Rob’s Blog

After much anticipation from the tech community, last weekend Microsoft released Window 7 Beta to the public – initially with a 2.5 million download limit (which was removed today). Being the geek that I am, I decided to download and install it and see if the next iteration of Windows lives up to the hype. I was delighted to know that the beta ISO was available on TechNet, which I am a proud (and paid) an member of. Not having to deal with the public download frenzy, I painlessly downloaded the 3+ GB Windows 7 64-bit ISO and began the install process. Here’s my breif review and initial impression of the OS. I will be going in to more detail in future posts.

Installation

The installation process is nearly identical to Windows Vista with a similar look, feel and disk options. The second phase of the install (after reboot) is more user friendly and does a better job of putting things in layman’s terms. After what seemed like 20 – 30 minutes, Windows 7 was intalled and ready for customization and investigation. I had to manally load drivers for my Marvell Yukon on-board gigabit NIC and Intel P35 chipset as Windows 7 did not automatically install them. While I was able to locate these in the driver respository in the OS, I beleive it skipped installing them because they were 32-bit versions. With a quick visit to the Marvell and Intel websites on another PC, I was up and running with compatible ones. Pretty smooth to me.

To better understand my review, here are my system specs:

Intel Q6600 Quad Core – Overclocked to 3.0Ghz (Zalman 9700 fan)
OCZ Reaper 2x 2GB Cas 4
Abit IP35-E Motherboard (cheap $50 refurb while I wait for better ones to get cheaper)
Western Digital 500GB (C:)
Maxtor 500GB (Partitioned for D:, Linux, and Windows 7)
nVidia GTX 260 896MB Video Card
Main OS: Windows Vista Enterprise SP1 - 64-bit

Look, Feel, and Initial Impressions

The OS seems “snappier” than Vista. The look and feel, while similar to Vista, has been updated in the right areas. The interface design is similar to Internet Explorer 8 with less bevels and more minimalist styling. Windows 7′s version of Aero is undeniably appealing and gorgeous. The window drawing reminds me of Ubuntu 8.04 with Compiz where the windows sort of fold out to the desktop. Just like Vista, the default theme is very blue and almost relaxing. The updated windows sidebar is not much of a sidebar anymore as gadgets can live anywhere on the screen now but they remain “sticky” to the sides of the desktop. Much needed improvement. Another favorite feature is the new task bar. I love how the IE 8 icon in the quick launch bar shows a progress bar if you have an active download. Great feature and integration with the OS. This eye candy combined with the upgraded horsepower of Windows 7 should turn out to be the best OS ever from Microsoft. Let’s get in to more detail.

Speed and Stability

Initially the OS was extremely slow. Windows took forever to draw, caused by a low performance WDDM default driver being installed at install. A visit to nVidia’s website instructed me to grab the latest driver on Windows Update.  Runing Windows Update resulted in the driver being updated to a “nVidia prerelease” driver. Once I updated the driver and rebooted, I was good to go.

The OS “seems” faster. It seems to respond more quickly to file transfers and opening up Windows. I didn’t really dive deep in to the OS, but I did notice the performance rating tool is different and more detailed. My score was very low due to my hard drive performance. This is the same issue I have in Vista. However, the Window 7 score may be lower overall as technology is advancing and I don’t have the latest and greatest anymore.

My first order of business was to install and test WoW on it. Since this is what I use my desktop for mostly, it was the easiest performance comparison for me to judge. Once installed, WoW WOTLK ran perfectly and as fast as it does on Vista – that is, until a BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) kicked it in the groin. Looks like nVidia has some work to do making this driver stable for Windows 7. Stay tuned for more updates and testing.

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