It’s the middle of March and it looks like the Windows 7 Release Candidate will be out in a month or so. The first beta has been a tremendously positive step for Microsoft. The beta was kept open for almost a month – principally due to customer demand. And the reviews have been uniformly positive.
And as most of you know, I’ve been very bullish on Windows 7. By and large, I have used the beta on my primary home system since the first weekend that is was available. But I’ve had a couple of problems. First, I haven’t been able to get a HomeGroup setup. That hasn’t been a big deal since I don’t have any other systems at home using Windows 7. Second, I’ve had real problems with Media Center. In particular, I haven’t been able to download a media Guide since I installed the beta.
Thankfully, my tests of current builds indicate that Microsoft has resolved these problems – and a host of other problems. I can create a HomeGroup now, although it requires me to use IPV6 to do so. Since I’m using a custom firmware build and there are a bunch of XP and Vista systems that are also part of my home network, I won’t keep IPV6 going. I just don’t want to introduce any network instability at this time.
More importantly, my Windows Media Center troubles are now a thing of the past. I can now download the guide to my heart’s content. This makes me quite happy. And there are a whole lot of fit-and-finish issues that have been polished in the meantime. In short, I am very confident that Windows 7 will be (or should be) generally available sometime this summer. Indeed, Windows 7 is more ready to be released than Vista was when it was released. Yes, there are things that need to be fixed. And I am quite confident that the Windows team will get them addressed.
-Roo
Month: March 2009
Windows 7 Media Center: A Tale of Two Experiences
In a very short time (less than two years), I’ve become addicted to Windows Media Center. I can turn the TV on while I go about all of the other chores I have to do. Yeah, I’m not using an extender to run it on a huge screen. Instead, I am running it on my primary system where I am able to lean in and watch TV without disturbing the rest of the family. [For those who didn’t know, I have serious vision problems and I have to be within a few inches of the display device before I can even focus on the image.]
In the short time that I’ve used Windows Media Center, Ive become accustomed to the easy interface of the “Guide” functionality. And I’m really liking the new Windows 7 features. But after a few days of running the new Media Center on the new Windows 7 system, I was stunned to see that the Guide no longer functioned. And I kept receiving download errors on the system.
And I’ve been looking for answers to these problems ever since early February. I am still able to watch all TV content. And I am able to watch DVD’s and digital files w/o trouble. But I can’t get the guide to work. This is terribly frustrating as I like to surf the guide via a Windows sidebar gadget – and this n0o longer works as the guide info isn’t downloading.
After stumbling through lots of dead ends on the Internet, I ran into http://www.sevenforums.com. This is a GREAT support site for those who have taken the plunge into Windows 7. If you are having trouble with something on Windows 7, this forum probably has an answer – or can link you with someone else who is having the same trouble.
So did I find an answer? Well, not exactly. No one has a solution. But I now know that many other people are having the same trouble. I have noted that I am getting what appears to be DRM-related errors in the event viewer. Beyond that, it looks like I’ll have to wait for Microsoft to fix the issue (hopefully in the April RC).
Nevertheless, I did find some very interesting hacks through the unofficial Windows 7 forums. These forums sent me to http://hack7mc.com where I found some very cool mechanisms to change the default background and overall theme of the Media Center. So while I don’t have guide functionality, Windows Media Center looks really cool now!
-Roo