December 9th, 2008
Windows 7 69xx builds - Coming along nicely!
Over the past few days I’ve been been spending time getting familiar with post M3 builds of Windows 7, and I have to say that for pre-beta builds, I’m very pleased with how Windows 7 is coming along.
Check out the Windows 7 6956 builds gallery
These pre-beta builds, which I will collectively call build 69xx, are for pre-beta builds both very (very) stable and close to being feature complete. I’ve been running these builds on a few machines now for a total of a few hundred hours and I’ve not had a single crash or hang, although the test systems didn’t like the preview driver package for the ATI graphics cards.
Given what I’m seeing now I’m expecting a beta in January and for Windows 7 to go RTM earlier rather than later in 2009. These 69xx builds, unlike the 6801 build that was given out to PDC attendees, have none of the hidden “Blue Badge” features. Everything in these builds is on show.
There’s not a lot new in these latest builds. In fact, I don’t expect to see anything potentially “special” until the beta comes out (which in my opinion will be more of a release candidate). The 69xx builds are about getting the core OS right, and my testing suggests that Microsoft is getting things right this time. These 69xx builds look and feel better than the RTM version of Vista did.
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Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations
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| 12/09/08
