Is Windows 7b stable enough for normal usage

[mattbiernat]

Is Windows 7b stable enough for normal usage, that is internet browsing, watching movies, word processing? All those praises on how fast it is makes me want to switch OS but I don't want something that will keep on poping BSOD on me.

note to moderator: im sorry, i did not realize that i have posted this in Vista forum. plz move this into appropriate locations. thank you.

mod edit: Changed the references of Vista 7b to Windows 7b.

[basketb]

Have a look at this blog http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/window ... -beta.aspx which contains

Also, another important thing to keep in mind is that the Windows 7 Beta will expire on August 1st, 2009.

and

The Windows 7 Beta is targeted toward the enthusiast crowd – people excited and knowledgeable with technology. If you don’t quite understand much of what I’ve written above, it is probably best you don’t try to install the Windows 7 Beta.

MS products are hardly usable when they GA, so what do you expect of a beta?

[Marin85]

WMP on Windows 7 still seems to have some problems (i.e. corrupting files). IE8 seems to have security vulnerabilities (and probably other bugs as well). Office 2007 may work well though, haven´t tried it yet.

[csv96]

Short answer...if you know how to clean install Windows, then yes, it's very stable for regular day-to-day use. I've been running a clean install of Windows 7 on my X301 for over a week now and haven't had any BSOD or program crashes. However, initially I did try upgrading from an existing Windows Vista installation and that didn't work very well. Lots of crashes and glitches. Also, keep in mind that most of the Lenovo Thinkvantage utilities don't work with Windows 7.

[foehammer]

the more you install the more unstable the system gets for me.... but running only a fe select apps seems to do the trick for me.... and I'me using it for work..... although I do backup 2 or 3 times daily.

[mattbiernat]

on my x300 i mainly use the following applications:
1. WMP11
2. Office2007
3. Opera
will i encounter any problems? i know somebody reported problems with WMP12 so i will just skip it.
oh and i don't use anything thinkvantage except for hibernate shortcuts and easy eject. but i can live without those.
update okay what the hell. i have recovery cds for vista, i am downloading 7b and I will see if it works for me or not.

[sportfreak]

hmmm well i have installed it few days ago, and i had absolutely no problems with it whatsoever and i had office 2003 and many other everyday apps installed in it, and trust me it runs very nicely and fast too..

and i am planning to install ubuntu in the dual boot mode so that i can see how it is in everyday use..no BSOD at all as of now..dint needed to download any separate drivers for my thinkpad, except for the fingerprint reader..will let let u know if anything comes up..

until then, keep ur spirits high and let the ball rolling!!!

[bigwormie]

Runs great for me for office 2007 and internet browsing. Very fast and stable.

32 bit version.

[GomJabbar]

From my experience so far, I would say yes - BUT REMEMBER W7b expires August 1st, 2009. That is a big reason not to make this your only OS - unless you store everything on a network or external hard drive.

[Marin85]

From my experience so far, I would say yes - BUT REMEMBER W7b expires August 1st, 2009. That is a big reason not to make this your only OS - unless you store everything on a network or external hard drive.

...or unless you hack that beauty ...

[GomJabbar]

...or unless you hack that beauty ...

We don't discuss that sort of thing here.

[Marin85]

We don't discuss that sort of thing here.

Nor do I, it must have slipped out somehow ... (<--hope that´s the correct phrasal verb ) As a matter of fact, my post doesn´t really look like a discussion on "that sort of thing" (whatever this might be, I wonder... ), does it... Nor did I say that hacking your beloved OS is a good thing. ON THE CONTRARY, HACKING IS A VERY BAD THING AND ALSO VERY IMMORAL, SO PLEASE DON´T TRY THIS AT HOME, WE ARE PROFESSIONALS!... Sorry, couldn´t resist, please don´t tell Bill, he will get angry..., again...

EDIT: I meant Gates (like StarGate(s) or WaterGate(s)), didn´t realize we also have a few Bills...

[bigwormie]

Can't you just reinstall it on 7/31/09?

[Marin85]

Can't you just reinstall it on 7/31/09?

I believe not if you (have) use(d) the key provided by M$ after starting the download. However, you could try reinstalling it every month, so there will be no need to enter any key. I don´t know if the public made betas have some sort of built-in clock to keep with the end date

[basketb]

Can't you just reinstall it on 7/31/09?

Yes, but wouldn't you only be able to use it for one day as it expires on Aug. 1?

[GomJabbar]

I am quite sure regardless of when it is installed, it will not run after August 1st, 2009.

The Windows 7 Beta will stop working on August 1, 2009.

To continue using your PC, please be prepared to reinstall a prior version of Windows or a subsequent release of Windows 7 before the expiration date. See Installing the Windows 7 Beta.

[Marin85]

Even if you have never entered the provided key

[GomJabbar]

Probably not (the computer clock would probably be checked), but I cannot say so categorically. Yet, what would be the point? Reinstall every month? No thanks.

Perhaps the only way would be to set your computer clock back some months. Even that likely wouldn't work as Window 7 would probably update the time and date over the internet!

[Marin85]

Hm, yes, I now remember, that was the case with Vista betas as well. I don´t believe M$ will do differently this time.

[rjenovai]

I did a clean install on my T40p and have had the occasional lockup. IE 8 isn't ready for primetime
yet, but firefox 3 seems to be ok. Not too bad for a beta, but I wouldn't depend on it as my
primary OS. Looks promising, we'll see what the RTM build brings.

[CoffeeBeans]

Mine is running very well, have installed Avira AV, Comodo FW, OO3, FF3, VLC and Ccleaner onto it and they've all been running faultlessly

[YW-Slayer]

I have run it for a few weeks on my T42 (1GB RAM, stock 60GB HDD). I used it quite extensively last week at home with Office 2K7 (mainly Excel and Word), FF3, and Google Chrome. Opened a lot of windows in everything and it seemed to run better, faster, and more stably than the default install of XP! I can say that because before running Win7 I did a fresh recovery of XP from the recovery partition on the HDD (which is still there for when 2nd August 2009 rolls around).

Highly recommended.

[califas]

It's my sole OS on my T23, not bad for an 8 year old computer. Installation is easier than XP due to more drivers being detected. I'm not a power user but everyday operation is near as quick as XP.

[neenee]

I have had no crashes or lockups since I installed Windows 7 beta on my desktop and laptop several weeks ago.

I come from Vista and thus far my experiences have been nothing other than positive.

[mattbiernat]

okay i did not anticipate so many responses in this thread. i have already installed 7 and it works much better for me than Vista but not quite the same as XP. I still keep my XP on T60, just because getting work done on XP seems so much easier.

[socal.thinkpadder]

I'm hearing great things about Windows 7. I downgraded my T61 To XP Pro because Vista Business seemed too bloated, although it looked nice, but XP Pro is much quicker. Hopefully Microsoft will offer a good upgrade deal.

[agarza]

I was tired of XP. It began using the CPU a mysterious process eating 40% of the CPU which caused the fan to run more often. I installed on the same partition as XP, I'm now unable to access XP because of a corrupted file but I'm quite pleased with the performance. Only hiccup is I can't get to work the OSD and neither TPFancontrol as it behaved on XP.
I'm now waiting for my WD Scorpio Black 320GB and today just upgraded the ram to 4GB so I guess this year I'm finally transitioning from XP to 7 (I haven't really used vista a lot, I wiped it 2 days after I received my T61 with Home Premium on it, the thing couldn't let me do anything with just 1 GB of RAM)

[woomaa]

After month working great:

W7 on t60p 200gb HD, 3GB RAM, photoshop elements 6, lightroom 2, cubase, dreamweaver cs4, firefox 3, thunderbird 2. Is more stable than my old vista.

[mattbiernat]

i found the hibernation to be more stable in 7 than in Vista. faster too.

[WilsonF]

I used Windows 7 x64 from January on my T61p until I got a new unit this week. On the T61p, I was able to get most of the ThinkVantage software (didn't try the CSS or Rescue and Recovery) and all the devices except for the fingerprint reader and three unidentifiable "base system devices" to work. Finding device drivers that worked for a couple of the devices turned out to take a lot of web crawling.

With any beta OS the mantra is "don't use on a production system" and "use at your own risk." I used this one on a production system and feel that my risk was much less than with any previous Windows beta. I hedged my risk by doing all this on a separate hard drive that I swapped for the original one with the Vista preload; I retained the original hard drive and robocopied %userprofile% very frequently in case something went wrong.

All of the software that I purchased in the last 1-1/2 years worked, and most of the older applications worked as well.

I expect Windows 7 to be a big improvement over Vista.