A few weeks ago I downloaded a trial version of Windows 7 Ultimate to give it a whirl. At the time I thought it might be a way to get away from XP for work yet still run inside of VirtualBox. If it worked I could always load it to the hard drive and not worry about the SATA driver issue I had with XP. Loading was initially a problem as I don’t have a DVD burner but thanks to VirtualBoxes ability to create a virtual machine from an ISO I was in luck.
The UI is better, visually kinder to the eye but functionally similar. Some changes in the control panel area have me wandering a bit, but what’s already on the web has helped. I get the impression Microsoft is moving to helping the average or not so informed user with some of what it’s doing. I don’t blame them there’s more numbers in users that need education than those that already have it. Personally though I could do without the wizards, that’s probably “old school” mentality.
The only problem I have at the moment is after starting the VM I can’t join the domain at work. The version of Cisco’s VPN Client (5.0.4) I’m using doesn’t offer an option to start before the windows login. So far the searching I’ve done hasn’t yielded any solutions. I’m thinking I should be able to VPN into the network at work in Ubuntu, which gets me on the network but not on the domain, then login to the VM with my domain credentials… that should do it. But it hasn’t worked. I’m sure Cisco will come out with an update, just need to be patient.
For a preview you can look at some screens on crunch gear.
An update to the question of “how to join a domain when using VPN”. The only way I’ve been able to accomplish this is to login with my standard account, fire up the VPN and then “switch user”. I have not verified everything is working but AD access seems to be fine. I don’t “browse” the network for devices or do any printing so that functionality is not necessary. For now it seems to be doing the trick for apps that need it.