windows7_updated[1]I finally got my upgrade media from Dell, and gleefully popped it in to try to rid myself of Vista.  I’d held off on some of the “upgrades” to Vista, because I knew I’d be leaving for the new O/S before long, so I missed out on the wonders of IE 8, which caused so many problems on our XP box that we were forced to uninstall it.

At any rate, I put in the first DVD, which analyzed my system and told me to uninstall several incompatible drivers, and then I went into the upgrade proper.

I must say that the Windows 7 upgrade was the easiest O/S upgrade I’ve ever done.  Once it was fired up, everything “just worked” and the end result was a desktop that looks much like Vista, but with some UI changes that I like quite a bit.  They’ve changed the taskbar at the bottom, and segregated the tray icons into their own little fenced enclosure where they don’t disturb you unless you go looking for them.  The user experience seems clean and the system certainly boots more quickly.  User Account Control intervention seems to be reduced over what was required in Vista, which is also nice.

If you’re expecting Windows 7 to be a quantum leap over Vista, you’ll probably be disappointed.  But if what you want is a polishing and refinement of the Vista UI, and a streamlining of the Vista user experience, you’ll probably be pretty satisfied.  I am!