RSSWindows 7 RTM still available via MSDN/TechNet despite heavy traffic
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published August 6, 2009, 1:10 PM
Right on schedule Thursday morning, what can probably be described as the "latest final edition" of Build 7600 of Windows 7 was made available to subscribers to Microsoft's MSDN and TechNet services for developers and admins. This will enable them to begin the process of finalizing upgrades to applications and to the systems using them, prior to the general availability date for the operating system, which remains set for October 22.
Absent from this morning's distribution, though not surprisingly, was any hint of "Windows 7 E," the browserless build of the OS that had been slated for distribution exclusively in Europe in the event that the European Commission had not reached a decision on the company's browser selection proposal. Last month, Microsoft presented a formal proposal to the EC that modeled a Web-based selection system for installing default browsers, one which presented Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, and Opera alongside Internet Explorer 8, in a menu that all European Windows users would see -- not just those with Windows 7.
With many European legislators enjoying a summer recess, there's concern they may not return to their offices in time to fully deliberate the proposal in time for Microsoft to shift gears and implement it before October 22. In light of that new fact, Microsoft changed its mind about Windows 7 E just last week, opting instead to ship Windows 7 with IE8 in the interim, and taking a risk that the EC would frown on that move.
For that reason, perhaps among others, admins will not yet be able to test the efficiency of the proposed European browser ballot system, the development of which may not even be complete. Such a system itself requires a Web browser, although Microsoft's proposal promises that Windows 7 installers in Europe will be presented with the ballot in such a way that does not suggest a preference toward IE8. That probably means the identity of IE8 will have to be effectively masked from the user; and also that the setup routine will need to uninstall IE8 should the user choose a different browser.
There may be an unusually high usage of the CHKDSK utility among testers today, in the wake of yesterday's discovery of an apparent memory leak in an RTM build caused when making repairs to hard disk index files. The cause of the leak has not been absolutely determined to be Windows 7 itself; there is an outstanding theory that non-finalized chipset drivers from the Vista era may be to blame. If the leak is confirmed, however, the likely remedy will be a hotfix distributed via Windows Update that will appear on users' systems immediately after installation.
Testers believing some of the hyperbole spread yesterday were under the belief that Microsoft may suspend today's MSDN release as a result of the CHKDSK leak; and some bloggers were actually reporting that Microsoft had already done so.
2:45 pm EDT August 6, 2009 · After the starting gun sounded, the "sooners," if you will -- those who were first to start downloading -- are facing extremely slow transfer speeds, as predicted. In our own test downloading Windows 7 Ultimate which began right at 11:00, we saw nominal speeds which soon slowed to dribs and drabs, with an estimated three hours remaining.
Testers who are successful at finally getting a complete download may have better luck receiving the first updated accessory for the complete Windows 7: the new Windows Driver Kit 7, which Microsoft released just moments after the RTM build went live on MSDN.
1:20 pm EDT August 7, 2009 · Our original attempt at downloading Windows 7 RTM from MSDN ended up like a lot of other folks, even after 24 straight hours of trial-and-error: with absolute "bupkis." But there was good news later in the morning: Microsoft opened up a temporary server to handle the extreme workload.
MSDN subscribers did notice their Windows 7 "Download" links greyed out this morning, and some panicked. Had they read the notice just below the link, they'd see a link to a page which takes them to the special server for "Hot Downloads," where perhaps the Windows 7 files should have been hosted to begin with. We were able to download the x86 and x64 versions of Win7 Ultimate in about one hour apiece.
FYI:
Download only one edition (or one in both x86 and x64 flavors).
Rip out the ei.cfg file in the "sources" folder.
It will now ask you, during install, which edition you'd like to install (Starter-Home Premium-Pro-Enterprise-Ultimate).
I have no idea why they'd make us download the same freaking disc for each version when it is, in fact, the same freaking disc....minus one stupid "ei.cfg" file.
Might have saved them some bandwidth....morons. Gotta wonder who's "brilliant" idea that was...
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|If you're having problems downloading Windows 7 from Microsoft or it takes too long to download, here is the best place to get it: http://bit.ly/19S9bF
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|Retard.
It's a link to Apple, guys. Of course, what did you expect other than possibly another youtube link?
No problems at all. Grabbed Ultimate x64 and x86 in under 2 hours, ripped out the ei.cfg file and I'm ready to go. (Grabbed Office Ultimate 2k7 as well, I mean what the heck, right?)
haven't had the subscription renewed in years, but figured it'd be worth it. $261 for every MSFT product (10 keys each/10 activations per key).... Beat that, Apple.
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|email or noemail....thats the question! no email client, they want you to use live! my corp will not allow this! time to install outlook...oops meant buy it...more M$... there goes my it buget...better not deploy when public availibity arrives, memo to self: stay with XP!
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|That was a weak-ass troll:
1.) If you have technet (thus the ability to download the RTM legally), you can also download Outlook...legally.
2.) If your corp provided you the computer, they likely would have provided an OS and an email client.
Take some lessons from iTard7 and fathead before trolling next time. Mmmkay?
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|nice one PC_Tool :)
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|It's pretty good. Also, downloading is faster off TPB
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|I downloaded the ultimate and enterprise last night. Took about 20 to 30 minutes for each. This was around 9 to 11 pm PST. I was pulling in 1.4 to 2 mb/sec
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|I finished downloading at about 1AM this morning. Installed and it seems great so far. IE8 seems faster to me. I had a couple of problems with my RC version but they seem to be OK in RTM.
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|Same here, and I can also say the IE8 is faster....
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|Hey I am thinking of getting the Windows 7 Home Premium Update Family Pack (3 licenses) to update my home computers. I want to do clean installs (format, start with no os)
Can I do this on the Family Pack Update?
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|I would say most likely not possible since the product keys given with the set is most likely an "upgrade only" key, but you will just have to wait and find out the truth of the matter, just sayin that it MIGHT be possible to do a clean install with an upgrade pack, supposedly peeps claim the upgrade discs are capable of doing a full clean install of an os but dont quote me on that ;)
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|You can do a "clean install", but not from a formatted disk. Vista/XP must be there, but it will move all of the data to "Windows.old" and install fresh if you so choose.
Then just delete "Windows.old". :)
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|'if' it lets you lol, i had a weird 'SecurROM' file there at one point, mangled to hell filename, Windows couldn't even understand it to delete it lol' ... i think after that i went clean install that point onward
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|SecurROM... Yeah. One step away from being a rootkit.
I would consider that a failure due to malware. ;)
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|yeah some software i had installed in XP had left it there, i think i used their remover guess it forgot a file :P
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|They should release this Friday at 5 p.m. so only truly lowlife nerds can get the bits up front.
I hate lines.
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|"Such a system itself requires a Web browser"
ORLY? They couldn't make a quick and dirty .NET app to display the ballot screen?
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|Such a system requires an HTML-displaying device that other browser manufacturers -- namely Mozilla, Apple, Google, and Opera -- can publish to, since they will be the ones handling the download process when the user selects an alternate. And while that might not have the IE logo on it for legal compliance reasons, that had better be a Web browser nonetheless. If it's a .NET app, it will need its own documentation -- and we all know what happens when Microsoft has to publish documentation to the EC's specifications.
-SF "A Million Euro-per-day Fine For Every Day We Just Don't Get It" 3
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|Without a web browser how do you propose that the downloading of one of the alternate browsers happens?
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|wget can be used for downloading. Just saying.
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|SMFulton, Paul...I *know* neither of you are complete idiots...You're better than this.
"Such a system requires an HTML-displaying device that other browser manufacturers -- namely Mozilla, Apple, Google, and Opera -- can publish to
Bull. it requires a system in place that can be easily updated. This does not require that it be HTML. IT can simply query an online database, FFS...
"and we all know what happens when Microsoft has to publish documentation to the EC's specifications."
Nice troll? Databases can be entered into using any kind of interface anyone could ever want to dream up. Hell, they could even allow the browser manufacturers to access via an web-page! *gasps*
"Without a web browser how do you propose that the downloading of one of the alternate browsers happens?"
Ever heard of FTP or telnet? Seriously.... They could use WU functionality to get the files if need be.
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|I bet it'll just be a .net app that reads an xml file from somewhere...I THINK browser manufacturers can figure out how to update xml files...:)
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|'Right on Schedule' are you kidding?!?!
Mirosoft's own MVPs and Evangelist couldn't advise what time it was going to be available. Some said noon PST others said 8, then 9 then 10am PST
It's tomorrow morning in New Zealand already! So much for a world-wide release date of 6th August.
BTW, the European browser ballot system issue is only realistically a problem for OEMs and system builders of sell-through systems and not admins in general. Most, if not all corporates will use a version including IE etc and wouldn't never want to give their userbase the choice of a browser.
With the EU in recess and european corps already planning to roll with Windows7 Enterprise (which includes IE) before the EU makes a decision it is all rather a non-issue. After all what would the EU do insist all corps under their jurisdicton re-deploy a browser-less version of Windows just to have the corps install IE in the the top (proving the point that only OEMs and system builders would be affected by any decision to change the status quo).
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|Please stop downloading. It's going to slow for me!
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|I actually did stop downloading for a little bit. I left, came back and Win 7 RC had gone to sleep. Had to restart and start where I left off. Damn thing is downloading at about 40kb/sec now. It will probably be tomorrow before I get installed. How's everyone else doing?
Oh, and I turned sleep off. Hope Win 7 realizes that.
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|Downloading now. I have a 10mbps connection but I'm varying from 63kb/sec to 253 kb/sec. I guesss I'm not the only one downloading right now.
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