I’m running windows 7 beta on two machines at home and so far I’m loving the experience. But I have a couple of questions I’ve scoured the internet trying to find answers to to no avail.
Namely: How do I find out what “build” I’m currently running. I tried going to control panel --> system and that doesn’t show the current beta build I’m on. Is there any way I can find out?
Also, if there is a more current build out there I can get my hands on, what do I have to do to upgrade? Format and do a reinstall? Is there any way I can keep my settings/programs/data?
It looks like there’s a newer build available. Anyone know how I can keep my programs/data? Or do I have to start form scratch? (in which case I’ll wait for a release candidate build).
not really a factual question, but I’m just curious how you’re liking it compared to Vista? What have they done differently? I run a dual boot machine with OS X and Vista (mostly use Vista for some old games I still feel the need to play every now and again) but I use vista exclusively at work and I wonder how they compare. Vista doesn’t impress me much at all
Shouldn’t be a problem, but I would Google the version number to confirm no one else had issues. BTW, once you’ve got the RC on there, you CANNOT go backwards to previous Betas, but then the original Release Notes should’ve made that clear.
Vista is a solid OS, but you’re right, it’s nothing to write home about. Windows 7 is essentially what Vista should have been. It’s more intuitive, sports some nice and actually useful features (the new task bar, peek, libraries, better search, better network features, push media button, etc, etc). At this point I’m sticking to the beta and riding windows 7 until retail hits the shelves. It’s that good. I’m not going to reinstall vista if I can help it.
Quick question on the topic of Windows 7: I’m running XP Pro SP3 on my Inspiron 1420 (it came with Vista, but that was an easy enough bug fix:cool:). Will I need to have all the drivers for my laptop on a thumb drive when I install 7 on it, or will the new OS find where the old drivers are installed? I might as well grab the drivers I need to be on the safe side.
Also, is it possible to install Windows 7 Beta over XP Pro without cleaning the system? I have a lot of accumulated crud (movies, pictures, stuff like that) saved onto this laptop and I don’t have a practical means of backing it up at the moment.
Finally, about how long should I expect the install process to take? I’ve got a 2GHz Core 2 Duo laptop with 2 GB of RAM.