I’ve continued to play with Windows 7, and now have build 7100 (64 bit) installed on a work PC too. Unfortunately, one of the apps I have to work with is Internet Explorer 6, and obviously Windows 7 does not have a native option for IE6 – you can run IE7 or upgrade to IE8, but IE 6 has been relegated to the trash pile in every setting except, sadly, the corporation. I do have a dedicated test PC with IE6 on it, but had heard about Windows 7 built-in XP Virtualization mode, and decided to give it a shot. I downloaded the update and XP image, installed it all (one reboot required), and was soon up-and-running with a Virtual Machine.

However, I really wanted to run IE6 from my Windows 7 Start Menu, and was pretty pleased with the Windows 7 VPC’s option for this: you can either choose to run the complete VPC or individual apps (but not both). You can have multiple virtual apps running side-by-side, but not an app running alongside a complete VPC – which kind of makes sense. The applications that are exposed in the Windows 7 menu (and which can be dragged to the Start menu if desired) are all stored in the VPC’s “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs” folder. Any applications added to the VPC’s Start Menu are automatically added to the Windows 7 Host’s menu too – pretty nice.

Memory management was quite good, too. After it was instantiated (which did take quite some time…) it was only using 15MB of RAM. VPC seems to persist in memory, even if you shut down a virtual app, and so restarting it later is almost instantaneous. However, the VPC does need to be reinitialized after every reboot.

Overall, it was pretty painless, and works well. I now have IE6 running side-by-side with my other browsers on Windows 7.

New camera received

I received my camera (a new Canon SX1IS) and all its accessories from Newegg, and have been working to understand all of its bells and whistles. It’s interesting in that this is the first camera I’ve ever had that I really NEEDED to read the directions on; it’s relatively complex and some of its features are pretty obscure. So far, the images I’m getting are good, and the videos are fun, but its autofocus is not all that effective at close ranges, and the manual focus feature is a huge PITA. The size is definitely in-line with my expectations – it’s much smaller and easier to manage than our previous Sony DSC-R1. More later when I have the time for a complete run-down.

Windows 7 Release Candidate officially available

I had already downloaded (via a .torrent) Build 7100 of Windows 7, but it’s now available on Microsoft’s site. I haven’t installed it yet over my existing build 7068 installation, but will soon. The keys may have changed from the beta release; in any case, though, they’re readily available from Microsoft’s site or via a quick google.

My advice to anyone running Vista: get Windows 7.

dpreview.com Canon SX1IS review

Digital Photography Reviews (dpreview.com – a very good site) posted a review of the Canon SX1IS. While they didn’t pan it, some of the issues they spotted have certainly given me pause in my intent to purchase one from Amazon as soon as it’s released. I’m not a big fan of Nikon offering in this space (the P90). The Pentax Optio X70 looks promising, but there’s very little published on it yet, and while it’s sure to be less expensive ($400 instead of $600), I’m not sure the lack of full HD video and no swivel on the LCD display makes it a better choice. The Olympus SP-590UZ, the Kodak Z980, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28K look about the same as the Pentax (while differing in some areas, like optical zoom, etc.), and I think I’d choose the Pentax over those, all things being equal.

The only camera that has really stuck out to me in my research is the Casio Exilim EX-FH20. The 40 fps option look pretty intriguing. The 1000 fps “movie” mode looks gimicky. It doesn’t have the flip-out and rotatable LCD, and HD-mode is limited to 720p, but the very forgiving “capture images before you even press the button” feature does look pretty cool.

All-told, I still think I’m going to get the Canon, but am mulling our other options, too.

Windows 7 update

Windows 7 Build 7068 is available as a torrent – both 32bit and 64bit versions are available. I’m downloading them both as I type. It doesn’t look like any radically new stuff has been added, but we’ll see. I’m hopeful that they’ve fixed some driver issues and added some tweaks for the taskbar.

Even though it’s still clearly a beta, and a bit rough around the edges for some functionality, I have to admit that Windows 7 works very well (better than Vista) on newer systems. There are still some surprises, though: for example, Chrome doesn’t work unless you get the ‘Dev’ build, and install that. I’m also running into some oddities with file access rights on WinAmp of all things.

But, as I said, it’s still better than Vista. Some new features such as “Aero Shake” and “Screen Edge App Maximize” are pretty convenient for owners of larger screens.

Anyway, I decided to push my luck, and tried to install it onto my wife’s older PC (a 3GHz P4 based on Asus’ P4C800-E Deluxe with 3GB of RAM and an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro) and things seemed to go smoothly – at first. I created a new 50GB partition for Windows 7, and tossed the DVD in. It installed properly, if a bit slowly, but the drivers for the Analog Devices AD1985 Soundmax integrated audio device didn’t work. No problem, I thought, because I’ve got a ton of older boards, including sound cards, lying around. I tossed a Creative Sound Blaster Live24 in, thinking that Windows would play nicely with that… right?? No dice, and things actually got messy: I got my first of several BSOD’s, and my virus-scanner of all things (I’m using AVG right now) started acting wonky. I finally had to decide to give up on audio on the PC for now, and disabled the devices in BIOS.

I’ll work with it some more today. Mary Lou doesn’t particularly care what OS she’s running, as long as it works (which is why I’ve avoided installing Vista for her), but even she admits that Windows 7 with Aero looks very nice.

A new build of Windows 7 (build 7048 – 64bit only) is making the rounds on torrent sites, and since I haven’t booted into my own installation of it for a month or so, I figured I’d see what the new one has to offer. Some folks are calling it RC1 (Release Candidate), but others are saying it’s just another beta release. I’m with the latter set – I think it’s still too early in Microsoft’s cycle to start locking Windows 7 down. You never know though.. the Windows 7 keys that are out there now expire in August.

I think 7048 actually took longer to install than 7000 (the ‘public’ beta). From the time I put the DVD in to the time that I booted into Windows, it was a bit over 30 minutes. I remember 7000 taking around 20 minutes.

There aren’t an incredible number of new features to report, and other folks have already done a more complete job. All I’ll add:

• Uninstalling IE8 completely was surprisingly comprehensive (2 reboots?? wow) but satisfying.
• Creative finally broke down and released beta drivers for Windows 7. Thank goodness – I can now listen to my expensive 5.1 sound system in Windows 7.
• On my system, Windows 7 insists upon messing with (and breaking) my BCD (Boot Configuration Data) file, so it’s necessary to use something like Vista Boot Pro to remedy this. No huge deal, but it’s annoying.

I’ll continue to play with the installation. I’d love to switch over completely from Vista – on my main boot drive (32GB: smaller, but very fast and RAID-0), the WinSXS directory is just over 15GB. That’s in addition to the Windows directory itself, and Program Files.