Windows 7 does sound good. I might give it a go next weekend. - jon

I installed it on my mac, dont know why though - Simon Wicks

Can you say anything about hardware specs, Robert? I don't know if MS is playing the NDA game with the beta release. - teleken

Have you tried mouse hovering over the task bar in the bottom right (there's a small rectangle with no label) - does a nice 'show desktop' effect. Pretty cool so far eh? - David Ing

Happy too.. so far so good... - Aad 't Hart

I wanted XP rather than Vista, I really did. Now there's some slim hope?! - Bernard (ben) Tremblay

I love Windows 7 on my old hardware! Just posted a review on my blog... :) - carrotmadman6

teleken: if Vista works on it Windows 7 will work better. - Robert Scoble

David: that's cool! - Robert Scoble

Why does Robert get so impressed by every new technology ? - Sidharth Dassani

Robert: Understood. Now the question is whether I drop it in Parallels on the MacBook, or go for broke/masochism and see how the Inspiron Mini handles it. ;) There's the real acid test for a new Windows OS. - teleken

teleken, I have it on Fusion and on my netbook. Both work amazingly well. The only problem with using it on Parallels/Fusion is that you will not get Aero and hence won't get all the nifty Aero-dependent desktop features like Desktop preview, the preview panels etc. - Kamath (नमः)

What are the minimum memory reqs on it? - Jason Wong

Is it a winner because it actually installed correctly, or because you're impressed with the new feature set... - Shay Frendt

Also, try left-clicking on a taskbar item and then dragging upward. - Akiva Moskovitz

Shay: both. - Robert Scoble

Looking forward to the release after posts like this. Read that idle W7 uses appr. 600-650 MB RAM. Anyone confirm those numbers? - Migger

The real killer feature for Windows 7 would be a little dialog box at the beginning of the upgrade process that simply says "If you proceed with this upgrade, you will lose N days of productivity to trying to troubleshoot drivers, software incompatibilities, and reinstallation of incompatible programs; to re-learning simple UI tasks; and to experimenting with superficial cosmetic changes, all for marginal UX and performance gains . Do you want to continue? Yes / No" - Ken Sheppardson

Jason: I don't know what the hardware requirements are but it uses fewer resources than Vista. So, just go with the hardware requirements for Vista. - Robert Scoble

I've had Windows 7 running with just 128mb RAM in a VM - Excellent memory management. - Nigel Kitchen

Tips for VMWare Fusion install http://friendfeed.com/e... - michael silverton

Will Windows 7 fit on an 8GB netbook SSD? - Ken Sheppardson

teleken: My MacBook is running it fine, no problems so far, although I've only really been playing around with settings and stuff, not installed any big software to try with it. I used VM Ware to do it, Parallels always gave me problems so i switched. - Simon Wicks

Since I have both Vista & Ubuntu I think I can wait until all you early adopters work out the bugs. :D Seriously, I will wait until it is forced upon me when I buy another computer. That should be about 3 years from now. - MarkCarras

REALLY tempted to run the beta on my laptop...a bit nervous to run any beta on my main rig but i think it wouldn't be so bad on my laptop....hmmmmmmm - Live4Emma (L4S)

dual booting 7 with vista and 7 is running so much faster than vista. i'm happy that they cut down the min. req. - Aaron Eaton

Stay away from AVG under Windows 7...triggers a heinous BSOD in tdx.sys... - Mike Dove

I have been unable to download the Windows 7 image from Microsoft's site. I think they're a bit overloaded at the moment! - John Bellone

John, have you tried since Saturday? My download worked like a champ Saturday afternoon. Also Brandon LeBlanc @ Microsoft is reporting that extra capacity was added and the download site has been working smoothly since Saturday AM. Also they have removed the 2.5 million limit on the number of beta testers -- as long as you get it before January 24, you can get a product key: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs... - Karim

Upgraded main computer? will MS support upgrade from Beta to RTM? - Vaibhav

I installed Windows 7 64-bit and Chrome doesn't work at all. GRR. - Phil G

I like the things they have done with respect to perf and UI changes, but this is what Vista should have been in the first place and I hope the upgrade from Vista to 7 is cheaper given the small number of differences between the two. - Vaibhav

Whoops, someone figured out how to fix it: http://www.blogsdna.com/1900... - Phil G

I got it here on my HP Mini 1000. Running good so far... not doing much though - Bwana ☠

Phil, have you run the compatibility wizard on it? - Akiva Moskovitz

@Mike Dove I have 7 x64 with AVG installed. I don't have any problems with it. - Vaibhav

Akiva - nope but that command line switch I just linked to did the trick. - Phil G

@Vaibhav Perhaps you are getting lucky. I believe I was triggering it with the Outlook Email scanner portion of AVG, it may be that for normal operation it is fine. - Mike Dove

Karim, What link did you use? MIcrosoft's site seems so slow. - John Bellone

When attempting to download Windows 7 I click "Download Now" and nothing happens. - John Bellone

Windows Weekly mentioned that there's quite a nasty MP3 truncating bug in the beta. If you value your music collections, it's probably best to avoid using WMP. Apparently there's a hot fix available. - Paul Grav

@Paul it was the first thing I did after installing Win7 and Windows Media Player is working just fine with no damage to the mp3's that I have been able to tell yet - Steven Hodson

@Paul same here. It works fine after hotfix - Vaibhav

Awesome news.... I hope MS Windows 7 is a winner...that would be great! - Susan Beebe

Yep, Windows 7 went pretty smooth so far; tackling my main home/Windows Media Center device now. +1 for sex life as well. - Wade Dorrell

Whats the timeline before it expires on you? how painless was the upgrade? - Stephen Smyth

Stephen: I think it's expires in August - Vaibhav

I wrote about my initial install experience on The Inquisitr (http://www.inquisitr.com/14951...) with some follow Snapshot posts at WinExtra .. I'm liking this release of Windows - Steven Hodson

Stephen, it expires in August which means a Beta 2 or RC1 in July (or a hotfix to extend the death date). - Akiva Moskovitz

Been running Windows 7 for about a week. Loving it! - David Andrzejewski

A friend just loaded Win7, she is upset that she can't find a way to make it Classic UI. It will be a long long time before I upgrade in that case. - Tina Clarke

I've heard someone saying he was expecting something new in Windows 7 and literally got the same Vista OS, just a little faster. Don't you think Microsoft is re-selling the same system (only a bit improved) instead of giving us a new one? - Nir Ben Yona

I think I'll be waiting for the BETA-tag to go away. I have tried vista and xp in beta and I regret it, so..this time I'll wait for the FULL and not beta version of Windows 7. - Qbat

In case anyone cares, I threw Windows 7 on a late 2006 Compaq V6600 laptop with a Turion 1.8GHZ processor. This was one of those Vista capable machines. It was running XP (it never had Vista on it) and Windows 7 runs better than XP did. It has 2GB RAM. It's not a low powered laptop nor is the CPU/chipset that old but it's nice to see Windows 7 run so smoothly on it. Windows 7 installed in under 40 minutes(was almost zero touch) and all I had to do was install the Nvidia graphic driver from Windows update after first bootup. All other hardware devices worked perfect with the out-of-the-box drivers although there were some updated modem, HP Quickset and audio drivers available from Windows Update as well (which I did install). It did have a functioning out-of-the-box Broadcom wireless driver that worked okay, but I manually upgraded to a newer version that works better (it sees 50% more wireless networks and maintains a higher connection speed). I also installed the MP3 corruption fix (http://is.gd/faou). Now - Dr. Apps from twhirl

John - if you are using the technet download link (the one with the serial number) , it will try to invoke a downloader app which only works in IE. If you find one of the many blogs with the direct download link, those should work with any browser. - Phil G

Previously as a test, I upgrade installed the Windows 7 6801 beta on a Vista 32 machine that was heavily used (over 1400 installed applications) and was shocked to see it that not only did everything still work (Zonealarm, LogMeIn, MICROSOFT FINGERPRINT READER!), but it was MUCH snappier and startup and shutdown was significantly better. Not that I would ever recommend an upgrade install, but it was an interesting test especially seeing AV/Firewall software still work properly. Have not tried Beta 7000 on that machine yet. - Dr. Apps from twhirl

Great to hear the upgrade worked. I hate when computers fail... - Mitchell Tsai

Failed to mention that the upgrade install on the Vista 32 box w/ 1400+ apps took at least 3 hours. I can't remember exactly how long. But it took forever, which was expected... - Dr. Apps from twhirl

Like it so far. Install was a bit difficult, but thats probably my fault (dual boot machine). Snappier than Vista, cleaner than Vista. Uses about 20% less RAM on my machine. - Chad Albert

Dr Apps mine took hours too. I ran it while I slept. - Robert Scoble

Just tried streaming h.264 video to a xbox as an extender. It works !! - Olivier Castets

Fresh install took me < 30mins to login prompt. Upgrades take a lot longer. - Chris Johnson

Clean install to Lenovo 510 went very smooth. Loading some apps shortly, but first impression is that it is noticeably snappy. http://www.flickr.com/photos... - George Rogers

John, I am using the regular Technet link: http://bit.ly/NJJb If you're seeing "Download Now" I assume you have gotten past the Live ID logon, profile update and gotten your Product key? The download uses an ActiveX control or Java applet download manager. Assuming you are on Windows :-) try your download in IE, and allow the ActiveX control to install. - Karim

I have Windows 7 beta running on an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor 4000+ with 2 Gig of Ram and it runs better then Vista Home Premium did. The only issue is I can not get my Netgear SC101 NAS box to recognize. Does anyone have any ideas? - Rob Cairns

"windows", "winner" - is this an example of #15, say something outrageous ;-) - Neil Saunders

Peter Simard: That's awesome! I'm sure you backed up first, but were quite relieved it all went well. :) Rob Cairns: I didn't even know the SC101 worked with Vista in the first place... I gave up on that thing so long ago. That is probably the only piece of hardware I've ever regretted buying. Though it sounds like you've had a good experience with it if you're still using it. I'd say wait a few days and see if anybody comes up with a solution. I took a cursory glance and didn't find any info... - Dr. Apps from twhirl

Robert - Using it since late yesterday. On two boxes, more stable than the original final releases of Windows NT and/or Windows 2000. More drivers supported up front than in Vista. Think MS learned something and the download limit drop will bring a lot of embedded techies. It's a win. - Charlie Anzman

Thanks for being on the bleeding edge, just about to load the Windows 7 beta myself.. Good to know it upgraded properly for you. - TechMama Beth Blecherman

I'm going to download it tonight Can't wait! - Michael Fidler

It was a long upgrade for me... but overall I like it. - Jason Womick

Been very happy with Windows 7 so far. Many subtle improvements add up to a much better product than Vista. - Jim Bednarz

I am happy with Windows 7. Fresh install was effortless, but after the install and adding all possible board drivers, four "System Interrupts" entries remain yellow. At least the LAN connectors worked immediately. - Robert Miller

I put win7 on a Toshiba Satellite a65 from 2003 and it works better than xp did - Todd Loren Sinclair

Stephen : The upgrade was painless 90 minutes or so and a couple of reboots later. The only issue I had as previously mentioned was my Netgear Sc 101 issue - it did work on Vista. It expires in August - Rob Cairns