Windows 7 Beta 1 Installation Tip

I've been running Windows 7 on my work laptop for a couple of months now with good results.  Yesterday I decided to put Windows 7 on the family PC at home.  I downloaded it from the Microsoft Windows 7 page and I must say that the download went fast (less than 1 hour) and the setup experience was smooth as silk...  with one exception.

My kids told me that the computer wasn't seeing the DVD drive which was preventing them from playing one of their favorite games. When I checked in Device manager I saw the familiar yellow exclamation point on the DVD player device.  I figured that it couldn't find a driver so I searched for drivers but Win7 kept telling me it already had a driver. 

When I examined this more closely I found that some of the drivers were not signed and Win7 was refusing to load them.

What was I to do?  I checked the Dell website and there were no drivers for the DVD drive.  Finally I resorted to turning on test signing which allows Win7 to load unsigned drivers.  To enable this you have to open a command prompt as administrator and type the following command

C:\>bcdedit -SET TESTSIGN ON

 

That did the trick, now the DVD player is working great.  Hope that helps somebody out there.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 11, 2009
  I never install beta version after an xp beta version crashed my system

• Anonymous
  January 12, 2009
  Well - that is the risk of using a beta.  You should never install it unless you are willing to face this.

• Anonymous
  January 21, 2009
  Agile/ALT.NET Scott Ambler on Criteria for a Disciplined Agile Team Scott Bellware - Good Design is Easily Learned Mike Cohn on Establishing a Common Baseline for Story Points Hanselminutes Podcast 146 - Test Driven Development is Design - The Last Word