At the weekend I installed my fresh copy of Windows 7 Pro. The install process was really quick once I’d sorted my hard drive out, probably 20-25 mins.
Startup takes approximately 1 minute 10 seconds and that’s with both Comodo Firewall and Avast! Anti Virus scanner installed! Also, that includes typing in my password! In terms of performance Windows 7 (64 bit) feels very zippy indeed. At last I’m using the 6GB of RAM in my machine!
First impressions are very good. I’m still getting used to the interface but I like the new taskbar and how you can snap windows so that they fill up half the screen etc.
The long slog of installing all my apps is still ongoing but I’m getting there…
I got mine from Amazon yesterday and did an in-place upgrade on my (2.5 year old) laptop running Vista SP2 (2GB RAM, 32-bit). The installation went pretty smoothly. With about 65GB of data, installation took a bit over 2 hours. Overall I didn’t find any major difference from Vista SP2. Tad bit slower boot-up time and haven’t noticed any real battery-life extension either. Still feels like Vista with a bit nicer taskbar. I’ve re-enabled the Quick Launch bar also. :p Pinning is nice, but takes up more room horizontally than the Quick Launch icons.
I’ll give it a few more days and see~ I don’t think I’ll upgrade to 64-bit soon. Probably on a newer computer.
What do you mean by ‘With about 65GB of data, installation took a bit over 2 hours’?
I’m always a bit wary of upgrading Windows but glad it went well for you.
I’m still not sure I like the clunky minimize, maximize, close buttons on Windows (Vista style). Yes, I thought the same about the task bar. I’m wondering whether to make it a two layer bar like I have it in XP though that would take up considerable space vertically. I like the desktop background themes rotating pictures – nice touch.
I should have mentioned that my boot up time having decreased will also be down to the faster hard drive I’m using.
I am also cautious of upgrades as the installer works so hard to keep your settings, it loses the cleanliness of the install.
My boot up times have also improved and I haven’t updated my hard disk.
I’d also be concerned about lots of files being left over from the previous OS.
That’s good – boot times are supposed to be better with Windows 7. Always a good thing.
Here’s a tip for shutting down quickly (if you used to hit Start U U in XP…)
http://blog.unlockforus.org/2009/07/keyboard-shortcut-to-shutdown-windows.html
65GB of data means 65GB of content on the Hard Drive (OS + Software, Music, etc.)
With an in-place upgrade, the more data you currently have the longer it will take longer to install the upgrade. I guess it has to move the data or something to a temp location and move them back after the install. But that took the most time of the installation process. Obviously if you do a clean install it wouldn’t take as long since it can just blast away everything easily.
I was weary of the in-place upgrade also and whether it would leave a lot of leftover Vista crap around. I did notice some additional hidden folders on the C: drive that amounts to almost a gig. I’m sure there are more hidden somewhere I wouldn’t know of. Surprisingly, the size of my drive did free up over 10GB after installing Windows 7, which was surprising to me as I do clean up temps/logs/crap fairly often. I think that’s because it also wiped away all the Windows Update uninstallation files and that Windows 7 was really a smaller OS than Vista.
I wanted to give this in-place upgrade a shot rather than a clean install since I don’t have much time to re-install all my stuff. I did make a backup image of my drive beforehand, of course. However, I am fairly satisfied with the in-place upgrade. I’m sure a clean install would achieve better results (I mean, even do so for a current OS, not an upgrade, would also, right?) So I plan to leave it as it is now.
And the in-place upgrade did migrate most of my Vista settings. I had a lot of unnecessary services disabled, startup items removed, lots of optimization stuff, etc. and upgrading to Windows 7 kept most of those settings.
65GB for all your files including the OS?! Do you backup videos and such to DVD or you just don’t keep many files lying around? I’m sure that after a while your hard drive will have a nice collection of Windows 7 updates archived off, though
It’s quite good that the upgrade kept most of your custom settings. I didn’t think it would be that powerful. It is certainly a pain installing all your applications again. In fact, I’m still doing that four days after the Windows install.
Yeah, only 65GB because it’s more of just a personal laptop for daily stuff. Most of the important stuff are only photos, music (not many though) and accounting stuff. I have another HTPC (WinXP) that I keep all my video files on. That one’s primarily for downloading stuff anytime and is hooked up to my TV.
Yeah, I was surprised at the upgrade keeping the settings. After a few days of use, Windows 7 does feel a bit zippier than Vista. Startup is a tad bit slower (maybe by about 20 seconds). I’m glad I can keep all my apps and settings and still have the similar Vista experience. I’ve personally never had any problems with Vista SP2 and was quite satisfied (I’m not a computer gamer so not really one with driver/graphic problems). Windows 7 kept the experience the same.
Well, have fun with the installs!