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Things to Know About This Beta Release of Windows 7


Audio

When the computer sound is idle for some time, you may occasionally hear a click as a result of the audio driver being suspended or unsuspended to conserve battery power.
No action is required.

Calculator

These issues affect operating systems in bidirectional languages, such as Arabic or Hebrew.
If you are using the Calculator application at a higher screen resolution (for example, at a DPI scale of 125%), the user interface may be truncated.
To avoid this, use the Calculator application at a DPI scale of 100%.
The user interface may also appear to be blocked by a black rectangle when you change modes or open or close various tools.
To correct this, minimize the Calculator application and then restore it.


File sharing

If you share a directory that is outside your profile directory (c:\users\<username> ) and then attempt to make a subdirectory of the shared directory private (by selecting the Share with no one access level), this may result is less restrictive permissions on the parent directory.
Avoid making private any subdirectories that are in shared folders outside your profile directory.

Guest Mode

If you do any of the following in a standard user account that has Guest Mode turned on, subsequent logins to the account will fail:

* Change any HomeGroup settings.
* Use CardSpace to create a personal InfoCard.
* Install Adobe Flash Player.

In addition, Windows® Media Center will stop responding if you attempt to run it from an account in Guest Mode.
There is no workaround for either issue at this time other than to log on with an account that as administrative privileges and turn off Guest Mode for the user account. If Windows Media Center stops responding, use Task Manager to stop the Windows Media Center process.


HomeGroup

* If your HomeGroup includes computers that are joined to a domain and computers that are not joined to a domain, attempts to join a new computer to the HomeGroup may fail.

To avoid this, shut down any computers that are joined to a domain or put them in the sleep state before you attempt to join any new computers to the HomeGroup.
* The HomeGroup troubleshooter does not send additional information to Microsoft to further diagnose problems.

To correct this, click Control Panel, click Network and Internet, click Network and Sharing Center, click Fix a network problem, right-click HomeGroup troubleshooter, and then select Run as Administrator.
* If your network profile is set to Public and you run the HomeGroup troubleshooter, the network profile will be reset to Work.

To correct this, open the Network and Sharing Center, click the Work Network link, and then change the network profile.
* If your computer is part of a HomeGroup and is also part of a home network as well as using a VPN or 3G connection, access to HomeGroup computers may be slow.

To avoid this, disconnect from the 3G connection when the computer is connected to the home network.
* If your computer is part of a HomeGroup and uses two network interfaces connected to two different networks (wired or wireless), the HomeGroup node may disappear in Windows Explorer.

To avoid this, disconnect from whichever network does not include the HomeGroup computers.
* If your computer is part of a HomeGroup, the Advanced Sharing control panel does not accurately reflect that your public folders are shared.

There is no workaround at this time.
* If your computer is part of a HomeGroup and you access files from another computer in the HomeGroup, remote libraries and accessed files do not appear in Jump Lists on your computer. This issue also occurs in environments where Folder Redirection is used to redirect users’ libraries to a server.

To work around this, navigate to the remote files using the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path in Windows Explorer and then drag and drop each item to the taskbar to pin it to the appropriate Jump List. For example, instead of navigating to \Libraries\Documents on the remote computer, you should use \Users\username\Documents.


Infrared receivers

If you use an infrared receiver to relay TV remote signals to your computer, the computer may fail to resume from sleep.
To avoid this, disconnect the infrared receiver. If this has already occurred, restart the computer.


Internet Explorer 8

* If you leave the Dev Toolbar open, but not pinned to the browser window, it will close if you navigate to a site in a different security zone from the current one.

To avoid this, keep the toolbar pinned to the browser window. If this has already occurred, reopen the toolbar.
* If you access a SharePoint site that includes a datasheet, you cannot resize the columns using the mouse. Instead, right-click the column, point to Column Width, and then enter a new width for the column.
* If you change the zoom level of the page and then open a new tab or instance, the zoom setting is not preserved in the new tab or instance. To correct this, open the Internet Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab, and then clear the Reset zoom level for new windows and tab check box.
* If you use the Dev Toolbar script profiler on a local Web page that has a space character in the URL, you will not be able to navigate in the source code by clicking on a function name. To correct this, ensure that the Web pages do not include space characters.
* Web feeds (such as Atom or RSS) may stop updating automatically. To correct this, manually refresh the feeds.


Media player devices

* After you have connected or disconnected a media player device a number of times, the device may stop syncing with Windows Device Stage.

If this occurs, delete the Windows Media library. To do this, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139384.
* After synchronizing the device with your own account, if you attempt to synchronize with a different user account, the operation may fail.

If this occurs, ensure that you provided the credentials for the user account in the format username@domain.com.



Multitouch

If your hardware supports multitouch input, check with the manufacturer of the device for updated drivers before using these features.
For HP devices, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139385.
For Dell devices, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139386.


Networking

If you have set the network profile to Home and then upgrade to this beta release, the network profile may not fully migrate the setting, preventing you from joining or creating a HomeGroup.
To fix this, open the Network and Sharing Center, click home network, and then select Home Network.


Public folders

If you use the Advanced Sharing Control Panel to change the public folder sharing options, the settings will not actually take effect.
To share a public folder, create a HomeGroup, which will share the public folder to the HomeGroup by default. Alternately, you can open Windows Explorer, right-click the public folder, and point to Share With, which will open the Advanced Sharing tab where you can create a new share for the folder and set appropriate access permissions.


Scanning

If you install a TWAIN driver for a scanner, you may receive error messages indicating that the scanner is not installed.
To avoid this, install a Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) driver for the scanner instead.


Video

Protected TV content requires a graphics processor that supports AES encryption.
There is no workaround at this time.

Windows Aero

If you install Windows Live Mesh, the Windows Aero® experience stops working. If you must use the desktop with the Aero experience, uninstall Windows Live Mesh.


Windows Media Center

If you use an Xbox to listen to AC3 content in a Windows Media Center extender session over an SPDIF or HDMI connection, there may be periodic glitches in the audio.
There is no workaround at this time other than to use an analog connection or change the Xbox audio output to Stereo.


Windows Experience Index

The method of calculating the Windows Experience Index (WEI) has been updated to reflect newer hardware. The potential maximum value is higher (7.9). Also new tests, such as for disk latency, may result in lower scores for some systems.
No action is required, although firmware updates may be available for your devices which could improve the WEI value.


Windows Media Center

* If you have the calendar set to any of the following types, Windows Media Center will stop responding if you attempt to play the sample video:
o Chinese Lunisolar
o Hebrew
o Hijri
o Japanese
o Japanese Lunisolar
o Korean Lunisolar
o Persian
o UmAlQura

There is no workaround at this time other than to avoid playing the sample video while any of these calendar types is set. If this has already occurred, restart Windows Media Center.
* If a Favorite lineup is configured (either manually or automatically as a Most Viewed item) and the lineup changes because an included channel is completely removed, Windows Media Center will stop responding if you attempt to filter the Guide grid based on the affected lineup.

If this occurs for a manually created lineup, turn off Sticky Filters, delete the lineup, and then recreate it.

If this occurs with a Most Viewed lineup, click Tasks, click Settings, click General, click Privacy, click Privacy Settings, and then select the Turn off the Most Viewed filter in the Guide check box.
* If your system includes the Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008 and have applied TV listings to a channel, combined channels, or split channels, Windows Media Center may stop responding if you attempt to use any TV functionality (such as the Guide, PVR features, or LiveTv) after upgrading to this beta release.

To correct this, navigate to %programdata%\microsoft\ehome\ and delete the mcepg*.db files before using Windows Media Center TV features.
* This issue affects computers with the locale set to France or Germany.

If you have set a parental control for broadcasts, the control will enforce the highest age restriction regardless of the locale setting. For example, if you have set the age limit so that content tagged for age 13 or above in France would require a PIN, content that is tagged for 12 in France but 14 in Germany would still require the French user to enter a PIN.

To work around this, either do not enable parental control ratings in Windows Media Center or lower the age restriction.
* Certain tuners appear to Windows Media Center as dual tuners even though they are not. Windows Media Center will allow you to schedule two programs for recording at the same time, but only one will actually record, resulting in a missed recording or errors. The tuners known to be affected by this issue are as follows:
o WinTV-HVR-1300
o WinTV-Nova-T-500 Dual
o WinTV-HVR-950
o WinTV-HVR-950q
The only workaround at this time is to avoid scheduling two recordings for the same time.



Windows Search Indexing

This issue affects the 64-bit editions of Windows 7.
The contents of Windows Live Mail (.eml) and newsgroup (.nws) messages are not indexed and cannot be searched from the Start menu, the Windows Explorer search box, or the Windows Live Mail application. The issue affects .eml and .nws content exported from other applications as well.
To avoid this issue, either search for message fields such as Subject, From, To, and Date Received or manually register the search filter.
To manually register the filter

1. Using Regedit.exe, navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.eml\PersistentHandler and assign the Default value to {5645C8C1-E277-11CF-8FDA-00AA00A14F93}.
2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Advanced.
3. Click Indexing Options, and then click Advanced.
4. Click Rebuild. When you are prompted to confirm that you want to rebuild the index, click OK. The rebuilding operation may take some time.



XPS Viewer

XPS documents that are digitally signed using the Windows .NET Framework or Windows Vista® XPS Viewer and include invisible accessibility elements will appear to have “Broken” signatures when checked with the Windows 7 XPS Viewer.
To avoid this when you digitally sign an XPS document created using the Save as XPS feature of Microsoft Office 2007, save the document without accessibility elements.
To save without accessibility elements

1. Select Save as PDF or XPS.
2. In the Publish as PDF or XPS dialog box, click Options.
3. Ensure that the Document Structure Tags for Accessibility check box is cleared.
4. Proceed with saving the document.



Zune

After you have upgraded a system to this beta release, the Zune software will not recognize the Zune.
To correct this, start the Zune software with administrative privileges.