Windows 7 Release Candidate
I’ve been playing with the Windows 7 Release Candidate for about a week now… the results are pretty good, and I’m still ready to support it on any and all systems.
In fact, the only things I’m having trouble with is driver compatibility, and I know those will be resolved in the coming months as hardware makers release new updates.
I’ve installed the release candidate on 2 portables—a Dell Latitude E6400 and an HP EliteBook 2730p – and here’s a list of what doesn’t work, in terms of hardware:
Dell Latitude E6400 (Will likely apply to all E-Series systems)
- Ambient Light Sensor (Vista version from Dell’s site works flawlessly)
- Bluetooth Driver (Vista version from Dell’s site works flawlessly)
- TPM/USH/Fingerprint Security Drivers (Vista version from Dell’s site works flawlessly)
- Touchpad Driver (Vista version from Dell’s site works flawlessly)
- All other drivers are provided out-of-the-box with Windows 7 or after a quick Windows Update, but do make sure you update to the latest A12 BIOS update.
HP EliteBook 2730p Tablet PC
- Intel ATM Drivers (Vista versions work, although it forced me to run with compatibility settings for the install process)
- Authentec Fingerprint Driver (the included version crashes during enrollment, although downloading this version from Authentec works—32-bit and 64-bit)
- HP QuickLaunch (Driver is installed, so some button functionality is enabled [volume, up/down/enter switch, ESC button, and security button], but not the management software itself, and the screen-rotation doesn’t work at all)
- The beta Intel graphics driver is blocking the ability to rotate the screen. Installing the latest Vista driver resolves the issue. 32-bit and 64-bit
- Unknown Device listed (HPQ004) is the HP 3D DriveGuard accelerometer (Vista version from HP’s site installs the needed driver, but does NOT enable DriveGuard functionality)
- All other drivers are provided out-of-the-box with Windows 7 or after a quick Windows Update, but do make sure you update to the latest F.07 BIOS update.
I’m noticing a distinct trend here… security chipsets (fingerprint readers, smart cards, etc.) and other vendor-device-specific hardware is too dependent on the OEM customizations for Microsoft to reliably provide drivers for. This is just something OEM’s need to quickly release updates for, and in most cases, they will be releasing updates over the next 6 months. In most cases, the existing Vista drivers work just fine, but as with HP’s Quick Launch buttons, sometimes you have to decide whether waiting for updates is more important than the new Windows 7 features.
Now one more item worth mentioning, I prefer my systems to be as “clean” and free of OEM software as possible. The listing above reflects that as a bare-bones out-of-the-box configuration. I don’t install all of the OEM-provided “management” tools and bloatware applications. If you depend on those, you’ll want to test them on your own, but if you want a fully-functional but non-bloated configuration, this is your guide for these models. I’ll be updating this post with additional models that I use in the coming weeks.