I noticed over at Long Zhengs website that he has decided to post about the supposedly leaked post install details and analysis of Windows Seven M1 (Mile Stone 1).
"Kenipnet", a Neowin member reported that he had been given the Alpha, otherwise known as a developer build for testing and then made a detailed post about it which he later deleted. Luckily I was all over that forum thread and managed to salvage his deleted claims from my Firefox browser cache and repost as my own (thus preserving the post for prosperity).
I sent a private message to "kenipnet" asking if he could backup his claims with a screenshot or other means, his response indicated that he was unsure how he could make any evidence available to me online, so I decided to keep it with the forum thread instead of main page news.
I suppose the laughable thing about all this is that the build is described as "Windows 7 Milestone 1 Build 6.1.6519.1" umm, excuse me? Build 6.1.6519.1?
OK, Windows Seven is supposed to have this brand new MinWin kernel which is version 7.0, not 6.0 (Windows Vista) or 6.1 (Windows Server 2008) as this member UAC points out in his forum posting on that thread it is most likely fake as are the screenshots which you can find in that thread (there are several).
Anyway our friend kenipnet appears to be credible about all of his other posts on Neowin regarding past betas, so maybe we shouldn"t be too quick to denounce his findings even if he failed to offer any proof in the form of a desktop screenshot. Below are his findings, take it with a pinch of salt mind!
- Over the weekend I finally managed to play with the build.... but disappointed.
One my primary machine, it asked for my SATA driver (never happened when installing Vista, as my drives were set as IDE in BIOS). After adding the driver from my USB thumb drive it would finally install. It didn"t boot after first restart, however.
On my laptop it installed perfectly, but with no driver support for the video card. After numerous tries I gave up in the end, so Aero is now left in the dark.
Oh well, so there"s nothing to show.
The build is 6.1.6519.
The GUI, as much of you have guessed, is very much like Vista. I don"t know if once the right video card driver is in place whether there will be flashy stuffs to surprise me. The system is very responsive, using barely 480MB of memory after boot.
Gadgets are now integrated into explorer. You can right click on desktop and select "Add Gadget" or "Hide Gadget". There is a new gadget called "Windows Media Center" that displays now playing information from the WMC. On the same menu, "Display" is added above "Personalization" which gives you direct access to display DPI settings. The page is much more polished than the one in Vista.
The start menu features a pin besides each item. Clicking on it toggles pinning/unpinning the item. Search in explorer is now states where you search within (usually being within the folder, as in Vista). You can now, however, adjust the size of the search box.
XAML fonts, called the "Composite Fonts" are now added to the font folder. Perhaps WPF will be much more prominent in this release. It"s disappointing that I don"t have Aero running, or otherwise there might be some interesting stuffs to see.
A new application is added, dubbed the "XPS Viewer", no surprises, either.
Then finally, something interesting came up: the feedback tool. The feedback tool lists the "pillars" of Win 7. You can see that Microsoft is aiming to fine tune this release as the case in XP rather than technological advancement as in 2K. highlights include"network aware", with improved connection tools and detections. It will have the ability to detect which network you"re in and switch your settings and devices accordingly; With Live account, you can carry your IE settings and favorites with you; Gadget data caching; New Calculator, Paint, and Wordpad using WPF; install to desktop in 10 mins with only 1 reboot; instant streaming; better battery mileage, etc. All descriptions are scenario-based, so what will actually turn up is still yet to know.
Oh.. how could I miss this. A new boot screen does show up, finally. A full screen Vista-logon screen like boot screen with a beam scrolling across the whole screen near the bottom. Looks nice but reminds me of Win9x (well since XP we"ve been in the "dark", so surprised to see such a bright boot screen)!