Windows x64 Ultimate RC1 vs. Vista x64 Ultimate

In the shame corner we have Vista and in the savior corner we have Windows 7. Windows Vista was supposed to be the XP replacement. It came out with a bang and was advertised, the same way like W7 is now. All new, fresh and the best OS ever. Unfortunately for some, the requirements were staggering in order to enjoy it. Enterprises were reluctant to change their infrastructure. They were happy with XP. Half of them have in house written software for making transactions and they needed to be written again for Vista. As a consequence, a small niche decided to adopt it. This small niche consisted of people with new computers and new IT products. Everything went fine, Vista was a lovely experience, or was it? When power users started to use and tweak Vista issues appeared. I was part of the beta testing community, I witnessed both Longhorn and Vista so I saw the modifications. 99% of my devices did not work when Vista came out. Along came SP1 and changed the OS into something even better. Compatibilities have been resolved and devices started working. On top of that manufacturers got a move on software and drivers for their older products. Except Creative. In any case, today Vista has become a very strong candidate for a good OS. It is very stable and if you find the sweet spot it works like magic.

I have been using the latest build in WMware for a few days and I was impressed. As fun as WMware is, there are certain limitations. However, with 1 GB of RAM allocated and the basic WMware video driver, it ran like a bat out of hell. When I saw that Adobe CS4 Master was not giving errors and did not crash, I said that Microsoft is really on the right track. They listened to our feedback and worked on the framework issue. Thus, my logical choice was to use it as a main OS.

Windows 7 RC :




Installation was smooth but I don’t like the way W7 partitions disks. For some reason it makes “Disk 0 =100 MB” for my manufacturer and for vital system files.



As you can see, I cannot do anything with it. What can a manufacturer do with a 100 MB? Maybe this will be changed with next build.

Startup:
Vista takes 50 seconds to boot fully and W7 takes around 40 seconds. Looking at this figure, for me, with or without these 5-10 seconds it is the same thing.


Moving now to Startup memory usage.

My W7 TM


My Vista TM:




Network Center



Vista



Windows 7 :




If it took me a while to adjust to the Vista network center, it also took me a while to adjust to this one. It looks nice but I would have accepted the Vista one too.


Networking:

I haven't had any issues with W7 and Vista. Networking is a synch between W7x64, Vista x64, and Vista x86. It seems Microsoft got this part right.

Daily usage :

1. Battery:

Battery life has improved on my laptop. Power management is way better than on Vista. I love the gradual brightness adjust when the battery is drained.

2. Asus Apps :

I installed most of my applications, however, I cannot log in with my fingerprint reader. I tried the latest W7 beta driver for the reader but it breaks the reader completely. If, with the Asus driver, I am able to swipe my thumb after log in with the beta W7 driver the reader does not work anymore.

3. Synaptics :

No issues in running the Vista driver.


4. Adobe Photoshop CS4 Master:

Everything works the way it should. The framework crashes and errors are gone. Microsoft has fixed them and, moreover, applications launch a tad faster than on Vista.

5. Microsoft Office :

When I started writing this I was very anxious to share my experiences with this OS. After a couple edits in word, I am experiencing huge crashes. Everytime I save, Word fails to respond.




This happened as soon as I updated to SP1. Just lovely. The beta had no issues with word, and now, the latest build has huge issues with Office 2007 and the service pack. I started typing this in word and I had to move to wordpad . Unbelievable, whenever Word crashes, I need to reboot, but, it does not reboot, I need to force shut-down.

For some people this is not important but for me, I say it is a major drawback for enjoying this OS.

6. Creative:

I successfully installed my EX54 card but I have the same issues I had with the first beta. No EAX, Crystaliser, EQ, etc.

7. Chrome:

It is slow like Firefox from cold. I don't have the speed I had on Vista and I have to run with a weird switch. This switch opens Chrome to Vulnerabilities.

Benchmarks :

Vista results :




Windows 7 results :



I will let you draw the conclusions with benchmarks.


Overall Conclusion :

This is not yet worthy for RTM. Microsoft should get their stuff together. Its an interesting OS but it was several kinks.

1. Dodgy animations on windows when using Aero. Minimise and maximise is choppy.
2. When copying files the computer seems to drown. If in Vista you copy 50 GB and you can open outlook and other things with ease, in Windows 7 this balance does not exist ...yet.
3. Start-up needs to be tweaked a bit. It is not yet there.



Anyone want me to test anything, let me know.

 

Which build are you using? I am on 7046.. and it still has unresolved issues with explorer randomly crashing after video playback.. and the wireless connection failing after a resume from sleep..

Nice review, btw..

 

Sorry about that...will add in my review now. Cheers mate...but...isnt RC1 build 7048 by definition?

 

It is.. and it's yet to be publicly released.. the 7048 build going around doesn't seem to be the RC1.. I haven't installed it, so can't say for sure, though..

 

Don't know what goes around. I have the right one because I am a part of their community. I doubt many people will get their hands on it. This process is not like Beta 1.

 

Wishmaker, have you been able to get W7's Aero to work when running it under VMWare? I tried various things but none of which worked.

 

No because W7 knows it is an emulation of your GPU.

 

I wonder if there is a work-around for it. I currently have W7 dual-booted with Vista on my desktop but I wanted to run both simultaneously without anything disabled.

 

I tried 6 NVIDIA drivers with or without modified infs and I could not. If you find out, let me know .

 

I am running Windows 7 build 7048.winmain.090219-1845 and it has a hard time with Word 2007. Word crashes frequently and when the OS tries to recover from the crash it always winds up having to close the program.

I seem to have more problems with this build then I did with the original 7000 build.

Microsoft needs to do more testing before they release Windows 7 to RTM.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe MS released 7048. You can hardly blame them for a Beta OS that was leaked having issues. Maybe they were aware of these issues but it the changes corrected something else. That's like complaining when you pick you car up from the shop before they put it back together and then it breaks down on the way home.

 

just curious... why did you name your partitions after AMD processors?

Agena = Phenom (barcalona)
Phenom?

 

Hold on a second guys, the RTM has NOT been released yet (including being leaked)

There is speculation that Build 7065 is the RTM build, but no one's sure yet.

I'm currently using 7057 x64 that just leaked a day ago, and I'm loving it.

The Word 2007 problem you're experiencing, I also had in Build 7000 but it seemed to be fixed in Build 7048. Did you do a clean install or an upgrade?

 

It sounds like a couple of the issues you are having may be driver related, which isn't surprising since there aren't any finished 7 drivers yet since 7 doesn't even have a RC build finished.

What chipset drivers are you using? This can have a large impact on HDD performance.

What video drivers are you using? Some integrated Intel drivers installed by default do not work properly.

Also, you should give IE8 a chance. I think it is the best web browser out there now and the IE8 RC is stable for me with no crashes and super fast. For my preferred functionality I use a single add-on (IE7pro) and the wonderfully functional and simple HostsMan/HostsServer to rid all advertising.

 

Are you sure 7048 is the RC? I doubt it, with 7057 already leaked a few days ago. Unless 7057 is post-RC.

 

Yeah I heard that build 7057 is the actual RC. I'm downloading it now

 

No problems with 7057 and office SP1 here.