Windows 7

Maybe by the end of this year, or maybe early next year, if we're lucky (fingers crossed).

nimbletrucker10 said:once the week is over

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Ever since I grabbed the 64-bit version this Monday, burned the DVD, and set it up as a dual boot alongside Ubuntu 9.04, I have to say—it’s holding up so far. It takes a bit longer to boot than Linux does, but once you're in, the whole system feels incredibly responsive. Honestly, the sheer number of options is still giving me a massive headache (especially digging through the Control Panel), but overall, I think Windows 7 shows a lot of promise performance-wise. As for the retail price, though? That is an entirely different conversation 👎.

Man, I’ve got this annoying issue where whenever I try to play an MP4 video, my screen just starts flickering black immediately. Then I get that "ATI driver not responding" error popping up. If I don't kill it right away with Alt+F4, the whole system just hits a blue screen and reboots itself.

Trying to get a quote via fax? Forget about it—it’s just not happening. That's why I stick strictly to legitimate software. I'll probably give Windows 7 RTM a spin once it drops, assuming our IT department can snag it through MSDN.

What's the latest version out there?

Thomas Hernandez21 said:I honestly think American private users—and even some businesses—are pretty savvy when it comes to knowing the actual wholesale costs 😁

🙏😲

Michael Bishop97 said:What's the latest version out there?

Windows 7 Ultimate
6.1 (Built 7100)

Thomas Hernandez21 said:I honestly think American private users—and even some businesses—have a really good handle on what the wholesale cost actually is. 😁

🙏😲

Michael Bishop97 said:What's the latest version available?

Windows 7 Ultimate
6.1 (Built 7100)

No, seriously though—what's the damage going to be? Are we talking Vista prices, or something way more expensive?

Do I need to download this specific version to install build 7100, or can I just run an upgrade?

I mean, if you ask me, Vista should probably be priced around what XP goes for—maybe somewhere near $133—while Windows 7 really ought to be positioned at the same level as Vista

I've managed to push this system into an unstable state several times, though as far as I can remember, it hasn't actually crashed.
Explorer keeps crashing—and honestly, performance is pretty sluggish—though I'm not sure if it's a hardware issue because it happens whenever I have two DVDs loaded in my dual drives. Everything becomes incredibly slow, and getting into My Computer takes forever. Is anyone else dealing with this?
PS: This mostly happens after I've already started playing a movie or opening a couple of files from one of those DVDs.

Also, I haven't spent much time working with Vista, so I don't know if it's the same there, but in Windows 7, you can't just manually restart explorer.exe. If I kill the process and then try to launch explorer.exe again, I can't open any folders or anything at all.

Furthermore, I wasted about two hours trying to run an exe file that simply wouldn't let me open or even copy it—it just kept throwing permission errors at me. I eventually got it working in Safe Mode. It’s a bit frustrating that even with administrator rights, you can't do whatever you want with certain files; you just don't feel like you have total control over the machine.
Everything else seems mostly fine and works pretty well.

PS: Just now, I got hit with a "14 problems to solve" notification, saying "Windows needs more information to try to solve 14 problems."
Whenever I'm watching something off a DVD, Explorer just stops responding properly...

Taylor Campbell4 said:I've pushed this OS to the brink of instability countless times, but if I recall correctly, it never actually crashed.
Explorer keeps crashing, and Windows 7 runs incredibly poorly—I'm not even sure if it's hardware-related—whenever I pop two different DVDs into two separate drives. It becomes painfully slow at reading files, and getting into My Computer is an absolute nightmare. Is anyone else dealing with this?
PS: This usually happens once I've already started playing a movie or opening a couple of files from one of the DVDs.

Takodjer, I haven't spent much time using Vista, so I don't know if it's the same there, but in Windows 7, you can't just manually restart explorer.exe on your own. If you kill the process and then try to relaunch explorer.exe, you won't be able to open a single folder or anything else.

Takodjer, I wasted two whole hours trying to launch an EXE file that wouldn't let me open or even copy it; it kept claiming I didn't have permission. I finally got it working in Safe Mode. It’s incredibly frustrating that even as an administrator, you can't do whatever you want with certain files. You just don't have total control over your own computer.
Everything else is mostly fine and works pretty well.
PS: Just now I got hit with "14 problems to solve" and "Windows needs more information to try to solve 14 problems."
Whenever I try to watch something from a DVD, Explorer just stops responding properly...

Regarding the highlighted part, you had to run that file using "Run as administrator." That happened to me too, and as far as I know, it's the same deal on Vista.😉

Michael Bishop97 said:That blacked-out screen happens because you need to run the file as an administrator—that’s what I kept running into myself, and from what I know, it's the same issue on Vista too.😉

No, it just wouldn't work—I tried everything. I messed with the UAC settings and even tweaked some things in Local Security, but nothing budged.

That was just a single file and a really specific situation—it actually had a Trojan embedded in it. Honestly, I don't think it would have worked on my laptop running Vista either. And please, don't ask me why I decided to run a file containing a Trojan in the first place... necessity called.

Second of all, my biggest headache right now is actually Explorer...

So, here’s the deal—whenever I boot up my PC with a DVD still in the drive, or even if I just pop one in while everything is already running, the system takes forever to recognize the disc or its files. During that laggy period, the entire Explorer interface starts acting up—it's incredibly sluggish and keeps freezing on me. For instance, I tried moving a specific file to the Recycle bin, but it just wouldn't budge, no matter how many times I tried. It’ll probably work fine after a quick reboot, though I'm not entirely sure if that applies when a disc is inserted or if it's just a general system hang—I don't really have the time to sit here and test it out right now.
I'm starting to suspect it isn't a hardware issue—since I see the same error on both drives—but maybe it’s because one is a SATA drive while the other is an older IDE/ATA model.

Is it actually normal for copying files from a DVD to crawl at around 300-500 Kb/s? I could have sworn it used to run a lot faster than this.

Wouldn't that be running a bit faster? I mean—what kind of speeds should we actually expect from a modern SATA optical drive compared to this old relic?

Also, I’ve run into another bug—or maybe just some instability—where if a process like that hangs, it causes issues similar to what I noticed back on Vista. When I select restart from the menu, the system just logs me off and stops right there; it won't actually reboot, so I end up having to manually hit the reset button on my machine.
These are all perfectly solvable issues, really—they certainly don't overshadow the overall positive impression and experience I've had with this OS. I mostly just use this space to vent about the specific hiccups I've run into personally.

Is anyone else running into weird glitches with Explorer?

I’ve just hit a new low—things are definitely getting worse. Explorer started lagging heavily before it eventually crashed; I actually went ahead and selected the restart option from the menu myself. But after that Windows-initiated restart, Explorer is completely broken. Specifically, if I try to open My Computer or any random folder, I get an error message. Is anyone else experiencing these kinds of strange Explorer issues?
The error says, "The remote procedure call failed and did not execute"—no error ID included. To make matters worse, I can't find a trace of this specific error in my logs, and I haven't been able to find a single solution online for this exact problem.

Quick question for someone who might know their way around this stuff better than I do: what could be happening with Windows regarding explorer.exe, folder access, and the RPC?

I've been rocking Windows 7 as my main OS for weeks now, and honestly? Haven't run into any glitches at all—everything's running super smooth! Not sure why you're hitting so many walls, though...

There are just a couple of things that trip me up occasionally—nothing major, really. I’m using it as my primary OS, though if I’m being honest, I’d say Windows XP feels more stable. That makes sense, given how much more complex this system is and how early we are in its lifecycle. Maybe once a certain Sony Pictures update rolls out, it'll be just as rock-solid as XP. I'll get it sorted out 🙂

Most of my headaches likely stem from the hardware side of things; Explorer tends to hang whenever that specific DVD drive acts up—I can't quite put my finger on why. (The one working fine is the IDE/ATA drive, which worked perfectly on my old rig, while the Sony drive here is crawling at 300-500 kb/s compared to the other SATA drive hitting about 12 MB/s...). As soon as there's a disc in it, Explorer just freezes. I probably need to double-check my hardware manual; since this is a brand-new build and a new OS, I might have missed a connection somewhere...

Regardless, people definitely run into issues with Windows 7—just take a look at the support forums—but honestly, that's par for the course when dealing with Windows.

Try moving the taskbar to the left side, then try expanding it slightly before resizing it back down—what happens then? On my machine, when I shrink it, everything behind it stays blurred out, making the desktop impossible to see. Honestly, this thing is still riddled with bugs, if you can even call them that.

I was messing around moving the taskbar all over the place, then snapped it back, and everything works perfectly fine 🙂. Honestly, I’m blown away by how rock-solid this is—like, seriously, in a good way! Windows 7 actually feels more stable than Windows XP to me; I can't even remember the last time I saw a "not Responding" screen on Windows 7. All these beta versions have been such a blast and everyone seems stoked about them. But man, once the final version drops, it’s going to be legendary. For now, though, I’m keeping a dual boot with XP just in case things go sideways.

I had some issues with those earlier builds and was basically like, "Ugh, just more unstable junk from Microsoft." But as the builds kept coming out, I got more and more impressed. Now? I’m so happy with it that my main OS is 🙂
.
Which build are you running? How many times have you had to reboot? I’ve got the RC, build 7100, straight from Microsoft. If you grabbed yours from a torrent, you might have stumbled onto a fake.

I'm running RC 7100, which I grabbed directly from microsoft.com, so there's nothing else to report. Everything is working smoothly on my end—I just have a habit of being a bit long-winded when I write things out 😁. I’ve also been poking around and testing all sorts of things within the OS—really pushing its limits—and I've stumbled upon a few quirks. (For instance, regarding the taskbar: it isn't enough to simply dock it to the left; if you move it to the left and then try to resize it—widening it and then narrowing it back down using the mouse—I end up with this strange "fog" effect stretching across my entire desktop... specifically over the area where it used to be expanded. You can see what I mean in this screenshot if you're curious
. (The only way I've found to clear it up is by moving it back to the bottom, so it's fine, I guess)