I was surprised that they can only be used for new installs; no multiboots. So, while I'd like to try the 64 bit version, I don't see how I can.

downloaded 64 to test as multi-boot.....

http://www.syschat.com/how-dual-boot-windows-xp-vista-1818.html

There are many different ways to set up dual boot and there are lots of great third party boot managers out there. I use BOOTitNG which is a boot manager/disk imager.

At present I run 4 different OS's... and that includes Windows 7

I have a PC with traysystem, where I can change the OS boot-disc for multiple OS on the same PC.

/Ulf

I'm curious how you test applications on beta OS's? Most of the applications that I use have some nasty activation that locks you into one PC (the biggest offenders being Microsoft themselves with their Office OEM licensing). How do you test these on Windows 7 when they need to be activated? Do you just transfer your license and use Windows 7 in production??? Microsoft won't even let you move an Office license if it's OEM (although I have by calling and complaining). I've played around with the Windows 7 beta but I was afraid to install any serious apps on it for fear of running out of license activations. (was a sad state of affairs!) :(

~jr

"I was surprised that they can only be used for new installs; no multiboots. So, while I'd like to try the 64 bit version, I don't see how I can."

No need for multiboots.

Windows 7 comes with a VM (virtual machine) with an XP license. (I haven't actually tried it on this RC version but it should work)

So if you're not familiar with VM's, basically it lets you run XP within Windows 7. There's a little more to it than that, but that's about it.

JohnnyRoy is right about big money apps, you can not test them without serious issues. Most app authors of apps like Fusion,Nuke,etc... will not sign-on to testing their apps on a beta OS. If your'll a big client or one of their beta test sites, they may listen but its rare.

"Windows 7 comes with a VM (virtual machine) with an XP license." this is nice. Its good to see VM on the average new machine, sooner that I though especially with MS. I understand, from other reviewers, this MS VM is not complete but its a good start for MS. Letting users have a limited XP OS is a smart decision.

Letting users have a limited XP OS is a smart decision.

I wouldn't even say it's a limited XP OS, it's a full version of XP Pro. And the way that W7 handles the VM's is almost transparent to the user.

Think of it as "XP compatability mode" on steroids!

Here's a Microsoft TechNet video tutorial on Dual Boot Between Windows XP and Windows 7
http://edge.technet.com/Media/Dual-Boot-Between-Windows-XP-and-Windows-7/.

That's a nice XP / 7 dual boot tutorial, but I guess I don't understand why anyone would want to dual boot a Windows 7 machine to XP when they could more easily use a VM to access XP without needing to reboot.

> That's a nice XP / 7 dual boot tutorial, but I guess I don't understand why anyone would want to dual boot a Windows 7 machine to XP when they could more easily use a VM to access XP without needing to reboot.

Because the VM might not give them access to things like firewire ports that they might need for their apps that still only support XP. I have a brand spankin' new Sony HVR-60 Hard Disc Recording Unit that I use with my Sony HVR-Z1U and Vista 64 doesn't have a cue what to do with it!!! It keeps asking for drivers from the manufacture that don't exist. XP sees the unit just fine as the firewire hard drive that it is. So I have to start all of my work on XP to copy files from the HVR-60 after a shoot, then reboot to Vista 64 to edit. Let's hope Windows 7 is a little smarter than Vista or at least as smart as XP!

I wouldn't expect the Microsoft VM to be as robust as VMware. Microsoft said it was supplying this for legacy business applications that have no Vista support to get business users to upgrade to Windows 7. Those are pretty minimal requirements.

~jr

if this a RC does this mean 7 is coming out this year?

I had to do one of those Saint John Ambulance refresher courses a short time ago (a requirement for work) And it just so happens there were a couple a M$ employees there too. I asked them about Windows 7 and they said the unofficial word around the office was a release date of around Fall or early Winter of 2009

It'll be out this year, I'll bet my Vegas 9 on it! :)

The other unofficial word is that some of the major computer manufacturers (Dell, HP) will be offering Vista machines this summer with a free Windows 7 upgrade when it comes out. Similar to the XP to Vista upgrades they had.

This XP VM feature on top of Windows 7 could raise some interesting questions. Like, will it require installing XP drivers (which some laptop vendors don't currently provide), or will the VM do some inefficient emulation and go through the Windows 7 host OS to hit the hardware? And hopefully they don't do something like the Microsoft Virtual PC which gave interfaces to generic hardware (a NIC, a mouse, and generic VGA) and only allowed one CPU / core to be used.

Another question is whether the VM requires hardware virtualization support. Most CPUs have it, but some laptop vendors don't support this with their BIOS.

Last rumor (until now, that is :-) says October, 23.
See Lifehacker.

curious, is it poss to make a disc image of current Vista install on one partition or drive in its current state. then with the duplicate creat a dual boot and do the W7rc upgrade on the other therefore retaining programs and lisc's etc..
am i making sense or myself clear?

would this be poss using boot it NG?

> is it poss to make a disc image of current Vista install on one partition or drive in its current state. then with the duplicate creat a dual boot and do the W7rc upgrade on the other therefore retaining programs and lisc's etc..

Very clever. It wouldn't give you a clean install but it would give you a beta environment with all of your apps. Some of the problems might be how an app's activation locks itself to a PC. If it uses the OS version in any way, then this approach will not work. Adobe seems to be particularly paranoid about anything changing on your PC to the point of causing false alarms. It might not work for apps like that.

I'd almost rather have a hardware dongle for all of my apps. This way no one would care what I do to my PC, the dongle would prove that I have a valid license.

~jr

> And hopefully they don't do something like the Microsoft Virtual PC which gave interfaces to generic hardware (a NIC, a mouse, and generic VGA) and only allowed one CPU / core to be used.

What technology do you think they used? That's probably exactly what it is. I haven't had time to load the RC yet but I'll know soon enough.

~jr

For what it's worth, I've been running the 64-bit Beta for months, just installed the 64-bit RC, and have had no problems. I've installed Vegas 8.0c and 8.1, and although I haven't used them much (it's my laptop) they have seemed to run problem-free.

As far as Windows 7 goes, though, it is by far the cleanest, smartest most stable OS I've seen from Microsoft. I actually prefer it to OSX on my Mac Pro.

It's nice to have Vegas on an OS that deserves it...