ALIKATNZ.COM

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I love Windows 7. Today I made the decision that I was going to install Windows 7 release candidate on my laptop seeing as its the worst performing computer in this house.

The release candidate is already available for download for TechNet and MSDN members, and will be available to the general public from the 5th May 2009 (PST) through until the end of July. The excellent thing about this release is that unlike the Beta, which starts expiring on July 1st 2009 and will be really dead by August 1st, the release candidate has a life span to June 2010 as reported by The Guardian recently.

Whats the minimum specifications for running Windows 7, well, a 1ghz processor, 1gb of ram among other things. This acer laptop which performs so poorly under Vista should be a slender athlete under Windows 7.

With all that said, I am planning on increasing the ram in the laptop to 4gb as the 1gb it has, is always at least 80% in use by Vista OS on its own and gets so hot sometimes I’m left with a laptop shaped pink spot on my legs, and it makes an excellent heating device in winter.

So why was I disposing of the linux partition? I couldn’t wait to have a little attempt at Windows 7 on the laptop, so I’m installing the original beta just to get a taste. I have no patience, but I do urge people to have some when the release candidate is available. I’m certain every every man and their dog and their fish will want to download it. But if you want a sneak peak at the asthetics, I suggest you go here.

This house nearly came apart at the seams. At 7pm last night, we left the internet, working and we then left the house. We returned somewhere around midnight-ish. Shock horror, no internet. Reset modem (#1), nothing. Reset again (#2) and still nothing. Check settings, okay, no DNS information coming from Telecom exchange.

Phone telecom. 15 minutes on hold at midnight. Get hold of call centre in Manilla/Vanilla/Ice Ice Baby and explain whats happening. Reset modem (#4, #5 & #6) check settings. Man promises my a 12 hour pro-rata credit on phone bill. He says will get the pvc server reset in the morning.

Get up at 9.30am (sleep in!) and look at internet. Still not going. Reset modem (#7). Check, still no IP address issued from Telecom. Call Telecom. Manilla Ice much faster to answer this time. Explain it all again. Reset modem countless times, including factory reset.

Factory resets are where the modem is retored to well, its factory default. Doing this erases all Telecom settings. Later on in the afternoon it will dawn on me that the settings have changed and that the Manilla Ice has assumed I have a telecom standard modem (I dont). He says that he will get a technician to call me ater 3pm. Its now 10am. hmm… 3pm is a long way to go if you’ve got no broadband.

I tell him my credit better be worth it because as I’m on the top level residential plan, I expect better than this for my $$$ (40gb per month for $80 with free static IP address, unlimited speeds in both directions… currently pulling 6.8mbps and not even on ADSL2+ yet – another story for another day) He told me I would get one months credit on my broadband bill. Yay!

3pm and the technician calls. Go through with him all the same stuff I had been through with the Manilla and Vanilla Ice Ice Baby. He establishes I’m making a DSL sync (I could have told him that, I did, he didnt listen) and so the fault must be in the grey pillar beside the road, in the cabinet or at the exchange. Hes escalated the issue and will send a technician tomorrow. Tomorrow is Monday. This is a day of work, where one earns wages to pay the broadband bill. I point this out to him.

Right now, I am wanting to cry. Break down in tears in my computer room and sob because I cannot cope without internet for 12 hours, how can I cope without internet for two nights? Its unheard of!

Anyway, after some #geekzone intervention, we’re back online, although the connection is difficult and misbehaving like a kid in a toy store, but oh gosh its nice to be back online. Just not sure how long for. I will make sure I get that credit on my phone bill too. I will hold them to it by gosh.

On another note, Windows 7 is still impressing me. I have not yet installed any software (been playing games) but have made the decision that when it comes up for sale as a finished OS, I will upgrade my desktop and most likely my laptop. I was going to switch my laptop to Linux, but seeing how fantastic W7 is with its power settings, It would be worth it. Again, I haven’t had W7 and Vista running on the same machine, so I cannot make direct comparisons, but may for fun, do a dual installation on my laptop so that I can.

For all those of you – like me – who couldn’t find the answer of how to dual boot XP with W7, heres the skinny. I have managed this and havent found a single clue on any forums.

1. Back up and create restore disks of your main OS (XP Pro SP3 in my case)
2. Burn whichever ISO you’re going to use to a bootable DVD.
3. Install separate HDD in PC (I installed a 2nd 80GB Sata drive)
4. Boot into XP. Still boots? Good! Check drive there. Yes? Even Betterer.
5. Shut down and boot off DVD
6. Follow the prompts. Select the drive you wish to install W7 on.
7. Follow more prompts. When rebooting for the 2nd time, remove DVD from drive and at the boot selector – Select Windows 7. It will restart again.
8. Repeat above.

I can’t remember past here, its a bit of a blur. I have never run Vista on this machine, so direct comparisons on this hardware are not really fair. But my initial impressions are excellent and I am impressed thus far with the themes, GUI and speed of which the machine runs. I also enjoy the lack of interruption from the UAC that youget with Vista. However, it is now 11.30pm and my shoulder is killing me. I will end this entry with a screen shot of my Windows 7 desktop as it stands tonight!

Virgin W7 Desktop