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Archive for June, 2009

Windows 7 RC

Tuesday, 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!”