All around the world upgrades to Windows 7 have begun. With the release of Windows 7 RTM to the TechNet and MSDN this week I am sure we will be hearing all kinds of Windows 7 install stories in the interwebs. So since I got my copy installed today I thought I would throw my hat into the ring.

First I did a fresh install. I was running Vista Ultimate 64bit (I know, I know… laugh it up) and I was having all kinds of compatibility issues. I seemed to have random troubles with everything from sound cards to NIC card drivers. So an upgrade was not going to happen. A fresh install was in order (andI recommend that to everyone) so I would no inherit the mess I made trying to get everything working.

What was immediately noticeable was the time it took to install Windows 7 (about 40 minutes start to finish). Last time I installed Vista on my Dell Latitude 820 it was like a mini soap opera.  It took me a full day to get it installed and hunt down all the drivers and days later I was still trying to get stuff to work. Windows 7 installed very cleanly on my laptop and everything worked right out of the box. The only exception was the video driver, but soon as I connect to the Internet Windows 7 automatically found the drive and installed it. It really was that easy.

Being 64bit I am still fighting a driver issue with one of our Xerox printers at work and Cisco has not release a 64bit driver for their CUVA-V2 web cam (come one Cisco! Get with the program here…). But this is a far cry from where I was on my last Vista install when the NIC card did not work, the screen resolution looked like something from 1995, and the sound card refused to do anything but prompt for a driver cab file.

I have read that many people think this is just a polished Vista, and maybe they are right. However I can not help be to hope there is more going on under the hood here that just a few lines of optimized code. Windows 7 just feels faster than my last install and the applications seem to ‘pop’ a little more. Maybe I was just desperate to get off the Vista install I had before, but Windows 7 is looking pretty good right now.

Now I have everything loaded (Office, Java, Adobe Reader, and all the other fun stuff I need) and everything still feels very snappy. Of course I am still in the honeymoon phase with this install and I will have to see how everything is in a few months. Be sure to check back here to see what I think about Windows 7 in a  few months.

For everyone who does not have TechNet or MSDN the official consumer release date is  October 22nd.