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Windows 7 RC

June 30th, 2009

I’m totally, completely, utterly, done with Windows 7.
No, I don’t mean I’m done installing it. I’m done with it. Over and out.
I’ll try and avoid family-unfriendly wording in this post, but it’s hard.

Last week, I got an unexpected envelope from Microsoft in the mail, containing the Windows 7 RC install cd, so I wouldn’t have to download it. It seems to me they really want people to try out their new Operating System. Not enough people asking for it maybe?

Anyway, after installing, I ran into the same old connection problem: Windows 7 can’t find the internet[1].

While with the previous Windows 7 version (beta) it was “simply” a matter of ‘local access only’ which I could change to ‘local and internet access’ with a couple of tedious workarounds, this RC version gives me only these two connections: IPv6: no internet access, IPv4: no network access.

Switching off and on either IPv6 or IPv4 has zero effect here.

After waiting a day or two and restarting the computer, Windows 7 (which of course has also wiped out the dual boot menu with Ubuntu[2]) still shows the same things. Strangely enough, it does show my other Windows computer and my router, and when I log into the router, I get to succesfully ping sites on the internet. Clearly, Windows 7’s network troubleshooter which tells me some cable must be loose, is not very well informed.

After all the trouble with connecting to the internet in Vista and the Windows 7 beta, and now the seemingly (?) permanent impossibility of connecting using the RC version, I’m fed up. Totally had it. I’ve now started the execution of my new plan:

  1. format entire hard disk (don’t want any Windows 7 traces hiding anywhere)
  2. install Windows 98, so the kids can properly play their older games, and I have a native IE6 test space for web work.
  3. install Windows XP, for more modern games and testing in IE7.
  4. install Ubuntu, for web testing and kids surfing.
  5. find a nice biohazard symbol on the web, print it out, and glue it to my brand new Windows 7 RC disc, so I can’t make the same mistake again!

Bye bye Windows 7, you’re not compatible with me.

[1] Who’d have thought that the world’s most used Operating System could so easily misplace a thing as large as the entire Internet…
[2] Why can’t Windows play nice with others and acknowledge installations other than older Windows systems? While Ubuntu politely asks how much disk space is available for it, Windows just says “I see a hard disk. Must be mine, all mine!”

2 Responses to “Windows 7 RC”

  1. Frans says:

    This is indeed a typical Windows problem. Windows Vista, in particularly, and so may be 7.

    I do understand you are ‘done’, but still I’m wondering what exactly causes the problem.

    Because on my laptop Windows 7 RC works as a … as a… (what’s the English word for ‘tierelier’?), while I’ve had the same problem as you describe with a dual boot of Vista and Ubuntu. Ubuntu didn’t want to connect, while pings are working. The problem was there when I first used Vista, and then booted in Ubuntu.

    The only difference with your problem is the fact that in your story, it still doesn’t work after two days doing nothing.

    Believe it or not: one of the ‘new things’ of 7 would be the ‘new, better and more intuitive way’ of setting up the *ahem* … internet connection.

  2. Els says:

    "works a charm" 🙂

    And yes, I’ve read the marketing stories too. They got some less used confusing settings out of the way or something as well. My first thought when I read that: probably the settings I would need to fix the problem.

    But to be perfectly honest, I don’t even wanna know anymore what causes the problem. Done caring.