Windows 7

[magic2k]

Hello everyone, I have T61p and have succesfully installed Windows7 x64 on it, actually it works everything except Intel Turbo Memory, and there is another thing, I cannot install Hotkey drivers for keyboard, some of them are working, and some of them not, and therefore I can say that I am positively surprised about W7 regarding that this is Pre-beta release... And so far I haven't found any bug, what is also interesting!

[Shadowlinx]

I have recently had to uninstall the ThinkVantage Power Manager & Thinkpad power management driver on my X60t under Windows 7, as the laptop would randomly freeze (requiring a hard-reset) when on battery mode. The tablet works fine on battery now these have been uninstalled.

Has anyone else experienced a blank screen when resuming from sleep? The only way I have found to get out of this blank screen is to send the laptop back to sleep via Fn+F4 and then resume straight away.

-S

[csv96]

I'm in the process of install Windows 7 beta on my X301. Sounds like there are some issues with the Thinkvantage software. Any other advice about which Thinkvantage drivers/utilities I need to install? Or is everything already included in Windows?

[blackomegax]

Not relevant to thinkpads but i installed build 7000 beta to an Asus N10J and have some minor hiccups using a) UPEK fingerstripe (needed upek's own driver instead of asus') b) hotkeys c)intel INF (needs compatability mode set to vista to install)

How this is relevant? windows 7 != vista. core driver model is the same but they've changed so much it has a vista compatability mode.
I wouldn't expect 100% functionality till lenovo releases drivers. And thats probably 6 months off.

[csv96]

Played around with Windows 7 last night. The only thing I could install/needed to install from Lenovo was the SM Bus Controller Driver, UltraNav driver, and Ericsson WWAN driver. Hotkey, power manager, and presentation director don't seem to work.

[hellosailor]

"a vista compatability mode."
Wait, let me guess. In that mode, the machine locks up and crashes as soon as you launch the software!?

[cpascu01]

I installed W7 Beta Build 7000 on my Z61m last night. It was great. A lot faster than, than Vista, but I think that had a lot to do with the fact that I had nothing else installed but W7. I almost excited about it coming out of beta.

[CoffeeBeans]

Well, I've installed it onto my T43, it didn't recognised the WiFi card so I had to download it from another PC in order to get it to work.

There's still a couple of exclamation bubble showing under Device Manager, one is the Biometric Coprocessor, the other is an 'unknown device'.

Looks like I'll have to take a look at the Lenovo site to see if I can resolve it!!

[cpascu01]

My biometric coprocessor started to work after I downloaded a driver from the Utek website.

[Temetka]

My download of Windows 7 is nearly finished.

I am going to be running it on a separate partition on my T60 once I wipe Linux off of it.

I am really pleased with the performance of Vista SP1 on my T60 and as such am hoping for at least the same level of performance from the beta.

I will post back later once it is installed, the download is currently at 94% so it shouldn't be long.

I heard rumors of a reduced installation time. To install Vista Ultimate from scratch on a blank HD took under 25 minutes on my T60 with 3GB of RAM, so I am hoping for a few minutes shaved off.

[mgo]

My download of Windows 7 is nearly finished.

I am going to be running it on a separate partition on my T60 once I wipe Linux off of it.

I am really pleased with the performance of Vista SP1 on my T60 and as such am hoping for at least the same level of performance from the beta.

I will post back later once it is installed, the download is currently at 94% so it shouldn't be long.

I heard rumors of a reduced installation time. To install Vista Ultimate from scratch on a blank HD took under 25 minutes on my T60 with 3GB of RAM, so I am hoping for a few minutes shaved off.

My T60 run Windows 7 very well. Install is not necessarily faster, but the operating system does seem to run around 20% faster once installed. Bootup is faster, Sleep and Hibernate are much faster.

Copy and Paste via Windows Explorer is finally fixed and is wonderfully fast. My T60 seems to run significantly cooler (around 10 degrees based on TP Fan control program icon info)

The footprint seems smaller. I don't like how the Windows 7 "Aero" GUI looks (some apps are ragged) so I am running it in Classic mode.

All in all, an improvement over Vista. Let's see if Microsoft resists the temptation to muck it up with more "features" and offers 7 at a reasonable price.

[Temetka]

Ok so I installed Windows 7 in a separate partition so as to dual boot between it and Vista SP1.

The whole install took 37 minutes. I started at midnight and first logged in at 12:37am PST.

So far I need to load the OSD and hotkey drivers for the volume buttons and the function keys. I also went into the BIOS and re-enabled my fingerprint reader. I loaded the fingerprint software with no problems, was able to enroll and it works great.

Other than that, all I have done is install the Kapersky preview for Windows 7, FF3 and the fingerprint software. The overall performance of the OS at this point is awesome. It boots in nearly half the time of Vista. Once I log in, a useable desktop is presented in seconds. Aero performance feels improved over Vista. I am impressed because I use Intel GMA graphics in my Thinkpad and I wasn't too sure how it would run in Windows 7 as compared to Windows Vista. In Vista, Aero runs nice and smooth, but in Win 7 it has 'the snappy' and 'feels' more responsive to me.

My other concerns will be answered once I load it down with some software and we'll see how it runs in my work environment. I plan on binding to our AD server and seeing how that works out as well.

More updates to come as I use the OS more and more. Already I like it over vista. I am really surprised at the useability of the new task bar, which I though I would hate but was able to understand instantly.

Hey Microsoft, finish it up and package it already and you will have a customer in me. Oh and don't muck it up. It's great now. Clean your code and move on. Otherwise, thank you very much.

[Radioguy]

I'm not touching this until Lenovo acknowledges its existence with some drivers, or an install walk-through. I just want to know they have done an install successfully themselves first.

It does sound [censored] tempting though. I doubt the upgrade will be free, but are we looking at something cheap for those with Vista already?

[Radioguy]

"danged", then.

[Temetka]

Just got done with a multi-hour World of Warcraft session. I didn't even install the game! It ran from my old c:\users\public\games\World of Warcraft directory.

It ran very well, actually better than under Vista if I do say so myself. I also was copying a few GB to my NAS setup and had FF3, Outlook 2007 and IE8 running in the background.

Color me impressed.

I am tempted to strip Vista from the system and use Windows 7 as my main OS. However I will run it as my secondary OS for a few weeks to see how it's long term stability is. However if it is the same performance that I am getting right now, then I will be all over it.

No I don't have any subjective benchmarks at this point in the game to demonstrate a speed increase. However I know my system very well, and I can say that it is running better.

[bill bolton]

However I will run it as my secondary OS for a few weeks to see how it's long term stability is.

The phrase "long term stability" and the phrase "beta software" are mutually exclusive!

You might want to have a careful read of the EULA for the beta test version.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[Temetka]

I know the differences between beta and release Bill. I've been using computers since before the XT. What specifically in the EULA are you referring to?

--------------
My Thoughts and discoveries:

So Win 7 now includes stickies! yay!

Open a windows explorer window, then drag it to the side. Now open another one and drag it to the other side. They both resize so you can do side by side! Pure awesome.

The more I play with this, the more I love it.

Wordpad and Paint now include the ribbon, which IMO greatly improves their functionality.

You can now burn .ISO files straight from windows! Excellent. Now if they would also allow me to create .ISO files then I would have no reason to install Nero. Finally if I could mount .ISO files as volumes, then all of my dreams would be answered. Until then I will continue on with MagicISO.

More to come as I fall more in love with this OS. Honestly no Microsoft OS release since Windows 2000 has made me this giddy!

<Mr. Burns>
Excellent
</Mr. Burns>

[j-dawg]

It does sound *****Expletives removed by Moderator***** tempting though. I doubt the upgrade will be free, but are we looking at something cheap for those with Vista already?

I believe that if you buy a computer with Vista starting some point in July, the upgrade is actually to be free. Seems kind of irrelevant to those of us who already have Vista, but it's a nice gesture.

I'm not really seeing much speed improvement in 7, but I had no problems with Vista. I'm also not noticing that the PC is using less RAM than it used to. These observations seem contrary to what most users are reporting, but that was also the case with my Vista experience. Maybe I've just been lucky all along.

Anyway, for that reason I don't think I'd bother paying for an upgrade. It's a nice OS, and I hear it plays nicely with older hardware, but since I was satisfied with Vista I'll just stick with it.

[Temetka]

My idle RAM usage has decreased in Win 7 over Vista.

In Vista I would consume 1.2GB of my 3GB of RAM with nothing running.

In Windows 7 I am consuming 700-800MB of RAM.

That is not what I expected. I did expect a lower RAM usage amount of course, but this just makes me warm and fuzzy.

[Temetka]

Caution, meet wind.

Wind, meet caution.

I made a backup of my files, then I slapped in the DVD and hit upgrade.

Now I can fully test Windows 7 with my daily workload and workflows. I jump between Photoshop, to TeraTerm (hyper terminal like program for connecting to Cisco routers/switches and or anything else via a serial port), RDP sessions, multi VPN's and so on.

I'm looking forward to see how Windows 7 handles my workload. It's already impressed me with the upgrade process. It was smooth and easy. So far I have been able to VPN, do VNC and RDP sessions and some light photoshop work. No problems so far.

[j-dawg]

Well, color me impressed - it installs and runs properly (and usably) on an X24. Astounding stuff. I abandoned XP on that computer a while ago for Linux, and since I never use it for anything important it gets a new OS every, like, month. But I never expected this.

I had only 256MB when I abandoned XP. Now I've got 640MB, and now it runs about the same as I recall XP running. How un-Vista of Windows 7, to scale down so well.

[crashnburn]

Interesting Discussion

[foehammer]

I'm running side by side with mandrake on my X41t(in case I bork W7). I've found it to be fast, but have some issues, like the video acceleration is a no-go because the intel 910/915 is not well supported.

[mattbiernat]

i tired windows 7, the lame glowing start button was really getting to me. any idea on how to deactive the glow. and no i don't want to revert to classic view.

[Temetka]

Got my fingerprint scanner working.

Gave up on Lenovo's drivers and software. Told windows to search for new drivers on the cloud and enrolled my print in 1 easy step.

Explorer just tanked on me pretty hard a minute ago. Full system lockup. I do make very, very heavy usage of sleep and hibernate features. I wonder if that had something to do with it. The computer had been awake for only a few minutes while I started to peruse some threads, and then crash.

Funny thing is, it didn't even bother me. I know it's beta and I am willing to live with it. I'd rather find bugs like this now, then after the OS goes gold.

[foehammer]

i think MS has the same idea... my father didnt believe me when I told him about the beta.... He was convinced that MS would never abandon their ship then patch model.