I’m lucky enough to be able to access Windows 7 ahead of the main launch. This is a good thing since my company Alpha Technical Solutions is hosting one of the Windows 7 launch parties on October 22nd, this also meant with September drawing to close I’d better gen up on Windows 7.
So earlier on today I decided to upgrade my main workstation. Upgrade is a nice way of putting since I’d decided to go for the 64 bit version of Windows 7 and that most definitely means a clean install of Windows. So after making sure all my backups were in tip top condition and using Windows Easy Transfer to secure my settings I started to install Windows 7. It turned out that the installer is Microsoft’s best yet. Clean looking, nicely designed and very easy to use. The software went in an absolute charm. Before long I was rebooting into Windows 7. It looked nice, I picked a graphical theme and made sure that my documents were all being pointed to by documents and libraries (love libraries by the way – great way of organising files).
Next step – run some of the basic software installs. After all a clean install means all your applications have to be reinstalled. I always dread this bit – mostly as I use some pretty heavy weight programs and that always means reinstalling everything takes a while. It also means that I only put on what I really need. This is a good thing. Computers tend to get bunged up with clutter – so having to reinstall from scratch is always a good way of keeping things clean and fresh.
That’s my current state – everything essential is back working again, I’ve got a few more installs to go, but these can happen over the next few days quite safely. What’s pleased me is that upgrading to Windows 7 has been so far painless.
Oh and how does it run? One word – smooth.