Windows 7 build 6519

Windows 7 build 6519 is a Milestone 1 build of Windows 7, which was uploaded to BetaArchive on 10 June 2008.

New features and changes

 * It is currently the earliest available build that removed Windows Sidebar, allowing for the gadgets to be placed freely on the desktop. However, the process of the gadgets is still named  and the entry in the Start menu is still named Sidebar.
 * On the watermark, "Windows (R) Code Name "Windows 7"" has been replaced with "Windows (R) 7".
 * The notification area has been updated on both the regular Taskbar and the Superbar, allowing the user to hide notification icons by dragging them to a separate pop-up window.
 * This build introduced transparency effects even if the window is maximized.
 * A new display dropdown menu has been introduced.
 * "XPS Viewer EP" and "TS Workspace" have been added.
 * The "How to Share Feedback" program located as a link on the desktop has been revamped and renamed to "Feedback Button" including a new Longhorn-like icon.
 * Updated the boot screen to a Vista-style aurora. Notably, thanks to enhancements in the boot-time video driver, it has a much higher color depth and screen resolution (1024×768) than the previous one.
 * This is the earliest known build to create a "System Reserved" partition, which is used to store the Windows Boot Manager, its boot configuration data (BCD) file, and Windows Recovery Environment. In this build, it is 500MB compared to the 100MB of later builds (and is something that persists up to the latest Windows 10 and Windows 11 builds).
 * Extended the Windows 7 references into more areas of the operating system like the login screen and the About Windows applet, as they were only present as installation identifiers on the boot manager and Recovery Environment in build 6469.
 * The banner design in the About Windows applet has been overhauled in this build to look more modern, replacing the old banner design that had been in use since Windows 2000.
 * This is the earliest available build to remove the information of the system's RAM on the About Windows applet, which had been present since Windows 1.0.
 * This is the last build to have Windows Security Center. Starting with build 6568, it replaces with Windows Health (which would become Action Center in later builds).
 * This build introduces a feature internally known as “drift correction”, which resolves issues related to CPU clock circuit timing that can potentially prevent services from starting up correctly. Clock drift/timing issues plague Windows Vista on Haswell and newer processors from Intel, where the OS will often not boot up successfully or boot up with many services having failed to start due to drift. Hobbyists are figuring out how to port this feature to Windows Vista to resolve this problem.
 * There is a new On-Screen Keyboard hidden in this build, to open it run.
 * As of 2022, this is the earliest build of Windows to include the Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool, commonly known as DISM.

Setup/OOBE

 * OOBE now has a page for setting up a HomeGroup. This is the earliest available build to have this feature.
 * Setup no longer disables an upgrade, but it will show the reason in the Compatibility Report after this option has been selected. At this point, the user is not able to go back to the previous page and it only can exit setup. This only affects setup started from Windows.
 * The second stage of setup has been completely overhauled, as it only displays a cursor animation and the message that the computer is being set up. This was something that did not ship with the final build and did not come back until Windows 8.
 * The System Assessment now runs before the OOBE starts, and it hides itself under the aforementioned message. This is very similar to what is seen in some early pre-RC 1 builds of Windows Vista, where System Assessment was also made before the OOBE.

Superbar
To enable the Superbar, open the Registry editor, go to, create a DWORD value called  , and set its value to.

Control Panel

 * The main gradient on the left pane has been changed from the green one used in Vista to a bluish one with a different aurora style. Some applets, however, such as Backup and Restore, Windows Update, or Performance Information and Tools, still use the older design.
 * The User Accounts category has been renamed to "User Accounts and Family Safety".
 * Device Center has been added, which would become Devices and Printers in the RTM. Despite the breadcrumbs bar indicating that it is under the Hardware and Sound category when launched from the app's search, the link to it hasn't been added yet, and All Control Panel Items is needed to locate it. Due to its earliness, many devices have blank icons and their properties can't be accessed. In addition, the "Add Loosely Coupled Device" and "Bluetooth Radio" links in the toolbar don't work.
 * Recovery Center has been added, which would be bundled into Action Center in later builds. As with Device Center, it is not present under any category yet and All Control Panel Items is needed to launch it. It contains basic options for device recovery, such as using System Restore or resetting the PC to factory defaults or through a Complete PC Backup.
 * Windows Sensors, which has the same functionality as the Windows SideShow applet from Vista, has been added.
 * Display Settings have been moved to their own "Display" page under Appearance and Personalization, rather than being under the applet in Personalization. When the page is first launched, it provides default scaling options, while screen resolution and custom scaling types still use the previous dialogs.

Installation

 * When installing this build on modern hardware with USB, you must disable USB 3.0 (xHCI) in the BIOS, even if RTM Windows Vista installs fine with it enabled and the drive plugged into the 2.0 ports, as the installer will show an error message that Windows cannot read files.
 * On lower resolutions, the  string gets cut off and reads.
 * When setup is about to restart, the text for the 10 second countdown overlaps.

General

 * There is a small graphical quirk with the "Run as Administrator" shield (next to application icons) that appears dithered.