Windows 7 install roundup
By Paul Miller 
posted Jan 20th 2009 11:01AM
posted Jan 20th 2009 11:01AM
Joshua Topolsky
- MacBook Pro (unibody)
- 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 4GB of RAM
Install process:
Partitioned the drive with Boot Camp, popped in a burned Windows 7 disc and booted to it just fine. Formatted the partition and installed, nary a bump. Installed Vista graphics drivers from NVIDIA's site.
First impressions:
Fast boot times, and the graphics drivers and WiFi work great. Unfortunately, the sound and webcam still aren't working, and the trackpad experience is pretty bad with the new unibody MacBook Pro button-free pad, even with the latest drivers -- there's no right click, for instance. Also, hit a BSoD when trying to resize an active title bar. Microsoft has clearly taken time to listen to people this go-round and made some noticeable ease-of-use improvements, but I think the real power of Win 7 likely lies in its trimmed requirements and ability to adapt to a wide variety of systems... just like XP.
Paul Miller
- Dell Dimension 9150
- Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz dual core
- 2.5GB RAM
- NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT graphics
- Windows Vista SP1
Install process:
Ripped the install DVD and put the contents on a USB flash drive in a folder called "windows," ran setup.exe from there. The "upgrade" method failed, but failed gracefully, with the full original Vista setup remaining. Tried a clean install (with the old install moved to windows.old) and it worked flawlessly. Took about an hour.
First impressions:
Boot times and responsiveness seem comparable to Windows Vista, though the time from start-up to usability is improved. Drivers for a multitude of odd hardware pulled just fine. Unfortunately, there seem to be some problems with returning from sleep with the GeForce card -- certain window elements won't draw, the system becomes unstable and it continually cycles the graphics card, none of which happened with Windows Vista.
- Sony Vaio P
- Intel Atom Z520 1.33GHz
- 2GB of RAM
- Windows Vista SP1
Install process:
Ripped the install DVD and put the contents on a USB flash drive in a folder called "windows," ran setup.exe from there. A clean install (with the old install moved to windows.old) worked flawlessly. Took about 45 minutes.
First impressions:
Machine became much more responsive and usable. OS includes a simplified, more usable version of Vista's DPI setting panel that scales UI elements to look much better on the high-res screen. We wrote up the rest of our impressions of Windows 7 on the P right here.
Thomas Ricker
System:
- MacBook Pro
- 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
- Leopard 10.5.6
Install Process:
Ripped Windows 7 Beta installer to .DMG image using Disk Utility and renamed .DMG image to .ISO. Created new virtual machine in VMware Fusion 1.1 and selected .ISO image of Windows 7 when prompted. After about 10 minutes I was up and running Windows 7 Home Basic on WiFi network.
First impressions:
There's a slight lag felt when running in the default 512MB memory slot allocated to Win7. The lag mostly disappears when dialing up the memory to 1GB -- that's mainstream netbook territory. I keep Fusion running in OS X Spaces for quick access to the Windows applications I require for day-to-day computing. Only real problem seen so far is the occasional wonky behavior when jumping in and out of VMware Fusion's full screen mode (the Win7 desktop disappears).
Nilay Patel
System:
- MacBook Pro
- 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics
- 3GB DDR2 SDRAM
Install Process:
Installed really quick'n'dirty on a Boot Camp partition just to play around for a while -- I'm going to buy a dedicated Windows 7 box soon, so this install will get deleted anyway. Didn't pay much attention to anything along the way for that reason -- I just let things happen the way they happened, and everything works fine except for trackpad right click, but I solved that by plugging in an external mouse. Took about 45 minutes start to finish.
First impressions:
Works great so far -- I'm really liking the automatic window management. Can't say I've done much to stress the system other than poke around the web and download software updates, but overall it's fast and responsive. There's still a sense that the OS is trying to help you a little too much when you do things, as opposed to the go-it-alone feeling of XP, but that might just be familiarity talking. Definitely a vast improvement over Vista -- if this is just the beta, I'm encouraged to see what the final product looks like.
Kevin Wong
- MacBook Pro
- 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 4GB of RAM
Install process:
A breeze to install via VMWare Fusion using the .ISO and entering the key. Was surprised how quickly it installed all of the updates, without a bunch of messy pop up windows or warnings. Took me all of 15 minutes to install (at most) and use right away. Allocated one core, 10GB of hard drive and 1GB of RAM and it's running smoothly.
First impressions:
Compared to Windows Vista, Windows 7 is a god send. Being a recent Apple convert, I've used XP all my life. I was stoked for Windows Vista before it came out because it looked nicer than my XP setup, but now I can look forward to Microsoft releasing a better looking product that works! It's snappy, quick and looks great, everything Vista should have been. Looking forward to installing it on a touch screen netbook soon!
Ross Miller
- HP Pavilion Elite m9150f
- 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Quad
- 3GB RAM
- NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
- Windows Vista Home Premium
- HD DVD player ... cause I'm cool like that
Install Process:
Installed from DVD. The upgrade initially refused to run, citing nondescript reasons. Eventually figured out I had to uninstall my antivirus software entirely. From there, the update ran smoothly -- good to go in less than 15 minutes.
First impressions:
Haven't noticed too much of a speed boost yet. Aero Peek is useful for checking the desktop widgets, but so far not much else. Really love being able to drag windows to the side or top of screen for tiling and maximizing, respectively. Navigation is much better, but still not as efficient for me as OS X's Exposé.
Wrap-up
Overall, pretty good experiences all around. Microsoft has clearly done a lot to get the install quick and painless, and it's great to boot an OS that seems in most cases to bring with it immediate performance and usability improvements. We'll be delving in further in the coming weeks, but Windows 7 certainly passes the "first date" test. A typical install -- including Paul's fateful upgrade failure -- plus some larger shots of our desktops are in the gallery below.
If you've installed Windows 7, please let us know in the comments what gear you're using and how it's working for you -- and feel free to add your own screencap to the Engadget Flickr Pool!
M'yes. I'd say.
in case any one is interested i've had Windows 7 x64 installed on a XPS M1330 for about a week now. Working perfectly. The only thing extra you need is the HD Audio Drivers (just use the Vista 32/64 drivers). Oh and i haven't figured out how to get the touch sensitive buttons to work.
For the touch buttons, try installing the Microsoft Keyboard software. It's not perfect, and for my laptop it pops up a window every time I adjust brightness, but it should get them to work.
I'm running it on a 4-year-old Pavilion zv6000 with an Athlon 64 3200+ processor and only 512 MB of RAM, plus an ATI Mobility XPress 200 card, and it seems to run every bit as quickly as XP (my primary OS). I think I'm in love.
Runs great on my MSI Wind! no hiccups, lag, or anything apple related! never crashed, and no errors ever!, ive completely forgotten bout OSX and XP :(, but show no mercy towards win. 7!!
I've been using windows 7 media center. Great improvements! however, when switching to an analog channel for the first time (after reboot) I get the "no tuner available" message. I have to restart media center to fix it. After that everything works fine.
The media center service still crashes sometimes and if you have 2 back to back recordings, the second recording will loose the first couple of minutes, which wont be included in the end of first recording.
Does anyone know how to back up your scheduled series recording list with TV pack? Did anyone ever figure that out?
Oh, and is the TV pack already installed in windows 7?
I haven't used my PowerMac or MB since I installed Win7x64. It's very fast and stable, not to mention usable!! Apple makes great products but they're starting to dictate what I need or don't, and I'm the one spending the $$ so that's a no no! It's getting to the point where they can put a turd in aluminum, slap a logo on it and the blind sheep will be waiting in line for 3 days to get it!! lol!!
Thread steal: anyone else notice the proportion of Mac to non-Mac machines in there?
For the touch buttons have you tried downloading the synaptics vista drivers?
sweet! ive got win7 running in boot camp as well on a last-gen macbook pro and have had nary a hiccup! looking very good so far!
Is this worth putting on for a bit of minor gaming on a macbook? (i know the graphics card aint great)
How is compatibility?
7 is amazing, finnally I can go back to Windows
I too am running windows 7 on the spring 2008 macbook pro and haven't had problems (besides sound not working - which oddly, it sometimes does...). Haven't played around with video games yet, but assuming it runs like vista did - it wont have a single problem. I would try one but all I have with me at the moment is GTA IV and if you have read any reviews on it you'll know that it has enough problems on its own.
Overall - I am highly recommending this to my friends and family who are looking for a system. I told my neighbor to just install it on the computer he just purchased and use it as his primary operating system over vista - it really is that good.
Running on a late 2007 MBP here; just awesome.
Two issues that Bootcamp for some reason doesn't address; sound and bluetooth.
Sound is easy to fix. Just download the Realtek R214 drivers and update the driver using device manager; sound works perfectly now.
BT OTOH, I haven't had any luck getting my wireless Mighty Mouse connected.
So far 7 has exceeded my expectations. Seems very responsive, using less resources (both HD and RAM) than Vista. IE8 has been ok at best; crashes quite often and is quite slow to load compared to other apps such as Office 2007.
Overall, I hope MSFT keeps it this lean for the RTM build. I think they're in good shape.
Running fine on my ThinkPad. Very nice.
Same here. 7 is finally coming, it seems.
I'm wondering if it would run ok on my old ThinkPad R50e (upgraded a while ago to 1GB RAM and 80GB HDD). The ancient hardware and drivers were happy with XP, but are now itching for Windows 7...
Wish I could say the same. Installs okay on a 10gb partition, but soon (within 30 minutes) runs into file corruption. Happens when loading random things.. one with MSN Messenger, once with Firefox, once with Thunderbird, once with a vista driver for the touchpad....
Sucks that I want to give the OS a run, and it won't. Every time it ends up in a chkdsk/reboot cycle without loading into 7.
I've given up on the Thinkpad... don't have anything else to try it on unfortunately.
Ditto on my T42. Picked up almost everything just fine. The only oddness I've found is that the volume up/down buttons operate independently of the master volume (I can hold the volume down button and the volume does in fact go down, but the system volume still shows the same level) and the pop-ups for the volume and brightness levels don't display anymore. There have also been two or three instances of it not waking up from sleep properly, but I'll chalk that up to Betaness.
I didn't switch from Win2K to XP until after XP SP1 was released, and I refused to use the resource hog named Vista. Windows 7 may just make a believer out of me yet.
Is there a prize for comparing operating systems to fast food and other hackneyed cliches?
Why yes, yes there is. It's called "Fucktard of the Week".
Installed on secondary drive in ultrabay on Lenovo z61t. Easy to dual boot using F12 to select hdd0 for Vista or hdd1 for Win7. Needed Vista driver from Lenovo for PC Card slot. Also needed driver for hot keys. Runs great. Much faster than Vista and chassis does not get nearly as hot as in Vista.
Windows 7 on a T61 = Heaven.
@Brian M
10GB? The minimum requirement for Windows 7 is 16 GB.
@Rob (sorry KIFF but for some reason not all posts have replies enabled and yours was the next one below)
I've got the Wireless mighty mouse to work on my Macbook early 2008 model. Go to add as new device and while the connecting message is there in the wizard look at the bluetooth devices window, the mighty mouse should be there. Right click it and select properties then put a tick in the Human Interface Device Service. Work great apart from the the MM timeout problem, need to click it if it has gone into powersave mode which is mighty anoying. Scroll wheel works for both horizontal and vertical scrolling in IE8 which is nice.
To get the audio drivers working on the Macbook Pro (we have have a similar setup, cept I'm using the early 08 model) you just have to install the drivers on the mac disk on their own (go into the drivers folder on the disk, and find the realtek driver install) similar situation for the iSight.
Running it on my Macbook Pro I can say that this will be the version of windows that will beat OSX, and without pushing new features, I wonder how Apple plans on selling 10.6 in comparision to Windows &. To be fair, Windows 7 doesn't have all that many new features either (or rather almost none) but Windows 7's target demographic is mostly people who have XP and didn't upgrade, or downgraded from Vista, so to them all the features are going to be new.
Once again, Paul showing he is a plagiarist. You will need to click the Show button to view. Paul, you could at least steal the text of a anti-Microsoft post that has been dugg up, and you wonder why you are always lowest ranked.
http://digg.com/microsoft/Windows_7_What_It_Means_for_Gamers?t=22583199
"I can say that this will be the version of windows that will beat OSX,"
Been hearing claims like that since Windows 3.1
@skeezle:
Umm, Microsoft has around a 90% market share. I think they have always been beating OS X
@ Brydman
Yes, and every version has tried unsuccessfully to be as good as the Mac OS.
McDonalds sells more hamburgers than anyone else, and how awesome are those!
@Byrdman:
Um, that's only because Apple doesn't whore out their OS to cheap ass manufacturers. Last time I checked, Apple was the third largest manufacturer in the U.S.
I have installed Win7 in an iMac. Installed Win Vista's Bootcamp drivers (32-bit), and it works great. But the sound doesn't work :S
haha you guys have cool wallpapers. :)
I can't figure out how Ross finds anything on his desktop. So many lines, icons, objects and confusion...
dude, i totally want Ross'es background, it's so sweet!!
it reminds me of cell shading video games.
where did he get it?
you take a look at Josh's dashboard, he's got more than twice as many icons there.
crap, I meant kevin wong not josh
So does nobody at engadget have .... a desktop? .... I'm running a dell XPS-420 at home... anyone any experience with that?
on a related note: all my sound works fine.. except for incoming audio in Live Messenger (yahoo has the same problem). I can see that there is an incoming signal, but it is so low that even with everything on "blast-your-ears-off" level I can't hear anything. Anyone know a fix for that?
What, you're not gonna be installing Windows 7 on a MacBook Pro?
I believe that the Dell Dimension 9150 and HP Pavilion Elite m9150f are both desktops. In addition, I don't see where they claim this is any sort of comprehensive review of the Windows 7 Beta. They clearly state that this is just impressions from doing installs on the computers they had available.
@ Okki
I can't believe you've admitted to buying a pre-assembled Dell on a site like engadget. If you're gonna get a desktop, you gotta build that thing yourself.
@Loban
What? I thought all Macs were pre-assembled and dropped on your doorstep by the stork!
I have a XPS 420. Use the tower mainly for Media Center. 7MC is the best best Media Center app ever. With Movie Library supporting file rips as well as disk rips, I don't really need a plugin like mymovies anymore.
Scheduling is smarter, begin able to select only HD broadcasts of syndicated shows that appear on more than 1 channel...
Native support for more file types like m2ts, mp4, and xvid avis makes it easier to setup and more options when it comes to pushing data out to the 360 or PS3.
The evolutionary changes are huge. I love it.
I have it on a
Dell Dimension 8250 (ca. 2002-2003)
Pentium 4 HT 3.06GHz
1.5GB RDRAM (yes, RDRAM)
Nvidia GeForce 7800GS 256MB
120GB IDE Hard Drive
Dell SE198WFP 19" Widescreen Monitor 1440x900
I installed by creating a partition and installing from vista but you have to unpack everything from the folder. It automatically forces vista to restart so you are better off closing everything before starting install process. It created a dual boot and selected the windows 7 partition on it's self to start the process. No Burning required. Although If there is a problem you might have to burn the disk. But saved me spending a quid that I Spent on a Galaxy caramel. It's probably different for Macs though.
I installed one on a Compaq Evo N400c
20GB 4200RPM HD
P3 850MHz
384MB PC100 Ram
Sound doesn't work, Video Driver is "Standard VGA Driver"
Runs decent for what it is, not bad for internet surfing, not too great for multitasking. Installed from USB Stick (Over USB 1.1)
Thanks for the info.
My PC is a beige box: 1.3 GHZ Duron, 512 MB RAM, Radeon 9400 (256 MB Video-Ram). It would be amazing if Windows 7 runs smoothly on this.
Windows 7 abandons XDDM-based drivers. It requires WDDM drivers. My Dell 700m display controller isn't supported either.(based on Intel 855 chipset) Intel has said they will not create WDDM drivers for the 855 chipset. Sux.
I have it on a laptop, C2D 1.7GHz, 2GB Ram, and I gotta say, it's quite nice. All my stuff works except for Filezilla, and that only has a problem dragging and dropping files into/from the explorer.
Windows Update found all my drivers for me, so no hunting for my discs.
I'm overall pretty impressed. I like the UI changes, especially docking. And there's a gesture control that not many people know about: Aero Shake. Grab a window and move it left and right quickly, all the other windows will minimize. Do it again and they come back. Also, if you click and drag up on the taskbar icons, you get the right click menu. Both of these seem designed for the touch interface, and are pretty neat additions.
I'll likely be buying a copy.
I installed Win7 on an older HP dv5000, and overall it runs fine. However, it loves to freak out when you have a secondary display hooked up, then you unplug it while the computer is asleep or hibernated. The only way to fix it is to plug the display back in, enable any multi-display option, then revert to the laptop display alone. Very odd. It's the ATI Xpress X200 series video card. Overall though, it runs amazingly fast. None of the pretty effects have any trouble. 32-bit version.
Got it on a dual boot with Vista
Acer Aspire 5920G
2.0GHZ Core 2 Duo
4GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD3470
Bluray DVD Combo drive.
Installed in no more than 15 mins and had no problems installing drivers fro graphics touchpad enhancements etc.
Battery lif has also increased i can now get 3 and a half hours in power save as opposed to 2hrs on vista.