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Windows 7 'Incredibly Stable,' Intel Expert Says

By Doug Holland (Intel) (245 posts) on January 20, 2009 at 11:25 am

A few days ago I was surprised when I received an e-mail from Josh Bancroft indicating that I had been quoted by Paul McDougall over at InformationWeek regarding the stability of the new Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems.

While I do believe that Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are very stable operating systems I would like to add to the article written by Paul McDougall. In evaluating the stability of the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems, I compared them to previous beta operating systems and not to systems that had achieved the RTM (release to manufacturing) milestone.

It may seem obvious to some although I wanted to to remind you that these are beta operating systems. In many cases the device drivers used by Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will also be beta releases. What this means is that some beta testers will have an excellent experience using these systems while others may experience issues related to the quality of the device drivers installed by Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 installation DVD or those downloaded by the individual beta tester. In some cases Windows Vista device drivers can be used although these drivers were not certified upon Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

In writing this blog post I am not taking steps to distance myself from the InformationWeek article, although I can see how someone might imagine that is what I am attempting to do. I am merely qualifying the level of stability against previous beta operating systems. If you understand the operating system and device drivers have achieved the beta milestone and have not been released to manufacturing then I would encourage you to download either the Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 betas and check them out. If our IT department allowed I really would use them on my corporate laptop but until then I'll just use them on less critical machines.

Josh, thanks for forwarding this to me and it was a definate surprise especially the Intel Expert part.

Categories: Software Engineering

Comments (11)

January 20, 2009 12:54 PM PST Aaron Tersteeg (Intel) Total Points: 16,428 Status Points: 16,428 Community Manager

It has been fun keeping up with your insightful comments as you learn more about the capabilities and plans for windows 7. Please keep it coming! Inquiring minds want to know.

January 20, 2009 1:15 PM PST Doug Holland (Intel) Total Points: 13,765 Status Points: 13,765 Black Belt

Hey Aaron, It has been an interesting journey following Windows 7 and earlier versions of Windows through the respective beta programs to release. Windows 7 does seem to be taking the OS in the right direction and Windows Server 2008 R2 will likely become the operating system of choice for many, myself included. - Doug

January 20, 2009 2:13 PM PST Dale Taylor (Intel) Total Points: 8,824 Status Points: 8,324 Brown Belt

Doug, How will the 32 -vs- 64 bit versions of the OS be different? Will the version primarily used by consumers finally be a 64-bit version? Thanks.

January 20, 2009 4:45 PM PST Doug Holland (Intel) Total Points: 13,765 Status Points: 13,765 Black Belt

Hey Dale, I would say that although 64-bit device driver support for has improved since Windows Vista was available in beta the majority of Windows users are still using 32-bit operating systems. Within Intel, as an example, the majority of corporate laptops and desktops are running 32-bit Windows XP and I don't believe we'd be using 64-bit operating systems if we'd moved to Vista. Once Intel IT deploys Windows 7 throughout the enterprise I would also imagine that it will be largely 32-bit. 32-bit Windows is unable to access even 4Gb of memory and therefore there is a chance that Intel IT, and others, will make the move to 64-bit Windows 7. We are though, rapidly approaching a time when even corporate notebooks will have more than 4Gb of memory and at that time 64-bit becomes a necessity rather than a mere option. One final thought though would be that if Windows 7 out performs Windows XP on hardware originally designed for Windows XP then Intel IT, and others, may delay purchasing newer hardware with more than 4Gb of memory. Of course they can then delay the move to 64-bit even further. I wouldn't be surprised though if Windows 7 is the last client operating system from Microsoft that will be available in 32-bit. Microsoft has already announced several server products will only be available for 64-bit operating systems. Windows Server 2008 R2 will though be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit even though Microsoft could have released the server in only 64-bit while supporting the client on both architectures. - Doug

January 22, 2009 6:53 AM PST e-link2biz.com Total Points: 10 Registered User

Hi Doug, I recently aquired a new Dell Inspiron 1525 Laptop. At the same time I decided I would run the new Windows 7 Beta on this system. I was a little worried about doing this, since all the problems microsoft had with the Vista OS. But I figured that Microsoft had learned from their mistakes, and not give us what I call a disaster OS. Well I have been running Windows 7 Beta now for about a week. Up until now I have only encountered a few minor issues, well one was major. You see my Dell System uses the Intel 965 Chipset. Windows seven comes with the updated version of the driver v.8..... With this my screen looked like a mosiac. I could make out the outline of the picture or words, but that was about all. Thankfully I had an old HP CRT Monitor in the attic. I went up there and connected it to my laptop. Bham. Perfect picture. Well after much pain staking research I found a solution to this problem. I reverted the driver back to an older v.7..... issue, and completely fixed the graphics on my Laptop. I understand, that because Intel is trying to keep in step with Microsofts developement of Windows 7 in order to avoid issues like we had with Vista. Other than this major glitch on my system, which was fixable. Windows 7 is operating perfectly under 32 bit on my Intel duo core. Awesome part is even with all the software I am running my CPU, never gets over 3 percent, compared to at times 80 percent with Vista. That is what I call performance. I just hope the information concerning this driver will help in the future.

January 22, 2009 9:15 AM PST Doug Holland (Intel) Total Points: 13,765 Status Points: 13,765 Black Belt

I am sorry to hear of the issues you have with the Intel driver for the 965 chipset although it is good to hear you resolved the issue with a more recent driver. With Windows being installed on such a varied installation base it means that some beta testers will have a really good experience while others, like yourself, will have issues. I am sure I can speak for Microsoft and Intel when I say that we are both working closely to ensure that when Microsoft ships Windows 7 that it will be a great experience for all.

January 22, 2009 9:54 PM PST jasim

hi hello

January 27, 2009 8:11 PM PST Praveen chander

I accept with doug's comment.Excellent.He said what i came to say.32bit os is not able to handle even 4gb of memory

February 1, 2009 8:41 PM PST Doug Holland (Intel) Total Points: 13,765 Status Points: 13,765 Black Belt

You're right Praveen and given that I'm amazed more people aren't using 64-bit yet given how inexpensive 4Gb or even 8Gb of memory is today. - Doug

May 3, 2009 3:15 PM PDT Kevin

@e-link2biz.com i have the same problem you had. dell inspiron 1525, funky colors running win7 beta. at first i tried updating my driver but that didn't work. i didn't think to revert to an older version. can you post a link to the download? greatly appreciated. vista Does tend to eat up ram/cpu usage. that would be awesome to run win7

May 3, 2009 8:07 PM PDT Doug Holland (Intel) Total Points: 13,765 Status Points: 13,765 Black Belt

Hey Kevin, One change since I wrote the reply to Dale (above) is that the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system will now only be available in 64-bit. As for your driver download you could try the http://catalog.update.microsoft.com site which will allow you to search for drivers. Regards, Doug

Trackbacks (3)

• Intel Software Network Blogs » Ready.Set.7.- Intel and Windows 7
  July 13, 2009 10:45 PM PDT
• Ready.Set.7.- Intel and Windows 7 - Storage Informer
  July 14, 2009 12:24 AM PDT
• Ready.Set.7.- Intel and Windows 7
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