Gaz Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 Public beta: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/default.mspx direct download http://download.windowsvista.com/dl/preview/beta2/en/x86/iso/vista_5384.4.060518-1455_winmain_beta2_x86fre_client-LB2CFRE_EN_DVD.iso If you're into that sort of thing...
Pangloss Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 Note that you'll need a product key, if memory services, so I think you still have to register. I've messed around with various builds and it looks pretty good, but I have had to warn a lot of folks that getting SATA drivers set up properly is a little different in Vista. You don't do the "Hit F6" thing anymore. Just watch the on-screen instructions carefully and it should be pretty clear. Also many of the XP SATA mobo drivers don't work with Vista. Users of nForce4 SLI boards for Intel processors had trouble in 5308, for example (but I think that's mostly been resolved).
bluesmudge Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 should really get me a dvd burner! - £10 to have it sent! They should take note that Ubuntu will send you as many disks as you want for FREE
olifhar Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 should really get me a dvd burner! - £10 to have it sent! They should take note that Ubuntu will send you as many disks as you want for FREE I'm sure Microsoft has long noted that fact, but doesn't really care.
Dak Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 bit rude to charge for the privelage of beta testing. I dont think you need a registration key, but it does expire on june 2007, and you can't upgrade it past RC1. As if people aren't going to be able to hack the exipery out. 'cos microsoft are so good at stopping people bypassing their licencing checks
Klaynos Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 I'm sure Microsoft has long noted that fact, but doesn't really care. I'm pretty sure they DO care, given their anti linux stratergies, but this isn't the subject of discussion here. I've not really liked what I've seen about vista, not entirely sure why it's going to be any better than XP :'( which saddens me, it really does.... I still don't get why XP has so many issues with SATA drivers, why not include them in the later releases? Does this have them already?
LazerFazer Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 For the record, the Vista BETA is rather stable. Granted, I haven't gamed or anything on it at all, but my 'casual' use is usually torture for a system. I tried to screw it up for about an hour, and failed :'( . So at least it holds up to my 'torture'. On a different note, I've never had any troubles with SATA drivers in XP. I boot from it, and I use my SATA hdd as my primary hdd all the time, and not once has it given me problems. The only thing I had to do was configure my BIOS to enable the SATA channels, but that was it, and it wasn't even OS related. Could anyone explain the problems that they're having with SATA on XP, since I seem incapable of reproducing them on my system, and it's begging to be screwed up soon . Cheers, LF
bluesmudge Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 I'm sure Microsoft has long noted that fact, but doesn't really care. Don't be so condescending
LazerFazer Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 No SATA drivers? Really? Interesting.... but then wouldn't that mean that my SATA drives wouldn't work? Or would they work, but just not at top performance, but rather at the performance of parallel ATA drives? Because my drives all work in XP and Vista BETA, and I've never had a problem with either. Also, does this relate to SATA drives by themselves, or only when they are in a RAID setup, because I've never had a RAID setup, so I can't comment on those. Cheers, LF
Klaynos Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 It means they wouldn't work on a fresh install without having the drivers on a floppy. This is all SATA devices... AFAIK they've never updated the install media to include them.
LazerFazer Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 hmm... again, strange. My friends were talking about it at a LAN we had two days ago, but I didn't believe them because, as I said, it's always worked perfectly fine for me. I don't even have a floppy drive, so having the drivers on there is out of the question, and my boot drive is my SATA drive. Hence, I couldn't have installed the drivers post-OS install. Could it be that they put the drivers into service pack 2? I use a slipstreamed SP2 install disk when I install windows... which is like every 2 months . Any other ideas as to how this works?
1veedo Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 I normally try to stay away from Microsof's beta stuff. You never know what might happen.
bluesmudge Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 I normally try to stay away from Microsof's beta stuff. You never know what might happen. I agree - although i did try WMP 11 and its awful which is a shame, becuase i don't hate WMP 10
Klaynos Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 I've just done a bit of research and it seems SP2 does come with it
Pangloss Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 I'm actually planning to steer most people away from Vista for at least six months after release, if not longer. The sweeping interface changes and vastly increased system requirements for smooth performance, not to mention software installer compatibility issues and user rights issues, are going to be major support headaches for some time to time. Even if Vista improves dramatically prior to release, it looks like I'll be recommending a "wait a while" approach. In contrast, I was boring people to tears with the merits of Windows XP and my "immediate buy" recommendation six months before release.
Klaynos Posted June 8, 2006 Posted June 8, 2006 win XP for the average home user was a BIG technilogical step forward... Vista would have been if it contained what they said it would...
RyanJ Posted June 12, 2006 Posted June 12, 2006 win XP for the average home user was a BIG technilogical step forward... Vista would have been if it contained what they said it would... Half the stuff they planned got removed, this version of Windows now has in-built spyware as an "anti-piracy defence" or thats their excuse anyway. Cheers, Ryan Jones
bluesmudge Posted June 12, 2006 Posted June 12, 2006 none of this really matters - since most people who buy vista for the next 2 years is going to be technical bodies such as ourselves, the market is far to saturated with XP and most people see buying a computer as a big step forward and thanks to extreme sales drives in the last couple of years alot of people have up to date computers which they wouldn't dream of replaceing for a couple of years at least . . . . . of course theres the upgrade to vista option, but most people not in the know will as people like us if its worth the £150 - £200 and we'll say NO So question - will vista simply fizzle out after an initial spike in sales simply becuase XP was too popular? After all this is the first time in history we have this kind of problem.
Klaynos Posted June 12, 2006 Posted June 12, 2006 Half the stuff they planned got removed' date=' this version of Windows now has in-built spyware as an "anti-piracy defence" or thats their excuse anyway. Cheers, Ryan Jones[/quote'] Unfortunatly that doesn't make up for even the removal of winfs... MS will try to visicousely push through vista into the market, making software taht requiers the inbuilt drm rubbish... and other such stratergies...
Dak Posted June 12, 2006 Posted June 12, 2006 bluesmudge: i think you're underestimating the average windows user's inclinationg to equate 'most recent' with 'i wanna have'. computer shops will sell PCs with vista just because its new, and people will buy it for that reason too. I mean, my sister recently got a laptop with a 64-bit processor (oooh, the new type! must be good) and a copy of windows xp installed (note the abscence of '64' in the OS name), which, unless i'm missing something, is about as much use as a set of four, nobbly, really expensive off-road tires coming with a motorbike. People will probably get vista in their hoards just because it's new. Half the stuff they planned got removed, this version of Windows now has in-built spyware as an "anti-piracy defence" or thats their excuse anyway. do you have a linky please?
Klaynos Posted June 12, 2006 Posted June 12, 2006 bluesmudge: i think you're underestimating the average windows user's inclinationg to equate 'most recent' with 'i wanna have'. computer shops will sell PCs with vista just because its new' date=' and people will buy it for that reason too. I mean, my sister recently got a laptop with a 64-bit processor (oooh, the new type! must be good) and a copy of windows xp installed (note the abscence of '64' in the OS name), which, unless i'm missing something, is about as much use as a set of four, nobbly, really expensive off-road tires coming with a motorbike. People will probably get vista in their hoards just because it's new. do you have a linky please?[/quote'] For which, the removeal of the cool stuff, or the spyware stuff?
bluesmudge Posted June 13, 2006 Posted June 13, 2006 still theres a hell of alot of people who can't afford this stuff, or just won't upgrade till computer dies . . . Hands up who still owns / works on a computer that runs 95,98,ME, 2000? Or would be if an XP disc hadn't 'fell' into their laps?
Dak Posted June 13, 2006 Posted June 13, 2006 lol. tbh, if anything halts the spread of vista, i think it'll be microsoft's clamp-down on pirate copies. as you imply, XP gained it's prevalance due to piracy. from this prevalence, it gained a huge base of compatable software, and loads of potential employers who knew how to use it. vista will unlikely have this benifit.
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