Migrating from Windows Vista to Windows 7

Last week, I stepped forward and volunteered my company-issued laptop to be one of the first end-users to migrate from Windows Vista to Windows 7. Call it an affinity of mine towards new things....

Now, being a laptop for corporate use, I used to have Windows Vista Business running, not the typical home edition. Naturally, the next version in line for us would be the Windows 7 Enterprise edition. I've used both home user versions of both Vista and 7, there's little difference for a casual user to be worried about.

Another reason that I volunteered to change my OS so soon was to hopefully rid myself of the dreadful BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death), that has visited me a countless number of times during my 2+ years running Vista. Now, the actual root cause could either come from a conflict between software, or a hardware defect (probably a RAM module). They never did come back to me with a conclusive answer.

Well, due to the "by-the-book" installation procedure, my OS was wiped out and replaced in a mere 2 days. Could have had it done in 1, if it weren't for a minor partition oversight. As this was a completely new install, not an upgrade, this meant that all of my software had to be reinstalled following the completion of the Windows 7 migration. Due to lack of time (by then it was a Friday), my IT had managed to reinstall almost all critical software, with some exceptions left over for this week. My statistical software being one of them....

Now, having used practically every version of Windows since it's introduction, I can say that the change from Vista to 7 is rather incremental rather than the quantum leap from, say, Windows 3.1 to Windows 95. If you're already used to Windows Vista (or even 95), getting the hang of Windows 7 would be quite easy and intuitive.

When I first got my laptop back, I found to my dismay that I was unable to activate my VGA-out port to route the display to my external monitor, though the USB mouse and keyboard that were connected using the monitor as a hub worked fine. This being due to the generic display card driver that was on by default. Surfing to www.dell.com.my, I found that Dell does not yet have any Windows 7 drivers for my laptop. So, I tried installing the Nvidia reference driver instead. Fortunately, this worked, and so now, I have my display working back like it was before! :)

Speaking of updates, upon installation of the new OS, immediately there were around 30 updates to be installed before anything else. Hmm, so soon? I guess software is the only product in the world that requires updating the moment you install it, as you continue to use it, and even at the end-of-life, may continue to warrant updates. Luckily cars are not like that...!

Performance-wise, it's hard to draw comparisons, since for meager, everyday tasks, like writing e-mails and reports, spreadsheets, and so, the speed of which things happen would be more dependent on available memory and network connection speed rather than the OS or even processor speed (my trusty old dual core CPU from 2+ years ago appears to be doing fine).

The new GUI / Aero desktop was running once I installed my new display drivers. Most features of the old Vista Aero desktop were there, save more of the "transparent" effects which made switching between open windows much easier. There is a feature called Aero Peek, which allows you to view a thumbnail of all windows in a program group once you hover the mouse over the icon on the taskbar. Unfortunately, I found that it works with all my programs, except MS Excel. MS Word and Powerpoint work, but not Excel. Don't know why, but doesn't seem life threatening enough to approach Microsoft for an explanation. Maybe they will release a patch or update for this someday.

Aero Peek with MS Word - now you see it....

Aero Peek with MS Excel - now you don't!

Well, with most of my software installed, there should be no impact to productivity (as opposed to the last time when I "upgraded" my MS Office suite from 2003 to 2007 and find to this day that I am losing precious time looking for buttons and functions that were so easily accessible before). I hope that Microsoft does not have any nasty surprises in store for me, as I will be using this OS daily in my work until the next one come along, or until I leave the company, depending which comes first....