How Windows 7 Beta compares to Vista SP1 in terms of stability?

[gevorg]

Since Windows 7 is better and more optimized than Vista, I'm wondering if its Beta is good enough for general home use like internet browsing, MS Office, music & movies. Or it still prone to lockups, unexpected errors and instability?

 

[Cali3350]

I don't think anyones been using it long enough to really answer this question.

I myself erased Vista on my main rig and installed the beta. No other OS on my primary rig. Im liking it a lot so far, so much so that i just put it on my laptop too.

Id assume since the kernel and all is simply an evolution of Vista its stable, but i can't say for certain. Ive had no issues so far.

 

[thescreensavers]

Its my main OS from Windows XP, no crashing nothing. My Bro just put it on his Ee PC and its working great. Just don't know what to do in august when the kill switch goes in

 

[ViRGE]

A beta is never safe to use as a primary OS. This release is for people to find bugs (and there will be bugs, plenty of them, I promise), it's not suitable for actual day-to-day use. The fact that this version of W7 ships with a bug that eats your MP3s (and this is just among the known bugs) really should tell you everything you need to know.

For a stable, day-to-day OS, you you need to wait for the gold version of Windows 7 at the end of this year.

---
If you experience any of these side effects, please stop taking Windows 7 Beta immediately and call your computer repair man: W7 Drinks all of your beer, W7 knocks up your wife, W7 leaves the toilet seat down (up if you're a woman), W7 steals your truck, or W7 eats all but the very last Oreo.

 

[Samalama]

Originally posted by: ViRGE

For a stable, day-to-day OS, you you need to wait for the gold version of Windows 7 at the end of this year.

Fixed: For a stable, day-to-day OS, you you need Linux, preferably Arch, ZenWalk or Yoper.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Samalama

Originally posted by: ViRGE

For a stable, day-to-day OS, you you need to wait for the gold version of Windows 7 at the end of this year.

Fixed: For a stable, day-to-day OS, you you need Linux, preferably Arch, ZenWalk or Yoper.

Oh don't be a smart-ass, you know what I'm getting at.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: gevorg
Since Windows 7 is better and more optimized than Vista, I'm wondering if its Beta is good enough for general home use like internet browsing, MS Office, music & movies. Or it still prone to lockups, unexpected errors and instability?

This is a joke right?..Win7 beta is buggy(to be expected at this stage being beta) and Vista has been solid now for ages in my gaming and general usage.

I don't know why you are comparing a stable retail OS thats been out awhile to a beta OS,makes no sense.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
A beta is never safe to use as a primary OS. This release is for people to find bugs (and there will be bugs, plenty of them, I promise), it's not suitable for actual day-to-day use. The fact that this version of W7 ships with a bug that eats your MP3s (and this is just among the known bugs) really should tell you everything you need to know.

For a stable, day-to-day OS, you you need to wait for the gold version of Windows 7 at the end of this year.

---
If you experience any of these side effects, please stop taking Windows 7 Beta immediately and call your computer repair man: W7 Drinks all of your beer, W7 knocks up your wife, W7 leaves the toilet seat down (up if you're a woman), W7 steals your truck, or W7 eats all but the very last Oreo.

Nice FUD, but the MP3 bug was fixed before the beta shipped. I have been using Windows 7 for over a week as my primary OS and it's very stable. There are some minor bugs (I'm mostly having problems with WMP12) but I think it's ready for every day use unless you have some critical software that isn't supported.

 

[Jimbo]

The only instability I have noticed was a couple of Explorer crashes but what impressed me was how damn fast it recovered from them.

Windows 7 x64

 

[Samalama]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
Oh don't be a smart-ass, you know what I'm getting at.

Sorry, I couldn't resist

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: ViRGE
A beta is never safe to use as a primary OS. This release is for people to find bugs (and there will be bugs, plenty of them, I promise), it's not suitable for actual day-to-day use. The fact that this version of W7 ships with a bug that eats your MP3s (and this is just among the known bugs) really should tell you everything you need to know.

For a stable, day-to-day OS, you you need to wait for the gold version of Windows 7 at the end of this year.

---
If you experience any of these side effects, please stop taking Windows 7 Beta immediately and call your computer repair man: W7 Drinks all of your beer, W7 knocks up your wife, W7 leaves the toilet seat down (up if you're a woman), W7 steals your truck, or W7 eats all but the very last Oreo.

Nice FUD, but the MP3 bug was fixed before the beta shipped. I have been using Windows 7 for over a week as my primary OS and it's very stable. There are some minor bugs (I'm mostly having problems with WMP12) but I think it's ready for every day use unless you have some critical software that isn't supported.

No, it wasn't. A patch was published, but you need to install it. And it's not FUD, I'm not saying Windows sucks; I'm imploring you guys not to use a beta as your main OS because it has some pretty serious bugs.

It's great if you guys want to help out and beta test it, I realize you're all very excited - but it's not ready for day-to-day use and anyone that thinks otherwise is going to ultimately end up here bitching about how Windows 7 sucks and begging for help to recover their stuff. You guys need to wait until it's been given a through debugging (here's the good news: you can help! ) before using this in a production environment.

 

[pcgeek11]

Not to throw any more poop on the pile, BUT:

I have been running the Pre-Beta release Build # 6801 getting all updates from MS as my main OS on Dell Inspiron 1501 for over a month. No lockups seizures etc. As a matter of fact it has been as stable as any RTM OS I have ever seen on my system.

Of course I do not play games. I use the PC for Office ( 2007 ) Word, Outlook, Excel, etc... Photo editing using Corel PSP, and all the basic home type internet browsing etc... All of my normal applications work well and everything seems to run better than in Vista Ultimate with SP2.

This is my experience over the last month, and as always YMMV. I am getting ready to wipe it and replace it with the actual Beta 7000. I hope they didn't take a step backwards.

pcgeek11

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: Mem

Originally posted by: gevorg
Since Windows 7 is better and more optimized than Vista, I'm wondering if its Beta is good enough for general home use like internet browsing, MS Office, music & movies. Or it still prone to lockups, unexpected errors and instability?

This is a joke right?..Win7 beta is buggy(to be expected at this stage being beta) and Vista has been solid now for ages in my gaming and general usage.

I don't know why you are comparing a stable retail OS thats been out awhile to a beta OS,makes no sense.

:thumbsup:

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Originally posted by: Samalama

Originally posted by: ViRGE

For a stable, day-to-day OS, you you need to wait for the gold version of Windows 7 at the end of this year.

Fixed: For a stable, day-to-day OS, you you need Linux, preferably Arch, ZenWalk or Yoper.

Yeah...like Linux being used for the desktop is stable. Linux as of now belongs on a server with no GUI.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer

Originally posted by: ViRGE
A beta is never safe to use as a primary OS. This release is for people to find bugs (and there will be bugs, plenty of them, I promise), it's not suitable for actual day-to-day use. The fact that this version of W7 ships with a bug that eats your MP3s (and this is just among the known bugs) really should tell you everything you need to know.

For a stable, day-to-day OS, you you need to wait for the gold version of Windows 7 at the end of this year.

---
If you experience any of these side effects, please stop taking Windows 7 Beta immediately and call your computer repair man: W7 Drinks all of your beer, W7 knocks up your wife, W7 leaves the toilet seat down (up if you're a woman), W7 steals your truck, or W7 eats all but the very last Oreo.

Nice FUD, but the MP3 bug was fixed before the beta shipped. I have been using Windows 7 for over a week as my primary OS and it's very stable. There are some minor bugs (I'm mostly having problems with WMP12) but I think it's ready for every day use unless you have some critical software that isn't supported.

Problem is its stable until you start installing software try SuperAntiSpyware,welocme to BSOD when you launch it after installation,thats one of many,remember its beta so for testing purposes only, no normal person will recommend Win7 beta as a main stable OS at this time if they have any sense,sure Win7 will be a fine OS ONCE it comes out of beta.I could also meantion it never detected virtually all my common drivers on installation like Netgear FA311 card,onboard sound to name a few,I don't blame Win7 because its beta ,however at the same time I can't recommend it as a working OS at this time.

 

[Bateluer]

For somehow who just does general productivity, Internet surfing, email, etc, I think the beta would be safe to use, but I would be hesitant to store any critical data on that machine.

Vista SP1 has been solid for a long time now though.

 

[mmntech]

I got one BSOD trying to install ATI drivers. Other than that, Windows 7 is as stable as Vista SP1 or XP SP3. Still, it's a beta and it does expire after 8 months so there's not much point in using it as an every day OS. I'm using it now with no major issues. Just 5.1 sound doesn't work properly through my X-FI. Chop that up to Creative's crappy drivers.

 

[Snapster]

Originally posted by: mmntech
I got one BSOD trying to install ATI drivers. Other than that, Windows 7 is as stable as Vista SP1 or XP SP3. Still, it's a beta and it does expire after 8 months so there's not much point in using it as an every day OS. I'm using it now with no major issues. Just 5.1 sound doesn't work properly through my X-FI. Chop that up to Creative's crappy drivers.

Yeh my sound is probably the worst part of my experience so far. Just after I finally got some decent drivers from Creative that work in Vista, the same ones are a mess in W7. I think I might go back to my on-board, they are at least stable. Has not blue screened or crashed on me yet and I am using it as my primary development OS atm.

 

[LumbergTech]

There are a significant amount of bugs to be fixed, I would wait until the next build of beta before using it as a primary

 

[ahenkel]

For a beta at least on my end its very stable, I have yet to have it crash, I dug the fact that I didn't need to go hunt for a ton of drivers. The only drivers I needed was an smbus controller for my ich9 chip and a driver for my ati 650 tv tuner card. However. I installed it on a spare hard drive and unplugged my current vista primary drive. I may be paranoid but i'm not risking data on a beta regardless of how well it runs. If there's an epic fail I can plug my vista drive in and go.

 

[4537256]

stabil? hahaha
maybe for you but not for everyone. you can't say its stable when theres still alot of people with problems, just google it.

i for one have 1 mouse crash and 4 os hard lockups

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: 4537256
stabil? hahaha
maybe for you but not for everyone. you can't say its stable when theres still alot of people with problems, just google it.

i for one have 1 mouse crash and 4 os hard lockups

Sounds like why I hate XP Too unstable for me (anecdotal of course)

 

[Zenoth]

I tried the x64 version of Windows 7 for a day now, I installed most of the programs I regularly use including some games, and compared to my x86 XP SP3 and x64 Vista SP1 partitions (on a separate disk drive) I certainly noticed some performance improvements in terms of applications loading time (also installations and un-installs are noticeably faster) when compared to x86 XP SP3 (which means a lot to me).

But compared to my x64 Vista SP1 partition I would say that it is about the same thing, but that may be due to my hard drives not being that fast (Seagate 7200.10's). For the moment I will stick with my main HDD on which I installed both XP and Vista, but I'll keep playing around W7 to find some bugs (other than the MP3 issue and the Winamp issue I haven't found any).

 

[BD2003]

Its stable, but its buggy. I've had to restart quite a few times due to weird bugs that are annoying but dont bring the system down.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: Mem

Originally posted by: gevorg
Since Windows 7 is better and more optimized than Vista, I'm wondering if its Beta is good enough for general home use like internet browsing, MS Office, music & movies. Or it still prone to lockups, unexpected errors and instability?

This is a joke right?..Win7 beta is buggy(to be expected at this stage being beta) and Vista has been solid now for ages in my gaming and general usage.

I don't know why you are comparing a stable retail OS thats been out awhile to a beta OS,makes no sense.

It's because Windows 7 is basically a refined version of Vista. They are basically building off Vista. It uses the same kernel. One has to think that MS is simply working existing Vista kinks out. There aren't really any new features in 7 to speak of. It's just like Win98SE.

IMO this beta of Windows 7 is far more stable than Vista was upon its full release.