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Microsoft confirms 2009 Windows 7 release
Author: Tim SmalleyPublished: 12th May 2009
Microsoft has confirmed a 2009 release for Windows 7 at its annual TechEd conference in Los Angeles.
"We're tracking well to deliver Windows 7 in time for holiday availability based on the groundswell of feedback we received from the partner ecosystem, customers and through our own internal testing from pre-beta to now," said Veghte.
The software giant has previously been deliberately vague about Windows 7's launch in particular, stating that WIndows 7 would be available no later than three years after the general availability of Windows Vista - 30th January 2010, in other words.
Given that the first and only public beta - which happened to be 'feature complete' - was released in January of this year and the fact that there would only be the one Release Candidate instead of the usual two or three, Microsoft's release timeframe always looked incredibly conservative in our eyes. Indeed, we had heard from many different sources that it was likely to see general availability this year.
Indeed, it was Acer who spilled the beans on a potential October 23rd launch date earlier this month - that's still quite a likely timeframe given Veghte's comments since Microsoft would want to have the OS on the shelves in time for Black Friday - the busiest shopping day of the year in the US - at the end of November.
As we get closer to Windows 7's launch, the next date we're going to hear is when Microsoft will start offering a free upgrade to Windows 7 on new PCs shipping with Vista - it's something the software giant does to ensure that the PC market doesn't dry while consumers lie in anticipation for the new OS release.
A number of the bit-tech team are already running the release candidate and can't wait for the RTM code. Have you been running the RC too and, if so, how are you finding it? Tell us in the forums.
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This is going surprisingly well for a Windows product.
But the issue is that, given that Windows 7 seems to be an alternate name for a product called Windows Vista Actually Finished, isn't it just going to have every problem that Vista has?
And, p3n, as to the registry - it's not a great idea, certainly, but the only real alternative is a bunch of text files floating about. This is how windows used to do it, with .ini files, and how Linux still does do it, and it is not very much fun.
P
I can see what p3n is saying, and its not perfect, but it very close and windows has a winning on its hands. Now they just have to get it out fast (Driver support is aready on way) and give thos poor vista users money back or free upgrade to Windows.
I'm having trouble telling W7 apart from Vista - to me they are the same. They are the same to use but the task bar looks a bit different. Luckily I like Vista...but I already have Vista, I'm not compelled to spend £250 retail on a new taskbar.
It does look basically the same as vista but with some tweaks and a few extra features. But anyone with a high powered system is missing the point of win7, it runs beautifully on my eee, I would say its about as responsive as XP but with features and looks that make it a lot more usable.
The leap from XP to 7 should mean about the same performance with a nicer gui and lots of features.
Vista to 7 should mean its slightly quicker but you probably won't notice on a fast system and a few extra features.
Also my battery life seems to have noticeably improved.
Having said that the settings are so strewn through hell that for a veteran XP user like me it's not a very pleasant experience to try and sort through it all... :(
Only problem is that if its going to end up costing a million $$$s to upgrade from 64bit Vista Home Plemium ( :p ) then they can swivle!
Sam
That got the chop on my way to disable UAC, they even still have the workgroup stuff - why re-create p2p networking?
Memory footprint at boot is about 600MB, compared to around 450MB on my XP setup on the same machine. It's generally fast and responsive, but occasionally there's a pause before it responds to opening an application or changing between windows.
Zone Alarm Free wouldn't install, but I can live with that. Running a video call in Skype revealed some incompatibilities with my RealTek HD Audio drivers - microphone detection was unreliable. I downloaded and installed the latest drivers; this seems to have fixed the problem.
Overall, I'm enjoying Windows 7, and I'd strongly recommend it.
Overall, for a beta, then a release candidate... Windows 7 is more ready to be a released OS than Vista was when it was RTM. A fair amount of this is probably to do with the fact that most companies actually seem to be writing drivers for it. That said, I didn't have to install a single driver on the RC. Not one. That's on an X58 rig, too.
I'll have to install CCC, though, so I can persuade my HDTV not to underscan with HDMI input. :( Unless someone has an easy way of getting ATiTray Tools running on Windows 7 64-bit?
And exactly what are these Vista issues? Vista has a whole ton less issues than XP did before they finally released SP2, the only things I've found people to be whining about is UAC and graphic drivers, you cna disabled UAC and drivers aren't MS's responsibility.
The control panel has been streamlined to be more accessible and whilst you might not use all the options and tools, others do.
Windows 7 has a rebuilt kernel among other things, small list here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7#New_and_changed_features
Google around and you'll find a significant amount more.
Me likey and it'll be the first OS I actually pay for. Either got it as a license with my PC or for free through MSDNAA.
i have to download the vista drivers for realtek hd audio card in my laptop, because the win 7 drivers don't recognise the mic.
it does run well. i did a clean install over the beta, which detected a previuos version installed and it moved everything over to windows.old folder
I will look into getting Windows 7 early 2010 maybe?