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Our Next Engineering Milestone

Back in January we released the Beta and updated you on our overall engineering process that will get us from Beta to the Release Candidate.  Today, downloading of the Release Candidate started and we’re already seeing a lot of installations and a lot of excitement.  On behalf of the team, I want to extend a thank you for all of the millions of people who have been running and testing the Beta who have helped to make the Release Candidate possible.  The feedback we have received, through all the mechanisms we have blogged about, has been an incredibly valuable part of Engineering Windows 7.  We continue to be humbled by the response to Windows 7.  Thank you!

This post is about the path from RC to what we call RTM, release to manufacturing.  RTM is not one point in time but a “process” as from RTM we enable the PC manufacturers to begin their processes of building Windows 7 images for new PCs, readying downloads for existing machines, and preparing the full supply chain to deliver Windows 7 to customers.  Thus RTM is the final stage in our engineering of Windows 7, but the engineering continues from RTM until you can purchase Windows 7 and Windows 7 PCs in stores at General Availability, or GA.

The path to RTM starts with downloads of the RC.  The RC is “done” and what we are doing is validating this against the breadth of the ecosystem and with partners.  It means, from our perspective, we have run many tests many times and are working to understand the quality of the release in a breadth sense.  We’re all familiar with this as we have done this same thing as we went from pre-Beta to Beta and from Beta to RC.  The primary difference with the RC is that we will not be changing the functionality or features of the product at this point—that’s the sort of thing we’ll save for a future release.   We’ve gotten tons of feedback on design and features and shown how we have digested and acted on this feedback throughout many posts on this blog.   We know we did not do everything that was asked, and we have also seen that we’ve been asked to do things that are tricky to reconcile.  We hoped through the dialog on this blog that we’ve shown our commitment to listening and balancing a wide variety of inputs, and how we have thought about the evolution of Windows.  

What sort of feedback are we looking for in the RC?  We are primarily focused on monitoring the behavior of the product through the telemetry, and of course making sure we did not introduce any regressions in any dimension from Beta quality.  One of the things we have done since Beta has continued to beef up telemetry—we’ve put in additional monitoring points in many systems.  We’re particularly interested in seeing what devices are installed, drivers that are required, and overall system performance.  We have telemetry points that monitor the UI responsiveness of the Start Menu, Internet Explorer (recently posted), Boot, Shutdown, Resume, and across all subsystems.  Of course in the final product, this telemetry is optional and opt-in, and it is always private. 

There are a series of specific types of reports that we are keeping an eye out for that would constitute changes we would make to the code between now and RTM.  Some of these might include:

  • Installation – We have significant telemetry in the setup process and also significant logging.  Of course if you can’t set up at all that is something we are interested in and the same holds for upgrades from Windows Vista.  For the “enrolled” beta programs we have a mechanism to enlist a connection to Microsoft for these issues and for the broad community the public support groups are monitored. 
  • Security issues – Obviously any vulnerability is a potential for something we would fix.  We will use the same criteria to address these issues as we would for any in-market product. 
  • Crashes and Hangs – We are monitoring the “crash” reports for issues that arise that impact broad sets of people.  These could be Windows code, drivers, or third party software.  This information streams “real time” to Microsoft and we watch it very carefully.
  • Device installation and compatibility – When you download a driver from Windows Update or install a driver via a manufacturer’s setup program this is a data point we collect.  We’ve had millions of unique PnP IDs through the Beta.  We also receive the IDs for devices that failed to locate drivers.  We are constantly updating this web service with pointers to information about the device (driver availability, instructions, etc.)
  • Software installation – Similar to devices, we are also monitoring the installation process of software and noting programs that do not complete successfully.  Again we have the mechanism to help move that foreword and/or introduce compatibility work in the RTM milestone.
  • Servicing – We will continue to test the servicing of Windows 7 so everyone should expect updates to be made available via Windows Update.  This includes new drivers and will also include patches to Windows 7.  Test Updates will be labeled as such.  We might also fix any significant issue with new code as well.  All of this in an effort to validate the servicing pipeline and to maintain the quality of the RC.
  • New Hardware – Perhaps the most important category is making sure that we work with all the new hardware being made as we all use 7100.  Our PC Manufacturing partners and Hardware partners are engineering new PCs and these are combinations new to the market and new to the OS.  We’re working together to make sure Windows 7 has great support for these PCs and hardware.

All of the feedback will be evaluated and whether the issue is with Windows itself or with hardware, software, or OEM partner code we will work closely across the entire ecosystem to do what is necessary to deliver excellent fully integrated PCs.  This goal is more important than anything else at this point.  The depth of this work is new for the team in terms of spending engineer to engineer time across a broad range of partners to make sure everyone is ready together to deliver a great PC experience.

Overall, while many have said that the quality of the Beta was on par with past RCs (remember how some even suggested we release it as final!), we are working to do an even better job with Windows 7.  We think we have the tools in place to do that. 

While the RC itself was compiled about 2 weeks ago, it takes a bit of time to go through the mechanics of validating all the ISOs and images that are released.  In the meantime we continue doing daily builds of the product.  The daily builds are incorporating code changes to address the above types of issues that impact enough customers that on balance the code change is more valuable than the potential of a regression.  Throughout this process, every change to the code is looked at by many people across development and test, and across many different teams.  We have a lot of engineers changing a very little bit of code.  We often say that shipping a major product means “slowing everything down”.  Right now we’re being very deliberate with every change we make.

The RTM milestone is not a date, but a process.  As that process concludes, we are done changing the code and are officially “servicing” Windows 7.  That means any subsequent changes are delivered as fixes (KB articles) or banked for the first service pack.  Obviously our ability to deliver fixes via Windows Update has substantially changed the way we RTM and so it is not unreasonable to expect updates soon after the product is complete as we have done for both Windows XP and Windows Vista. 

Between now and the RTM milestone we will make changes to the code in response the above inputs.  We are decelerating and will do so “gracefully” and not abruptly.  We do not have a “deadline” we are aiming to meet and the quality (in all dimensions) of the product and a smooth finish are the most important criteria for Windows 7.  In addition, we have a lot of work going on behind the scenes to build Windows 7 in nearly 100 languages around the world and to make sure all the supporting materials such as our Windows web site, SDK, resource kits, and so on are ready and available in a timely manner.

Once we have entered the RTM phase, our partners will begin to make their final images and manufacture PCs, and hardware and software vendors will ready their Windows 7 support and new products.  We will also begin to manufacture retail boxes for shipment around the world.  We will continue to work with our enterprise customers as well and based on the RTM process the volume license products will be available as well.

Delivering the highest quality Windows 7 is the most important criteria for us at this point—quality in every dimension.  The RTM process is designed to be deliberate and maintain the overall engineering integrity of the system.  Many are pushing us to release the product sooner rather than later, but our focus remains on a high quality release.

Ultimately our partners will determine when their PCs are available in market.  If the feedback and telemetry on Windows 7 match our expectations then we will enter the final phases of the RTM process in about 3 months.  If we are successful in that, then we tracking to our shared goal of having PCs with Windows 7 available this Holiday season. 

--Steven and Jon

Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    @steven I have been working with the Windows 7 beta and just recently the Windows 7 Release Candidate.  One thing I did not see mentioned going into the RTM build is that of working on increasing the performance of the Windows 7 with the RTM build.  Are we to assume that the RC performance is what we will expect on the RTM build? I am very excited for the Windows 7 GA and hope you continue to make great strides with this OS.  

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    I just have one comment. WOOO HOO!!!! Thanks Steven! :)

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    I have a CanoScan 5600f scanner and if I leave it on and plugged in (via USB) when Windows 7 RC goes into sleep mode I cannot come back out of sleep mode. If I turn it off and go into sleep mode the computer will wake as expected. Just thought I'd share :-)

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    I should also mention that Windows 7 is fantastic. I haven't been this excited about a new OS since Windows 2000!

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    Congratulations to all members of Win7 team! The OS feels really snappy and stable, and I hope the RTM is to become a great success. It also would be appreciated if you could enlarge the experience given by the Microsoft Connect website as I think that the best products are made when all parties concerned are present and can throw in their ideas. Regards, Chris BTW, I have some restore from hibernation problems that I haven't had with Beta and Pre-Beta, but I suppose telemetry has already notified you of that :)

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    First example:

  1. set UAC level to highest one
  2. go into Computer Management
  3. set Startup Type for Application Information service to Disabled
  4. restart system
  5. many system actions (requiring UAC prompts) will simply not work, you can't easy fix it. you have to reinstall everything... I understand, that it will need access to computer. But selling system to customers with such functionality "by design" won't be too honest and professional. Second example: like zdnet.com notified, system by default hides files extensions. How many non-technical users will understand, that file "document.txt" in Explorer is "document.txt.exe" ? Third: http://www.pretentiousname.com/misc/win7_uac_whitelist2.html (I haven't checked, but I believe, that it can be the truth) 4th:
  6. system+patches installed on VMWare (1,5GB of RAM, 20 GB HDD), nothing changed after installation
  7. hibernate
  8. resume CPU stays at 100% (majority is used by NT kernel & system process). If you so think about quality, how will you fix it ? or will you ignore this ?
  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    Steven, I am running Windows 7 RC, and unfortunately it doesn't fix the problems that occurred with the beta. In the Beta release I could not hibernate with more than a couple of applications open. It would simply blue screen rather than turning off. I'm quite concerned that this problem still exists in the release candidate. During the beta I was just putting my machine into sleep overnight. Unfortunately in the release candidate, restoring from sleep simply reboots the machine. I'm sure you're receiving telemetry data about this but it is of grave concern to me that so close to release such major problem still exists. It's not clear to me if fixes for this sort of problem will be delivered via Windows update before the release candidate goes to manufacturing, so that we can confirm the problem would exist with the released product. ...Stefan

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    Problem #1: I'm surprised that nobody mentioned this but the fade in/out animation when you open/close ANY program is very choppy for me in the RC. It was perfect (like Vista) in the public Beta. I hope this gets fixed as it is very distracting. Problem #2: WMP does not play favorite radio http://radio.virtualdj.com/listen.asx System: 32bit 7100 build (clean install) 8800GT 512MB with 185.85 drivers from Nvidia P45 chipset

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    @stefanolson Feel free to run dxdiag, save the output to a text file, and mail it to me.   This is likely related to your specific configuration since we do lots of standby/resume testing.   If you have any utilities, a/v, firewall, etc. running then let me know as well. --Steven

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    I commented on a previous blog entry that support for the tab character in tool-tip shell extensions was broken in the beta. I can confirm it has been fixed in the release candidate. Thanks guys!

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    I like many others am wondering what the impact of the silent elevation flaw in UAC is: http://www.pretentiousname.com/misc/win7_uac_whitelist2.html Is this website a hoax, or is this a legitimate problem with UAC?  I think this is much worse than the older problem in the beta where UAC setting could be changed via a script that emulated keystrokes.  Based on what the author wrote it sounds like this flaw would completely eliminate the value of having applications prompt for elevation, since malware could avoid the prompts. I would be very interested to see a blog post refuting this claim if it does not actually pose a risk.  In the meantime I have changed my UAC settings to the highest level just like Vista.

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    I've noticed a bug in the RC. When I'm moving the taskbar from left to top, to right, sometimes there' is left with a blurry artifact on previous docked position. To remove this, I have to drag the taskbar back down to the bottom of the screen. Another quirk which I know won't be fixable in RC stages, is the progress bar in the taskbar, perhaps in the future releases, you can make that progress bar target the total progress for all instances of the applications, and have the hover over menu/thumbnails display the individual progress bar's showing individual progress state. I really like the hover state of the start button, but the Windows flag image seems to differ to the the normal start button state, perhaps making that image on the default button state as well? I've also noticed, for the new login screen design, the Shutdown, Restarting text, which has a drop shadow on it, seems to be a bit strange, I think the new blue-bird background is a little too bright maybe? Other than that, I think this is one of the most stable releases of Windows I've ever used. --Winston

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    Just an issue that I and at least one other Acer Aspire One user has experienced: When booting, boot fails, Windows 7 initiates startup repair, but cannot repair. I had to reinstall again. The other user, who's forum entry I read had performed a hard reset by holding down the power button (as I seem to recall I may have done too). Obviously that's not a great way to shutdown a system, but I guess in both our cases, the system had locked up and it was the only way out. Not too bad for me, on a machine I use for playing with, but if it had been my main machine it would have been extremely annoying. I can try to replicate the problem if you'd like. Other than that, it looks great. The AAO flies, much quicker than the beta.

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    hi. there is only one thing that i found lacking in win7. the biometric devices support still does not work. the correct drivers are installed automatically but when you try to register a fingerprint, the application crashes. i don't know if it is a driver problem or a win7 problem but you may want to look into biometric support a bit. thanks!

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    The firsth thing I disliked about the RC was the background image of the Welcome screen/Login screen. (the one with the flower and the bird).  The Beta background was much better and had a professional style. Please change it back.

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    I forgot to ask my main question.  You stated that changes to RC will be reflected and made available to RC evaluators via Windows Update service.  I have seen one of those come down already. Does that mean we should be less interested in acquiring a "leak" of the RTM builds, since important stuff will come via WU or Microsoft Update?  I know hundreds of thousands of the die hard testers were getting the pre-RC builds via leaks.  Not that I condon leaks per se, but they were very irresistible at the time and provided you guys some extra telemetry data. :)

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    Please please release separate editions (separate x86, x84 and IA64) of WAIK, Windows SDK and the Windows Driver Kit. Downloading IA64 bits over a slow connection when it is absolutely of no use to me is a PITA. Please at least separate IA64 since that is a niche platform.

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    @wguimb Thanks for the very nice words.   We aren't going to make all the change we make available over Windows Update.  We are just testing things out and of course any changes that would be deemed critical in a released product will be distributed (i.e. security issues). As we always say, please do not use what are reported to be "leaked" builds.  So far many of them have contained risky payloads. --Steven

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    I am not sure that your testers whether told about 'automatically cleaning System Restore points' or not, and also I am not that in Windows 7 RC, it still have this feature or not because I did not test storing data up to near maximum of harddisk. But if it still have, I think you should remove this feature from Windows 7 RTM because, for example, many users want to use System Restore to roll back computer back to good state, but they may found that their System Restore points were removed automatically!! Thanks

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2009
    Please fix the sort order for Explorer before RTM. By default, it should sort in Ascending order. Currently, even if it's Ascending order, sorting by any criteria such as size, date modified or type makes it sort by that criteria as well as reverse the order (becomes descending) when in fact the user just expected the sort criteria to change. This is a major annoyance and I request the team to fix it before RTM. There is already a Sort by Ascending/Descending menu item, why should then the sort order change by changing sort criteria? Please don't say this behavior is by design, it's an oversight/bug that needs to be fixed. Anyone listening? I wonder how this product will compete headon with Windows XP which is still sitting strong at 60%+ market share.

  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2009
    Please, bring back the folder.jpg trick. I have thousands of folders tagged with folder.jpg's inside so I can have a custom thumbnail. folder.jpg is supposed to be used for creating a cover thumbnail for a folder without needing to go to the folder's customize tab. This functionality has been present since Windows XP and worked correctly in build 7000 (Beta). So, it's clearly a regression. So far I've been really enjoying Windows 7 RC. Great, GREAT work team! =]

  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2009
    Great job on W7 so far, I am a lot more positive and much more inclined to recomend this than vista when that was in beta. The only real problem that I have had installing the RC was that it did not include the Ralink RT2500 Wireless LAN drivers, this is obviously a real pain as I can manage without most drivers as long as I can get onto the inet to download them. I know that RT2500 is old tech now but it was very popular when released so I feel that it would be worth the extra few kb to include it.

  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2009
    Steven and Jon, Windows 7 is almost perfect for me. You are doing a really good job with this system. But, before the RTM, can you please, just tweak a few points in Windows Explorer?

  1. In windows xp, the status bar showed the left space of the current drive/partition, and the size of the files in the current folder. Now, it doesn´t show anymore, and I (among others) miss this feature a lot.
  2. If we select more than 15 files in Windows Explorer, the Details Pane stop showing the sizes and info. We have to click the "Show more details" to it be visible. Please, remove this behaviour, or give us a option (even if registry option) to disable it. XP used to give me this information in less than a millisecond, and with a decade ago hardware. If this is tweaked, using Explorer will be much better for me. Thanks a lot!
  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2009
    Oh! And I almost forgot!
  1. Please, let us disable the Autoarrange feature, it is really annoyng sometimes! And thanks for the feedback! Keep the good work!
  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2009
    im liking window 7 a lot, its my main os :D one thing that bugs me are the graphical Inconsistencies throughout the gui like this one http://www.windows7taskforce.com/view/660 it really gets to me :P hope you guy iron out issues like this before window 7 is release good job guys.

  • Anonymous
    May 12, 2009
    I'd love to submit this as a formal bug, but I'm not sure where to do that anymore. In RC1 on my laptop, switching to S-Video out was a bit tricksy, but managed to work. However, on return back to my normal display, my taskbar icons were missing, though the orb/outlines were still intact. Clicking on the taskbar restores the icons, but they sometimes disappear again. A reboot, I anticipate, will solve the issue, but I tend to sleep instead of rebooting. Otherwise, everything looks and runs fantastically. My remaining issue: Please, please, PLEASE allow me to view details/column headers in NON-details mode. This is something that was introduced in Vista and its disappearance is absolutely tragic. I use it everyday, specifically to quickly sort thumbnail-view folders by date modified--making those columns display only in details mode is a disservice, and I'm not sure why we've regressed here. Finally, Chrome & other similar multi-threaded, similarly-titled processes tend to freak out the taskbar merging--multiple Chrome windows, including those spawned originally as "web application shortcuts" tend to group randomly to one of the three Chrome pinned items I have. Other than that, fantastic all around. --Chris Cardinal

  • Anonymous
    May 13, 2009
    Sorry for writing here, but I didn't find suggestions topic. Please, give some attention to different proxy configurations for different nets. It's a big problem for mobile users! Win Vista learned to differentiate nets somehow, but proxy settings are still the same for all nets. Examlpe: a laptop user has a home wifi, sometimes uses wifi hotspots and has cable connection at work, that needs proxy. In this situation it's wery annoying to switch proxy settings every time. The settings are deep in Control Panel, and some applications doesn't seem to listen to global settings (This is another question, I think. Does global proxy settings should be unavoidable, or just recommendations. With XP's recommendation-style global settings, a lot of services, that don't listen to them, don't work. I-will-never-do-manual-proxy-switch-to-ten-different-programs!). The solution I see: -global settings for proxy --personal proxy settings for each net ---personal proxy settings for each program and first two should have option to stack or to override (as an abstraction of unavoidable and recommended). In this situation if net requires a proxy as gateway to internet and browser has proxy setting for anonymity, they will make a chain and all be ok.

  • Anonymous
    May 13, 2009
    The explorer is still much behind of the xp version. Read http://www.windows7taskforce.com about it. Whats the deal here? I'm a power user and do a lot via the explorer. I won't migrate if the explorer does not beef up qua (at least) the same features.

  • Anonymous
    May 13, 2009
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  • Anonymous
    May 14, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 14, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 14, 2009
    So far mostly everything is great! Thank you for the work that has been put in to this OS.Amazing things are possible with it. Sometimes it can be the little changes that are frustrating - In the Beta Mediacenter Movies Library we had the option to "watch" or "restart" a movie... In the videos, only "Play". Now in the RC you added a "restart" to videos, and took it out of Movies which means I can't restart a movie from the beginning any longer without rebooting my whole network! This is an incredibly frustrating setback from the Beta for my Home Theater system and I hope there is a patch on the way to restore this important function. While you're at it, please throw me an "eject" option when my DVD tray is empty. Rock on guys!

  • Anonymous
    May 14, 2009
    The RC has been a bit of a cold shower for me. Windows Explorer once again hangs when accessing network drives over slow connections. It confusingly displays the old folder while navigating to the new. To top it of, if you create a new folder, and then navigate to it by clicking "Enter", it gives the error "Folder 'New folder' does not exist." Windows Libraries no longer work with network drives on Linux or Vista machines, giving an error about indexing. This makes libraries useless for me (and anyone that has at least one non-Windows7 machine? which must be everyone?) But... Windows Media Player seems to use different libraries, which do seem to work with network drives? I don't get it. Windows7 is still a big step forward from Vista. It's just that the great beta had made me expect better. :)

  • Anonymous
    May 14, 2009
    Win7 RC has worked wonderfully, except in the one instance of running a backup. Each time I try to do it (at night) I return to the office to see the screen frozen from the night before, no mouse moving etc. Do you (how do you?) get this data?

  • Anonymous
    May 14, 2009

  • The window thumbnails are still too slow. They should appear immediately, not after a second.  
  • Why is it still not possible to put the recycle bin, folders and removable devices like usb sticks or cds directly on the superbar? It is all combined in the Explorer icon. This is a missed opportunity and I don't know why this isn't fixed yet. Perhaps I'm ignorant but it doesn't sound too complex to me.
  • Me personally I think the superbar looks fat and ugly. Though it is a great concept and I have also heard positive reviews about the looks of Windows 7.
  • I think it is still hard to distinguish things like a running program from an inactive shortcut for example.
  • Anonymous
    May 14, 2009
    I'm a mac user and a PC user and generally I like PCs better, especially with Windows 7 I think you did (or will do) a great job and introduced some interesting new things. But there are things that the Mac OS does better compared to Vista and interestingly these are areas that haven't changed much or not at all in Seven.
  1. The Gadget experience.
  2. The Preview functionality in explorer.
  3. The WMP that has an interface that doesn't fit with the rest of Windows 7 at all.
  • Anonymous
    May 15, 2009
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  • Anonymous
    May 15, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 15, 2009
    A recent article I read on OSNews states that UAC is flawed in protecting you on the default setting because it allows Notepad and Calculator not to be protected by UAC. It's a proof of concept code that would allow UAC to be turned off because of these two applications would bypass UAC. All I ask is that MS Developers to please look into this.

  • Anonymous
    May 15, 2009
    I'm very much hoping that Win 7 will put in a type of Work Spaces into it's OS where it can be turned on or off at will. Have it as a separate download if needed. Sure there are similar one's out there for windows, but none of them I either trust or enjoy.

  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2009
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  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2009
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  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2009
    @diego.frata You should update your video driver -- go to the optional Windows Update and make sure you install the latest video driver. Ina had the same challenge.. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10236471-56.html?tag=mncol -Steven

  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2009
    Hi, as one of the posters above mentioned, and has been pointed out on several Windows 7 forums for a very long time now (since the early betas), the aero animation for opening and closing a window are not smooth as they are in Vista.  There is a noticeable stutter or choppiness to them.  It's mainly noticeable when opening a window.. the window fades in and then it 'pops' into place..almost like it's skipping the last 25% of the animation. Maximize and minimize are fine and very smooth.  Should this open/close animation be identically as smooth as it is in Vista? Or has it been changed for Windows 7? I'm ok with it if it's been changed for W7, I just wish I could get an idea of whether it's a bug or a feature.  I much prefer how it animates in Vista.  Thanks.   My system: Intel E8400 Core 2 duo at 3.0ghz nvidia GTX 260 w/ latest 185.85 drivers 4GB memory ASUS P5K Pro motherboard Soundblaster X-Fi extreme gamer Windows 7 RC x64

  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2009
    Hi again... I just wanted to provide a couple links showing other people encountering the choppiness/hitching with the aero animations when opening/closing a window (see my post directly above). It does not seem to be driver-related.  Thanks. http://windows7news.com/forum/windows-7-troubleshooting/aero-openingclosing-animation/ http://windows7forums.com/windows-7-hardware/5048-windows-7-lag.html

  • Anonymous
    May 17, 2009
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  • Anonymous
    May 17, 2009
    I agree that the aero animations aren't smooth. I experience that too. and also the change from login screen to the windows desktop, or from the windows desktop to the shut down screen is not smooth, it all seems a bit uncontrolled. This is a detail though and I guess a different problem than the aero animations.

  • Anonymous
    May 17, 2009
    Please, work on multiple monitors! We can't change the number (id) of the monitors. My pc think my monitor (2) is my projector and my LCD TV (1) (projector) is my monitor, they are wrong! If we can change the number of the devices will be great! I have tried swap the cables, swap the hdmi cables, change conectors, etc, nothing works. Great OS! []'s

  • Anonymous
    May 18, 2009
    Hello, There is a graphical bug I managed to replicate on quite a few different configurations and it seems it got stuck in the RC: If you move the bar from the default position(down) to the left and then up, on the left it remains a blurry mark where the bar was as if it wouldn't "clear the cache" Thank you for a fast and stable system Regards, Ioan

  • Anonymous
    May 20, 2009
    I do like how W7 handles the Sleep/hibernate cycles... shutting down the PC after a specified time period, then when you turn it back it, it goes into "Resuming Windows". I prefer this setup because it also allows me to boot into the primary OS (Ubuntu) and do what I need to, and even after restarting, W7 still goes into "Resuming Windows". The problem I see is 2 fold:

  1. When resuming from sleep/hibernation, any computer with more than 1 video output option (such as a laptop with external monitor port, or desktop with multiple video outputs), many times when it resumes, it resumes to an unused video output, rather than the primary monitor.
  2. When "Resuming Windows", it takes 2 to 3 times longer to resume (3-4 minutes), than it does to just shut the PC down then start it back up when you need to use it again (average 70-72 seconds).
  • Anonymous
    May 21, 2009
    I think we should wait for Service Pack 1 of windows 7 ! if include .NET Framework 4 .

  • Anonymous
    May 21, 2009
    I like 7 alot so far except for 1 thing: I upgraded from W 98 to W XP (2 versions in between), but with 7 I cannot upgrade from XP to 7, you can only upgrade from Vista, WHY?

  • Anonymous
    May 22, 2009

  1. IMPROVE DESKTOP RESPONSIVNESS OVER POSSIBLE ( FOR MANY SECONDS AFTER BOOT , IT SEE A CIRCULAR HOURGLASS.   IT'S BORING BUG NOT ALSO FIXED.
  2. IMPROVE SPEED OF ICONS OF PREVIEW OF FILE IN FOLDERS LIBRARIES !!!!!! THESE TWO SPEED OF THESE TWO ASPECT ARE INCOSTANT. FIND YOU A COSTANT FOR A SPEED COSTANT , PLEASE. THESE BORING BUGS OF INCOSTANT SPEED IT IS NOT ALSO FIXED FROM BETA OF WINDOWS 7 64 BIT. FIX THEM!!!!! IT' NECESSSARY IMPROVE CACHE MANAGEMENT OR OTHER, BUT FIND A SOLUTION  !!!
  • Anonymous
    May 22, 2009
    DEAR WINDOWS 7 TEAM: ONE DEMAND: IT'S NOT POSSIBLE IN 2009 , INSTALL WINDOWS 7 ONLYFROM OPTICAL DVD DRIVE. DO MAKE WINDOWS  7 SIMPLE   INSTALLATION , FROM USB  DEVICES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE,   WE LIVE IN 2009-2010 !!!!! SOME TIMES , OPTICAL DVD ARE IMPERFECT OR DANGEROUS! USB DEVICES ARE  IMPORTANT SIMPLE AND MORE SECURE THAN OPTICAL DVD!!!!! WINDOWS 7 INSTALLATION FROM USB DEVICES   IT WOULD BE AN APPRECIATE THING!!! THANK YOU!!!!

  • Anonymous
    May 25, 2009
    Hello I just wanted to let you know, that Virtual Server 2005 SP1 R2 it's incompatible with Windows 7 RC. I had to uninstall it from my Computer in order to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7. Like me, there are a lot of people that use this application for running a non production network (LAN) to test patches and critical updates and Drivers. And everybody knows that most of the Microsoft certification labs run using Virtual Server. Hopefully the Windows 7 engineering team will find a solution to this situation.

  • Anonymous
    May 28, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 30, 2009
    I started using Windows 7 RC today, I was mainly worried about my software running on it, (Which it does, very well thankfully). It was a pleasant surprise, it installed onto a clean drive very quickly, it is not cluttered like Vista, in fact despite the flashy interface, it feels like running XP as it should be and looks like Vista should have. It recognized all the hardware with no difficulty except the cable modem but it accpeted the old drivers with no problem. I took to windows 7 RC really quickly and think it is the best you have come up with to date. If the final version is like this, it will probably end up like XP and Windows 98 did, the version of windows everyone wants to keep using.

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2009
    shutting down the PC after a specified time period, then when you turn it back it, it goes into "Resuming Windows". I prefer this setup because it also allows me to boot into the primary OS (Ubuntu) and do what I need to, and even after restarting, W7 still goes into "Resuming Windows".

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2009
    Just an issue that I and at least one other Acer Aspire One user has experienced: When booting, boot fails, Windows 7 initiates startup repair, but cannot repair. I

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2009
    When resuming from sleep/hibernation, any computer with more than 1 video output option (such as a laptop with external monitor port, or desktop with multiple video outputs), many times when it resumes, it resumes to an unused video output, rather than the primary monitor.

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2009
    it installed onto a clean drive very quickly, it is not cluttered like Vista, in fact despite the flashy interface, it feels like running XP as it should be and looks like Vista should have. It recognized all the hardware with no difficulty except the cable modem but it accpeted the old drivers with no problem.

  • Anonymous
    July 07, 2009
    I think all users of the operating system windows 7 will be in the comfort of a better vistadan and xp operating system I'm sure the future thank you thank you microsoft blogger

  • Anonymous
    July 21, 2009
    I must say, this Windows 7 is what Vista might have been. I think people expectations will be exceeded. Hopefully you will be able to keep Google's new OS at bay!

  • Anonymous
    July 29, 2009
    windows 7 is going to rock!! i'm going to get it

  • Anonymous
    August 16, 2009
    thanks for sharing.. http://www.crea.web.tr

  • Anonymous
    August 20, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2009
    Ankara web tasarım, web tasarım hizmetleri, ucuza web tasarım, domain, hosting

  • Anonymous
    November 07, 2009
    Since acquiring a new PC with Windows 7 installed, the UI preferences tool on my Photoshop CS4 will not work and the text and icons remain uncomfortably small.  Is this connected to the subject of this blog?

  • Anonymous
    November 13, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2009
    Well I have finally made the leap and found it quite comforting in terms of everythings location.  It was nothing like the pain of upgrading from other versions. I particuallary like the way I can stream music from Media Player 12 to my xbox downstairs - nice.

  • Anonymous
    November 29, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 30, 2009
    Thanks for the very informative and enlightening documents. Thanks to myself every day for more of you.

  • Anonymous
    February 23, 2010
    artystyczna <a href="http://www.cinalstudioblog.pl" target="_blank" rel="dofollow">fotografia ślubna </a> mogąc byc z wami wszędzie <a href="http://www.cinalstudio.pl" target="_blank" rel="dofollow" >fotografia ślubna Katowice</a> ogłądnij moja inną galerie zawierajacą <a href="http://www.lukaszcinal.yoyo.pl" target="_blank" rel="dofollow" >fotografia ślubna Bielsko</a> można podziwiać wspaniały plener ślubny <a href="http://www.lebron23.cba.pl" target="_blank" rel="dofollow">Lebron James</a> <a href="http://www.cinal.eu" target="_blank" rel="dofollow">Programista Java</a>

  • Anonymous
    February 24, 2010
    Are you finding issues for software/hardware drivers we have some Logitech equipment used for support and there are still no drivers for windows 7.

  • Anonymous
    March 02, 2010
    I'm a power user and do a lot via the explorer. I won't migrate if the explorer does not beef up qua (at least) the same features.

  • Anonymous
    March 04, 2010
    I can't believe how easy the transition has been to Windows 7. Its also not as expensive as previous editions which is good to see.

  • Anonymous
    March 06, 2010
    Great blog, I really enjoyed this post. I will be back and have bookmarked your site.

  • Anonymous
    March 07, 2010
    As SoCalJim said, do what you enjoy....i'm 2nd year electronic engineering student, i enjoyed electronics when i was so young and i loved it...now i'm doing very good in the major courses...and see, i took a mechanics course and i got D..also electronics eng. have much jobs and it's very easy to find one, it's the basis of technology and its development! ..so do what you enjoy!

  • Anonymous
    March 11, 2010
    Thanks for sharing... keep try to updating...

  • Anonymous
    March 14, 2010
    So what is MS doing about the lockups or freezes that W7 has?

  • Anonymous
    March 15, 2010
    posted my problem at www.remotepccure.org and got some tips …..thanks Jenny

  • Anonymous
    March 21, 2010
    Our Next Engineering Milestone

  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2010
    awesome results…really liked it

  • Anonymous
    April 15, 2010
    Awsome web web web results!!!

  • Anonymous
    April 16, 2010
    Awsome milestone guys! Panik atak bozukluk depresyon tedavisi

  • Anonymous
    April 17, 2010
    Windows 7 is almost perfect for me. You are doing a really good job with this system. But, before the RTM, can you please, just tweak a few points in Windows Explorer?

  1. In windows xp, the status bar showed the left space of the current drive/partition, and the size of the files in the current folder. Now, it doesn´t show anymore, and I (among others) miss this feature a lot.
  2. If we select more than 15 files in Windows Explorer, the Details Pane stop showing the sizes and info. We have to click the "Show more details" to it be visible. Please, remove this behaviour, or give us a option (even if registry option) to disable it. XP used to give me this information in less than a millisecond, and with a decade ago hardware. If this is tweaked, using Explorer will be much better for me.
  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2010
    A recent article I read on OSNews states that UAC is flawed in protecting you on the default setting because it allows Notepad and Calculator not to be protected by UAC. It's a proof of concept code that would allow UAC to be turned off because of these two applications would bypass UAC. All I ask is that MS Developers to please look into this.

  • Anonymous
    May 01, 2010
    Well I have finally made the leap and found it quite comforting in terms of everythings location.  It was nothing like the pain of upgrading from other versions. I particuallary like the way I can stream music from Media Player 12 to my xbox downstairs - nice.

  • Anonymous
    May 07, 2010
    Very nice post. I really enjoy the reading. I will surly come here for getting more information.Thanks <a href="http://www.newrealhomes.com">Real estate india</a>

  • Anonymous
    May 07, 2010
    a very successful site. Also very revealing article. Thanks to the contributors.

  • Anonymous
    May 07, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 16, 2010
    I installed it onto a clean drive really quickly and it is not cluttered like Vista, in fact despite the flashy interface, it feels like running XP as it should be and looks very much like Vista should have. It recognized all the hardware I had with no difficulty except the modem but it accepted the old drivers with no problem.

  • Anonymous
    November 12, 2013
    The comment has been removed