DOWNLOAD A "STABLE" BUILD OF VISTA

[Boz]

Might wanna sticky this for a few days.

They'll stop the free preview after 100,000 downloads. Get it while it's hot. For those interested, this particular build is toughted as FINALLY coming together. Almost every build up to this point has been too buggy to use. This one just works.

http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/prerc1/en/download.html

Oh.... DON'T use Firefox on this link. They screw with your browser... nice!

[Spartan]

I wonder if this one will install in a VM.  When using the last build (July 2006 CTP via my MSDN Subscription), I could never log into the thing 

[Havok]

I grabbed it yesterday. I'll be loading it up and checking it out soon...

[Zeppo]

I was too late.
Already closed.

[Boz]

Damn! That was fast!

[whatzcrackn]

missed out too 

[Boz]

I would honestly just post it somewhere for ya'll since MS opened it to everyone, but it's a 2.5Gb image. I haven't the bandwidth. Sorry.

[mmarx82]

I'm downloading it now through MSDN, unfortunately work is not going to renew our MSDN this time go round so when the final release comes out or subscription will have already expired. 

[Dreamwriter]

There are rumors that Release Candidate 1 will be out next week, so if you have it through MSDN, you may want to wait for that (this one is Pre-RC1, released last week)

[Santoro]

Anyone know what version this was so I can search for it on BitTorrent?

[Boz]

Anyone know what version this was so I can search for it on BitTorrent?

I didn't even think about this one. Should I put up the pre-RC1 or do you wanna go lookin for the RC1? To be honest, they posted the pre-RC1 for download and the next day delivered RC1 to testers. There couldn't have been *that* many changes.

[Dervacumen]

BT would be sweet!

[Hutt]

Release Candidate 1 Build 5600 is out.
Do yourselves a favor and never use the words 'bit torrent' again.
Do some research and find out what 'Usenet' is.

[Santoro]

I know what usenet is, but you presuppose my ISP has a decent server, and they don't. 

[Quarters]

Getting RC1 now.

Andy D, many ISPs have crappy newsservers or none at all. I've been a Giganews subscriber for years.

I wonder, as ISPs keep dropping Usenet from their list of services, will Usenet fade away?

[pointdablame]

I wonder, as ISPs keep dropping Usenet from their list of services, will Usenet fade away?

No

[Boz]

I know what usenet is, but you presuppose my ISP has a decent server, and they don't. 

Here's something to think about. When usenet lost it's "luster" after the inet became more of a commercial entity I stopped using it. I know paying for usenet has been around for a while, but I didn't realize how cool it might be. Now I pay something like 9 bucks a month for usenet access and all the parts are available for weeks and weeks. You should consider it. I've only recently started paying for it, but I'm kicking myself in the --I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules-- wondering why I didn't jump on top of this years ago. It's nice.

[Hutt]

I used to have unlimited usenet service with comcast but a short retention of about 2 days.
After they set the limit to something like a gig a month I subscribed to Giganews for umlimited downloading and a 70 day retention for $25 a month.
I doubt there are any isp's that will supply good usenet service with your internet subscription so a pay server is probably the only way to go for most.

[Havok]

RC1 now available!

32 Bit

64 Bit

Get a Key Here

Enjoy!

[Santoro]

Anyone succeed using Havok's links?   I only get a 907 byte .iso file.

[Havok]

Yeah, they did a great job of making it smaller!

 

Looks like their download manager thingey is whack...

Here's a page to grab the direct download, look to the right:

http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/rc1/en/download.htm

[Santoro]

That worked.  It's slower than dirt, but a more reasonable 2.5GB.

Thanks.

[elvis]

"Stable" build of Vista?  HAHAHA!  That's a good one.

Vista will be "stable" not at RC1, but at SP1.  And that's when most folks will shell out the $200 odd clams that Microsoft is asking for an upgrade price.

Read around some of the more knowledgeable and pro-Windows sites, and see that a lot of people are having serious issues with Vista.  From the mundane desktop user (opening a folder of DivX movies causes a bluescreen) to the serious (MS SQL server runs like a dog and is unstable as crap).

If you do anything remotely important with your computer, either (1) install it on a standalone testing machine that doesn't mater if it breaks, (2) hold off on the Vista upgrade, or (3) ensure you make VERY regular (I'm talking daily or even realtime) backups.  Of course if you're just a gamer searching for eye candy, then by all means use it as you see fit.  It's no big deal for those sorts  of folks to have to format their box every few months I've found.

But put it this way: no other systems/network admin I've spoken to in recent history is looking forward to the release, or plans to deploy it until the first round of patches and/or service packs are released.

[AtomSmasher]

RC1 is now available to the public: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Microsoft_Windows_Vista_English_32bit/1149728719/1

[Santoro]

It's pretty stable for me FWIW

[Lutus]

Sorry to jump on this but windows is so awful I just have to...

No matter what (for now at least-and except for games)

OSX >> Vista

[NightGod]

Sorry to jump on this but windows is so awful I just have to...

No matter what (for now at least-and except for games)

OSX >> Vista

That's a pretty huge "except" in alot of people's world...

[_) (V) (-)]

"Stable" build of Vista?  HAHAHA!  That's a good one.

Vista will be "stable" not at RC1, but at SP1. 

Yeah, I have to agree. I've been running it on two systems for a while now and have managed to crash it, a lot.    It dosne't like most of the software I wanted to run and it's just a pig on the hardware resources.

One system has a high falutin' 64 Meg VDC so I can play around with the cool 3d stuff and the ICE'd windows effects but do I really need any of that?

Most of the other stuff is a direct ripoff of Linux, the gadget bar, multiple spanning desktops, etc. I really like the RSS feed gadget, when it works.

IE7 won't load many webpages, just says they are not available. They also stole most of the features from Firefox but none of the usability.

Also, something else I've noticed with my 1.8 GHz 'shoprat' system, I tend to leave this one running for days at a time, it seems to get slower the longer I leave it on. After a week or so I am forced to reboot it because it just becomes unbearable. I suspect some kind of memory leaks or something. 

Have to go get that RC1 and see what has improved, but most of the 'awe gee' stuff has already worked it's way out of my system.

[NightGod]

Have to go get that RC1 and see what has improved, but most of the 'awe gee' stuff has already worked it's way out of my system.

Complaining about a beta build of a program running poorly is about as logical as complaining about fish having a strong odor...

(that said, I'm not even bothering with Vista until Gold, don't have the patience to mess with a beta OS right now)

[_) (V) (-)]

I like to think of it less as complaining and more as . . .
pointing out things they should be fixing BEFORE they charge us for it.
 

[Level42]

Sorry to jump on this but windows is so awful I just have to...

No matter what (for now at least-and except for games)

OSX >> Vista

Last week, while in the States, I visited an Apple store and bought a Mac Mini (the one with the 1,86 Ghz dual core and DL-DVD-burner). Although I had been advising Macs to everyone (of course no-one listened) I never actualy owned one myself. (I always said I DID know how to save myself from Windows problems etc.)

Recently, I have been getting tired with XP and the noisy PC i have downstairs, so I had looked lovingly towards the mini's from the day they surfaced.

With the huge price advantage for me (saved at least 200 Euros) I decided to buy it right there. I am currently writing this in perfect silence. The system is so elegant....I thought I had to put up with an English OS, but OS-X allowed me to select between a ton of languages including Dutch on the first boot-up. Try that with XP....

I could go on about the advantages....connecting to my already running wifi was a breeze, it practicaly did it all by itself. Front Row is so elegant, and INCLUDED from the start. No need to buy yet another OS to run it like a media computer. It's integrated and works great with the included remote.

Yes there are some things you need to get used to, but the advantages greatly outweigh the disadvanatages. My server-sized PC will probably move upstairs pretty soon to act as a file server

If you want to do all-day work on a computer (internet, mail, documents, video, music) with the only exception being games, you are best of with a Mac.

[Lutus]

Sorry to jump on this but windows is so awful I just have to...

No matter what (for now at least-and except for games)

OSX >> Vista

That's a pretty huge "except" in alot of people's world...

Well, now with Boot Camp and the dual core processors even that "exception" is dwindling.  I have two windows machines running "TinyXP" (which is the way XP should come anyways... without the bull crap) and they are both in arcade machines!!

[AtomSmasher]

I find it funny how mac fanboys are so quick to say how horrible Vista is even though they've probably never even seen it running, and its not even released yet.  Yes we all know how you mac fanboys feel.  Macs = good.  Microsoft = bad.  No need to constantly give your opinions in every thread about windows.  It happens in every forum I've ever been a part of and is just annoying how they always try to turn a windows thread into a mac vs windows thread.

I thought I had to put up with an English OS, but OS-X allowed me to select between a ton of languages including Dutch on the first boot-up. Try that with XP....

Um, ok.  XP has the ability to be run in pretty much every language there is.  I think you have to download and install the language packs (or just buy the version of windows in that language), but once its installed its very easy to change the language.  In a QA job I had a few years ago, they had just switched their software to use unicode and it was my job to make sure it worked in several different languages in windows.


Now back to the topic.  Anyone running the new version of RC1?  Things going good or bad for you?  From what I've seen, the reviews have generally been quite good.  I'm considering upgrading my gaming machine just to see how it is.

[Carsten Carlos]

With the RC1 (german release), I finally got my Soundblaster X-Fi to work. Now I can finally try out some multimedia-stuff, but havn't found the time yet.

Driver support is somehow very poor today, but ok, they still got some time left before release! 

[Level42]

I find it funny how mac fanboys are so quick to say how horrible Vista is even though they've probably never even seen it running, and its not even released yet.  Yes we all know how you mac fanboys feel.  Macs = good.  Microsoft = bad.  No need to constantly give your opinions in every thread about windows.  It happens in every forum I've ever been a part of and is just annoying how they always try to turn a windows thread into a mac vs windows thread.

I never said I hated Microsoft or that their products are bad. I just think, after only working a week with the Mac that I think OS X is better (than XP). No I haven't tried Vista. My remarks were more towards XP<>OS X.
The reason why I advise(d) macs to people who are not knowing anything about computers is because I've had 10's of computers here, fixing all the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- that ended up on those systems.
You are very much generalizing by saying that mac users think in black and white like that. I bet most Mac users work with microsoft products as well, probably at work or in some other way. Windows has improved very much from it's birth and I hope Vista will continue that way. However, I still think Microsoft is always behind others and copying (stealing ?) their ideas. Vista needs to be very good to catch up with OS X.

I thought I had to put up with an English OS, but OS-X allowed me to select between a ton of languages including Dutch on the first boot-up. Try that with XP....

Um, ok.  XP has the ability to be run in pretty much every language there is.  I think you have to download and install the language packs (or just buy the version of windows in that language), but once its installed its very easy to change the language.  In a QA job I had a few years ago, they had just switched their software to use unicode and it was my job to make sure it worked in several different languages in windows.

Well if you want XP to be in Dutch, you will have to buy a Dutch copy of it. "I think you have to download and install .............." Thats the essential difference: it's already on the Mac, didn't have to download and install anything (or even think about it), the computer asked me what language I prefered and presto......

[AtomSmasher]

I never said I hated Microsoft or that their products are bad. I just think, after only working a week with the Mac that I think OS X is better (than XP). No I haven't tried Vista. My remarks were more towards XP<>OS X.
The reason why I advise(d) macs to people who are not knowing anything about computers is because I've had 10's of computers here, fixing all the ---Cleveland steamer--- that ended up on those systems.
You are very much generalizing by saying that mac users think in black and white like that. I bet most Mac users work with microsoft products as well, probably at work or in some other way. Windows has improved very much from it's birth and I hope Vista will continue that way. However, I still think Microsoft is always behind others and copying (stealing ?) their ideas. Vista needs to be very good to catch up with OS X.

My initial comments were actually meant more toward lutus since he was the mac fanboy that first crapped in this thread and you were just responding to him, which is what his goal was, to turn this into a microsoft vs mac thread.

Also, I didn't generalize mac users, I specifically said mac fanboys, which is a small subset of mac users.  If your a mac fanboy, then odds are you hate microsoft and like to tell anyone talking about windows how great macs are and how much windows sucks.  You said you used windows for most of your machines and just recently got a mac and you liked it.  Thats fine, good for you, I hope you enjoy it, but that has nothing to do with this thread with the exception that lutus decided to comment on how great OS X is and how bad microsoft is.  I was hoping everyone would just ignore his comment, but that didn't happen, and I'm just sick and tired of the fanboys commenting in every windows thread.  Its not just this forum, but every forum I read, so it was just a lot of pent up annoyance.

Thats pretty nifty that OS X comes with every language with the install, I'm guessing vista will probably do that too.  XP could not do that because it used cds, not dvds, since it came out 5 years ago, before dvds were as mainstream as they are now and it takes several gigs of space to include most languages.  I was just pointing out that you do not have to "put up with an English OS" when you use XP.

With the RC1 (german release), I finally got my Soundblaster X-Fi to work.  Now I can finally try out some multimedia-stuff, but havn't found the time yet.

Driver support is somehow very poor today, but ok, they still got some time left before release!

Ya, from what I've heard driver support is still one of the biggest issues.  Rumors say that they don't have enough time to get all the drivers done by the time they send the final version out to be printed, but they will keep working on them so they will be automatically downloaded after its installed.  Hopefully thats not true, but we'll see.

I'll probably wait for RC2, or if thats not made public, the final release before upgrading.

[Level42]

Hey Atomsmasher (I wonder where that name comes from......a van der Graaf machine ?)

Didn't mean to hi-jack the thread. I think being blind and deaf to "the other"  system is stupid, but everyone should at least try something else.......Now back on topic:On with more Vista talk !