Thanks, Microsoft!

  This is a bit off topic, so bear with me. I upgraded my Windows Vista laptop to Windows 7 a couple of weeks ago. This is an important machine to me. I do most of my blogging, and reviewing on it. It’s a dual-boot (using WUBI), which loads through the Windows boot manager, and I was worried about screwing up my boot sequence and losing my Ubuntu configuration along with hosing Vista. The machine ran like a pig under Vista (boot times of several minutes were not uncommon), and I found myself using Linux more and more (check out my Linux netbook upgrade experience to 9.10 here). That all changed with Windows 7…

 I know, that’s not Windows 7, but I couldn’t resist posting something remotely about WinMo (this is smartphonemag after all). I took this screenshot using MyMobiler running on Win 7…does that count? It includes a Win 7-like theme…okay kinda lame…

Truth is I already knew Windows 7 was better, because I have been running it at work for months, but those cases were fresh installs. I was skeptical about doing an actual upgrade from Vista, especially after all the tweaking I have done to my laptop. It’s a Gateway machine I bought second-hand from a co-worker (1.6GHz Pentium with 1GB ram), but it has proven to be reliable. I didn’t want to think about having to go back and do a clean install from scratch. The Windows 7 installer does a good job of informing you of what is required during each step of the process. I was honestly not prepared for the enormous jump in performance my laptop was about to receive… Here is how it all started.

Voice in my head: Uhh, you got this upgrade to Win 7 Home Premium for $50 like a month ago…you gonna do anything with it or what?

Response to voice: I don’t know…I’m kinda scared of screwing up my computer.

Voice: Do it, you sissy…aren’t you supposed to be some kind of fancy computer/gadget guy that blogs and stuff?

Response:  Uhh, well uh, I don’t…stop intimidating me!

Voice: DO IT NOW! No, don’t back anything up… Be a man, for crying out loud! Stick that install disk in there! Here, let me do it, ya moron!

Response: Ok…[whimpers]!

Don’t tell me you’ve never wanted to just jam in the install disk and hope for the best? Anyway, I did resist the dark side and did the right thing by backing stuff up. The steps to upgrade to Win 7 nirvana follow.

Step 1. Backup first: You must back up your personal files and folders (at the very least) when doing an upgrade. Whether it’s my iPod firmware or my home router, I always do a backup. There is no way to know exactly what might get slammed, so if in doubt, back it up. The best backups are actual full level 0 disk dumps or copies of the system drive (to another media/drive), but that might be a little extreme for most users. I tend to use a large external hard drive for all my data/files. I even make programs like iTunes and WMP point to directories on the external drive. This way, it’s easy to get to my data on another computer (without messing with an internal drive). I also own a Lantec Nexstar external drive dock (see above) so I can easily mount internal SATA drives as well if needed. I use One Care backup to save my docs, settings, etc. It’s not that great, but it will do the basics (and it was like $9). Another good tip is to go grab a freebie called EasyBCD, that will let you back up your boot files. I also copied off all the various system files in C:\ into a directory on my external HD.

Step 2. Defrag and clean-up: If you do a clean install, this is probably a step you don’t much need to worry about, since you will likely format a new partition. I wanted the upgrade to be as smooth as possible, so I went ahead and un-installed, and deleted everything I didn’t need or want anymore (and finalized that with a recycle bin flush). This meant lot’s of reboots under Vista (agony), and patience… I then performed a defrag that took about 3 hours to complete. I finally went to bed and decided the upgrade could wait until the next day.

Step 3. Run the Checker: The first option the upgrader gives when the splash comes up is to run the upgrade compatibility checker. It is recommended for you to download and install the Upgrade advisor to check that your rig can run Win7, etc. I ran it, and it gave me the all clear, but it might alert you to problems, so it is a good idea to do it before trying to upgrade.

Step 4. Disable Anti-Virus: Whatever kind of A/V you are running, it is not going to like an external program (even one from MS) trying to copy and write over important and protected system files.

Step 5. Try to run the install (Install now): If like me, you think you are actually ready to run the installer at this point, uh, then you would also be wrong. The installer will probably catch a few more “clean-up” and rebootable tweaks for you to work on in the next screens. In my case, One Care is not even supported in Win 7, and had to be removed (no biggie, Avast is better anyway).

Other notable pre-upgrade tweaks: the suggestion to “Deauthorize” your computer in iTunes (under the Store menu item…see above), and then Authorize it afterward; Mobile Device Center in Vista also had to be removed. I completed all of these recommendations before upgrading, and had no issues…hint, hint. Meaning, they may not stop you from upgrading, or even all be required but they worked in my case.

Step 6. Try again to run the upgrade using the Install now link. This time you should be able to get it to start prepping and copying Win 7. Be patient… It took me 2-3 hours to get through the whole thing, and then still a few more reboots and config items were in order. I went to the gym and worked out, came back and it was still grinding along.

The Difference

Well, the difference over Vista is frankly astounding. My system boots in under a minute now. The defrags, junk cleanup and uninstall of sluggards like One Care probably helped a lot, but I was truly amazed when the splash popped up the first time. The major programs all seem to work and are snappy. iTunes is much better (though still not great..several seconds to start). I don’t use MS Office, but Softmaker’s Office suite runs just fine under W7. All my mobile-related apps (like MyMobiler) were preserved without a hitch. The coolest thing about Win 7 is the taskbar. You can preview and switch between apps or stacks of apps by hovering over objects there. The productivity added is incalculable.

At work, I pin programs like “mstsc /admin” (terminal services) to the taskbar, and recent selections are shown when right-selecting the menu list and can also be pinned (i.e. for a quick connection to my netbook or my basement computer). Live Writer shows recent posts when right-selecting. Pretty cool when combined with the hover and gesture-based advances added in Win7. The maximize behavior can be a little annoying when you aren’t used to it. Just dragging a window too close to the screen top can result in it expanding to full size if released (a transparent background window will warn you first).

Thanks, Microsoft!

So, what happened? Why did my laptop suddenly become so much more usable because of a simple upgrade? I read all the media and tech-rags out there, and at most they said there might be only a modest boost in performance, and in fact in some cases reported Vista ran faster!? I upgraded my Ubuntu netbook (dual-boot with XP), and 9.10 slowed it down considerably. This is like the bizzaro reverse of the upgrades or something!? Well, truth to tell, I don’t run many high-powered apps to start with, and I keep my machine free of junk for the most part. Removing One Care seems to have helped a lot.

The only 3D graphics requirement I have is Scorched3D (which would occasionally crash on Vista). It seems to work great on 7. SO, to be fair, I’m not really pushing either system, but frankly I couldn’t push Vista as it was already pegged at startup. Whatever the reason, I just have to express a very heartfelt, “thanks, Microsoft!” Thanks for giving me my computer back for just 50 bucks extra (though you sort of took it away with Vista)! But nevermind… That is still awesome, IMO!