Windows 7 beta report on a T60

[mgo]

In case anybody is interested, I am now running Windows 7 beta that I downloaded from Tech Net over night.

The machine is a 2 gig processor with 3 gig of RAM. Windows score is generally around 4.0 but the hard drive only rates a 2.0 for some reason.

I am running in "Classic" mode for better performance.

Most everything seems to be working well, including Sleep and Hibernate hot keys, even without downloading them from Lenovo.

Screen Magnifier and Onscreen Display refused to install, but I can still see everything fine. Fn+F5 works. Fn+F3 does not. There don't seem to be any drivers for Win 7 on the Lenovo site, but that's to be expected, I suppose at this stage of the game.

The default Vista interface looked pretty ragged, likely due the ThinkPad hardware. I prefer "Classic" anyway since it is easier on my eyes.

Video on the ThinkPad 14.1 inch screen looks great. Video on my Dell 19 inch 4:3 ratio screen is mostly very good with some slightly ragged text on some menus.

Yes, 7 is faster by about 20% I would estimate. Boot up is around double the Vista boot up. It boots faster than XP ever did. Sleep and Hibernate are very fast.

Microsoft may have a winner here, based on my preliminary experience. Office 2007 and ACDSee run fast. Office apps load almost instantly once they have been launched after first boot. AVG anti virus 8 free runs well.

Installation of Windows 7 Ultimate from the DVD seemed to take a little longer than Vista Biz, but I guess there is more to install with Ultimate.

Hope this little report is interesting to you "experimenters" out there...

[maximus_]

I did an upgrade from Vista SP2 beta to Windows 7 beta build 7000 on a T60P and it runs much better. All my apps run fine with the exception of FN + F5 which I don't use anyway. I did have to reinstall my Kapersky anti virus but other then that I'm pretty happy with this Beta. I was having some issues with SP2 beta and this to me is a much better OS then Vista even though it really is nothing more then a tweaked Vista.

[maximus_]

One thing that is odd is the performance score of my HD is 3.0 and it was 5.5 before. I'm using the 7k200 and I just ran HD tune and the I/O is the same as before. This may be due to a Beta build or MS is expecting much faster Drives in the next year so they lowered the score.

[iamdmc]

Some of my scores lowered, some raised inexplicably (ie. integrated Intel GMA966/X3100 graphics from a 3.6 rating to 4.5). If the expectations have been raised then how does existing (admittedly dated) technology earn a higher rating in 7 vs. Vista.

So I don't know how exactly they're calculating this rating. I think that it's one of those Beta-specific errors that will be ironed out by RC1.

[maximus_]

If the expectations have been raised then how does existing (admittedly dated) technology earn a higher rating in 7 vs. Vista.

I was just guessing here as I was only aware of my score.