I have installed Windows 7 on “bare metal” on one of my machines. This was a laptop that I work with and it was a very easy install. First off, it was the quickest OS install that I have ever experienced. You can tell that Microsoft spent some significant time working on the performance and quality of the install and bravo to the team that worked on that feature!
I also used the 64-bit version of the operating system. More and more people are turning to 64-bit and it is really starting to be the time that we should only be installing this OS (even at home). I want to get 8GB of RAM in my home computer and the only means to do this is really to turn to 64-bit.
I have also installed the 64-bit Windows 7 on one of my work machines and I am using it for my day-to-day work now. So, my recommendation is this:
If you are going to install Vista with or without its service packs on one of your machines – you should install Windows 7 instead. It is *considerably* faster than Vista is and more stable. I have to say that I was a big negative voice out there for Vista. I needed to use it for real work and the performance of the OS, the strange behaviors it brought, and more – all of this would always just make me stop in my tracks and say – why am I working with this OS? I gave Vista about three tries before uninstalling it and going back to Windows XP. I am not the only one by the way.
But I have to say that Windows 7 is the Vista that should have been. It is what you are going to want in an OS. It is fast, has some great workflows, is sexy, and is a lot of fun to work with. So far, I am rather impressed. I am looking for some things that are going to stop me from ever using it – but there has been very little.
When I installed Windows 7, it immediately found all my drivers for the two computers that I installed it on. There wasn’t a single driver problem that I experienced with the install. This was very very nice.
I also installed this items and they worked just fine on Windows 7:
- Microsoft Office 2007
- Microsoft One Note 2007
- Microsoft Visio 2007
- Paint.NET
- Tortoise SVN 64-bit version
- Notepad++
- Window Live Writer (using it right now)
- Visual Studio 2008 SP1
- ReSharper 4
- FoxIt Reader
With that said, there were some things that didn’t install so well. One being some ISO reader software that I usually use to install things. I ended up finding PowerISO that seems to work and you can use it as a trial for a little bit to get your machine going at least.
Print | posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 9:41 AM