Noobie: Now 100% Vista Free
Over the weekend I upgraded my laptop from Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium. It was the only laptop I owned that had any flavor of Vista on it--mainly because it would be rather embarrassing to tell a client who has hired me to help learn Windows Vista that I have never used it before.
So now I am 100% Vista free.
Why did I upgrade? Some of you may remember that I didn't make too big of a deal of Windows 7 the first time I saw it back in November. But that was more of a first impression. Since that time, I've used several computers with Windows 7 including my own brand new desktop computer running Windows 7. And I've really grown to like Windows 7.
Why upgrade?
The only real debate I had with my laptop was whether I should sell it and purchase a new laptop with Windows 7 pre-installed or just purchase the Windows 7 upgrade. Based on the cost ($800 - $1,000 for a new laptop, $110 for the upgrade), I decided to stick with the upgrade.
I was amazed at how simple the upgrade was. It was just a matter of inserting the upgrade disc and letting it run for about 60-90 minutes (I lost track).
Of course, before I did this I did take Microsoft's recommendation and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. My laptop passed all of the tests but the advisor did recommend I uninstall iTunes and re-install it after the upgrade. No big deal and uninstalling iTunes doesn't remove your music collection so all was good.
What are your thoughts on Windows 7? Have you upgraded your computer to Windows 7? If so, leave a comment and tell me about your experience.
3 comments for this blog post so far...
January 19, 2010 at 10:08 am
asudduth
re: iTunes. Did you “de-activate” your computer first? (not sure uninstalling does this) - this is the real issue… unless you deactive from within iTunes the upgraded computer looks like a new computer and counts as one of the 5 machines you can have purchased songs on.
Also, as a note on the time… Upgrades from Vista to Win7 do take between 1-3 hours (depends on many things, including how big your user profile is) but a clean install of Win7 takes 15-20 minutes.
Lastly on an upgrade keep in mind if you have 64-bit Vista you must update to the 64-bit version. Likewise if you have 32-bit vista you need to upgrade to 32-bit Win7. (Although if you wanted to go from 32 to 64 you could do a migration)—for simplicity when I upgraded my wife’s laptop, I stayed with 32-bit.
January 19, 2010 at 10:47 am
Patric Welch
@asudduth - Glad you mentioned the 32-bit vs 64-bit. I neglected to mention in my blog post that the upgrade comes with both. Like you, I chose to stick with the 32-bit version on upgrade.
January 26, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Laurie @ Bigpacificmedia.com
I loathe Vista so much I am sorely tempted to get a Mac - except for the fact that the MacBook Pros are so expensive! I figure if I get a Mac I’ll get the desktop version with the serious screen real estate.
That leaves me with upgrading Windows to 7. I have a question though. I currently have three networked machines: my toshiba laptop with Vista, and two desktops with Windows XP, which I still really like.
If I upgrade only the laptop to Windows 7, what’s going to happen with my software and applications across the three machines? I’m running MSOffice 2003 and Adobe CS3 and I’m concerned I’ll pull the proverbial thread in the sweater and lose a day to system upgrades… and I just don’t have a day to spare.
Anyone have experience with hybrid software across a network?
Laurie
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