Windows 7 SP1 Beta Now Ready for Public Testing

the final release is scheduled for the first half of 2011, sad.

Whats even more sad is the fact that they are just now releasing SP1 BETA and have already announced development of Windows8 or whatever it is to be named. Does anyone else believe this is a waste of time, if there is already a new OS in development?

Nope. Not everyone is going to jump ship when ever the new OS comes out and I bet some of those people would like for MS to continue supporting win7.

At this point, I'm not even interested in "The Next Windows". Microsoft did good here and I'd hate to give them a chance to screw it up.

Well, look at how XP the ancient is still gonna be supported. So no worries about Windows 7 dying early. Besides, from the early slide leaks and how Windows 7 is performing so far, I'm very eager to try out Windows 8, when it comes out.

Who cares, Windows XP til 2014.

One of the major fixes in this sp is the memory leak that was reportedly reported.

i'm actually excited for the memory leak fix

The ignorant public = Microsoft's unpaid beta testers. Sorry Microsoft, keep your crapware to yourself.

No, my reasoning for this centers around the fact they are releasing windows 8 kind of quickly (from what i've seen on roadmaps and what people have said) i for one would be scared to switch from 7 in fear 8 might be another vista.




no harm in that just as long as you know that windows 7 blows it out of the water.

Windows Vista 2006. Windows 7 2009. Windows 8 2012-13. Sounds about right to me.

Yeah, that would be wonderful for organizations that just deployed 10s of thousands of Windows 7 machines to no longer update and support that OS. What is wrong with you people?

It's just because you don't understand that having a lot of tester (also a lot of possible computer configuration) will help find bugs faster and have a better SP.

If you don't want to help having a better Windows, just ignore it.

Dev teams only work on new products. I'm sure the specs for Windows 9 are already laid down while work on Win 8 continues. In fact once release dates get set features that cannot be completed in Win 8 get moved to Win 9 so the bar is flexible while continuous. Existing products like Windows 7 are developed and supported by a "sustained engineering" team separate from Dev although they'll occassionaly leverage main Dev resources.

This is the largest software maker on the planet. They know how to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Sorry but i wont support microsoft anymore!! I was ripped off with a crapware called Vista and when vista was fixed ( Windows 7 ) they still wanted me to pay for it like it was new software!! no more!!!!!

Yeaaahh! Don't install any fixes, that'll teach em!!!!

/eyeroll

You can also pony up $2k and head on over to OSx land where they charge you money for service packs.

Tired of playing catch up with OS's and hardware, PS3 will stay in my gaming lineup, still have a PS2.
I put Win 7 64bit on my Q9650 gaming rig (thanks Newegg) and it will never see Win 8. I will never buy into MS for gaming again, after this rig goes (years from now, not including repairs) Linux should be mainstream maybe on STEAM, will dual boot to start the transition away from Microbloat.
Call me old, I am. As far as my main computer, banking and reading the news, shopping and such or maybe writing a third book, Snow Leopard will be used as long as possible, at least a decade or more. I don't care about playing freaking Blue Ray or Purple Ray disks if they invent that. The Macbook Pros are a great marriage of hardware and Software and will not be lured into a shiny new one one day with a touch screen or what ever.

No, I don't want to help a corporation make more money by improving their product for free. I don't have time for that. Testers are paid positions, Microsoft apparently needs to hire more of them. Do you also ask your neighbor to come mow your lawn for free, you know, to help make it a better neighborhood for everyone? lol

This whole transition from XP to Windows 7 is a complete pain in the ass for the business world. XP was fairly solid for closed networks that have tasks to perform in a business nature. It was frankly crap for home users as the growing amount of prowling malware and what not that the average dumb home user will get on XP. However with proprietary software makers not moving quickly to get their software functioning on Vista / 7 (Our main software still doesnt work on Windows 7 or vista and wont until 2013) moving to Windows 7 is a pain. Call me slow, but XP lasting as long as it did was part of the reason for Microsofts dominance over the last decade. Because it was a stable platform. Them changing it up frequently as they plan to, is going to make keeping them less attractive if they reinvent the wheel every 2 - 3 years. This opens the door for linux not to mention Apple. OS X is currently the best choice for a home user just because it will take them longer to break it, and there is less of a target for malware and what not. In my opinion, Windows 7 is the most solid windows yet, and I wish they'd sit on it for at least 5 years before conidering windows 8. OS X has not been drastically reinvented in over 3 years now, and given Apple's history we have at least another year before 10.7 will hit, and even then it probably wont be a total reinvention. Linux has been stable for many years. MS is over compensating for leaving XP alone for entirely too long. As to the service pack beta, screw doing their job for them.

^^ Most intelligent post in this entire thread. A++

No, but I may go over and help mow theirs (with permission of course) if they haven't had time or been around that week or there mower is broke or whatever. It helps keep the neighborhood looking nice and just being neighborly.

Some good points but... We needed to break away from 32 bit computing and an OS overall was indeed needed to do it right. Windows 98se, ME, 2K and XP all could run the same software (for the most part). They maintained dominance due to the mountains of software available for all of their OS's at that time, not just XP.

Now there has been a major overall to the OS and most likely anything written for Vista will work on Win7/Win8 (most even on XP). It's a new world of computing and MS is moving forward at a faster pace than anyone else but; they still maintain a very respectable backwards compatability. Everytime there is a major change in computing there will be headaches, but to think that you won't be able to run most software out of the box is wrong. To think that you will not be fine with win7 when win8 is released is just plain wrong as well.

Also, if your "main software" does not work and is not expected to until 2013 how is that MS fault? I think your software provider needs to move their ass. Maybe they should have thought about updating their ancient software before XP reached EOL.

On the SP beta, many companies like to run the beta in a closed enviorment to make sure everything will work as intended come rollout time. Your company could have avoided headaches by possibly testing the Win7 RC. That way the problem would have been recognized and you could have said "hey software provider, you got any updates so I am not forced to run an OS that was released on 2001?".

Sorry, but Microsoft backwards compatibility sucks. Read thekurrgan's post again, he specifically said his application does NOT work on newer Windows versions. And I can't even count how much software, games, etc. I've had to throw away over the years, because I upgrade Windows and then the software doesn't work. Windows' backward compatibility is anything but respectable. There is SO so much broken legacy garbage in current Windows versions, it's absurd. Heck, even Windows Service Packs break backward compatibility. Remember the XP SP2 debacle? Tons of software had to be updated and patched to be SP2 compatible. Network software in particular, due to the introduction of the Windows Firewall with SP2. What a stinking mess Windows is these days.

Shenanigans. MS backwards compatibility is not perfect but it sets the bar far above anyone else.

I hate to just brush off arguments but really if you disagree with this then I question your objectivity.

Damn, well said, now THAT is the most intelligent post here today, A+++

Seriously, it all starts with the operating system, the software companies/providers MUST follow suit, if not, they are "getting off the pot".

Wonder when Windows 7 will be mainstream in the enterprise? Here's some useful enterprise features:

http://www.datacenterpost.com/2010 [...] -info.html

Why don't you keep your ignorance to yourself?

I did read it, that is why I replied to it. I think he makes some very valid points and in no way was trying to downtalk him but... the fact that software designed for an OS released in 2001 does not work in 2010 is not really a negative for MS in my book.

For example, I recently installed Shiny Entertainments "Sacrifice" (developed for win98se and released in 2000) on my Win7 64 bit machine and it runs flawless. That is a positive for MS in my book.

I think I'll give this a shot.

Ok I will try this one.

The only reason I will switch to Windows 8 is if the OS comes with a new version of DirectX that is not available for Windows 7...and even then, only when I have a DX12 GPU.