Test Windows 7 Now - Free RC release for a year

[admin]

Get Windows 7 RC release here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Download will be available until July 2009. The RC will expire in June 2010, but will start auto-shutdown every 2 hours in March, don't know if there will be an upgrade path to the full version, so best not to use it as your main OS.

[photo_angel2004]

Can you have more then 1 OS on the same computer?

[admin]

I'm off to install Windows 7 OS right now, so that would mean 3 OS's on the same computer (XP, Vista, 7). So yes, you can have more than one OS on the same computer, but with XP/Vista, you'll need separate partitions and it's best to install XP first.

[PurpleDemon]

So yes, you can have more than one OS on the same computer

Yes. But can you go back to one OS without re-installing?

Been using RC for a week now. Seems more user friendly than Vista for the most part.

[admin]

Yes. But can you go back to one OS without re-installing?

Should be able to do it with the Vista repair tools (assuming removing Windows 7), or with EasyBCD. Even simpler to just modify the boot manager settings to auto-boot to the OS of choice and then pretend the other OS doesn't exists

[MilesAhead]

The other method you can do is make an image of your HD before you change anything. Most of the image backup tools, when you restore will either give you the option or automatically restore the MBR and partition table to what it was when you did the backup.

You can use that as an alternative if say, deleting the unwanted OS and expanding the partition of the other to use the space, gets fouled up.

@admin@ maybe you can confirm if you're looking into it. Is it true that Windows7 and Vista insist on being seen as C:\? I mean are we back to "Dos has to be on C:\" mode?

GeeZ!!!

[admin]

The way they work is that when you're in Vista/7, the Vista/7 drive is C, but once you're back in XP, your XP drive is C. It works well, with whatever program under whichever OS you're using happily thinking the OS drive is C, while oblivious to the other drive.

A better way to test Windows 7 may be to install it to a Virtual Hard Drive, which won't alter your current setup except replace the Vista bootloader with the 7 one:

http://forums.techarena.in/guides-tutorials/1175447.htm

[MilesAhead]

I tried a setup like that before. I had Win9x and I think it was Win2k Server. Both came up as C: and were hidden from each other. I had apps on another partition. Most of them worked ok with it. But I used Visual Studio for VC++ 6 and VB 6. Anything that changed the registry I booted both OS and repeated the procedure. But any customization of the IDE like tools or macros, or MSDN library, that wasn't enough. Once I booted the other OS I could never get the behavior of the 2 in synch. That's because Visual Studio insisted on having shared files on C:\. What a nightmare!! Even to uninstall it required like 4 or 6 reboots to clean out the stuff while both OS was running!! Never again!!

[dazuk1972]

Get Windows 7 RC release here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Download will be available until July 2009. The RC will expire in June 2010, but will start auto-shutdown every 2 hours in March, don't know if there will be an upgrade path to the full version, so best not to use it as your main OS.

Microsoft can keep it after all the bad news over Vista. I'm sticking with XP.

[soup]

Don't forget you can have Windows 7 & Virtual XP. I have XP32 & Windows 7 / Virtual XP (not used much yet)., XP32 is C, Windows 7 is E. D is my 3x500 raid array. One thing I would strongly recommend is seperate drives.

[admin]

I've had a brief use at it. Seems to be faster, more spruced up and less buggy version of Vista. People used to Vista should have zero problems migrating (the only problem may be that they forget they're using a new Windows version). It's not a bad thing, as the migration is easy.

The original Vista release should have been like this, seems as if Vista was just one big beta test for Windows 7.

[copyless]

I loaded 7 on what I have named my L drive (just a partition), and when I boot into it it shows up as my L drive. I did this so I wouldn't ever have to bother with backups or anything else. Also so I could use different virus programs and such. I just loaded the programs I would use on that part of the drive, such as ImgBurn, and a few beta programs that were made for 7. When I'm done I can just erase the whole partition, and just boot straight to Vista. Right now if I don't select Vista it will boot to 7 by default timer. The windows.old files are my 7 beta files, whereas if you installed over vista they would the Vista OS.

There are a few beta virus programs for 7 so I am trying some of them and still have Norton on my Vista side. This way I don't waste a key or have to buy anything, I like the OS so far, but I have been trying it since the beta was released.

[rcubed]

Hi,
I have downloaded the Win 7 RC1 32 and 64 iso images. One word of caution. I would recommend using IEx using the download manager. I had multiple problems with corrupted downloads when I did them with Firefox, others have appeared to have the same problem using Opera. For the 32 bit version using IE7 the first try was corrupted, but the downloaded does validity tests on the download. Be prepared to wait a while for the download to complete, the 32 bit is 2+GB, and the 64 bit is 3+GB in size.

I'm still in the evaluation stage, they have changed the GUI from XP Pro. I frequently have to go to help to find a feature (to be expected with a new OS - learning curve).

cuber

[MilesAhead]

So copyless, the C:\ imperative is not enforced then? Is it only some wizard that does it that way? I seem to remember that any time more than one OS came up as C: it was only a matter of time until stuff got hosed. Maybe you could do Dos in C: and have Win95 installed in C:\Win95 but that's about it!

[copyless]

If you install 7 on drive C it will remove the old OS and place it in a folder called windows.old, (I left the 7 beta on my system and this is the OS in my windows.old folder) you can install 7 on another partition of that HDD, as I have and when it starts you will have the option to choose which OS to boot. When I changed my HDD several months back, I replaced my two 320GB HDDs with two 640GB HDDs. At that time I partitioned one HDD with C (Vista), D (Factory Image), L (future OS). Which I used L for 7 beta and now 7RC. The other HDD I partitioned with E (music files), M (movie files). I have an Onkyo TX-NR906 receiver in my home theater system that is hooked to my computer because it has Internet radio and also can use WMC on my computer so I have the E drive for it to access, this way I never have to put in a CD because I have them ripped to drive E, and can play them straight from my computer.

Sorry for the rambling, but yes when I start the computer 7 is the default OS (which is drive L) and I have 30 seconds to hit the down key and enter, to start Vista. Sometimes this used to be a pain, because I would come home and start my computer and walk off, then come back and have to restart it all over again, because I forgot to change the OS to boot to, and I would want to be in Vista but would be in 7 beta. But that has been a while so I am used to it now and it doesn't happen anymore.

Now for the other, every program I have installed while booted to 7 has installed on drive L, I have only installed about 10 programs so far. So I have only one OS as C and one as L.