Lee Ferree

After all the fuss on Friday, Microsoft has now released Windows 7 Beta 1, and it is readily available to the public. If you’re using Internet Explorer, you’ll need to download the ActiveX plug-in that allows the Microsoft Downloader to download the 32 and 64-Bit versions of the new beta operating system.

I’ve only run the 32-Bit version, as I’ve had problems with the previous 64-Bit builds. Here I’ll share my results with what’s compatible, what’s not, what tweaks can be done to increase performance and some general eye candy. Enjoy!

You can download your copy(s) from the Official Microsoft Windows 7 Home Page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/
At the bottom of the page is a link to “Get the Beta”
Here is a direct link. It should work, unless they change it:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx

Once you have downloaded your copy, you will need to burn the ISO to DVD using your burning software.

I strongly recommend using a clean hard drive to install, unplugging your existing drives before you begin. You don’t want to mess up what you already have installed. If you have a separate computer to test on (that has nothing you care about losing) that is your best option.

Microsoft recommends a 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM.

Microsoft has released 5 Product keys, for both 32 and 64-Bit versions of Windows 7, giving us a total of 10 keys. Here they are:

Windows 7 32-Bit Product Keys:
4HJRK-X6Q28-HWRFY-WDYHJ-K8HDH
6JKV2-QPB8H-RQ893-FW7TM-PBJ73
GG4MQ-MGK72-HVXFW-KHCRF-KW6KY
TQ32R-WFBDM-GFHD2-QGVMH-3P9GC
QXV7B-K78W2-QGPR6-9FWH9-KGMM7

Windows 7 64-Bit Product Keys:
482XP-6J9WR-4JXT3-VBPP6-FQF4M
RFFTV-J6K7W-MHBQJ-XYMMJ-Q8DCH
D9RHV-JG8XC-C77H2-3YF6D-RYRJ9
7XRCQ-RPY28-YY9P8-R6HD8-84GH3
JYDV8-H8VXG-74RPT-6BJPB-X42V4

These should work until August of this year, giving you plenty of time to play with the new operating system before it hits retail shelves.

Here are some services you can disable to get a little more performance.
Click on the start button (now just a round ms logo in the lower left-hand side of your screen)
In search, type services, you’ll see it pop up, just click on that to find the list of services.

Application Experience
Application Management
Certificate Propogation
Desktop Window Manager System Manager
Diagnostic Policy Service
Diagnostic Service Host
Diagnostic System Host
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Fax
Function Discovery Provider Host
Function Discovery Resource Publication
Health Key and Certificate Management
HomeGroup Listener
HomeGroup Provider
Offline Files
Program Compatibility Assistant Service
Security Center
SSDP Discovery
Superfetch
System Event Notification Service
UPnP Device Host
Windows Connect Now – Config Registrar
Windows Defender
Windows Firewall
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
Windows Search

If you don’t like those huge icons on your desktop and the bloated (double height) taskbar, here’s how you fix it.
Right-click your taskbar; Propertires; check “Use small icons”
This will give you a smaller (normal XP-ish stype taskbar)
I forget the one for desktop icons, but I’ll post it once I find it again

Working (tested) Programs
Firefox (and addons)
Flash 10
Foxmarks
Nasa Night Launch Theme
NoScript
Tab Mix Plus
TwitterFox

Adobe Photoshop CS3
avast! Antivirus
boxee (Vista Compatibility Mode)
CamStudio Beta 2
Everything Beta (Search Tool)
Gmail Notifier
hamachi
Microsoft Office 2003 w/ FrontPage SP3 (I just don’t like Office 2007)
Paint Shop Pro 7.04 (Yes, I still like this older version better!!)
RapidShare Manager
Skype 4 Beta 3 (Build 181)
TeamViewer 4 (Run as administrator) to install
uTorrent 1.8.1
VLC Media Player
wakoopa
WinRAR 3.80
WinSCP
Yahoo Messenger

Audacity 1.3 Beta… walkthru

Right-click speaker icon in task tray; Click Recording devices

Right-click any device in list and check Show Disabled devices

Scroll down and find Stereo Mix; Right-click and click Properties

Set Device Usage to “Use this device (enable)” under the General tab

Under the Listen tab… set Playback to Speakers (your sound card here)

Under Advanced tab… set sample mode to 2 channel, 16 bit, 44100 Hz (CD Quality); Click Apply, then OK.

Games
America’s Army (Punkbuster not working)
Unreal Tournament (sort of working, OpenGL DOES NOT work with MS Drivers!!)

Microsoft Found Hardware
D-Link DFE-530TX+ PCI Adapter
Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1800
Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX
NVIDIA GeForce 8000 GTS
NVIDIA nForce4
Realtek AC’97 Audio

Things Not Working
Google Chrome
Windows Gadgets

I’ll continue to update this post. A video is coming soon, but the program I use is capturing polarized video in Windows 7. Stay tuned!