How my Windows 7 installation went

Geoff Rasmussen

22 Oct 2009

As you know, I've been pretty excited to install Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 7. It was released today. Early this morning I checked out different software store's websites to see if they had any great specials. To my surprise, many of the stores said the software was already out of stock. I quickly got in my car and headed for the stores.

Well, all of the stores I tried didn't open for another 1 1/2 hours. I guess stores aren't usually open at 6:30am, but I thought I might get lucky. When I returned home, I did one final inventory of my software and files on my Windows XP computer, just to make sure that I had backed everything up properly.

By 8:20am, I was back at the mall where I easily located a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate edition. No lines. No hassle. No problem.

At 8:52am I inserted the Windows 7 CD. The computer restarted a few times, asked me a few questions (like what is my time zone, etc.), and by 10:02 it had restarted for the final time and was ready to use.

The hardest part of the entire process was locating my Windows 7 product key. I finally found it after removing all the literature in the CD case. It was glued to the back of the inside cover.

First impressions

So far so good….I was actually quite impressed that Windows detected that I had two monitors hooked up. I didn't have to install the video card drivers like I usually do. The interface is clean and modern. Some will say it looks a lot more like a Mac now. I was also impressed that it didn't come with a bunch of "bloat-ware", or pre-installed software that I usually just go into the Control Panel and remove before I do anything else.

So what's next?

The first thing I did was install my anti-virus software – don't ever "leave home" / use your computer without it.

The next thing I did was write this article. 🙂

The next thing I will do is reinstall Legacy 7.0, my email/calendar software, and my photo organizer/editor.

Since most of my documents (pictures, letters, etc.) are on my second hard drive, I won't need to spend any additional time restoring them. I'm glad I have that second hard drive – sure saved me a lot of time.

I'd better be going now. I've got to get things back to normal as soon as I can so I can get back to finding more ancestors. I'm sure you understand. 🙂

What are your impressions?

Let us and others know how it went for you by commenting below.

Comments (15)

I had a potential problems list created by Legacy 7. I find most of the probles are the birth order. I think Legacy should add an automatic sort by birth date.
The current method of moving the birth order up and down is useful if the birth dates are not known, but we know for certain the birht order of the profiles. This will reduce teh potential problems to ony those that are serious and needs looking into

I have a suggestion for you folks who keep the family fine in the data folder in drive C. It will be better if you create another partition or better still an external hard drive. maintain a back up of the data folder in the second partition or on the external hard drive. Make sure you back up the family data everytime you add, delete or edit a profile.

Question…Any OS techies out there….
What version(s) of Win 7 Ultimate version on my laptop (my preferred for I am the more techie in the family though not an OS techy) whould I get? There is the Full (more expensive) or the upgrade one.
I have the 64 bit Vista Home premium currently on my laptop and I see that there are 2 versions of Win 7 Ultimate out there. What is the difference? Is the upgrade only for the newer manufactured computers? Or would I have to have had Vista Ultimate to upgrade to the other is an XP and I plan in the future to just upgrade my desktop to Win 7 Home prem. Kind of the same question there.

My installation of Widows 7 went smoothly also. It found three programs that were not campatible. With one program, which I don’t used anyway, I checked the box not to show the message again. I coudn’t find the file to delete it and I decided not to fight with it. The others I deleted. I am very happy with Windows 7 and the computer is working much faster than with Vista.

I’ll wait till all the service packs are ready, thank you… sometime after MS stops support for XP. Sorry, but experience has made me leery of any 1st editions.
PS! I love Legacy.

I have had no problems with Legacy 7 platinum running on 5 machines on my network already loaded with Windows7 Ultimate X64 edition for the last 6 months. I would have no hesitations recommending Windows 7 to anyone. As a system builder and Network Engineer I have in the past been wary of loading newly released Windows Operating Systems on the many systems I have built over the years often opting to wait until the first SP is released but with Windows 7 I am not having the faintest qualms of building my new systems loaded with Windows 7 of whatever persuasion customers ask for. I am working my Legacy with a 3oo,ooo plus name database without a single hiccup in the last 6 months as Windows 7 in most cases is fully backward compatible even with some of the 16 bit dinosaurs still lurking arou

I recently had to replace a laptop that “semi-crashed” on me. I was able (actually it was Geek Squad that did the work) salvage my hard drive. I haven’t gotten my “back-up” that Geek Squad did – hopefully, this week-end … then I can get back to working on my family history. Don’t say anything … I know … I should have backed it up.
The new computer/laptop I purchased came with Windows 7 – I LOVE IT!!!! Apparently, from what I understand, this programme is what Vista was supposed to be … not sure how correct that is.
Aside from the new laptop – I also invested in a 320GB external hard drive – it’s up and running (automatic back-ups) … never again will I go through what I went through last week.
Again … Windows 7 is “da bomb”!

What has been amazing to me is Win 7 installed with ease (I upgraded). Everything was intact. I also upgraded to MS Word 2007 Home and Student Edition. What a dream. If one can get over the newer interface in Word they will love it. Makes working much easier that the old versions. Too bad I have already retired. Could have used the document sharing features a lot.
The best part of all the changes is you don’t really notice them. Things seem to run smoother. Still have to get rid of the permission stuff then it will be perfect.

Then from this comment, I presume Legacy is compatible with the new OS, but to rubbish Vista the way I’ve seen/heard is totally beyond my comprehension! I’ve been using both Home Premium and Business versions of Vista [two computers] since mid 2006 and not had a sceric of trouble at all, but will still upgrade to the new OS – if it’s as good as it’s ‘cracked up to be’! Trouble with Microsoft is that the first release always seems to still hold a bug or two – no? So for this reason, I won’t be in a rush!

I got my copy on the 21st, thanks to good relations with a store owner. 🙂 I chose Windows Pro, as I don’t think I need the extra “stuff” – I can always upgrade later if I change my mind.
I had been running RC1 (the release candidate) and rather than erase it as I’m supposed to, I found a trick on Google. I put the DVD onto the computer, where I had some space, editted one word in one file and started the install. It took about an hour and a half (4 500 gig drives and a 1 Terabyte drive!), restarted 3 times during that, and on the fourth restart it was up and ready. I had to reinstall the antivirus and firewall (Comodo), and everything else was perfect.
I’ve been very pleased with it – it’s a big improvement over XP, and also over Vista. It’s even a bit better than the RC1 was!
Cheers!

Hi I also pre-ordered Legacy 7 and after backing up current data to D drive I proceeded to do a clean install which took only 30 minutes. My legacy folders were showing in C drive along with a Folder Windows.old. On opening the legacy folders I proceeded to install Legacy by clicking on the Legacy 7 setup. I repeated this for Beta and Chart Beta. All Legacy prog’s opened OK.

Makes me glad that I pre-ordered it. My copy arrived on the 21st and by the official release time I had it installed on a new drive in time to watch people queueing outside PCWorld at midnight:)

Hey Jeff, yes, that’s how long it took. I noticed later that after installing Windows 7 it didn’t remove any of my files, just my programs. To successfully install Legacy 7, I had to first delete the “C:\Legacy” folder (being careful not to delete its Data folder, because that’s where my family file resides). Then installation and Legacy 7 worked just fine.

Glad you had a good go of it. I will be installing 7 on my wife’s laptop once it gets here (she gets the free upgrade). We will see if I choose to upgrade the other computer with it, but for this system, I will be migrating to Linux once I am retired from the Navy in the next few months and don’t have a need for a card reader with Windows only software. Everything else I do I can migrate over, with the exception of a few programs, this being one of them. I will be experimenting with using Wine and Mono to try to run this program or I may have to migrate it over to the other computer we have which I will maintain windows on. Anyone else migrate Legacy over to Linux?

Do I read correctly it took an hour and ten minutes to install?? Let us know how Legacy 7 installation went. Any problems? Thank you.

GR
George Rego

15 years ago

I had a potential problems list created by Legacy 7. I find most of the probles are the birth order. I think Legacy should add an automatic sort by birth date.
The current method of moving the birth order up and down is useful if the birth dates are not known, but we know for certain the birht order of the profiles. This will reduce teh potential problems to ony those that are serious and needs looking into
GR
George Rego

15 years ago

I have a suggestion for you folks who keep the family fine in the data folder in drive C. It will be better if you create another partition or better still an external hard drive. maintain a back up of the data folder in the second partition or on the external hard drive. Make sure you back up the family data everytime you add, delete or edit a profile.
EK
Elizabeth Korf

15 years ago

Question…Any OS techies out there….
What version(s) of Win 7 Ultimate version on my laptop (my preferred for I am the more techie in the family though not an OS techy) whould I get? There is the Full (more expensive) or the upgrade one.
I have the 64 bit Vista Home premium currently on my laptop and I see that there are 2 versions of Win 7 Ultimate out there. What is the difference? Is the upgrade only for the newer manufactured computers? Or would I have to have had Vista Ultimate to upgrade to the other is an XP and I plan in the future to just upgrade my desktop to Win 7 Home prem. Kind of the same question there.
JH
John Hasha

15 years ago

My installation of Widows 7 went smoothly also. It found three programs that were not campatible. With one program, which I don’t used anyway, I checked the box not to show the message again. I coudn’t find the file to delete it and I decided not to fight with it. The others I deleted. I am very happy with Windows 7 and the computer is working much faster than with Vista.
L
Lynette

15 years ago

I’ll wait till all the service packs are ready, thank you… sometime after MS stops support for XP. Sorry, but experience has made me leery of any 1st editions.
PS! I love Legacy.
LS
Leigh Stebbins

15 years ago

I have had no problems with Legacy 7 platinum running on 5 machines on my network already loaded with Windows7 Ultimate X64 edition for the last 6 months. I would have no hesitations recommending Windows 7 to anyone. As a system builder and Network Engineer I have in the past been wary of loading newly released Windows Operating Systems on the many systems I have built over the years often opting to wait until the first SP is released but with Windows 7 I am not having the faintest qualms of building my new systems loaded with Windows 7 of whatever persuasion customers ask for. I am working my Legacy with a 3oo,ooo plus name database without a single hiccup in the last 6 months as Windows 7 in most cases is fully backward compatible even with some of the 16 bit dinosaurs still lurking arou
PT
Pami Taylor

15 years ago

I recently had to replace a laptop that “semi-crashed” on me. I was able (actually it was Geek Squad that did the work) salvage my hard drive. I haven’t gotten my “back-up” that Geek Squad did – hopefully, this week-end … then I can get back to working on my family history. Don’t say anything … I know … I should have backed it up.
The new computer/laptop I purchased came with Windows 7 – I LOVE IT!!!! Apparently, from what I understand, this programme is what Vista was supposed to be … not sure how correct that is.
Aside from the new laptop – I also invested in a 320GB external hard drive – it’s up and running (automatic back-ups) … never again will I go through what I went through last week.
Again … Windows 7 is “da bomb”!
BY
Barb Y.

15 years ago

What has been amazing to me is Win 7 installed with ease (I upgraded). Everything was intact. I also upgraded to MS Word 2007 Home and Student Edition. What a dream. If one can get over the newer interface in Word they will love it. Makes working much easier that the old versions. Too bad I have already retired. Could have used the document sharing features a lot.
The best part of all the changes is you don’t really notice them. Things seem to run smoother. Still have to get rid of the permission stuff then it will be perfect.
RR
Rob Rattray

15 years ago

Then from this comment, I presume Legacy is compatible with the new OS, but to rubbish Vista the way I’ve seen/heard is totally beyond my comprehension! I’ve been using both Home Premium and Business versions of Vista [two computers] since mid 2006 and not had a sceric of trouble at all, but will still upgrade to the new OS – if it’s as good as it’s ‘cracked up to be’! Trouble with Microsoft is that the first release always seems to still hold a bug or two – no? So for this reason, I won’t be in a rush!
A
Anonymous

15 years ago

I got my copy on the 21st, thanks to good relations with a store owner. 🙂 I chose Windows Pro, as I don’t think I need the extra “stuff” – I can always upgrade later if I change my mind.
I had been running RC1 (the release candidate) and rather than erase it as I’m supposed to, I found a trick on Google. I put the DVD onto the computer, where I had some space, editted one word in one file and started the install. It took about an hour and a half (4 500 gig drives and a 1 Terabyte drive!), restarted 3 times during that, and on the fourth restart it was up and ready. I had to reinstall the antivirus and firewall (Comodo), and everything else was perfect.
I’ve been very pleased with it – it’s a big improvement over XP, and also over Vista. It’s even a bit better than the RC1 was!
Cheers!
BC
Brendan Caley

15 years ago

Hi I also pre-ordered Legacy 7 and after backing up current data to D drive I proceeded to do a clean install which took only 30 minutes. My legacy folders were showing in C drive along with a Folder Windows.old. On opening the legacy folders I proceeded to install Legacy by clicking on the Legacy 7 setup. I repeated this for Beta and Chart Beta. All Legacy prog’s opened OK.
JC
J Chapman

15 years ago

Makes me glad that I pre-ordered it. My copy arrived on the 21st and by the official release time I had it installed on a new drive in time to watch people queueing outside PCWorld at midnight:)
GR
Geoff Rasmussen

15 years ago

Hey Jeff, yes, that’s how long it took. I noticed later that after installing Windows 7 it didn’t remove any of my files, just my programs. To successfully install Legacy 7, I had to first delete the “C:\Legacy” folder (being careful not to delete its Data folder, because that’s where my family file resides). Then installation and Legacy 7 worked just fine.
SD
Stephen Doerk

15 years ago

Glad you had a good go of it. I will be installing 7 on my wife’s laptop once it gets here (she gets the free upgrade). We will see if I choose to upgrade the other computer with it, but for this system, I will be migrating to Linux once I am retired from the Navy in the next few months and don’t have a need for a card reader with Windows only software. Everything else I do I can migrate over, with the exception of a few programs, this being one of them. I will be experimenting with using Wine and Mono to try to run this program or I may have to migrate it over to the other computer we have which I will maintain windows on. Anyone else migrate Legacy over to Linux?
JV
Jeffrey Vaillant

15 years ago

Do I read correctly it took an hour and ten minutes to install?? Let us know how Legacy 7 installation went. Any problems? Thank you.