I’ve been using Windows 7 beta in my laptop since it came out and I couldn’t been happier with it. Windows 7 RC is available now for MSDN subscribers so I’m going to do a fresh install despite that it means I’ll have to reinstall all my software.

I decided to log how much time I spent rebuilding my laptop from no operating system to a ready-to-work system:

• Install Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (26 minutes)
• Activate Aero (30 seconds)
• Join and create an initial backup in my WHS (45 minutes)
• Install Firefox (2 minutes)
• Install Visual Studio 2008 (12 minutes)
• Install Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (10 minutes)
• Install several Visual Studio Add-ins (5 minutes)
• Install subversion / tortoiseSVN (5 minutes)
• Install third-party development components (10 minutes)
• Install other general utilities (10 minutes)

Total time: ~ 2 hours

Laptop specifications

Dell M65 – Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz, 2GB RAM, 320 GB 7200rpm

Windows 7 install experience

Just great! Quick and easy. I didn’t need to install additional drivers. The nVIDIA drivers was detected by Windows Update and downloaded in no time. I had to manually enable Aero but it was easier than expected. I just pressed the Windows key and typed activate aero. The entry Enable or disable transparent glass on Windows appeared and I just clicked on it. Fixed in seconds.

Additional notes

The initial backup took that long because I backed up another partition with Windows XP by mistake.

I only installed C# components in Visual Studio.

For your information, Windows 7 Release Candidate expires on March 2010.