First Experience with Windows 7 Beta

I spent the weekend using Windows 7 Beta (build 7000) and the experience has been great.  A few points worth noting:

• OS Installation - Superb!  It went very smoothly as expected.  No issues there!
• Device Drivers - I was able to get my Samsung LCD and printers working right away, talk about plug and play. :-)  My Microsoft Wireless Notebook Presentation Mouse 8000 needed a new driver but fortunately thanks to the Windows 7 Beta site from Microsoft Hardware, I got the mouse working in minutes. Nice job Microsoft Hardware team!
• Usability and Performance - The system felt zippier with especially when I took advantage of the 64-bit process of my Lenovo T60p.  File copying seemed faster too.  UI-wise, I love the improved task bar that showed the multiple stacks of windows I had open in a much more elegant way. Just hover your mouse over to the bottom taskbar and you'll see the multiple windows nicely stacked by each app. You don't need to do ALT-TAB now if you don't want to.  :-)

So, stop reading this blog post and start enjoying Windows 7 Beta now and download it here .

And wait, there's more. Our team have just released an update to the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 3.2 for Windows migration that is now available to install on a machine with Windows 7 Beta. Check out the MAP Toolkit now and start planning your desktop deployment projects.  We'll add Windows 7 hardware assessment capabilities soon, stay tuned for our MAP Toolkit 4.0 Beta Program in the upcoming months.

Ciao,

Baldwin