paul Chapel:
Do you hit F5 all the time, every day waiting for an MS-related story to pop up so you can say something negative? Is that how sad your life is?
You know, for a Beta, this is getting pretty full-on
Imagine how good it's going to be when you have to PAY for it?
I'm willing to pay for it (it'd be real nice if they had something like what they have with Office, where you pay for 3 Licenses)
Yeah, I'm not bitching, just stating a fact ;)
Why should they hurry for a fix for a beta product? They don owe us a fix, they'll do when they want.
Er... Yeah, I wasn't replying to you.
But fair enough.
They do need to fix bugs like this if they want people to thoroughly test their software. Nobody will test an OS that corrupts their data will they.
anyone who realizes this is a beta should either use a dedicated test computer or setup, or backup everything regularly if they put anything important on that computer.
I can't wait to get this on my secondary computer to play with some.
I ran win7 on a 2nd HDD for a week, i had NO problems, now its my main OS, no vista install, but it doesn't matter to much to me, all my data is kept on another HDD, if the OS dies, all i lose is the install and maybe some stuff that doesn't matter.
Personally I would pay for it right now! I just wish it could be updated to the new version without having to wipe it first.
I think they realize the early issues with vista and are trying to make amends. And its smarter to give them a taste because when it comes to launch alot more people will buy the totally stable and sealed in plastic release.....
I can't wait for a stable release, I am sick of Windows XP :)
You didn't have to stick with XP. Vista is perfectly stable.
I tend to disagree
Vista's still got some issues, like all goes crap after sleep and then waking it, registry bloat after using it for some time that slows just about everything, and being quite resource intensive, although not that much of a problem with a modern pc.
What problems after sleep? It was rubbish before SP1 but seems to be OK now.
As for registry bloat, that's more down to craptastic third party software that doesn't unisntall properly. CCleaner and other apps will sort that out.
'registry bloat'?
Do you even understand what the registry is or how it works? Particularly with the virtualization schemes that Vista uses, the registry is unbelievably resilient against 'bloat' impacting performance on any perceivable level.
Vista is certainly a worthwhile upgrade if you can afford a new computer that can handle it. However, Mobius has a valid point if you are looking for a PC with Vista. The bloat after a day of running is ridiculous and it forces to me restart my PC everyday since it only has 3Gb of RAM and Vista quickly eats that up in a 24 hour period. With that said, I greatly prefer Vista over XP (which I run on my laptop, but is now dual booting with Win7 and will not be used until August)
OK, first of all, despite what all these "registry cleaner" companies want you to think, "registry bloat" has never been shown to have ANY impact on a computer's performance.
As for the sleep thing: I leave vista running for weeks at a time, often putting it to sleep when I leave for a significant amount of time. EVENTUALLY, and I mean after at least 14 sleep and wake cycles, the sound will quit working, or flash videos will only play 2 seconds at a time and then freeze. Happens to me about once a month. It doesn't really bug me very much though.
Other than that, vista is a perfectly stable OS on suitable hardware, and with some tweaking, people have gotten it to run fine on netbooks. Vista gets a bad rap because it had a bad start. For example, 1 out of 3 early crashes were caused by nvidia driver problems. Not exactly nvidia's fault as microsoft kept changing some APIs all the way up until release, effectively screwing over companies like nVidia who were working their asses off trying to get drivers out.
When I hear comments like Mobius_1's, all I see is a "me-too" person trying to be "trendy" for saying vista still has major issues big enough to warrant avoiding it like the plague, and that's simply not true.
My XP screensaver breaks every time I watch a flash movie. Oh the agony.
That piece of code that specifies "if it's been changed, delete it" is a little much. Why would somebody sit down to write that code unless you had some sort of sinister side.
It doesn't delete seconds off your song because it's been changed. The first seconds of the song are 'lost' because the header (containing the song info) got corrupted, not because of some sinister "it changed so we destroy it" scenario.
But feel free to perpetuate Gutman's lies and paranoia about Windows and media if you feel a need to.
Thanks for the clarification. I misunderstood.
+1 for J
Sorry, my bad for misjudging you. Too much FUD going around about Windows.
i got it running on my 300Mhz PII with 64MB of RAM.
How many days does it take to boot?
define running...
Good work... Does it have SuperAERO ??
You could call that jogging for fast walking at best..
That must be such a pain in the ass.
Is there a way to know or test to see if this has happened to your music? (other than just going in and listening to every track)
Patch is almost 7 days old .... you guys needed computer world?
it's only just been released to Windows Update...read the article...
When I started downloading the beta I got a little notification just under the key notifying me that this issue was a problem and had been fixed and if I had a problem I would need to download A bug fix and reinstall the fix again. But it stated that it had been fixed. so is this a new fix or just the old one. I downloaded the beta Friday-Sunday.
That should have been Friday-Saturday.
Quick question. I partitioned my hard drive to dual boot with vista so I could play around with it. I didnt load any of my music onto Windows 7, but it is on the same hard drive. Does this affect me? I do have music on vista, but I didnt transfer or load it onto windows 7. This is my first beta so i'm a little new to all of this. I downloaded the beta yesterday.
Matt. I'm the same set-up and it hasn't posed a problem for me but I haven't played any music in windows 7.
Thanks for the info. I just wont listen to my music on windows 7 until I get the patch or bug fix. I did back it up 2 days ago so I should be fine either way.
The update is out. Just need to go to windows update.
wtf.,thought u carried ipod in left pocket n samsung glide in other on sprint network.,
granted this bug is nasty, and for a market release this would be pretty bad press; not to mention why would they even program such a feature as having it edit the audio of music files to begin with is beyond me-- but..."If you've got afflicted files, there's a chance they're salvageable via properties window, according to the patch notes -- and if not, then here's hoping you backed up your library", who on earth would place their non-backed up music library onto a beta build?
There is quite a few stupid people out there who don't understand what a beta build is. People like Paul chapel.
There 'are' quite a few people out there. Of course, I see what you did there. '-'
Some patch recently allowed my old laptop to use Aero. It was a nice surprise, since I didn't really plan to attempt to make it work.
I know, Microsoft are quite fast to fix stuff... its surprising!
Hah... so long after those open source geeks are tired of Compiz with so many bunches of pretty and customizable effects on their Intel GMA950. Finally windows user can try this on their laptop.
Congratulation!
lol @ those who got their un-backed up library corrupted by this.
They can't even complain.
Good Luck Microsoft. A lot of high hopes for Windows 7.
Despite any Windows version i will stay with WINAMP with Classic Skin FOREVER for my Mp3's!!!
/Very Happy and satisfied W7 7000Build User
While I like the new skin (Bento) better, I tend to agree. I use Winamp on all of my machines. It's worked excellently for me for years now and I haven't seen reason to stop using it. The only time the WMP engine gets used is when I am using Media Center on my HTPC setup in the living room. Then I browse through folders like a jukebox and play them in WMC.
OMG YES I NEED WINDOWS 7
OMG YES I NEED WINDOWS 7
I gotta say, I'm really liking this new attitude MS seems to have, at least when it comes to Windows 7 - early public beta, quick patches, an OS that already even in beta seems to be better than either Vista or XP, and they also said they're going to drastically reduce the number of editions (I'm hoping for something like home, server and possibly media center). It's almost like they're making a product for customers, instead of themselves :)
This is precisely why they say use a dedicated computer for testing purposes and back up your data. If you didn't do that, then you must be new to beta testing and it's unfortunate that you had to learn this lesson the hard way, but it's an important lesson to learn. I just want to reiterate what others have been saying about MS and Win7, the attitude is very different from what many of us were expecting. They are taking this beta very seriously, especially with a release not planned for almost a whole year. This is how beta testing should be done. If MS waited until beta was over to fix these problems then there'd be a SP to fix the bugs that came in the beta fixes and another shortly after to fix the bugs from the first SP. This way the final product should be just that, a final product.
I'm confused, does this affect me if I'm using a third party player to play my files?
Only if it uses Windows Media Foundation, I believe, which most won't.
Who uses Windows Media Player anyways? It's the biggest pain in the ass for any kind of music files/playing, no matter what version of Windows you may have.
I use it - for syncing my music collection with my Windows Mobile phone (a BlackJack II running WM6.1 - which I upgraded myself). It brings all my album art over to the cell phone and allows my phone to update the list with the number of stars I rate each track with while listening to them on my bus ride to work each day. I actually listen to my music more away from home than at home this way.
I use it. Whether or not you find it best to meet your needs, it's a fine player. There's a lot of plug-ins for it (so if you need more codecs, just go here wmplugins.com), it's at least pretty-looking, search is quick, and if you're a person that buys his/her media, there's a great selection of choices on WMP. It also has a taskbar mode, so you can control it straight from the taskbar. It's nifty.
If you want something more, that's fine. But don't say there aren't users for WMP. That's just dumb.
I'm blessed to have a friend who works for MS and when this comes out in shrinkwrap, I'll be one of the first with a boxed copy! BTW, I'm installing it now at work on a test computer to see how well it plays with my company's proprietary software. Vista needed a tweak here and there (and required UAC to be disabled) to allow our programs to run correctly so I'm anxious to see what differences W7 offers.
This sucks!! I knew I should of used iTunes to load movies/songs onto my cell,, oh wait I did it's an iPhone ,dee dee deee !
Why? So iTunes could do something utterly idiotic like make a copy of every song in your library in the same folder with a different name? (But with different id3 tags, so you can't just run a binary 'kill all duplicates')
Or delete ALL of your album art?
Or something equally idiotic?
I'd take an MP3 player that plays my songs backwards over iTunes.
Why do you always say "dee dee dee" after every post? I don't get it.
"Who uses Windows Media Player anyways? It's the biggest pain in the ass for any kind of music files/playing, no matter what version of Windows you may have."
Other than the fact I use it to sync with my windows phone and to power my xbox media extender, WMP has one of the best search features i've seen and finding album art is pretty easy. Occasionally I get black album covers but maybe 1 or 2 albums out of hundreds.
I have to agree with Mio The Great on iTunes. I'm not sure how it works on a PC (because I refuse to install it on my new quad core) but on my four year old iMac, it takes all your music and "hides" them away into what looks like a single, proprietary database file. There's no directory with sub directories to explore so you can forget about digging around the hard drive to find your music - you must use iTunes. This philosophy permeates other Apple software, such as iPhoto. Apple wants to keep you out of the hard drive and use their program front ends for all file interactions.
I've got a list of issues with Windows 7 after serious testing although I think it is a clear step above Vista.
I like Windows 7 but I have some concerns that I'd like addressed before final release
First thing - EVERYONE I spoke to even at the MS booth at CES said they want the UP FOLDER back in explorer - yes there are other ways to go back one folder but the up folder was convenient.
Classic start menu - not an option - classic start menu makes it easier to support clients if they have key components such as network properties and my computer on the desktop. I'm not saying it should be the default but why not make it an option as it was in Windows XP and Vista? I realize you can put some icons on the desktop (not IE) using personalize.
Media Center won't let you click on album art cover once a song is already playing to play the new song from the album art cover. Seems only logical.
Media Center - often has static in playback - using Audigy 2z sound card.
Search works well but it would be great if the search in the start menu had a drop down just like run has in the start menu so you can repeat a search from your search history.
Aero interface stops working without message so flip 3d stops with alt-tab - using the troubleshooting fix sometimes solves it by enabling desktop manager - sometimes it can't - how do you manually enable Windows desktop manager - personalize desktop works but nothing to control the aero interface
Since most current receivers and other media streaming capable devices will support .flac file playback, it seems a shame not to use the native media player in windows as a media streaming server - instead because windows does not natively support flac playback, we have to look at alternative hardware streaming solutions or mediaplayers similar to windows media player but with flac support such as tversity or Twonky or Nero
Winver does not tell you if you are running 64 or 32 bit - computer properties would be improved if 64 or 32 bit was listed in the top section. It never states if you are installing the 32 or 64 bit version during installation.
It would be nice if it was easy to see what version and build of windows you were running by going to computer properties or by running winver - currently it tells you Windows Version 6.1 - Build 70000 - it doesn't say 7000 x64 081212-1400
During Install if you attempt to install with a brand new drive it won't install until you format the drive and reboot.
There is no desktop icon for IE - this was very handy for clear items and change settings etc before going into IE.
Do something with the 200 MB partion in disk manager so it is clear that it is a restore point or whatever - change the color of it, just make it more clearly defined.
You do realize that this is a BETA, right? While I happen to agree that the lack of the "Up Folder" button is quite annoying, that is the purpose of a beta. To determine bugs, flaws, weak points, strong points, likes, dislikes, and an overall impression of a piece of software or an OS in this case.
That is exactly WHY I am posting. I pointed out similar issues with Vista (besides it just being butt slow) and MS ignored my comments even though it was a limited beta. This time I thought I'll post EVERYWHERE - that way MS can keep saying it is just beta - but in the end if they don't put those features back in at release it won't be as if I hadn't tried to inform them. Generally though not many features get put back in once there is a public beta unless enough people comment.
Again I'm not condemning Windows 7 - I actually REALLY want it to be great. I'll make tons of money if people like Windows 7. The only money I got because of Vista was upgrading people who bought it to Windows XP.
I made sure to spend time at the MS booths at CES however I didn't meet anyone who seemed like an engineer or who really understood Windows 7 (including the guy doing the Windows 7 presentation).
The more I can do to make this product good, the more money I'll make besides I wouldn't mind a new OS on my home systems and laptops.
so far i am LOVING windows 7, ive got a 5 year old computer with 1 gig of ram and vista ran 100% fine, but 7 runs twice as fast, transferring gigs from one hard drive to the other is fast now i love it!!
sadly, since its a beta i cant get my old printer to work, so im going to have to go to back to vista x64 when school starts .... because i needs my printz!!
Not to poke at Engadget's slow updates on the beta, but I've had this patch since January 9th. Maybe you should actually pay attention to when these are released.