Windows 7 Beta Installation

I first tried to install Windows 7 Beta on a Dell Dimension 8300. That did not go well. The installation just got stuck and I cannot do anything about it. I then tried it on a newer Dell Dimension 3100 and I was able to install it.

w7i-1

This is the first prompt you got. Supposedly, you can specify language here. However, English is the only option you have now.  Click on Next to continue.

w7i-2

On the second screen, you have an option to repair your computer if it cannot boot properly. Click on Install now to begin installation.

w7i-3

License agreement. If you wish to install(Duh!), check I accept the license terms and click on Next to continue.

w7i-4

You have two installation options here. Upgrade or Custom. If you click on Upgrade, the installer informs you that you should boot to the previous Windows and start the installer from there. I selected Custom.

w7i-4b

Select System drive and click on Next to continue. If you have system files on this partition, the installer informs you the old system files will be moved to a folder called Windows.old. Optionally, if you want to prepare your hard drive for installation, you can click on Drive options (advanced) to delete/format/create/extend the partitions.

w7i-5

Now that you have entered the required installation information, it’s time for the actual installation to kick in. It takes about 30 minutes depending on your machine’s speed.

w7i-6

After the machine rebooted the first time, you are prompted to enter your user name and computer name.

w7i-7

Next, your password. Strangely, password is not required. However, if you do enter a password, the password hint is required.

w7i-8

Enter your product key if you have one.

w7i-9

Select your security settings here.

w7i-10

The last step is selecting your time zone. Hold on, we are almost there.

windows7-desktop

Now you get to the desktop of Windows 7 Beta. To be frankly, I don’t like the default desktop image. There are some awesome desktop images that comes with Windows 7 Beta, I don’t know why they picked this one. Anyway, you can alway change it.


This post may contain affiliated links. When you click on the link and purchase a product, we receive a small commision to keep us running. Thanks.


5 Comments

  1. Hi,

    I just tried to install Windows7 RTM on my Dimension 8300. After the second screen, before the license screen, it asked me to install a CD/DVD driver. I can’t find one.

    The 8300 has a NEC ND-2100 AD drive.

    I upgraded the BIOS from A05 to A07, but that did not solve the problem.

    Anybody any ideas?

    Thanks,

    Bart

  2. Yes, I have thought of that. However, the Dimension 8300 is not able to boot from an USB drive, AFAIK. Thanks for the suggestion anyway!

    The solution appeared to be simple. Since there is no need to boot from the Windows7 disk, I simply started SETUP.EXE from the DvD, shared from another computer (running XP). A bit slower, but it worked.

    Thanks and regards,

    Bart

Leave a Reply to amida168Cancel reply