Microsoft Windows 7 discussion

Nice.

On my OCZ Vertex SSD, it took 5 minutes.

breaking news: ssd faster than spinning platters, fire hot, water wet, full storys at 11

+ Internet posters need to brag about size of e-peen in shape of l33t hardware

Totally

Being a mere punter I'm still waiting for mine. Am I going to notice any differences going from RC1 to the retail version?

if your planning on buying a legit key in the next 90 days you can install it now

I paid for it months ago when it was at £45, just waiting for my copy to arrive in the post. RC1 is working fine, just wondering if I'm going to notice any differences with the final retail.

My net connection is far to flaky at the moment to contemplate downloading anything.

Unless there was an Release Candidate 2 (RC2) then there shouldn't be any differences...

Fair point.

Just the ball ache of a reinstall then.

The version I'm running is the Release to Manufacturer version (RTM). This might differ a little from the RC1 version. Probably not enough to be noticeable.

They have taken out a feature of the task bar that I can't understand, why remove a feature. Its the 'allow task bar to appear behind other windows'. I've been using that for a decade, I have the task bar down the right. Doing that I can see each app description much more easily but it takes much more screen space. Without that setting its just obstructive, I've had to use auto hide which is just tacky.

ugh. can't stand auto-hide. knowing where your target is before you move the mouse to it is right near the top of 'things you must do in a sensible pointer-driven UI'

I actually feel sick.

How many PC's (all at home using the same interweb connection) will I be able to install a legit copy onto?

The answer is clearly one, or it no longer becomes a legit copy.

If you run it on more than one on the same network it will detect that and disable one of the copies.

You will be able to buy buy family packs.

I've just got mine through...Curries told me I wouldn't get it before the 22nd.

arses, so I missed the 50 quid, then the half price deal for Windows 7. Damn dithery div that I am. I'd have had to buy a new hard disk though for the non-upgrade version, though.

Remind me what's wrong with buying the upgrade version.

Unless you use it for professional reasons, I wouldn't be too bothered about buying a copy.

Upgrade copy is crap if you ever want to install on a fresh drive, or indeed a formatted drive.

so, it's mostly if I had to reinstall the OS from scratch I'd have to install vista first, then the upgrade over it?

Well, professional reasons, and direct x 11.

Except for the above restriction. It will not install on machine that does not have an existing copy of windows already installed on it. It will still allow you to format the disk once it works out that the old copy is there if I remember correctly.

Yeah.

Is Direct X 11 supposed to some fancy new anti-piracy thing?

Direct X is a gaming API developed by microsoft that is used to develop against primarily dedicated GPUs however it also handles sound and input.

Some of the latest features in dedicated graphics cards are only available with the latest Direct X

Oh, sorry, I could have been clearer. I know what DirectX is, been a PC gamer for years. I just wondered why DX11 was being cited as a reason to buy Windows 7 as opposed to 'evaluate' it.

Direct x 11 will only work with vista and 7. So if you want to run it you need to be running either OS.

From what I've heard there is yet to be a release that really demonstrates the improvements so in my view its not really a good enough reason on its own to upgrade.