Windows 7 Enhanced Experience Launch
Today is a huge day for the PC industry. A lot will be said and written today by many journalists, bloggers, and vendors. Here on insidethebox, we’d like to try something a little bit different.
As I promised after the last Windows 7 Enhanced Experience post, we are following it up with a second installment. We also know that there will be lots of discussion and questions, so I’ve worked conjunction with Mark Hopkins to continue the discussion on our Lenovo forums in a limited time “event.” To help make this more than just an average collection of topics, we’ve arranged for engineers and other experts to regularly log on and help answer your questions.
To whet your appetite, here are two clips to kick it off.
In this first clip, you’ll find out more specifics of makes Lenovo’s Windows 7 Enhanced Experience different from other vendors. This isn’t just a marketing claim.
Learn about all of the work done to improve Lenovo’s ThinkVantage Technologies.
Over on the boards, I’ve posted clips from that interview covering the following topics:
- Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI)
- Older Think systems and Windows 7
- Machines bought with Vista with a free upgrade to Windows 7
- Why Lenovo’s Windows 7 Experience is different from other vendors
- Specific examples of Lenovo’s Enhanced Experience work
- Enhanced Experience and ThinkVantage Technologies tuned for speed
- “Crapware”
- Info for corporate customers and those that “blow away the preload”
- “Delay” isnt’ a marketing term
- Beyond today’s Enhanced Experience and looking ahead to Windows 8
- One more thing…
I realize that some of you will want to see all of these clips in one video vs. watching them in separate sections. I’ll post one joined video after a suitable time. For now, I’m keeping them separate to hopefully get you to browse the forums and engage with the community.
Come join in the discussion on Lenovo’s Windows 7 Enhanced Experience and watch the rest of the videos there. (You’ll find all of them together on page 1 of the thread.)
Also, John Mese has put together this summary chart. Refer back to it after watching the videos and you’ll be able to understand exactly which Enhanced Experience benefits you can expect on your Lenovo system.
Thanks for joining us today.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:06 am
I’m very excited about trying out the new TVT software. It is true; a barebones version of XP was much faster to startup than one with all the TVT apps installed.
I am an XP user upgrading to Win7, and I thank you guys for making the effort to improve the experience and make Lenovo a unique vendor.
Chris
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:01 am
Windows 7 is simply the best Windows OS ever! And it is going to be a great experience no matter what! I can’t wait to get a new Thinkpad with Win7.
Though, I need a W400. Please make that for me!
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:18 am
[...] [Inside the Box] SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "More about Lenovo’s Windows 7 Enhanced Experience", url: [...]
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:23 am
Thanks, it’s very rewarding to hear you are excited. We’ve had lots of feedback from vendors saying that we are pushing the industry. We take a lot of pride in that and are very pleased to pass on that differentiation to you the customer.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:46 am
So what I’m hearing is that there’s no way to get the Enhanced Experience without having all of the bloatware/junk that gets installed by Lenovo? Even if I were to buy a brand new computer today, I wouldn’t be able to do a fresh install, and keep the extra improvements. That seems like a major design flaw to me.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:50 am
when will the EE BIOSes be available for download?
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:56 am
I have T61 and, frankly, I am disappointed as there is almost no enhancements for older systems.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:25 pm
To Anon: you can get most of EE via a clean install of Win7and updating/installing BIOS, drivers, and TVTs from lenovo.com. There are some elements however that are only available via the preload. We’ve taken a lot of steps to remove bloatware/junk – give it a try.
To erik: EE BIOSes are available now.
To Eudoxus: T61 is a fully supported Win7 system, just not EE. Buy a T400s
Business moves. We’re already working on enhancing Calpella/Piketon-based systems.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:47 pm
I’m not too bothered about the lack of Win7 3rd Party preload apps w/EE for current users (though I’m interested in the list), but why are we excluded from the Win7 EE tweaks and OS optimations? I tend to install windows myself because I don’t want everything that comes preloaded with the system (e.g. Acrobat Reader) Is there no way for me to retro-fit those “Win7 EE tweaks and OS optimations” to my system?
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
I agree with the disappointment regarding the limited T61 support in particular.
I can’t stand the low-quality widescreen (ugh!) displays on the new Thinkpads. The combination of high-resolution, the beautiful 4:3 aspect ratio, and Flexview on the T61 is just so much better that I returned the 400s our IT department tried to force on me. Which means I’m pretty much stuck with the T61 until Lenovo offers a new model with a quality 4:3 screen (I don’t care what it costs).
If anyone has any first-hand experiences to report with Windows 7 on the T61, I’d love to hear them.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Could you explain Lenovo’s Windows 7 support policy for the T60? It seems Lenovo is making some effort to support the T60 (I see a bunch of new Windows 7 drivers for it today, for example). But, none of the Lenovo Windows 7 documentation mentions anything older than the T61.
In particular, what’s the deal with the ATI X1400 driver?
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
@John Mese
You mention that EE BIOSes are available, and that one can get the latest drivers from lenovo.com… however, I don’t see any packaged downloads, and the drivers that are available (for my x200) are up to vista. Do you have a link?
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:04 pm
@John could you be more specific about these elements? Your definition of bloatware might not be my definition. I think the first comment here:
http://www.thinkpads.com/2009/...../#comments
Summarizes my thoughts well.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:19 pm
John Mese, I bought my T61 just a year ago and T400s is something that I cannot aford right now. And why should I. I bought ThinkPad because it has much longer life than almost any other brand of laptop around. But now it turns out that all the T60 and T61 owners are sort of second rate customers.I do not think that T61 or T60 are that old not to be enhanced for Win7.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
@Eudoxus, I have a T60 running Windows 7 for 9 months (starting with the beta) and it runs pretty much as well as Windows XP. If you use hibernate or sleep instead of turning your computer on/off, you probably won’t even notice much difference between EE and non-EE systems anyway, AFAICT.
My main wish for my T60 on Windows 7 is a Windows-7-optimized ATI X1400 graphics driver.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:00 pm
While I understand the general disappointment, remember that we’re in the business to sell new systems and new hardware. Our policy is not unlike any other hardware manufacturer.
I can think of plenty of printer, scanner, and other peripheral companies that won’t give their best and brightest upgrades to their old equipment. Why should they? It just puts customers buying off for yet another year or two. That is lost revenue that is never recaptured.
Even Apple charged for a service pack upgrade. If it were possible to create a program that would “EE” an existing system that couldn’t be decompiled by our competitors, I guess we might sell it. But such a thing doesn’t exist.
Flame me if you want, but we’re not in the charity business here.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Matt, that exaclty is the point. You are in the business but there are many ways to do that. I am not sure that this is the right strategy in this case as I am not going to buy a new machine in a year or two anyway (as you have noticed this is not the best time for buying anything) but my perception of Lenovo as a company may change. And I think that there are many others who will think twice whether their next purchase should be Lenovo or some other brand. I do not think that your business may prosper if you are perceived as a greedy bunch of thieves (and I do not thin that you are, by the way) but if you so openly want to replace my not that old machine I may start to change my mind.
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Eudoxus — please give me two examples of companies that have done what people are asking for here.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Why do you think that your demand is valid? Is there any problem with being the first company who does that?
May point was that it is not a smart strategy (from business point of view) to say your customers something like that: “look, we do not care that much about your old machine anymore and we want you to buy our new machine even your older system is sill in almost mint condition”. In this case you should consider the option to degrade the build quality of ThinkPad as in this case people would be pressed to change their hardware more frequently.
I do not think that in this particular case your strategy will pay you off. People will buy new machines when the current machines will be old enough. The fact that new models are Lenovo enhanced cannot change that fact.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I’d strongly recommend holding off purchases until the new Capella platform comes out in January. If you want the newer models then you can get them otherwise you can get the current models at a good discount.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:27 pm
I think Eudoxus has a point. Why pay a huge premium for an indestructable ThinkPad when *one* year later the software no longer maintained to keep it running optimally? I could see why Lenovo wouldn’t want to put tons of effort into EE for T60 (~3 years old). But, if we’re supposed to throw our computers away every year then we might as well buy cheaper computers @ half the price.
I think the baseline requirement should be this: for older systems, Lenovo should ensure that stability, performance, and startup/shutdown/hibernate/sleep/wakeup time do not get *worse* when upgrading to Windows 7. *Not* better; just not worse. And, at least on my T60, that’s pretty much where things are now.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:32 pm
@Matt I’m going to have to agree with Eudoxus here. I bought a machine recently, because my old (7 years) one was on its last legs. I’d read about the enhanced experience, but was not under the impression that it would be for new systems only — that was never stated anywhere. So I bought a machine (paid a modest fee for that “free” Windows 7 upgrade), and sat back to wait for the updates. Now you tell me I can’t get the complete experience. I’m not buying another new computer for a bit (probably less than 7 years this time, but still). You wouldn’t get that extra business from me either way.
But there are two options. If you have these updates (even if you were just to send me those burned recovery disks), I’d be left with a good impression (also, can anyone say Ctrl-Fn?), and be more likely to buy Lenovo next time it comes around, because I’ll know that you want to keep customers satisfied and coming back. Otherwise, I might give it a second thought, and might reconsider what I recommend to a friend who orders a new computer around the time of the next Windows release.
Don’t misinterpret me; I’m not trying to threaten. I’m just saying that if you treat your past customers well, they’re more likely to return.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:43 pm
anyone?
You mention that EE BIOSes are available, and that one can get the latest drivers from lenovo.com… however, I don’t see any packaged downloads, and the drivers that are available (for my x200) are up to vista. Do you have a link?
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:47 pm
We appreciate all the feedback. Believe me we consider and size all the options. A decision was made to focus the Enhanced Experience on the current generation (read Montevina) because that helps differentiate those systems and makes the business money which we can in turn reinvest into continuing to develop the absolute best computers in the world. Just ask NASA what they use in space!
No one is saying we don’t care about T60 owners – those systems are Win7 supported. They are great machines (and work great with Win7). Hopefully you have enjoyed it so much that your next purchase will be Lenovo. And know that our dedication to performance should provide addiitonal incentive when you are ready.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:15 pm
To all the people complaining about lack of EE for their last gen machines, did everyone’s T60/T61’s stop working all of a sudden now that Win7 is out? AFAIK, Win7 runs well on both those platforms. Heck, it runs well on my 5 year old Fujitsu P5010 subnotebook!
Maybe this is a bad analogy, but isn’t this like buying a car, then when the new model with a faster engine comes out 1 or 2 years later, complain about how the manufacturer won’t ship you the new engine for free?
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:34 pm
OK, sure. But I have a recent Montevina system. You’re telling me that it’s still not possible to update this to get the impressive sounding Win7 EE tweaks and OS optimizations. And I’m going to again ask why not.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:43 pm
@anon
No argument there. I too would have expected that the “free” upgrade be the full Lenovo loadset with all the OS optimizations
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Ac, Anon,
It comes down to our licensing agreement with MS – the recovery media we ship has to match the COA on the system. Systems pre 10/22 don’t have a Win 7 COA, they have have a vista COA. See related discussion in the forum here. http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Wi.....167344#M63
Mark
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Anonymous Coward
First, I do not think that your analogy is valid in this case. I do not complain that Lenovo do not upgrade my chipset.
Second, I did no said that I want it for free. I would consider spending some money for those features, but there is not even this kind of option.
Well, of course my T61 works like charm with Win 7 RC and I have ordered a copy of Home Premium which should arrive in couple of days. But this is not the issue.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:55 pm
@Mark,
I did read that discussion. You stated that you “can only ship a Windows recovery CD set equal to the COA on the bottom of the system (with the exception of those machines during the free upgrade program time period)”
Am I dense? It sounds like Anon purchased his machine within the free upgrade time period, and is therefore exempt from the MS restriction. Can he not get the recovery CD?
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:15 pm
@Eudoxus,
Maybe a bad analogy as I’d stated. But no, you’re not complaining about a chipset replacement. You’re complaining that Lenovo will not provide you with the same upgrade for a 1+ year old, last gen computer, as they would for a current platform…is that right?
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:22 pm
I agree with AC’s interpretation. Sounds like I should be able to get a set of those recovery CDs. Heck, if I’d ordered Vista with the right machine, I could have gotten a set of XP recovery CDs (it was strangly an option on some, but not all, machines), which is similarly not the same COA as on the bottom of the machine…
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:09 pm
To Matt and John,
Yo, the ‘rootkit’ lives…in the business model!
“…were in the business to sell new systems and new hardware.”
With all due respect, gentlemen, not so. Believing you’re in the auto business (and worse, bumbling the execution through limited mastery of a glorious ThinkPad culture and a recalcitrant supply-chain) is exactly why Lenovo (lest we forget, LNVGY) has lost money…for three consecutive quarters.
Case in point: this dude purchased another ThinkPad (my second T400 2764CTO and fourth TP this year) on 10/15/09 (deliberately prior to Win7, as John M’s “secret sauce” is still an unknown; my Win XP “Happy Meal,” however, is a known). As usual, alas, a *struggle* to purchase this “CTO” system, to wit:
–no 256GB SDD option (but it briefly appeared a few days ago for ~$9,900 (!), then vanished!)
–no 500GB/7200rpm HDD option (released 10/22)
–no Intel 4GB Turbo Memory option
–no Intel 5350 WiMax card option
–no TFT High Nit WXGA+/LED display option (let alone FlexView); incidentally, Matt, your 15k FlexView 2.0 “waiting list” (posted 04/14/09) is oversubscribed…
–no 512MB-1GB video RAM option
Kel Ghu (above) is exactly right. Resist the urge to assume that “bigger is better” and produce what power users actually want: a W400 / W410, for example. A challenge: you don’t need focus group research to legitimate the principle that high-margin products make money. Open the ‘Lenovo High-Performance / Limited-Production Sales Portal’ and stand back.
And appreciate what loyal owners of T60s, T61s and especially, pre-Win7 Montevina folks want from you. Here’s the bargain: Sort it out with Redmond, find a way to deliver to the user-base Lenovo’s hard-won, value-added Win7 image -> Enjoy customer loyalty and evangelism for life.
So what business are you really in, then? The answer is simple, but do sleep on it. Lenovo is in just one business: that of *fulfilling customer expectations*. Such a model has nothing to do with HP, Dell, Sony, Apple, etc., whose businesses are about *disposable* computing. The competitive position open to Lenovo–ironically, the industry’s leadership position–is about *durable* computing. And the sooner you make peace with this model, the sooner the rootkit bows to the triumph of computing’s soul.
–BAM
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:58 am
Matt Kohut wrote: “…remember that we’re in the business to sell new systems and new hardware.”
Matt, I’m using a T61 because the new T-series laptops have horrible displays. I’d gladly pay $5K for a new machine if I could keep my 4:3 aspect ratio, 1600×1200 Flexview display. I don’t watch movies (so widescreen is horrible), and I love the viewing angles and contrast of the IPS display. I’d love to buy new Lenovo systems and hardware — it just can’t be dramatically worse than the machine I’ve already got.
Is there any possiblity that you can pass the word to the Powers That Be at Lenovo that many of us are stuck with T4x and T6x machines because the new displays are so awful?
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:45 am
er…i am a current gen t400S user. if i get the upgrade disks (under m$’s upgrade plan, which entitles me to a copy of win7), would they be just win7 installation disks or are they original lenovo recovery disks?
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:25 am
I just want to say Win7 will make anything run faster…
I installed Win7 RC in June on my T43 and sure it was way faster than XP right from the start. And still is, with almost full Office, Autodesk Inventor, Propellerhead Reason and Record and quite some more way too new and big and demanding software.
I’m not saying it runs perfect with this overload, but on XP, I couldn’t even run all this. And when it was fresh and clean I rebooted my old laptop in half a minute.
By the way, I’ll probably buy a new computer sometime soon. But ThinkPads nowadays are not much better than what I’ve got (i.e. worse displays and too small Ctrl and Alt keys), and way too expensive for me. Hence I’ll buy a stationary computer. And your keyboard with TrackPoint, and someone else’s display.
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:32 pm
If you really want to make systems run faster, get an Intel X25-M (or X18-M if 1.8″ drive for T400s, X300, X301) in either 80 GB for $230 or 180 GB for $460 or wait a bit for prices to drop (just be certain to get the Generation 2 versions with the G2 instead of G1 in the part name). I’m running with the 160 GB (150 usable) G2 X25-M and it is marvelous. Soon Intel will have the 320 GB version of the X25-M.
October 24th, 2009 at 1:09 am
Excellent news! It’s good to know that it will work on my current system thanks Lenovo
October 24th, 2009 at 2:57 am
Dear Matt
Please can you ask your management to make Windows 7 Recovery & Install Discs available as soon as possible now for ThinkPads sold with Windows Vista during the period 2007-2009.
The performance many of us experienced with Vista was terrible, and many of us simply felt terribly let down by this ThinkPad experience. My T61 machine itself is good and will do a bang-up job running Windows 7, even in VM mode for XP. I spent $2,380 on my ThinkPad machine then and had high expectations of what you had sold me. I would like to actually start using it properly now after waiting for 2 years and struggling with Vista!
I think many of us would wish that Lenovo can show good faith by doing this and making up for our prior disappointment by making these Windows 7 Recovery & Install discs available to us for sale at a reasonable cost. I do not want to buy the regular Windows 7 and lose the ThinkPad added features. I need Lenovo/ThinkPad Windows 7 Recovery & Install Discs!!
I know you did this for Vista users who felt the need to go backwards to XP for $50-$55 or so because Vista had given us so many problems. Please now allow us to go forwards to Windows 7 with ThinkPad machines which are mostly very capable of running it, and let us feel renewed confidence in Lenovo’s support of our needs.
Please can you therefore provide a date for availability of Windows 7 Recovery & Install Discs for T61’s and other machines as soon as possible.
John Chamberlain
Los Angeles
October 24th, 2009 at 4:19 am
——————————————————————————–
mkohut_Lenovo wrote:
jwcharp
Microsoft’s regulations state that we can only ship a Windows recovery CD set equal to the COA on the bottom of the system (with the exception of those machines during the free upgrade program time period). If your system has a Vista COA, we are prohibited from sending you a Win 7 recovery CD set.
Even if we were enabled to sell these recovery CDs, our contract with Microsoft would forbid it.
——————————————————————————–
Matt
I do not think that is quite true.
I bought a T61 in 2007 with only Vista Business COA on it, nothing else, no downgrade, nothing.
Nevertheless Lenovo sold me Install & Recovery Discs for XP Professional – at a cost, naturally (~$50). This makes yuor statement above not correct. If Lenovo can do this for XP, which was not the original COA, then they can do it for Windows 7 as well for a T60, T61 and so on. I don’t mind paying a reasonable price for it, I just need the ThinkPad additional software and support. They need to be ThinkPad Windows 7 discs, not generic Microsoft discs.
That’s why I bought a ThinkPad and not a cheap PC. I’m in it for the long haul. I bought a 4 year ThinkPad warranty, and so on, on a top-of-the-line machine. It’s like buying a Mercedes versus a Neon. We make choices, and we expect the performance and reliaibility. My T61 has been nothing but a pain and a low grade experience, and yet I paid top dollar for it and it’s a ThinkPad. I need some recompense for this poor value sale from Lenovo to keep my loyalty and buy ThinkPad again in the future.
Lenovo needs to supply Windows 7 full Recovery & Install Discs for T60’s, T61’s etc. If Lenovo could force the issue with the XP discs they sold me, then they can do the same with Windows 7 and finally make the customer satisfied after 2+ years of a flawed experience.
John Chamberlain
October 24th, 2009 at 9:20 am
John — I’m not sure we even MADE a Win 7 image for the old hardware. It’s one thing to provide drivers, but spinning an image is a long process that requires lots of testing and thefore is costly. There would be little reason to make a complete image for a system we no longer sell and has since been replaced.
It’s one thing to go backwards. In your case as you mention, the XP image already existed. The downgrade program was also specifically allowed by Microsoft’s contract with its OEMs.
October 24th, 2009 at 9:41 am
hey guys,
your blog is great! It’s nice to have a big company which give users and clients a voice. I got a short question:
Do you know where I can get help for a upgrade from XP to windows 7 on a S 12? I only see the vista thing, but nothing for xp.
Thanx for all!
Roland
October 24th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I’ve owned notebooks/laptops for 19 years. I am loyal to Thinkpads since I purchased x30’s years ago. Then x61s’s and a x200 that I ordered 6 weeks ago to get ready for win7. Now I hear that the image on our x200 was for Vista and is not compatible with Win7 when I was told that I would get a free upgrade to Win7. Not sure that I will stray from Thinkpads in the future, but it will make me look at other brands more closely for our next purchases. I do think that compatible products sold with a free Win7 upgrade (Lenovo’s stimulus package) should get a Win7 image.
From a long time satisfied IBM thinkpad user who is just now testing the waters of Lenovo.
October 24th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
@Roland – Either come to the Lenovo forum at http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/Win.....-p/Beta_OS or try the S10 forum at http://s10lenovo.com/ Don’t be put off by the RTM name in the Lenovo board – the mod team is still deciding how to divvy things up post-launch.
October 25th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
So, I want to install ee on my win7 machine.. I went to the drivers page for my thinkpad (http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/supp.....ry=74585HU), and the only thing there that is new is the Fingerprint Software for Win7.. am I missing something?
October 25th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Excellent posts from what looks like a bunch of concerned Lenovo owners. My question is simple. I bought a G350 a few weeks ago and was able to obtain a “free upgrade to W7″ from Lenovo but not from the retailer.
Will my new G350 be as as good as can be with the shipped W7 EE image disks ?
October 25th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Excuse me, my last comment was in error. I purchased a G530 laptop.
October 26th, 2009 at 10:11 am
I recently (Oct 16th) purchased 7 T400s with multitouch for our company. I was under the impression that buying back then and waiting until Oct 22 would make no difference, since lenovo would provide the appropriate updates to deliver the Win7 enhanced experience. Now we are being told that we won’t have the OS enhancements because lenovo can’t give us images of their preload?
I would greatly appreciate it, if someone at lenovo can look into this and hopefully give us an acceptable solution to get the full enhanced experience, and not just “parts” of it. If it was never the intention of lenovo to give customers the entire EE, then the sales rep should have warned us about such possibilities. I would have gladly waited an extra two weeks!
October 26th, 2009 at 11:14 am
@Rockbottom – the answer is ‘no’. That’s why we (or at least many of us) are all so upset.
October 27th, 2009 at 2:54 am
Roland
You can’t upgrade from XP to Win7. what I will do is first install factory Vista, then upgrade to Win 7.
October 27th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
@Victor I agree, wholeheartedly. I’m in a similar situation.
October 27th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Ugh, all I want is the ability to buy my machines with a full, unadulterated copy of Windows.
Paying you $60-$75 more is better than the $300 it costs to go buy a full copy of Windows so I have a clean copy. I feel ripped off. Either allow shipping a machine without any operating system or give us the option to purchase a full copy instead of one loaded down with crapware.
The user experience I want is:
An option to pay more for a clean copy of windows
The clean copy should be just that. A DVD of Windows and a separate CD/DVD containing Lenovo add on software. Then I can re-create the system in a clean way when I need to and I have recovery discs that can be used on my dual boot system (wipe and re-install is fine if there’s not another operating system sharing the disk you’re about to blow away).
October 27th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
I bought a t500 with vista on it last year, and think I should be able to buy your t500 7 image, just like I could buy an XP pro downgrade image for the same machine.
October 29th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
So this means that no-one in Europe who wants or needs a 64-bit operating system can fully benefit from the enhanced experience and the performance boosts it brings? As of now, the only Lenovo Systems with Windows 7 pre-installed available in Germany, and, as far as I am aware, throughout Europe, come with the 32-bit version only; no dealers (in Germany anyway) seem to be offering an operating system customisation option, and no-one I’ve asked has been able to provide information on future availability. Not such a great roll-out strategy, in my humble opinion.
October 30th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Seems like Lenovo doesn’t want their competitors to unfairly gain the minority of speed gains, so they inconvenience their customers by telling them to buy a new system.. :\
The biggest gains are from the bios and drivers which they can rip off anyway, but I can never buy a factory Windows 7 image for my t500 that is a little less than 1 year old?
But I can buy XP for it since vista was fail? But I cant upgrade because of the same reason?
October 31st, 2009 at 9:56 am
I have a T500 + T400s + X301 i would really have the Windows 7 Enhanced Experience please….
November 1st, 2009 at 6:20 am
Come on Lenovo !
I bought my ThinkPad about 3 months ago.
It was eglible for Windows 7 upgrade. So I didnt wait for Win7 release and went ahead with buying it then.
And now you are trying to tell me that Im not eglible for full factory version image that contains EE tweeks and optimizations which this Win7 all hassle is about ?
Its like getting Merc without the engine. You got it ? I feel ripped off !!!
Now I have to wait with my work on this system for upgrade disks to arrive.
Im sure that in the end when I recive my upgrade media some software or drivers may not work properly because they arent ready for win7 yet …
In my dictionary 17.03USD isnt free.
But for EU 17.32EUR is huge rip off !
Take care of your customers Lenovo who paid top dollars for your systems!
November 1st, 2009 at 9:36 am
I still hope that Lenovo could include T61 into the EE program. Yea, it is not that old… I think my T61 is even running faster than some of the models…
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Howdy, I want to say, that I love your products, I am fairly new to thinkpads but I grew up with an old IBM computer, and I remember looking at the catalogue for many years wishing for a thinkpad. If you fast forwards to where we are now (10 or so years) I am an engineering student in college. Last January, I had enough funds to buy my first computer ever. Guess what that was? It was a Thinkpad w500. My girlfriend can tell you, that was one of my happiest moments involving technology. I meticulously saved all my money so I can get a top of the line system that would work for me until it kicked the bucket (hopefully 4+ years) .
At the time I heard bad things about vista and thought about waiting to buy until windows 7, but being an engineering student, I needed a computer that could do what I needed with reliability and great service. Needless to say, I bought it with vista, and to my dismay the experience almost ruined my dream of owning a Thinkpad.
9 months later, I have bought a completely license from the Campus Software license group. and I love windows 7, and I love my thinkpad even more. It is an amazing piece of engineering that before was muddled by Vista’s awful performance .
You may be reading and thinking “what’s the point”
The point is, after working so hard I achieved my dream but I think, this is not fair.
How is it that in 9 short months I can no longer be included in the “Awesome Windows 7 with EE club” my processor is Montevina based, your hardware has not changed really all that much from when I bought my computer,
I bought a license for an Os(vista) when I was offered the COA for XP, but not 7 with EE?
If we were given the option to change OSs like previous posters have noted, what is different now, im sure this agreement can be changed, and about those with systems bascially identical to what you are offering now with EE?
I dont expect my w500 to be optimized for when Windows 8 comes out, no thats absurd, but I do feel that it is fair to have have “optimization” support when
a) it is a system essentially identical to what is being offered (monetevina platform)
b) COA and the sort were not as big of an issue before, hell even right now you are offering recovery disks to downgrade to XP
c) You are not a charity, but I dont expect to be handed the recovery disks, I just want the option to be able to buy them
I am not upset with your business deals or how this is turning out, but I do feel it is unfair that despite having such a loyal customer base, they feel like they are being left out in the cold.
Best Wishes, Luis Gasca
November 4th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
When will the discs ship. It’s November 4th already?
November 8th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
When will the discs ship? It’s November 8th already? I don’t mind a bit of a delay but payment was made over two weeks ago.
November 8th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
@rockbottom – Here’s what Mark said about the ship date for non-Thinkpad models:
http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/Win.....70281#M661
November 12th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Thanks for the reply. I’m not upset and I not going to complain anymore. If I have to wait a few more weeks, I’ll live. Thanks and continue fighting the good fight.
November 22nd, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Mat,
You hit the nail right on the head! I bought a Windows 7 installed Acer computer last Thursday. Yep, Windows 7 looks and runs great, however,… My trusty old desk top publishing software won’t install…,Then
my old Cannon scanner won’t install (Cannon says that no drivers will be made available for Windows 7 for it), And,… Now I just tried to get my old Lexmark inkjet printer to install, and totally failed!. Lexmark says that the Vista compatable drivers should work OK,…. Bu t I guess, not for me!!!. What now? After spending hundreds on a new computer I need to go out and spend hundreds, and hundreds more? Planned obsolessence again? They must think that we’re stupid, and if we put up with this, We are!