Windows 7 Beta 1: Installation and musings
Posted by Scout on January 22, 2009
With all the good reviews bloggers have given Windows 7, I couldn’t pass up the chance to have a look at it myself. I downloaded a copy of Windows 7 Beta 1 (Build 7000) for two laptops in order to test the rumor that it works well on netbooks and older systems (unlike the much maligned Windows Vista). Let’s go!
MSI Wind
Specs: Intel Atom 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, Intel 950 onboard video
For the first test machine, I did the installation the cleanest way possible. That is, reformat the drive and create new partitions: one for Windows XP Pro SP2, another for Windows 7, and the last for a data-only partition. First to be installed was XP, and then Windows 7, both from their respective bootable discs.
Dual boot works. I’ve read forums saying it can’t happen, but apparently it can. They coexist in harmony. Windows 7 is the default OS. It boots up fast and runs smoothly even in Aero without any hitches. Unlike Vista which had more than a few driver issues, this one had none. Almost every component was installed automatically, except for the WiFi adapter. My XP driver wasn’t compatible, so on a tip I connected to the Internet via the ethernet cable and enabled Windows’ Automatic Updates. It immediately downloaded the appropriate driver for the Wind’s Realtek WiFi adapter and installed it in a snap. After entering my wireless network password, I was connected to the Internet. Painless.
ECS W330D
Specs: Intel Pentium M 1.6GHz, 768MB RAM, Intel 915 onboard video
I was curious to see how Windows 7 would perform an a low-spec’ed system as I’ve read people saying it’s not as big of a resource hog as Vista is. For this system, though, I had the problem of having current Windows XP installation that I didn’t want to reformat. Taking LifeHacker’s advice, I used a Live CD of GParted to shrink my data partition to make room for Windows 7. Minimum space required is just below 8GB, as opposed to the advertised minimum of 16GB. Of course, performance might be sacrificed a bit if you push it.
Same as in the MSI Wind, dual boot went fine without a hitch. Interestingly, on both systems, I could access the Windows 7 partition while in XP, but the XP partition is inaccessible while in Windows 7. It doesn’t even show in Windows Explorer.
This time there were more more drivers left uninstalled by default (video, audio, wifi, mass storage), but the same procedure of getting Windows Updates did the trick. The onboard video couldn’t handle Aero this time, but overall performance was acceptable and by no means sluggish. The only hitch was that whenever I tried to set Youtube videos on fullscreen mode, the computer would freeze and never recover. I had to manually shut it down by pressing the power button, which was enough to warn me never to do it again. Haven’t tried to play movies yet, though.
Conclusion
If your system has comparable or better specs than the ones listed here, go forth and download! Windows 7 Beta 1 is available from Microsoft or, if you’re feeling rebellious, from your favorite torrent site. Either way, it’ll work, and you’ll have a grand time exploring all the features.
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