Important Issues in This Release Candidate of Windows 7

[Ian]

TechNet have an article which lists some of the important issues known in the RC of Windows 7.

You can read the full document here.

Release Notes: Important Issues in This Release Candidate of Windows 7
Updated: May 4, 2009
Applies To: Windows 7

These release notes address critical late-breaking issues and information about this release candidate of the Windows® 7 operating system. For information about by-design changes, new features, and fixes in this release, see What’s Changed in This Release Candidate of Windows 7 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=150296).
Unless otherwise specified, these notes apply to all editions of Windows 7 that support the features mentioned in each note.

Accessibility

• If you use the SuperNova screen reader application, it will stop responding if Internet Explorer® 8 stops responding. If this occurs, restart SuperNova and then restart Internet Explorer 8. There is no other workaround at this time.
• The Window-Eyes screen reader application incorrectly reports the state of all option buttons in the First Run Wizard.
  
  To work around this, set the focus on the option button and activate it with the space bar or the ENTER key—ignore the Window-Eyes report that the option button has not been activated.
• If you have installed the beta release of Windows 7 and upgrade to this release, the High Contrast Aero® themes will not be available. To correct this, use Regedit.exe to delete the following registry key:
  
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Appearance\New Schemes

AppLocker

This issue affects Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Enterprise.
AppLocker file hash rules created in the beta release of either Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 will not function properly in this release.
To correct this, export your AppLocker policy and then delete any files that have rules you created with the beta release.
If your computer uses a local policy, follow these steps:

To export the AppLocker policy

1. Open the Local Security Policy snap-in (Secpol.msc) in the Microsoft Management Console (MMC).
2. In the console tree, expand Application Control Policies, right-click AppLocker, and then click Export Policy.
3. In the Export Policy dialog box, select a name for the policy file and a location to save it to, and then click Save.

Important If you would like to recreate the file hash rules, you should first document the files for which the rules were created. You can also use the exported XML AppLocker policy file to review the rule configurations.



To delete the old file hash rules

1. Open the Local Security Policy MMC snap-in (Secpol.msc).
2. In the console tree, expand Application Control Policies, expand AppLocker, and then select the rule collection that contains file hash rules (for example, the Executable Rules collection).
3. In the details pane, click the Rule Type column header to sort the rules, and then locate the rules with the file hash rule type.
4. Select the rules, right-click the selected rules, and then click Delete.
5. In the AppLocker dialog box, click Yes to confirm deletion of the rules.
6. Recreate the file hash rules.

If your computer is managed by Group Policy, follow these steps:

To export the AppLocker policy

1. Open the Group Policy Management Editor (Gpedit.msc).
2. In the console tree, expand Computer Configuration, expand Windows Settings, expand Security Settings, and then expand Application Control Policies.
3. Right-click AppLocker, and then click Export Policy.
4. In the Export Policy dialog box, select a name for the policy file and a location to save it to, and then click Save.

Important If you would like to recreate the file hash rules, you should first document the files for which the rules were created. You can also use the exported XML AppLocker policy file to review the rule configurations.



To delete the old file hash rules

1. Open the Group Policy Management Editor (Gpedit.msc).
2. In the console tree, expand Computer Configuration, expand Windows Settings, expand Security Settings, expand Application Control Policies, expand AppLocker, and then select the rule collection that contains file hash rules (for example, the Executable Rules collection).
3. In the details pane, click the Rule Type column header to sort the rules, and then locate the rules with the file hash rule type.
4. Select the rules, right-click the selected rules, and then click Delete.
5. In the AppLocker dialog box, click Yes to confirm deletion of the rules.
6. Recreate the file hash rules.

Backup

If you use the Windows Backup configuration wizard and either complete or cancel the wizard without viewing the advanced backup configuration page (by clicking Let me choose on the What do you want to back up? page) at least once, the wizard may stop responding.
If this occurs, no configuration data is lost and no action is required.

Drivers

This issue affects Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 7 Professional, and Windows 7 Ultimate.
On some Hewlett-Packard (HP) computers, if you upgrade the preinstalled operating system to this release, the installation may fail with an error indicating that Iastor.sys is missing. The installation will roll back without loss of data.

Systems known to be affected include:

• HP 2140 Mini-Note PC
• HP Compaq 2230s Notebook PC
• HP Compaq 6530b Notebook PC
• HP Compaq 6530s Notebook PC
• HP Compaq 6531s Notebook PC
• HP Compaq 6730b Notebook PC
• HP Compaq 6730s Notebook PC
• HP Compaq 6830s Notebook PC
• HP EliteBook 2530p Notebook PC
• HP EliteBook 2730p Notebook PC
• HP EliteBook 6930p Notebook PC
• HP EliteBook 8530p Notebook PC
• HP EliteBook 8530w Mobile Workstation
• HP EliteBook 8730w Mobile Workstation

If you have one of these systems, or if you encounter this issue, check for and install updated storage drivers (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=150373). For general updated information about HP systems, see the HP Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=150374).

Internet Explorer 8

• If you use the developer tools in Internet Explorer 8 to debug JavaScript, you may receive a notification that the current Web site is not responding, along with a prompt to close or recover the Web page. You can safely ignore this dialog and continue debugging.
• Some Web sites may not display correctly, and may have misaligned text, missing images, or other rendering problems. To fix this, click the Compatibility View button on the address bar.

Routing and remote access

• Not all non-Microsoft virtual private network (VPN) client applications are currently compatible with this release. For a list of compatible applications, see the VPN client compatibility information (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148745).
• If you use international characters for authentication credentials in a username for Password Authentication Protocol (PAP), Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP), or Microsoft Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol Version 2 (MS-CHAPv2), Network Policy Server (NPS) for Windows Server 2008 R2 is unable to authenticate the credentials. To avoid this issue, do not use international characters in a username for PAP, CHAP, or MS-CHAPv2. (Authentication works if you are using NPS for Windows Server 2008 R2). To correct this, see the Routing and Remote Access blog (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=150341).

Software restriction policy

Software restriction policy DLL checking is not available in this release. If you have DLL checking enabled, applications may fail or the operating system may be unable to boot properly.

This issue could affect you in any of the following scenarios:

• If you have previously enabled DLL checking for software restriction policies and then performed a supported upgrade from an earlier version of Windows to this release of Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7.
• If you have previously enabled DLL checking for software restriction policies in a Group Policy object and then installed Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 on a computer that receives the DLL checking setting through Group Policy.
• If you have enabled DLL checking for software restriction policies on a computer running Windows 7.

To avoid this, if the affected computers receive Group Policy, ensure that software restriction policies DLL checking is disabled in Group Policy. If DLL checking is enabled, do the following, as appropriate:

For computers running Windows Vista, as well as any computer running the beta release of either Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7, do any one of the following

• Do not install or upgrade to this release of Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7.
• Disable DLL checking before you install this release.
• Remove the computer from receiving policy from the Group Policy object that has DLL checking enabled before you install this release.

Note To configure DLL checking, navigate to the enforcement properties section of the software restriction policies. Click Software Restriction Policies, and then double-click Enforcement in the details pane. To disable DLL checking, select All software files except libraries (such as DLLs).



If the affected computers have the software restriction policy defined locally, do either of the following, as appropriate.

• For computers running Windows Vista, disable DLL checking and then install or upgrade to this release.
• For computers running the beta release of either Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7, you can safely install this release because the software restriction policies are not enabled by default in clean installations.

If this issue has already occurred take the following steps to recover.

To recover from this issue

1. Start Windows in Safe mode by restarting the computer and pressing F8.
2. Disable DLL checking for software restriction policies either on the local computer using the Local Security Policy MMC snap-in or, if the computer receives this setting from Group Policy, on the computer that enforces this policy using the Group Policy MMC snap-in.
3. Restart the computer.

System Preparation Tool

If you use the System Preparation Tool (Sysprep), you may receive a error with the code -2147024864. To avoid this, stop the Windows Media® sharing service with the command net stop wmpnetworksvc before you run the tool.

Upgrading

If you installed Windows Vista with the system locale set to one which uses a double-byte character set (such as Japanese, Chinese, or Korean) and the language set for the user interface is not the same as the system locale, upgrading to this release of Windows 7 will fail. However, the installation will roll back successfully.
To avoid this, set the user interface language to the same language as the system locale that was set when Windows Vista was installed.

Web browsers

If you have installed Windows Live Photo Gallery, when you click a hyperlink that leads to an audio or video file, Windows Media Player may not start and the browser may return an error.
To correct this, in the Programs control panel, click Turn Windows features on or off. In the Media Features section, clear the Windows Media Player check box, and then restart the computer. Repeat these steps, but this time, select the Windows Media Player check box.

Web Service Devices

If you have any Web Service on Devices (WSD)–based devices (such as a printer or scanner) that host their services at a URL that does not include a trailing slash (for example, http://hostname:3702), the device will not appear in the list of available devices on the network.
There is no workaround at this time.

Windows Aero

• If you resize the taskbar, some extra transparency may be visible on the screen. To fix this, move the taskbar to a different location.
• If you switch languages, the floating language bar may leave extra transparency in the frame. To avoid this, dock the language bar.

Windows Communication Foundation

If you run a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) application in Internet Information Services 7.5, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is not functional.
To avoid this, run the WCF service under the NETWORKSERVICE account.

Windows Media Center

• This issue affects Windows 7 Enterprise, , Windows 7 Professional, and Windows 7 Ultimate.
  
  If you accept the PlayReady license agreement during LiveTV setup, you may receive notice that an error occurred while downloading PlayReady. This is an intermittent failure. Try clicking the Back button to try the download again. The issue will resolve on its own.
• If you send content to a Media Center Extender using the PlayTo functionality in Windows Media Player, other content will not play through the Media Center interface. To play new content through Media Center, click the Stop button in Windows Media Player.
  
  If you allow the Media Center Extender Slide Show screensaver to run for a sufficiently long period, the computer may stop responding. To avoid this, turn off the Media Center Extender when you are not playing content through it. You can also disable the Slide Show Screensaver in the Media Center interface.
• Content in the MPEG format that has a high bit rate (such as Advanced Video Codec High Definition content from an HD camera or high-bit-rate content from DVD discs) may play back with glitches in the audio or video content. There is no workaround at this time.

Windows Search indexing

• If you use a computer that has Windows Search enabled (Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP with Windows Search installed) and have chosen a custom index location that has a path name longer than 128 characters, the indexer will not start after you have upgraded the computer to this release. Search functionality and some library views are affected.
  
  To avoid this, move the index to a different location that has a path name less than 128 characters long before you install this release as an upgrade.
  
  If this has already occurred, use the Restore Defaults button on the Advanced Options pane of the Indexing Options control panel to reset the indexer.
• If you enable the Prevent indexing of certain file types Group Policy and then use the Rebuild button in the Indexing Options control panel, the Windows Search Service will not be able to restart.