For those of you who installed in Virtualbox, is your windows7 theme changable, as in the color of the taskbar and whatnot?
I installed with a torrent iso, and the official iso from the website, and I cant seem to apply any aesthetic changes with the exception of the wallpaper.
Beta test Windows 7
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Do not post support questions here. Before you post read the forum rules. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 30 days after creation.
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AK Dave
Re: Beta test Windows 7
I have Win7 32bit in Vbox, and I can change themes just fine. No problems.
Maybe there is something to the way I installed vs the way you installed. Dunno. I told Vbox that I'm installed "Windows 2008", because at the time I did this Vbox didn't have a "Windows 7" option. I gave it 512mb ram and 12mb of video, ACPI, and not much else. Once installed, I had to fiddle with guest additions to allow it to install, because Windows 7 wasn't recognised to Vbox. Manual install fixed that. No problems. I then dumbed down the visual settings for Win7, disabling most of the chrome.
It is pretty slow. Giving it 1gb of ram and 64mb of video helped a little, but not much. I wanted a direct compare between Win7 and XP, so I kept with the above low-end hardware settings. My "aero" score is 1.0, due to video, but my laptop is otherwise given 4.0-5.9 ratings for everything else.
I wonder if Win7 is detecting your hardware as "not good enough for Aero" and then not allowing theme management. Which is silly, because I get theme management with crappy settings.
Maybe there is something to the way I installed vs the way you installed. Dunno. I told Vbox that I'm installed "Windows 2008", because at the time I did this Vbox didn't have a "Windows 7" option. I gave it 512mb ram and 12mb of video, ACPI, and not much else. Once installed, I had to fiddle with guest additions to allow it to install, because Windows 7 wasn't recognised to Vbox. Manual install fixed that. No problems. I then dumbed down the visual settings for Win7, disabling most of the chrome.
It is pretty slow. Giving it 1gb of ram and 64mb of video helped a little, but not much. I wanted a direct compare between Win7 and XP, so I kept with the above low-end hardware settings. My "aero" score is 1.0, due to video, but my laptop is otherwise given 4.0-5.9 ratings for everything else.
I wonder if Win7 is detecting your hardware as "not good enough for Aero" and then not allowing theme management. Which is silly, because I get theme management with crappy settings.
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Katzedecimal
Re: Beta test Windows 7
Me: "I'm distracting myself from my Best Beloved's howls of agony and frustration."
My friend: "Oh my god, what happened??"
Me: "He's installing Windows 7."
Seriously. This thing is demanding administrator permissions to execute a function. Even after he grants the admin permissions, Win-7 still won't perform the function. What is this terrible task he wants his computer to do? -- copy-pasting some files from one folder to another. It wants admin permission to do a simple copy-paste. ..and it still isn't doing it.
1.5 out of 5 programs have installed correctly to the point of usability. This thing seems to have Apple's old attitude of "only our software on our hardware, no outside apps allowed."
Him: "What's that?!"
Me: "Uh, I installed Cairo Dock."
Him: "Did it install right the first time?"
Me: "Yes?"
Him: "Did it run right the first time?"
Me: "Yes?"
Him: "Then it isn't Windows 7!"
...i chust gun' shot op now...
My friend: "Oh my god, what happened??"
Me: "He's installing Windows 7."
Seriously. This thing is demanding administrator permissions to execute a function. Even after he grants the admin permissions, Win-7 still won't perform the function. What is this terrible task he wants his computer to do? -- copy-pasting some files from one folder to another. It wants admin permission to do a simple copy-paste. ..and it still isn't doing it.
1.5 out of 5 programs have installed correctly to the point of usability. This thing seems to have Apple's old attitude of "only our software on our hardware, no outside apps allowed."
Him: "What's that?!"
Me: "Uh, I installed Cairo Dock."
Him: "Did it install right the first time?"
Me: "Yes?"
Him: "Did it run right the first time?"
Me: "Yes?"
Him: "Then it isn't Windows 7!"
...i chust gun' shot op now...
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lakehousetech
- Level 4
- Posts: 450
- Joined: Wed Nov 07, 2007 3:34 pm
- Location: Toronto, ON
Re: Beta test Windows 7
Has anyone installed it regularly? I'm too busy to download and tinker with the beta ISO, but I'm definitely curious whether it's an improvement over Vista. I've been using XP for gaming, but would consider snagging a copy of 7 to take advantage of DX10.
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Katzedecimal
Re: Beta test Windows 7
That's what my Best Beloved is attempting to do. It's installed, just not cooperating with, y'know, actually being usedlakehousetech wrote:Has anyone installed it regularly?
He's having a lot of issues with it. Most of the software he's trying doesn't install or installs and doesn't work properly; Vista versions not much better luck, same deal (how does that work?
) It's requiring that Eudora Mail be run as Admin (oh there's security! ) He seems to be having really bad luck though; I described all the issues he's having to a techie buddy who went 
because he's installed Win7 on six different test machines at his shop, and hasn't had a problem yet. Maybe the mate is just cursed... (well, he married me, so, yeah... 
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proxima_centauri
Re: Beta test Windows 7
Katzedecimal,
Not sure if this helps, but in regards to those permission annoyances; you can turn those notifications off in the User Account Control settings, you can set it to Never notify.
Not sure if this helps, but in regards to those permission annoyances; you can turn those notifications off in the User Account Control settings, you can set it to Never notify.
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Katzedecimal
Re: Beta test Windows 7
We've just implemented that, actually - techie buddy made the same suggestion. Best Beloved is awake now so he'll be having another go at it shortly
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lakehousetech
- Level 4
- Posts: 450
- Joined: Wed Nov 07, 2007 3:34 pm
- Location: Toronto, ON
Re: Beta test Windows 7
Has he installed the 32 bit version of Windows 7? I hope they did something better with that 'User Access Control' crap they had in Vista. At least make it easier for people to shutoff. I remember trying Vista out, and shutting it off (UAC) , only to have it re-appear a few reboots later.
Re: Beta test Windows 7
Oh that is a fun one! It took me a while to figure out that I had to go into User's And Groups to turn off that extremely annoying feature!I hope they did something better with that 'User Access Control' crap they had in Vista. At least make it easier for people to shutoff. I remember trying Vista out, and shutting it off (UAC) , only to have it re-appear a few reboots later.
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Wilsonsway
Re: Beta test Windows 7
Downloading and installing vista4experts will eliminate a lot of Vista's garbage and actually make it a lot friendlier to work with. Link is here: http://ntcore.com/vista4experts.php
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garda
Re: Beta test Windows 7
Windows, at version 7, has looked a lot like KDE, don't you think?
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AK Dave
Re: Beta test Windows 7
Sure: KDE4, Win7, OSX, they're all shiny and glossy. Hardly a surprise at that: gloss and chrome sells product. But its like gloss on a laptop LCD: the gloss screens sell better, but the matte screens are easier to actually use productively.
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proxima_centauri
Re: Beta test Windows 7
No - we shouldn't.edwardXXII wrote:The Linux-community should ignore everything concerning Windows, shouldn't we?
MS sucks... Linux is the only right way!
That would be the ignorant way.
Re: Beta test Windows 7
My thoughts are the same as Clem.
http://www.linuxmint.com/blog/?p=625clem wrote:We can still learn from other OSes and we can continue to innovate but I personally feel that we’ve already surpassed both Mac OS and Microsoft Windows.
Last edited by merlwiz79 on Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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KevMaverick
Re: Beta test Windows 7
OK, it's shiny and glossy, but where are we going here? Are we going to spend hours just looking at our screens, or are we going to actually do something - work maybe?
It may be nice to drool over a beautiful desktop, but we are losing the fundamental reason for being here - to do something useful! Then again, I do spend 90% of my time using Stumbleupon!!!
To me, a great system is one one that does all the things I want, but doesn't make you want to admire it all the time, yet is functional. Eye-candy is good in your spare time, but we all have to get some work done.....
It may be nice to drool over a beautiful desktop, but we are losing the fundamental reason for being here - to do something useful! Then again, I do spend 90% of my time using Stumbleupon!!!
To me, a great system is one one that does all the things I want, but doesn't make you want to admire it all the time, yet is functional. Eye-candy is good in your spare time, but we all have to get some work done.....
Re: Beta test Windows 7
I use 7 as my main OS. I use my computer mostly for surfing the net and watching 720p TV shows. Aero looks cool and I have it enabled. For aesthetic reasons I changed the taskbar back down to xp/vista size. I do like the new functionality of the taskbar with the icons that pin to the bar. Took a bit of getting used to but now I like the click/drag way of opening up the right click menu and no text. Also middle-click to open a new instance.
[I still haven't figured out how to setup a simple firefox launcher on my panel in xfce edition. People say with linux it's mostly unlearning windows ways but draging an icon from the menu to the panel or desktop seems pretty intuitive to me. Click and drag has really been one of the best innovations in all of Desktop history in my opinion.]
vlc LOVES Direct3D 10. Or my video card does (ATI Radeon 4870 512MB). in XP I had to use hardware acceleration to play my 720p files without screen tear but the default output works swimmingly in 7.
I haven't made the effort to get spdif-out to work properly with vlc. whatever worked for 0.8.6 in XP is not working for 0.9.2? in 7. This may be because I didn't make enough effort to install my motherboard's drivers that came on it's CD. It wouldn't even run the cd because it said everything on it was for previous versions of windows. If I remember correctly I had trouble installing my ethernet/LAN drivers to get on the internet.
I'm running the 64bit version with 4GB of RAM and it never uses less that 1GB of physical memory even with aero turned off (pretty sure I turned it off to test that). I never use any sidebar stuff. Truth be told I think it might not even open up for me. Yep, just tried right click>Gadgets...Nothing.
Any drivers you install in "compatibility mode" do not stick after reboot (this is probably why I haven't made the effort to get my "HD Audio" stuff working). I use ext2_ifs to access an ext3 partition I have some files on and whenever I need to access that I need to reinstall ext2_ifs.
my two cents. I may think of more later. I mostly like how fast it sets up compared to XP, but that might be a perception thing--it was smart to not show the desktop until it was closer to being usable as you have to wait a minute before you can realistically do anything in XP.
~Steven
[I still haven't figured out how to setup a simple firefox launcher on my panel in xfce edition. People say with linux it's mostly unlearning windows ways but draging an icon from the menu to the panel or desktop seems pretty intuitive to me. Click and drag has really been one of the best innovations in all of Desktop history in my opinion.]
vlc LOVES Direct3D 10. Or my video card does (ATI Radeon 4870 512MB). in XP I had to use hardware acceleration to play my 720p files without screen tear but the default output works swimmingly in 7.
I haven't made the effort to get spdif-out to work properly with vlc. whatever worked for 0.8.6 in XP is not working for 0.9.2? in 7. This may be because I didn't make enough effort to install my motherboard's drivers that came on it's CD. It wouldn't even run the cd because it said everything on it was for previous versions of windows. If I remember correctly I had trouble installing my ethernet/LAN drivers to get on the internet.
I'm running the 64bit version with 4GB of RAM and it never uses less that 1GB of physical memory even with aero turned off (pretty sure I turned it off to test that). I never use any sidebar stuff. Truth be told I think it might not even open up for me. Yep, just tried right click>Gadgets...Nothing.
Any drivers you install in "compatibility mode" do not stick after reboot (this is probably why I haven't made the effort to get my "HD Audio" stuff working). I use ext2_ifs to access an ext3 partition I have some files on and whenever I need to access that I need to reinstall ext2_ifs.
my two cents. I may think of more later. I mostly like how fast it sets up compared to XP, but that might be a perception thing--it was smart to not show the desktop until it was closer to being usable as you have to wait a minute before you can realistically do anything in XP.
~Steven
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knuckles
Re: Beta test Windows 7
I use for the moment the unofficial 7048 Version of windows 7 64bit, I'm not the biggest fan of Windows and there are a lot of Stuff why I use Linux(Mint) as main OS.
But I have a lot Windows Experiance (from 3.11, win95, Win98, WinME, NT4.0, Win2000, XP Vista, and now Win7), With Win98 I was happy but than there was a big regression, and than XP, in my Eyes very buggy but after SP1 a very nice OS.
I had tested some alphas of Longhorn, and was thinking that this will be the Ultimate OS when it comes, but it didn't came but Vista, and Vista with WinME the bades MS OS that exist.
But now with Windows7 is seems that Microsoft has refound the rigth way on the road.
I like it, my installed version run very Stable, and has the same performance as XP, but with DirectX10. Because I use Windows only for my games, windows / will be a must have for PC-Gamers.
I do not think that a Linux user must hate Microsoft, because they do a lot of good stuff, see there good hardware.
If Microsoft change a little there Licence-Stuff.... and prices (like they have done it for Office Home and Student, you can buy it for 75euro with 3licences what mean 25euro per PC, what is for a home use not too much)perhaps Windows has a good chance beside the other OS'es.
But for the moment I will keep Linux as main OS, beucause it is my CHOICE and not beucause it is better than other Systems
But I have a lot Windows Experiance (from 3.11, win95, Win98, WinME, NT4.0, Win2000, XP Vista, and now Win7), With Win98 I was happy but than there was a big regression, and than XP, in my Eyes very buggy but after SP1 a very nice OS.
I had tested some alphas of Longhorn, and was thinking that this will be the Ultimate OS when it comes, but it didn't came but Vista, and Vista with WinME the bades MS OS that exist.
But now with Windows7 is seems that Microsoft has refound the rigth way on the road.
I like it, my installed version run very Stable, and has the same performance as XP, but with DirectX10. Because I use Windows only for my games, windows / will be a must have for PC-Gamers.
I do not think that a Linux user must hate Microsoft, because they do a lot of good stuff, see there good hardware.
If Microsoft change a little there Licence-Stuff.... and prices (like they have done it for Office Home and Student, you can buy it for 75euro with 3licences what mean 25euro per PC, what is for a home use not too much)perhaps Windows has a good chance beside the other OS'es.
But for the moment I will keep Linux as main OS, beucause it is my CHOICE and not beucause it is better than other Systems
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lakehousetech
- Level 4
- Posts: 450
- Joined: Wed Nov 07, 2007 3:34 pm
- Location: Toronto, ON
Re: Beta test Windows 7
They'll probably stick to the same pricing structure that they did with Vista. Someone will probably release a cracked version with a volume license key or validation workaround. I've been using XP Black Edition for my gaming needs for the last couple years. Just recently the Windows Genuine Advantage thing installed itself and the OS wouldn't validate (obviously). I booted into Mint and deleted the WGA executable and dll. Booted back into Windows and disabled automatic installation. When it tries to get you to install WGA again, you just un-check it and you still get all security updates. Easy workaround! I don't have any games that really shine with DX10, so I'm going to continue to use XP as long as possible for COD4 and MOH.
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knuckles
Re: Beta test Windows 7
I'm actually use the version 7127, and must BADLY say, that this Windows-Version is very great. On Actual Hardware faster than XP, nicer than Vista. A lot of Candy-Stuff that make the GUI not only nicer but too more useful.
A lot of things that I hate on Windows and love in Linux (like packages to install software...) will never change in windows because of the complete Windows-Base.
But I think that the time (windows9x) where you have re-installed Windows every week, are gone, and with some tools and a little know-how you can too make a Windows-Install-DVD that install everything you need at the same time as Windows.
Conclusion, because I'm very interested on Linux, I will have every-time a eye on it, and test every Mint-Version, if there is an application for some tasks that work better on Linux I will use Linux (like video converting, or Gimp....), but for my Main-System I'm going back to Windows [7].
A lot of things that I hate on Windows and love in Linux (like packages to install software...) will never change in windows because of the complete Windows-Base.
But I think that the time (windows9x) where you have re-installed Windows every week, are gone, and with some tools and a little know-how you can too make a Windows-Install-DVD that install everything you need at the same time as Windows.
Conclusion, because I'm very interested on Linux, I will have every-time a eye on it, and test every Mint-Version, if there is an application for some tasks that work better on Linux I will use Linux (like video converting, or Gimp....), but for my Main-System I'm going back to Windows [7].