Windows 7 Day is Finally Here

Time for to upgrade my 3 machines from Vista to Windows 7. I have never really had any issues with Vista, and I have come to believe that the problems individuals where having where associated with hardware/driver design. I think Microsoft did a really poor job educating its OEM partners or never brought them into the design cycle to build a coherent hardware and software ecosystem. I own three machines, all running Vista, a Lenovo X60 Tablet, a Dell XPS 720 H2C, and Sony VAIO P. The Lenovo works flawlessly, I only reboot it for updates. The Dell is very inconsistent, I can go for 7 days without a problem, then have multiple lockups in one day. The lockup issues seem to be related to USB devices and Bluetooth. The Sony is more stable than the Dell but I have had two serious driver issues which forced me to rebuild.

I plan on doing in place upgrades on all machines. Dell does not seem to support Windows 7 on the XPS 720, which is probably why this will be the last Dell I ever buy. I spent a lot of money on this machine and for them to stop supporting it barely two years after I purchased it is a crime. It looks like they are supporting the 730, which tells me that the 720 had design issues. That said the Microsoft Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor seems to think I will be fine. I agree, I don't think it will be worse than the lockups I currently encounter.

I will be buying upgrades from Microsoft for the Lenovo and the Dell, and I am waiting for Sony to deliver my free upgrade kit which has been approved but with no ship date.

My plan for the Lenovo and the Dell is the run the Microsoft Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, Backup using Acronis True Image Home, and follow the instructions the Upgrade Advisor generates.

I will post my experience on the process.