Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

First look: Windows 7 build 7068

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | March 31, 2009, 5:18am PDT

Summary: Over the past few days I’ve been experimenting with the latest Windows 7 build to leak out of Redmond - build 7068.

Over the past few days I’ve been experimenting with the latest Windows 7 build to leak out of Redmond - build 7068.

Note: For those of you out there interested in such things, build 7068 has the following build string: 090321-1322. This translates to a build date stamp of 21st March, 2009, 1.22pm.

Check out the complete Windows 7 build 7068 install/first run gallery

So, what’s interesting about this latest build? Well, to be honest with you, not much. Apart from a few new icons and some new wallpaper designs, very little seems to have changed since build 7057 (which had a build date stamp of 5th Mar 2009, 8:00pm). I’m sure that there are under-the-hood tweaks and changes between these builds, but the fact that there are very few changes to see between these builds is a good clue to the fact that we are getting close to seeing an official Release Candidate (RC) release.

That said, build 7068 does have one feature that makes it very interesting, and that is that it’s the latest leaked build to offer all the different SKU or Stock Keeping Units (editions to you and me).

Within this one ISO we have the following SKUs:

Starter
Home Basic
Home Premium
Professional
Ultimate

Given that we’re so close to the official RC release, what’s in each of these editions is now going to be pretty much fixed in stone.

I’ll have more to say about some of the SKUs in a later post.

If you have a Windows 7 related question, post it in the TalkBack or drop me a note.

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Microsoft Windows 7, Release Candidate, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

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RE: First look: Windows 7 build 7068

ramnet@... 1st Apr 2009

You have got to be kidding. First I am not a Linux devotee. Second I understand business very well. Thirdly Windows 7 does not cater to the business world because its going to add significant NEW Cost at every level . Hardware , software and training and NO-ONE can show me where there is ANY worthwhile benefit that end users will want or appreciate. It's been driven by 'out there designers' and some sort of 'we must change everything' rule of thumb and frankly I am disappointed. I was used to the old classic menu start bar , its gone , I liked the old XP Control Panel its gone . I could salvage broken XP builds by using the XP repair /restore option - its gone as well. Drivers and speed improvements (marginal at best) are not enough for me to be rabidly singing Windows 7 praises - sorry XP is going to be with me for years to come and a lot of my professional clients , business customers and colleagues feel the same. This is of course an opinion but yours won't get me to put my money on the counter and that should alarm Microsoft.

Ken
IT Director
Melbourne

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Please Select
Please Select

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Fixed problem

blackhawk556 Updated - 31st Mar 2009

I was running build 7000 in my desktop and a big problem kept
coming up. My system for some reason would continue freezing up
. The only way to get my computer back running was to
hold the power button and restart my computer. Ever since I installed
build 7057 this problem as gone away. Its good to see that things
have improved since the initial release. Can't wait to buy my first
tablet running windows 7.

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RE: First look: Windows 7 build 7068

samuel B 31st Mar 2009

yes it is very impressive, I also noticed that my wireless network button was orange and now has returned to the normal blue. Windows 7 is going to be a breath of fresh air in a stagnant os world. well done Microsoft!!

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Please answer my query

iravgupta 31st Mar 2009

By any chance does your wireless card happen to be Atheros? Please check in device manager and let me know. Also can you please tell me the model number and maker of your laptop. My id is ravi.gupta@live.com. I was having the same problem with default driver loaded with Vista and Windows 7 build 7000.

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Is the USB issue fixed yet?

mike.celone@... 31st Mar 2009

When resuming from standby some USB devices don't resume. Pulling the device our and plugging it back in fixes the issue. This works great for my external mouse but many webcams and fingerprint readers are attached to an internal USB connection. Kinda hard to pull that out and plug it back in happy

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Contributr

Appears to be fixed

Ed Bott 31st Mar 2009

The E7 blog said this one was scheduled to be fixed and I haven't seen this one on any recent build. I saw it several times a week on build 7000.

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RE: First look: Windows 7 build 7068

Cylon Centurion 31st Mar 2009

Windows 7 is epic.

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Did they fix 'Select all from CD'?

croberts 31st Mar 2009

Anyone try "select all" to grab all files from a CD/DVD rom?

The previous build would select all file alright, but also include "Files waiting to be written" which included the idiotic desktop.ini file.

1) If my intent is to move files that exist on a CD to some other location, why would I want to include a file that doesn't exist on that CD?

2) Why can't the system determine that the CD is a CD rom and not a CDRW or multisession CR-R and not even bother with the silly "files waiting to be written"?

Stupidity. I wonder if anyone at MS actually uses their own products...

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Have you....

Mike (not Cox) 31st Mar 2009

...reported the problem to Microsoft?

Same question goes to whoever mentioned a USB problem.

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Microsoft is aware of the USB issue

mike.celone@... 31st Mar 2009

Microsoft is already aware of the USB issue, they even reported it in their Engineering Windows 7 blog. I am running build 7057 and have been very happy with it, just wondering if it was fixed in this build yet. That is really my only complaint about build 7057.

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Not able to report to MS - can anyone help?

croberts 1st Apr 2009

I just discovered this a week ago on the previous build. Can anyone with a current feedback link log this bug/UI issue?

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Issues Needing Fixing From 7057

itanalyst2@... 31st Mar 2009

1. Can't see XP machines on your network
2. Mapped drives are quirky, show as not being connected when they actually are.

Upgrading from 7000 to 7057 made my laptop lag in several areas such as flash videos, certain media functions.

On my gaming rig running 7057 64 bit it has been a hit and miss disaster...a "critical update" that installed Sunday locked the machine and rebooting hung it in an infinite hard drive spin and the only way out of it was to boot to safe mode and recover to the last good configuration using recovery console. I then turned off all automatic updates and had it do it manually and the only "critical" update shown was a Windows Defender update...odd.

Maybe it's drivers, but I had zero issues with build 7000 and then all sorts of problems sprung up with 7057...I hope they don't mess this OS up the closer they get to release.

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Forgot Another Issue

itanalyst2@... 31st Mar 2009

Machine goes into hibernate mode, won't come out.

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Contributr

Maybe that's one reason

Ed Bott 31st Mar 2009

...why these builds aren't actually officially released?

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True But...

itanalyst2@... 31st Mar 2009

If you have something working in one release and then the next it's not that's the reason people like me raise the issue so that it's fixed for release time.

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Upgraded instead of formatted

WindowsMan 31st Mar 2009

I would have formatted instead of upgraded from 7000. That always seems to work better when you are playing with this beta stuff because they are always updating the drivers. So, on a reformat you will get a fresh download from Windows Update. My 2cents. happy

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I'd normally agree, but ...

de-void-21165590650301806002836337787023 31st Mar 2009

... my main machine here is on it's 14th consecutive upgrade with no errors!

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Beta or not ...

mwagner@... 31st Mar 2009

Reformats are always recommended. In-place OS upgrades are ALWAYS problematic.

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You Guys Have It Wrong

itanalyst2@... 31st Mar 2009

My laptop I upgraded 7000 to 7057 and not really having issues other than the Adobe Flash issue, but you said that's being fixed.

I did the fresh install of 7057 on my gaming rig, and that's the one having issues believe it or not. I'm thinking it's the drivers because it's a home brew system.

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Regressions happen all the time

Kaiwai 31st Mar 2009

Regressions happen all the time; they probably change resulting in
something working not as smoothly because it was based on a hacked
way of doing something. What ever the case maybe, having regressions
is hardly a new thing; heck, Microsoft has to test for regressions even for
service packs - so it isn't as though its something shocking or horrifying.

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Fixes for you!

de-void-21165590650301806002836337787023 31st Mar 2009

In order for Vista/Win7 to see WinXP machines on the network diagram, you have to install the LLTP protocol responded on XP:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4f01a31d-ee46-481e-ba11-37f485fa34ea&DisplayLang=en

Flash issues are known - MS is working to help Adobe fix their bugs.

Which update hosed you?

Yep, drivers are in flux right now - this is why RC hasn't been declared yet. MS is taking and testing drivers from thousands of partners (nVidia, AMD, Intel, HP, etc.). Once the drivers have reached the extraordinarily high bar required for RC, Microsoft will announce the RC.

Driver quality has improved ENORMOUSLY in the last 2 weeks and lots more confirmed fixes are working their way into the process.

Not long now wink

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Flash is long overdue for a rewrite or the grave

BillDem 1st Apr 2009

I think Adobe is long overdue to rewrite Flash completely. Why? With the whirlwind rise in 64-bit OS usage in the past few years, Adobe still haven't managed to release a 64-bit version of Flash. Technically, 64-bit Windows has been around for about a decade (XP 64). They could have started down the path to a 64-bit friendly Flash many years ago, but didn't. A huge percentage of shipping systems are now 64-bit and still no Flash. To me, this says there are still a vast number of poorly-coded internals in Flash which depend too heavily on 32-bit specific calls. So, maybe it's time to scrap the code and write code which is more platform independent going forward.

Or maybe it is time for a standards-based, open source, cross-platform solution to replace ALL of the license-impaired, system-specific, patent-troll alternatives like Flash, QuickTime, MPEG, and Silverlight.

Unfortunately, without authoring tools like those Adobe has, a new format would fail. So we need the whole package. We need authoring tools AND license-free, cross-platform, interactive media file standards. Maybe it's time for an "OpenOffice.org" style development project to take on our future interactive net-based multimedia needs. Other Internet standards we all use have been created license-free. This one should be, too.

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Upgrade OS

bklooste 31st Mar 2009

Never upgrade a Beta OS unless you are a sadist...

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try the new Java beta

gregrocker 31st Mar 2009

otherwise the problem with any daily build is that it has not had time to work out bugs, weeks for 7000, because it is a daily build. I have had to revert to 7000 on half of my machines due to wireless dropping and explorer restarts.

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Excel Isues

itanalyst2@... 31st Mar 2009

You can't open excel attachments, or even double click on them on the desktop to open then...you get the

"An error occurred in sending the command to the application"

You have to open excel and then open the document from there.

Didn't happen with build 7000.

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Delete This

mike.celone@... Updated - 31st Mar 2009

Delete this please.

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Crack me up !

questionmark 31st Mar 2009

Hahaha. M$ always cracks me up. How USB could possibly go wrong. Like your new car won't lock or open doors...
When I'll die it will be engraved on my thombstone : "Never bought a MS product, never will..."

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Its called beta software for a reason

Cylon Centurion 31st Mar 2009

Heaven forbid Apple doesn't have buggy beta software...or buggy linux builds

Think before you speak.

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RE:Its called beta software for a reason

richdave 31st Mar 2009

True enough, I guess. The curious thing is that beta Linux builds are generally more complete, stable and reliable then Windows releases. At least that has been my experience. I will take a look at Win 7 when it is released and if it is up to snuff I will include it in the mix. Currently running mostly Linux desktops with four Apple boxes and two Win XP boxes for the odd, essential Microsoft only app.

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Debian linux...

Steve Goldman 31st Mar 2009

widely regarded as one of the most stable (although not cutting edge) of Linux distributions is still not considered stable while in its testing phases. They have testing, unstable and stable releases. You can usually get away with running unstable with relatively little trouble unless you're a heavy user. But even on the lighter side, you can easily run into problems on their testing builds.

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That day can't come soon enough

jackbond 31st Mar 2009

And you will be remembered for all eternity as the ******* nutcase loser that considered not buying Microsoft his most noble achievement.

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Couldn't Agree More . . .

joeldm 31st Mar 2009

Anyone even considering giving Microsoft's terrible software another
look who wasn't absolutely FORCED to by his job would have to be the
biggest bonehead of all time. Or maybe a masochist? Hard to tell
these days.

Look at Conficker and all the thousands of other viruses and consider
that they all prey on the terrible security and massive holes in all
versions of MS software.

Anyone who is not required to use Windoze by work should be using
software that is safe to use, easy to use and more advanced in
features, usability and security than any current desktop OS on the
market today: OS X.

Anything else is so 1999 . . . of course there is Linux, but I just don't
have to time. I have sh*t to do . . . .

JoeL
Atlanta, GA

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lol ah yes

D2 Ultima 31st Mar 2009

The safest and most easy to use OS hmmm... Don't study the fact that the Mac OS X was hacked in 1/2 a second in a contest... that doesn't apply here right?

For your information, the only reason people are hacking windows is because windows is the most widely used OS software in the world. Why write viruses for software that the minority use? Linux and Macs aren't that popular... everyone sticks with windows generally. Hackers try to hack windows... If everyone jumped over to macs, you'd be surprised how many viruses for Macs would pop up.

People would end up praising windows for being so secure after that point. Also, let it be known, nobody has been able to hack windows vista to date... At least nobody that I've heard. Do you know the only way to get a virus on vista is to download and specifically run it? That's user fault not OS fault. So think before you speak my friend. You want to blame security? Windows is quite possibly the most secure OS on the planet. Simply because of the number of patches blocking potential exploits. If people tried to write viruses and hack linux and macs, because they don't have that many attacks to keep making patches for, to protect themselves. The number of holes microsoft's covered already shows there's something to be said for its security.

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User Action

odcchaz 1st Apr 2009

You've obviously never or barely used OSX. In order to access the OS directly *administrator* access is always required. On top of that when a program is downloaded from the web, the OS tells you and warns you and asks if you want to open/run it. So unless I've downloaded a fake program that contains a virus I will never get one.

Also, almost all viruses are installed by idiot users. A "warning" isn't really security as much as is it's a "we told you so."

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re: Crack me up!"

hannac 31st Mar 2009

So if you have no interest in Microsoft products, why do you read the articles which are obviously Windows related?

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Hmmm

questionmark 1st Apr 2009

Hmmm. Yeah. Why did I learn English ? French, studied informatics, computers, and Windows for that matter.
I have a big interest in MS-Windows at the contrary.

The first thing you expect to work with a new OS is certainly the USB port and that is maybe the first thing you'll do. Plug your usb stuff.

But yet again why bother take an umbrella with you when it's raining, a scarf when it blowing cold, or answer an idiot...

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Then why bother to read or comment ...

mwagner@... 31st Mar 2009

... about M$ products? It's a waste of your time and ours!

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Hmmm

questionmark 1st Apr 2009

An interesting stupid point of view.

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USB works fine

Cylon Centurion 1st Apr 2009

Funny my USB ports have worked fine... I dunno what your grumbling about.

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RE: First look: Windows 7 build 7068

zen2wrk@... 31st Mar 2009

Adrian:

I appreciate the update memo, but I think most of us were expecting a bit more meat in the details...especially the update, USB, and wireless drivers department. These are no longer casual issues, as MS seems to be moving backwards with some of their latest tweaks. When this happens, I call it "Mistweaking the OS." How that can happen is a mystery to me, but much of MS strategy and code writing is a total mystery to me, since they seem terrified to write new clean machine level code, but prefer to patch old nasty code with bigger and bigger kludge-work instead!

That is why their OS's get bloated and slow. Win 7 had much promise and earlier 7000 releases were quite fast, but at this rate, the RC1 will be far less efficient and may have more bugs than the Betas, and that will be some accomplishment. So we will be back to the SP1 cycle (or even SP2) before the product is really ready for the consumer market. Sigh. Ubuntu LINUX looks more and more effective with each passing month.

Thanks,

Zenbob96

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Win7 vs. Ububtu

dw.needham@... 31st Mar 2009

"Sigh. Ubuntu LINUX looks more and more effective with each passing month."

Maybe, but my use of Ubuntu (I've been dual booting this machine between Win7 beta and Ubuntu 8.10) makes that a bit iffy. Each has strengths and weaknesses. Me$$y$oft seems to always get caught up in code bloat, slowing things down, etc. Ubuntu is still not quite there on driver issues, and in fact is a big pain in the neck (I really mean a much lower anatomical location) to simply configure for my own normal use, because of its obscurantist, overly intricate and flaky implementation of media apps. The choice between the two isn't really all that clear cut for me, though I wish it were. I generally like Ubuntu, but Win7 is growing on me.

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Ubuntu only has to work with what ...

mwagner@... 31st Mar 2009

... Canonical wants to support. Windows has to work with everything. This invariably leads to more 'code bloat'.

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Try Mandriva

Alganon 1st Apr 2009

If you find Ubuntu tricky with drivers, then check out Mandriva Linux 2009. The way to set up your devices is to have them connected to the computer and turned on during OS Installation. Mandriva will detect the devices and set up the drivers for you, and then on one of the final install screens, present you with a summary of it all for you to check out. Generally their settings are accurate and you can get on with using and enjoying your new life of freedom.

For some reason a lot of people rave about Ubuntu, but I have been running a business on a Mandrake/Mandriva desktop for 8 years now, with no problems.

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RE:RE: First look: Windows 7 build 7068

richdave 31st Mar 2009

>>>...Ubuntu LINUX looks more and more effective with each passing month...

Then go with Ubuntu and be happy. From what I have been reading, Win 7 looks like it may be pretty close to a winner for Microsoft. As for myself, I am a Linux user and enthusiast, but I am going to give Win 7 a serious look when it is released. If it is there, I will definitely have it as at least a boot option on one of my machines. There is nothing wrong with being a Linux, or Microsoft or Apple enthusiast, but nothing is gained by dissing, however off or left handedly, other systems. All that does is make you look like a fanboi or troll.

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Zenbob: Please give Adrian a break.

sqr(cos(180)) 31st Mar 2009

Adrian works for a living, he writes about technology. To perform this work, he needs to write; possibly he gets paid by the word, so the more he writes the more he gets paid.

In any case, he won't get paid NOT to write words; this ain't no government job!

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RE: First look: Windows 7 build 7068

johnson_robert_roy@... 31st Mar 2009

The 7068 build appears slightly better in areas such as graphics than the 7057 so I think Microsoft is touching up things for the Release Candidate. The stability of the platform is quite awesome with no BSODs reported yet. I love the speed and agility of maneuvering within the operating system, copy and pasting large files, as well as overall appearance

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Honestly, not sure I care.

teddybairs1 31st Mar 2009

From the Win 7 screenshots, it doesn't really look like anything to really get excited about. KDE 4.2 has better and more useful features. It's also really sad that MS has to crank out a major service pack/fix and sell it as an entirely new OS to recover from the much too early release of Vista.

I'm sure Win 7 will be a vast improvement. I'm sure they'll recover some of their mojo with it. I'm just not sure it's really relevant anymore.

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An O/S that is SUPPORTABLE for 250 Million users...

markharris 31st Mar 2009

Folks fail to remember that Operating System the choice on the desktop is largely influenced NOT by emotion, but by business. Business for Microsoft, business for Retailers, business across the board. Supporting 250 Million users of an operating system (everyone from corporate people to grandma in littletown USA), across a WIDE range of hardware devices from a zillion different vendors, a bunch of software application vendors, and mixed O/S versions is NOT an easy task. Windows 7 continues to do just this, in fact it keeps providing more vakue to more users.

While I am not saying Microsoft is perfect by any means, can ANY other system do this? You need to consider the level of support across the population/installed base. I think you'll see the numbers game is NOT a game at all, but allowing useful work to happen for a very HIGH number of people in the world.

Windows 7 by all pre-release reviews (including my own), is a major step forward, takes into account a ton of in-the-box drivers, and has focused on useability for the average person. Things are where the seem to make sense, the O/S itself seems responsive and stable, it just works and can be deployed on 100 million or 200 million desktops or more anytime...

Job well done Microsoft!

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Geezes, are you talking about...

sykandtyed Updated - 31st Mar 2009

your job at MS?

Get out of the bathroom, pull up your pants.
Wiping MS's ars doesn't guarantee you a job after win7.

Why do we have to pay twice for an OS that should have been win7 to begin with?

Do you know what this means? 8~_/\Q_

That's MS tucking it up the computing world's...

/,-))

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RE: First look: Windows 7 build 7068

george@... Updated - 31st Mar 2009

Adrian, I probably have the same question as many have already asked you - when will Win7 be shipped to the hardware manufacturers? Do you have any inside info or leaked info? Mary Jo?

I do follow ZDNet so i read the speculations about possible dates, the 1000 days "anniversary" and so on ... anything official or semi-official from MSFT?

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Notice how many serial killers come out of the woodwork?

jackbond 31st Mar 2009

A mere mention of a Windows 7 beta and zillions of blood thirsty lunatics arrive to champion their favorite masturbation material - Linux.

Linux - The official OS of serial killers!
Linux - Who do you want to butcher today?
Linux - All Praise To Our Hero Hans Reiser!!!