Windows 7 Release Notebook
Windows 7 provides many minor tweaks to Windows Vista. From a first glance, those tweaks should make Win7 a viable alternative to Windows XP (a status TIG feels doesn't fully apply to Vista), but we're not there yet.
Below are some internal notes for early adopters. Know that many essential CSAIL features are currently unpredictable, we do not yet recommend Windows 7, nor do we have fixes for what may become common problems.
Active Directory/CSAIL.MIT.EDU integration
The registry patches for XP or Vista don't work. Arthur has
drafted a registry patch for Windows 7, but its settings occasionally vanish, requiring it to be re-applied. This behavior is so far unexplained, and thus the ability to log into an AD-joined machine using a CSAIL.MIT.EDU account is unreliable.
AFS: unstable (unpredictable hanging)
While the OpenAFS package has been Win7-ready for months, the RTM build of Windows 7 introduced a severe pioctl bug that only OpenAFS appears to tickle. Result: \\AFS cannot be browsed at all, and some attempts to obtain AFS tokens will result in AFS or the machine hanging for minutes.
Also, the AFS Client Configuration control panel is not easy to access. It does not display in Control Panel's Category view, so "View By: (small|large) icons" must be manually selected. It must be run as Administrator to make changes (such as stopping and restarting the AFS service). If running as Standard User, this requires navigating to
C:\Program Files\OpenAFS\Common\, right-clicking
afs_config.exe, and choosing Run as Administrator.
Cygwin
Cygwin 1.7 is required for Windows 7 compatibility; this version is will not be stable until the release of 1.7.1 in November 2009. Cygwin runs in 32-bit mode on both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows OSes.
Internet Explorer 8
Importing master CAs
- can no longer use "Automatically select the certificate store". Have to manually select "Trusted root certification authorities."
- Athena certificates are not currently supported (require the installation of a separate MIT Client CA that IS&T only distributes via a Vista-only executable)
McAfee VirusScan
- Installs and runs properly, but windows complains "[VSE] is on but is reporting its status to Windows Security Center in a format that is no longer supported."
- Its setup program uninstalls Windows Defender, presumably for a good reason, but this causes Security Center (now known as Action Center) to complain.
We believe these will be fixed by 8.7i Patch 2, but are waiting for IS&T to receive/relay that installer to us.
Printing
Printing is only supported to CSAIL print queues using "Global" (generic) Postscript drivers. This means that some special features may not be available. These "Global" drivers should be available at
PrintingTopics by 10/23.
VMware Workstation
VMware Workstation version 6.5.3 (the latest as of 2009-09-30) considers Windows 7 an
unsupported host operating system. It installs, but unpredictable behavior can result. Experiences so far have included:
- guests will grab the CD/DVD drive in a "sticky" manner -- discs inserted even with a host application in focus will be directed to the guest, and the host will display only "insert a disk in drive D:"
- if VMware malfunctions, Windows 7 may display "failed boot" error messages and remove the VMware application completely via its automatic Startup Repair.
- Bridged mode does not function; guests only see the network in NAT mode. This prevents CSAIL Debian guests from installing and Windows guests from joining CSAIL AD.
--
ArthurProkosch - 25 Sep 2009ff
