Microsoft have released the Release Candidate version of Windows 7. They're not limiting the number of product keys and this version won't expire until June 2010, so there's no rush to get it and try it out. The initial reports for Windows 7 are not too bad at all, so if you have a spare box and some time to kill, it might be worth a look.

You can download it from the official Windows 7 site now. Due to Microsoft's licensing policy we can't mirror it (and you'll find most T&C-abiding other sites won't mirror it either); as a result because it's a brand new and popular release you might struggle to get it quickly - so be patient!

i can only hope the server is getting totally hammered coz i applied for a key via windowslive or woteva @ about 9am this morning & i still haven't recieved a verification email :[ downloaded the iso no probs. :D

RFFTV-J6K7W-MHBQJ-XYMMJ-Q8DCH

There are like only 4 keys

Trying to burn it on my office machine and getting "Cannot burn to this media: Blank, Writable, Unusable DVD"

GG Windoze!

^ iso might be f***ed.

Downloaded it yesterday, will try it out tomorrow.

Watch the calendar. The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you’ll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010. You’ll also need to install the programs and data that you want to use. (Learn more about installing Windows).

2hr auto shutdowns - how nice! Sounds like AoC servers were built on Windows 7 (LOLOLOLOL)

Free almost finished versions of Windows for a year... Wewt

Trying to burn it on my office machine and getting "Cannot burn to this media: Blank, Writable, Unusable DVD"

GG Windoze!

What filename and what is the md5 of the file? I'm running an md5 on the file we have here in the office ( 7100.0.090421-1700_x64fre_client_en-us_retail_ultimate-grc1culxfrer_en_dvd.iso ) so I'll post it here once its finished - atm its taking ages because it's doing it over the network and prolly raping boba's PC, haha

edit: md5 98341af35655137966e382c4feaa282d
sha1: fc867fe1ab2e0a9796f9e4d155b44ea6998f4874

Why MS don't publish these I'll never know

last edited by trog at 16:30:27 06/May/09

you’ll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010

It's a trap. There are some operating systems out there that don't make you go through this annoying process involving money and licensing.

There are like only 4 keys

Apparently the keys from the beta still work as well.

There are some operating systems out there that don't make you go through this annoying process involving money and licensing.

But they don't run the software people already use natively.

Apparently the keys from the beta still work as well.

Yep, that's what I meant.
That key is a "beta" key, and is the one I'm using with RC1.

I got Win7 7100 to install from a USB stick, by following this guide.
Just remember, at step six, the author forgot an extra space between D: & CD BOOT

It isn't that much faster. The only step in the install process that was faster then installing from a DVD, was the "copying files" step.

There are some operating systems out there that don't make you go through this annoying process involving money and licensing.

Shut up.

I'm running the RC, and it's awesome. I already find Windows 7 to be stable enough to release (on my machine, anyway). I'm really, really happy with how it looks, performs, and the new bits and pieces, like the revamped taskbar. Unless there's some terrible change, anyone who resists updating from XP to 7 is just being a stubborn fool, imo.

Unless there's some terrible change, anyone who resists updating from XP to 7

Can you do an inline upgrade from XP to 7 or do you need to do a fresh install?

TicMan declares publicly he's a sucker for punishment

So for the answer is no.. Microsoft has not put in a system to upgrade from an OS that is still being used far more than Vista to their latest version of Windows.

Nah, no upgrade from XP, you need to do a fresh install. Upgrades sound terrible to me though, I haven't even been upgrading between builds of Windows 7, it just sounds so messy.

Going to install this shortly. There seems to be mixed messages around the net about Punkbuster still not working on the RC version. Evenbalance needs a rocket up it for not supporting it. They will release something after the official release date of the full product and will be full of bugs. Wouldn't it be better to release something now and work out the bugs NOW ?

Yeah, they're bloody idiots. I thought that part of the reason they have these public betas is so that developers can get a head-start on making their software compatible.

So which version is everyone installing?

I'm thinking of trying Pro.

Huh? The RC is full-featured, like Vista Ultimate.

wow this iso is downloading at 1.5mbps. Should be done in no time. The Beta had dreadful issues with webcam drivers and my pc was going to sleep while I was using it for no reason. I hope I don't have any issues with the RC. *fingers crossed*

What filename and what is the md5 of the file? I'm running an md5 on the file we have here in the office ( 7100.0.090421-1700_x64fre_client_en-us_retail_ultimate-grc1culxfrer_en_dvd.iso ) so I'll post it here once its finished - atm its taking ages because it's doing it over the network and prolly raping boba's PC, haha

Turns out it was just my crappy windows burning software. Copied it over to the mac and it burnt fine :D

Up and running now, wish they would polish the UI a little bit more (its soooo close to being pretty), but performance wise its running very nice, also the most effortless windows install process ever!

is this different to the leaked rc1 that came out 2 weeks ago? Microsoft.Windows.7.RC1.Build.7100.x64.DVD-iND ?

Nope, Build 7100 is from the 21st of April.

My friend is making a copy of it for me to save my download quota, how do I go about getting a key for it? Couldn't see anything on the site so I assume it's just part of the download process and I'm keen to check it out.

Click to download, sign in with a Passport account. You'll get a key.

Can you make windows 7 look like xp with a vista theme?

Use the Windows Classic theme?

i have had very little trouble with the Beta 7000, so i am almost hesitant to install the RC till i need to in july/august.

Downloading it now anyway tho.

Given how easy and how popular MS's download and preview beta/RC has been.

Hopefully they think about Selling Windows the same way via Direct Download, Get rid of all the packaging cost and crap and sell it for half the price Please!!

also the most effortless windows install process ever!

I always wonder why with all the Windows I've installed billions of times (up to XP) you can't just select "I live in Brisbane, Australia" and it then defaults to OK so you probably speak Aussie English and you're most likely in the Brisbane timezone instead of having to tell it about 3 different times you speaka da f***in English. Does Windows 7 fix this?

last edited by Coochie at 09:25:06 07/May/09

no

I'm disliking how L4D now randomly crashes to the desktop, and how my mic vol can't get turned up to 2000% so team mates can hear what I'm saying.

that said, it's prolly got more to do with the beta nvidia driver and my pos SB Live soundcard.

game performance wise, it's not as efficient as XP here.. though it's early days, and I've yet to begin tooling around with cutting down the OS.

Win7 does run laggier than my old XP install, though it's certainly snappier than Vista Ult was out of the box.

yes

I bit the bullet yesterday and installed RC1 on my work laptop (was running Vista, and my disk IO was measuring traffic in the tens of billions of bytes/sec (funnily enough, my system was s***ting itself horribly).

I've since installed proprietary LOB CRM apps on it which the vendor has stated has not yet been tested on Win7 and won't work in IE8. Works perfectly for me so far. Am really happy with it. Will see if that holds true to the end of the day :)

Unless there's some terrible change, anyone who resists updating from XP to 7 is just being a stubborn fool, imo.

lol. or, alternatively, some people might not care to pay microsoft a heap of money to get a shiney new os that does nothing new for them. i'll be trying this free rc ... but i won't be upgrading my regular pc's os to win7 unless i score a free copy... f*** paying phat $ for essentially a different look to the os. it's not being stubborn, it's about value for money, imo. :D

Yeah I am liking it so far on my laptop

Feels much faster than Vista

Only thing that annoys me is I can't get my Telstra 7 Mbit Wireless USB thing to work, anyone got any mad tips

f*** paying phat $ for essentially a different look to the os

Played around with 7 last night on my wife's computer - I'll be fastracking plans to try and get it onto my dev machine. This may nor may not be doable, Visual Studio is notoriously difficult to deploy to new OSes.

There's actually productivity improvements in 7, believe it or not.

last edited by Hogfather at 10:37:11 07/May/09

Anandtech have their take on the RC1, up on their website already. Fairly extensive.

and my pos SB Live soundcard.

Urr... Live's weren't even supported by Vista were they?

Seriously, don't go bashing Windows because your 10+ year old SOUND CARD won't work anymore.

lol. or, alternatively, some people might not care to pay microsoft a heap of money to get a shiney new os that does nothing new for them.

So, did you stay on Windows 3.1 when XP first came out? You know, it'd run heaps faster on your machine.

So, did you stay on Windows 3.1 when XP first came out? You know, it'd run heaps faster on your machine.

nope. i never used win3.1 as i went straight from dos6.22 to win95. i never said anything about it running heaps faster on newer hardware, dingleberry.

nor did i say that no one would gain anything from the os upgrade... i said some people. nor did i say that i'll never upgrade to win7... i said when i get a free copy... it will happen eventually.

dingleberry

LOL

midda
you dumbass

Seriously, don't go bashing Windows because your 10+ year old SOUND CARD won't work anymore.

to be more specific it's a SB Live! 24-bit


meh.. it's a dressed-up 5.1

Anyone know if you can get the pro version? I can only seem to download Ultimate.

Why would you want Pro when you've got Ultimate? "Hey, I want less features for free".

Or I'm evaluating it for work...

Its basically the same minus some enterprise level features which you can just choose not to use ??? i dont see where the problem is...

cos he doesn't want to make assumptions when it comes to rolling out corporate desktops. he wants to know that what they purchase will be what they evaluated so there's minimal hidden gotchas

then he can do what others in his postition are gonna do 5 years from now and make em use the VM (XP PRO SP3) at full screen.. both Win7 Pro and Ult come with it


for those of us who've walked into new admin positions in the last 6 months where Vista has squeezed it's evil little ass into our otherwise perfect network this is now a commonplace solution

last edited by koopz at 15:19:09 07/May/09

Fortunately we don't have many old school apps in place that wouldn't work with Win7 so I can't see VMXP but as Jim said it's still prudent to get the actual version we'll be rolling out on in the network to test with.

We put a full bar on all Vista installs so nobody ended up with it. The reasoning was purely on cost since there was nothing in Vista that warranted an upgrade. However with XP support coming to an end it's inevitable we will need to move to Win7 plus we're due for a desktop refresh next year (3yr cycle comes to an end) and no matter how much I want a Linux desktop it ain't going to happen.

So here I am evaluating Win7 and it's quite nice so far. The taskbar changes are nifty although still lacking an Expose/Scale feature is just s***. I only enabled it last week on Ubuntu and can't believe I've used a PC this long without having it, goddamn it makes finding the right window such a breeze.

midda
you dumbass

No you are.

then he can do what others in his postition are gonna do 5 years from now and make em use the VM (XP PRO SP3) at full screen.. both Win7 Pro and Ult come with it


for those of us who've walked into new admin positions in the last 6 months where Vista has squeezed it's evil little ass into our otherwise perfect network this is now a commonplace solution

I'm glad that my work hasn't rolled out vista. Hell, I'm still doing our Office 2007 upgrade at the moment.

Also note: XP Mode / Hyper-V.

So here I am evaluating Win7 and it's quite nice so far. The taskbar changes are nifty although still lacking an Expose/Scale feature is just s***. I only enabled it last week on Ubuntu and can't believe I've used a PC this long without having it, goddamn it makes finding the right window such a breeze.

Try Windows key + tab. Its called Flip3d and its in Vista.

Not quite as cool as Expose, but still pretty handy.

Installed and working well on Dell XPS M1530, had to source a touchpad driver from Dell manually but everything else is sweet out of the box pretty much. VS 2008, MSDE and SQL 2005 Dev edition installed, patched and running without any hassles.

Looks good :)

then he can do what others in his postition are gonna do 5 years from now and make em use the VM (XP PRO SP3) at full screen.. both Win7 Pro and Ult come with it

that will let you make a partial evaluation, but not a thorough one. why would people be so argumentative about someone wanting to evaluate pro instead of ultimate

why would people be so argumentative about someone wanting to evaluate pro instead of ultimate

Hi Jim, you must be new around here! Nice to have you aboard. This is teh QGLs ...

Someone tell me how to get my god-damn telstra hsupda modem working :(

jmr - Tried the Vista drivers?

I've had one strange bug pop up for me in the release candidate, which wasn't in build 7057 (the build I used before this one). Sometimes, when I put the computer to sleep, the screens will turn off as usual, but the computer keeps running, and I can't wake it up. I've just had to hit the reset button. It boots back up fine, but it's done it a couple times now. Anyone else had this happen?

no hold'em poker. DAMNIT.

Midda, have you checked windows update? I vaguely remember there being an optional update on there for fixing problems with the computer going to sleep, maybe that'll help.

But yeah, I installed this on the weekend, and so far I'm really impressed, I couldn't see myself going back to XP at all from this.

Not exactly related but I used to have the same issue in Vista as well Midda. I just figured there was some magic key combination that I didn't know about. Never looked in to it too far because the PC only went to sleep when I did a fresh install and forgotten to turn sleep mode / all power saving options off :D

can anyone hook me up with a key for this? or tell me how to obtain one

I had a friend post me a DVD copy of it, and i can't see where to register for a key without downloading the actual product (i assume?)

hmm nm i see mantorok replied to the earlier post - seems like it's just sitting at the page though - i'll try using my xp install instead of this macbook i'm on maybe that will make a difference

Installed it on my home machine Friday onto a fresh SATA drive.

Bought the drive, burnt the CD, was installed and playing WoW within 25 minutes.

Only thing I find annoying right now with it is that you can't use 2 sound outputs for the 1 application.

IE i can't switch from speakers to headphones for raiding without restarting WoW whereas in XP I can have the dual sound output working. Beyond that it is working a treat.

Every driver installed from the CD and there were minimal updates to be done. I am still yet to install the rest of my misc applications to test them.

Deeper, Pretend to download it and as was said earlier when you login to the downloads page with your Windows Live ID you will be given a key.

Apparently, its been confirmed by MS that it will be released in time for Christmas this year.

Sick.

IE i can't switch from speakers to headphones for raiding without restarting WoW whereas in XP I can have the dual sound output working

Yeah this happened in Vista, they gumby'd up the sound options, makes it a pain in the ass to change things.

Sounds doesn't redirect to the headphone jack on my docking station either .. I had to goto all the effort of unplugging it and plugging it into the headphones on my laptop.

So much effort!

I use optical for speakers and standard headphone jack for headphones so simply replugging isn't an option which really sux :(

Might need to google to see if there is a solution out there

Just finished installing. All looks pretty cool. Anyone got any handy tips/tricks for it?

What direct x am i supposed to get? When i do dxdiag after a fresh install it says directx 11 but when i try to boot a game in dx10 or 9 it says error dlls missing. I've got a dx 10.1 card.

urr... Who downloads directX anymore?

If it prompts you to update your DX install, just let it do its thing...

Which game is it that's whining about the missing dll's Crakaveli? Did you install DirectX without actually ever being asked to first/without trying a game first?

I've just done a clean install of Win 7 RC1 and haven't touched any DirectX installers and GRAW2 and all my Steam games work without any issue.

I'd just try grabbing the latest dx9 web setup from Microsoft's site and running that then see how you go.

Edit: Just tried COD4 and it tells me I'm missing some DirectX dlls, but I think the above should fix it.

last edited by reso at 17:06:17 12/May/09

Assasins creed. I downloaded dx10 and it works now. *Shrug* Dx diag is still sayind dx11 but.

Yeah, you should be able to have all 3 versions installed without any issues and it just tells you the latest you have installed (they're not backwards compatible so you need each version I believe).

I think I read about a bug which pops up depending which version of DX you install first. If you try and play any DX9 games you might need to install DX9 and then DX10 again over the top of it.

so yeah, still can't workout how to get a key - I did what others said and it just took me back to the download page><

actually going to enter my info this time instead of choosing to cancel to skip it

ok got one cheers -_-

its running fine but for some reason my microsoft word and powerpoint are crashing when i try to open them, but excel works fine

Midda, have you checked windows update? I vaguely remember there being an optional update on there for fixing problems with the computer going to sleep, maybe that'll help.

Windows update isn't reporting any available updates, so I've probably got it installed already. Maybe the fix is what's causing the issue? =P

I might Google it, see if someone else has the issue. It's strange that it hasn't been happening in any of the previous builds though.

If you have the old windows 7 and want to upgrade to the RC should I be formatting or is it relatively easy to just upgrade?

You can't upgrade from the beta to the RC, you need to format and reinstall.

Actually, you can upgrade:
http://www.nirmaltv.com/2009/05/02/how-to-upgrade-from-windows-7-beta-to-rc-build/

Mantorok I have tried the vista drivers (when you plug it in, it loads as a flash drive - installs the software fine, then when the software loads it just sits there and doesn't initiate the modem)

Thats alot of s*** in brackets right there

word

I've installed it on my Samsung NC20 netbook, it installed fine and auto installed all the correct drivers, pretty cool as this netbook is using a Via Nano chipset, was very suprised at how well it runs. Especially on a netbook spec... its pretty fast.

Been using it for work and general web stuff.. loving the new features and functionality.. looks like a winner.

Hmm I wonder if this will even work on my laptop i'm keen to give it a go chuck it in a vmware instance and have a play.

My only concern is my video card. Sweet it supports directx9 but I only have 1 gig of ram... in my laptop, then theres the whole 16 gig for space problem. 16 gig for an os is uber heavy.

last edited by Corrupt at 08:15:52 13/May/09

So, 4-5GB for XP (released in 2002) is alright... Keeping in mind that HDD's were 40-100GB.

In 2009, HDD's are now available up to 1500GB (at least 15x larger) but the OS being 4x larger is too big?

wtf?

last edited by mongie at 08:41:56 13/May/09

nG!

i have a spare p4-3.4ghz / 2gb ram / 200gb sata hdd so i thought i'd throw this win7 rc on it. burnt the dvd, booted from it, get the usual windows is starting up bs, nice light blue screen with a flower to stare at for around 15minutes! so quick! :P then it says 'setup is starting' with the little spinning circle... i get to stare at that for about 20minutes. accept terms nps, delete the old partition from the hdd, creat e new partition, format nps. click next & it says :-

Setup was unable to create a new System partition or locate an existing system partition. See setup log files for more information

so i scour through the boot drive it's created in ram for log files & i find 3 which are called :-
setuperr.log
setupact.log
NetSetup.log
setuperr.log is empty... 0bytes. setupact has this guff :-

2009-05-13 12:24:58, Info UI Determining if we are in WDS/Unattend mode
2009-05-13 12:28:24, Info UI No need to hide autorun
2009-05-13 12:28:24, Info [0x0a000a] UI Autorun:Autorun core successfully initialized!!!
2009-05-13 12:28:24, Info [0x0a000b] UI Autorun:Autorun UI successfully initialized!!!
2009-05-13 12:28:24, Info UI AppWindow has layout style 0
2009-05-13 12:28:25, Info UI NavWindow has layout style 0
2009-05-13 12:28:25, Info [0x0a011c] UI WizardDialogPost::SetActive
2009-05-13 12:36:50, Info [0x0a018b] UI User selected the language en-US for installation.
2009-05-13 12:36:50, Info [0x0a0190] UI User has selected the locale as en-AU.
2009-05-13 12:36:50, Info [0x0a0191] UI User has selected the keyboard type as 0c09:00000809.
2009-05-13 12:36:50, Info [0x0a0134] UI Accepting Next. Exiting Page Install Windows.
2009-05-13 12:36:50, Info UI Entering Page Install Windows.
2009-05-13 12:36:50, Info [0x0a011c] UI WizardDialogPost::SetActive
2009-05-13 12:36:52, Info [0x0a018e] UI Passing command line parameter ("X:\Sources\setup.exe /HideWelcome /uilanguage:en-US /targetlanguage:en-US /Targetinputlocale:0c09:00000809 /Targetuserlocale:en-AU /HideOOBELangPage:TRUE") to IBS.
2009-05-13 12:42:16, Info [0x0a018e] UI Passing command line parameter ("X:\Sources\Recovery\RecEnv.exe -notshell /uilanguage:en-US /targetlanguage:en-US /Targetinputlocale:0c09:00000809 /Targetuserlocale:en-AU /HideOOBELangPage:TRUE") to IBS.

NetSetup.LOG says this :-

05/13/2009 12:42:16:546 -----------------------------------------------------------------
05/13/2009 12:42:16:546 NetpDoDomainJoin
05/13/2009 12:42:16:546 NetpMachineValidToJoin: 'MININT-MR9HVBC'
05/13/2009 12:42:16:546 OS Version: 6.1
05/13/2009 12:42:16:546 Build number: 7100 (7100.winmain_win7rc.090421-1700)
05/13/2009 12:42:16:546 SKU:
05/13/2009 12:42:16:546 NetpGetLsaPrimaryDomain: status: 0x0
05/13/2009 12:42:16:546 NetpMachineValidToJoin: status: 0x0
05/13/2009 12:42:16:546 NetpJoinWorkgroup: joining computer 'MININT-MR9HVBC' to workgroup 'WORKGROUP'
05/13/2009 12:42:16:546 NetpValidateName: checking to see if 'WORKGROUP' is valid as type 2 name
05/13/2009 12:42:16:562 NetpCheckNetBiosNameNotInUse: for 'WORKGROUP' returned: 0x858
05/13/2009 12:42:16:562 NetpCheckNetBiosNameNotInUse for 'WORKGROUP' [ Workgroup as MACHINE] returned 0x858
05/13/2009 12:42:16:562 NetpValidateName: name 'WORKGROUP' is valid for type 2
05/13/2009 12:42:16:562 NetpSetLsaPrimaryDomain: for 'WORKGROUP' status: 0x0
05/13/2009 12:42:16:562 NetpJoinWorkgroup: status: 0x0
05/13/2009 12:42:16:562 NetpDoDomainJoin: status: 0x0

nG!
any ideas?

suggestion: unplug from network.

yeps tried that (unplugged the cable from the network card) ... got the same error :(

(edit) the windows7 forums are full of people getting the same error but none of the suggested fixes work :[

last edited by demon at 13:11:47 13/May/09

Manually remove all partitions from the HDD...

other than that, nfi.

Yep 16 gig is to big and for your information there is no 1500gig hard-drive for my laptop DITFA my windows install is 3 gig not 5 what are you using vista?

Pfft all these new OS's with their flashy graphics are just f***ing annoying little twerps.

last edited by Corrupt at 14:02:55 13/May/09

last edited by Corrupt at 14:03:37 13/May/09

i read on another forum to remove any other drives n try again... so i pulled my other 400gb sata hdd out n now its installing :p

Well ain't that just a f***-around?

Yep 16 gig is to big and for your information there is no 1500gig hard-drive for my laptop DITFA my windows install is 3 gig not 5 what are you using vista?

Then this isn't the OS for you..

Yep 16 gig is to big and for your information there is no 1500gig hard-drive for my laptop DITFA my windows install is 3 gig not 5 what are you using vista?

XP. 5GB.

My netbooks got a 160GB drive so i dont see 16GB for windows as an issue.

The spec on this guy is:

Via 1.3Ghz 800Mhz
1GB RAM
VIA VX800 Chrome9™ HC3 DX9 Graphics Card

It runs Windows 7 very well which is why I was so suprised, so recommend throwing it on your laptop to see how it goes. Looks they fixed Vista's performance issues.

after a bit of f***ing around to get it installed, i gotta say it looks pretty decent :D cool how it autodetects your gfx card n monitor n uses a decent resolution rather than the old 640x480 standard... dunno if vista also does that but... about fkn time! :D installed some old progs & some new progs without any problems. tried a couple of games with no worries. threw a new sound card in & that lal went smoothly.

one minor whinge was that i couldn't see a way of getting windows explorer to use the standard(ish) folder view on the left & file view on the right... i got it to display the folder view on the left but when you are navigating there it doesn't mirror the movements in the file view if that makes any sense :P

otherwise seems pretty decent... still wouldn't pay for it though :p~

last edited by demon at 12:02:07 14/May/09

I'm gonna resist the urge to install it until the final release comes out.

Yeah, the old classic folder view and classic start menu are completely gone now :(

Took a little bit of adjusting to get used to the new ones, because turning them off is always the first thing I did whenever I reinstalled XP, but I think I'm mostly used to them now.

I'm gonna resist the urge to install it until the final release comes out.

I'll install it on a VM under VirtualBox on Vista, but will keep Vista as my main OS for now. No sense in installing something that will need a reinstall in <9 months, imo.

No sense in installing something that will need a reinstall in <9 months, imo.

Despite best efforts I've normally managed to ruin my OS within a year or so and need to format anyway.

Got it working woot

i was using the first beta since its public release and dual booted, but I never
went back into XP, so when it came time to install the RC I got rid of the XP install completely.

I've had one BSOD and that was a dodgy sound card driver install which was easily fixed.

But not everyone is so lucky

waiting till i get back from holidays before i install RC on my main pc, the beta version is running fine.

Have Win7 RC installed on my Dell Mini 9, and it runs awesomely.

It's weird cause I installed the latest windows 7 drivers from nvidia for my 9800GX2's and it still comes up with windows automatic updates for my gfx cards??

Yes, Windows Update still shows the standard Windows Nvidia drivers as an optional update as well. Optional Martz, optional. Don't tick it if you do not want to install it. Optional.

Does anyone else hate how windows will grant "exclusive access" for an application to your sound card and anything else that tries to play sound won't work?

yeah that's what I thought and didn't install it..

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/4176/31552994.png
Uncheck the box

want i am trying to work out is i use push to talk on steam and ventrilio. however i want it mute for anything else... for some reason i can here it through my speakers and i dont want this

you type gud