Windows 7 Center Week at a Glance: Nov 7-13
Photo by: Treveyan
We’re going to cheat a little bit and add some news from the second half of last week since there was a lot of buzz about the 6956 build that is worthy of a mention in here. We’re also going to mention a bit about Windows 7 Build 6956 benchmarks showing an improvement over both Windows Vista RTM/SP1 and XP SP3.
Windows 7 Build 6956 Leak:
Last week ended with a lot of excitement when an attendee at WinHEC China managed to leak Windows 7 Build 6956 off the demo computers as a VHD image and upload it onto the net. However, the VHD image could not easily be turned into a fully functional OS without a frustrating list of steps and even then, it did not guarantee a proper boot. But in less than 48 hours, Chinese technology enthusiast community PCBeta managed to upload a fully functional ISO to everybody. Interestingly, they strategically uploaded to strong seeders via QQ servers (a Chinese IM company) so distribution via torrents would be even quicker.
The excitement wasn’t enough to persaude most people to upgrade. We’ve got screenshots of the new build and a video of the new boot screen available here for those who haven’t upgraded yet.
Photo by: Nattu
Touch-screen to be a major part of Windows 7:
Touch-screen is one of the biggest new features to be seen in Windows 7 and could possibly spark the beginning of a new age in laptops and screen panels. First, we heard about the first-ever Windows 7 multi-touch app for Media Transfer. Users drop a device on the media surface, and the panel would instantly recognize and communicate with it, allowing you to manage the music with your own hands. It all seems pretty neat, unless you realized that at the beginning of the video the screen shows Mac OS X and not Windows 7. We questioned the video too, but seeing that Hot Hardware is a credible source and Gizmodo hasn’t made any edits to their post either, we’re going to assume this news is legit.
Later this week, Quanta Computer announced their new screen technology at WinHEC Taiwan. Their system uses two cameras from the top corners of the screen panel to pinpoint and recognize your finger movements and positioning.
Windows 7 Build 6956 Benchmarks:
If you’re wondering why we didn’t make any posts before this, it is because Windows 7 Center does not believe any pre-beta benchmarks accurately represent the performance of an OS until beta. That being said, many of you still want to have an idea of how well the OS is doing in its prebeta stages so I thought I should mention it here.
Adrian from ZDNet put Windows 7 Build 6956 in a benchmark test against Windows Vista RTM (The OS that was shipped at the beginning), Windows Vista SP1, and Windows XP SP3 in a series of performance tests (Passmark, PCMark, Cinebench). All tests show that Windows 7 is boots faster and performs faster than Vista and XP with the exception of the Cinebench test where Vista RTM got higher scores.
CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation.
Looks like Windows 7 seems to be already faster than it’s predecesors even at pre-beta stage. But I wouldn’t consider anything close to being permanent until Windows 7 Beta comes around. Features may be added or taken out, and optimization isn’t complete yet.
Windows 7 Center Forums:
We haven’t “officially” launched our forums yet, but it’s been up for a few weeks now and users are already engaging in discussion. Register right now, tell your friends about it, and don’t miss out!
What did you think of this week’s “Week at a Glance”? Was it too long? Too short? Too detailed? Please drop us a comment below.
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Tags: Week at a Glance, windows 7, windows 7 build 6956, windows 7 build 6956 benchmarks, windows 7 touch
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