The Windows 7 beta buzz is alive and strong a week after Microsoft made the operating system available to the masses.
Windows 7’s latest praise comes from an important voice in the technology industry — and one that was critical of Windows Vista: Intel. Intel software developer Doug Holland is singing the praises of the Windows Sever 3008 R2 beta and Windows 7 beta builds he has been testing.
Holland is using the Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta “Aero Enabled” Workstation Edition as the primary operating system on both his personal notebook and desktop. If Intel’s IT department allowed it, he wrote on the Intel Software Network blog, he would also use the OS on his corporate notebook. He called the software “incredibly stable.”
ISO and Multi-Display
One aspect of the two builds that Holland specifically noted is the ability to burn ISO images to CD or DVD without third-party software.
“It does not appear, however, that ISO images can be mounted as virtual CD or DVD drives without third-party software such as Roxio Creator 2009,” Holland wrote. “Microsoft used to make available a virtual-CD utility to MSDN subscribers that enabled this, although a version that worked with Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 was never released.”
Holland welcomed support for multi-display remote desktop sessions for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 beta. The feature allows users to open a remote desktop session, go to the display options, and see a checkbox entitled “Use all my monitors for the remote session.”
Windows 7 Fixes Vista Mistakes
Microsoft is also getting cooperation from antivirus vendors. Symantec offers the Norton 360 3.0 beta that works with Windows 7 beta. AVG offers AVG Internet Security and AVG Anti-Virus that are compatible, and Kaspersky is offering a technical preview of Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows 7. These solutions are…