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.
 * 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 when a window is maximized.
 * A new display dropdown menu is introduced.
 * Updated the boot screen to a Vista-style aurora.
 * 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 build).
 * Extended the Windows 7 references into more areas of the operating system, as they were only present as installation identifiers on the boot manager and Recovery Environment in build 6469.
 * 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.

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.