12 things you need to know about before installing Windows 7 Beta

Here are 12 very important things you should know beforehand:

12. Windows 7 Beta is build 7000:
The Windows 7 Beta being released on January 9th is Build 7000, which is exactly the same build that has been leaked on torrent sites already. Microsoft says that this beta build is near final feature-wise.

11. Windows 7 Beta will have bugs / MP3 corruption bug fix:

It’s easy to forget that Windows 7 Beta can have possible bugs because of how stable it is. Try not to keep sensitive data on the same partition and run Windows Update right after installation. If you don’t receive the KB961367 update through Windows Update to fix the Mp3 corruption bug, you can download it here.
Update: Looks like Microsoft have issued the update through Windows Update.

10. You can run Windows 7 under VMWare or Virtual PC instead of actually doing a full-fledged install

In Layman’s terms, running Windows 7 under a virtual environment is like running an Operating System (OS) inside an OS, so you don’t have to worry about putting your actual computer at risk. You can start by downloading Virtual PC here for free. For further instructions please check out the tutorial here. (The tutorial is for running XP in Vista, but works for Windows 7 too. Just select Windows Vista at the OS Menu. When your mouse is in the Virtual PC area, press Right-Alt to drag your mouse back onto the screen of your current OS.) If you’re a VMWare User, many other VMWare users in community forums have said they have had no trouble getting Windows 7 to work with VMWare.


9. You don’t need to burn a DVD at all to install Windows 7:

You can use WinRAR or .iso mounting software that have extracting capabilities to extract the ISO’s contents into a folder. Once extracted, you can install Windows 7 Beta off your hard-drive just like any other OS.


8. Properly burning an ISO to your DVD

I know a few people that actually just took the ISO file and burned the exact file directly onto the DVD. If you open your burned DVD and it shows just the ISO file, you’ll need to burn another DVD again. The DVD should show the ISO image’s contents (not just one .ISO file) once you have burned it. I recommend using ImgBurn, which is a free and easy tool for burning ISOs.


7. How to create a separate partition for your Windows 7 Beta installation:

Usually, the Windows 7 Installation wizard will have an option for you to easily create a new partition for the install. If the option is not provided, here is how you can manually set up the partitions within Windows. If you are running Windows Vista, open up your Start Menu, right click Computer, and choose Manage. Then in the left-pane, open up the Storage category and select Disk Management. Right click any area of Unallocated Space and create a New Simple Volume. From there, complete the wizard to create your new volume. Once created, make sure that it is a Primary Partition. Now you’re all set and good to go with the installation.

If you are running Windows XP or having problems creating a partition in Windows Vista, you can download the EASEUS Partition Manager. EPM is only compatible with Windows XP and Vista. The process for creating a new partition with EPM is the exact same as above, except that you must select to create a Primary partition as shown below: 12 things you need to know about before installing Windows 7 Beta

6. The driver model of Windows 7 is identical to Vista’s:

This means Windows 7 won’t suddenly bring life back to your XP-only hardware. If it didn’t work for Vista, it won’t work for Windows 7.


5. Don’t take out those driver CDs yet…

Windows 7 contains updated hardware drivers so chances are you won’t need to install a single driver if your hardware isn’t as old as Zeus. Also don’t forget that Windows 7 would require an optimized graphics driver to take advantage of the hardware you have (WDDM 1.1) so you may want to think again before planning to force-install the latest beta drivers from Nvidia or ATI.


4. You DON’T want to select the Upgrade option:

It is definitely a bad idea to upgrade your current OS to Windows 7 Beta. The OS is still beta material and will have its hiccups. Make sure you do not upgrade your current OS to Windows 7 Beta.


3. What Startup Repair is and how to get to it

Startup problems is probably the #1 cause of headaches when installing OSes. Usually OS entries don’t show up because you’ve installed the OSes in the wrong order. They should be installed from oldest to newest to ensure that the newest bootloader is used. If you’ve made a mistake, the Windows 7 and Vista installation CDs have a Startup Repair option you can use. Boot up with the DVD as you would during installation, but click on Repair your Computer in the lower left hand corner and choose Startup Repair. Usually setup will detect you have an error before you even click on Startup Repair and automatically fix it for you.



2. Windows 7 is set to expire August 1, 2009

If #3 wasn’t enough to convince you not to upgrade this will. Windows 7 will expire on this date and according to the EULA, there will be no warning given prior to this date at all. The beta OS will simply prevent you from accessing it and its files. So you may want to think again before moving everything into the same partition as your Windows 7 Beta installation.



1. The computer that could barely take on Vista could possibly run Windows 7:

The most common misconception still out there is that Windows 7’s hardware requirements are either the same as Vista’s or even higher. This is not the case at all. Although the minimum specs are the same as Vista’s, the OS runs much more smoothly than Vista does under the same hardware specs. Even so, it’s been three years since Windows Vista’s initial release so bearing the same minimum requirements as three years ago is actually not that big of a deal today. Here are the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 7:

* 1GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
* 1GB of main memory
* 16GB of available disk space
* Support for DX9 graphics with 128MB of memory (for the Aero interface)
* A DVD-R/W drive

However, over the course of Windows 7’s pre-beta period, enthusiasts have installed Windows 7 on computers running with 1GB of RAM or less and even netbooks while still claiming speed to be smooth enough for regular use.