What's Up with Windows 7?

I've been using Windows 7 for several months through the beta and release candidate stages. I found ease of use is about the same as Vista/XP Tablet. The security features are less intrusive. Startup is a bit faster, shutdown is markedly faster and operating system speed overall seems faster. Stability has been good so far. Only in the earliest beta release did the system hang a couple of times. The integrated features for tablet PCs are excellent. Since I use a tablet laptop this was my main reason for upgrading from XP Tablet version. The upgrade from the release candidate to the full release was around $50 since I participated in testing.

If you have not upgraded/installed an OS on your own before, here are my recommendations:

• Make sure your computer meets the hardware recommendations for Windows 7 from Microsoft.
  
• Back up all of your files (Preferably twice on different media, such as inexpensive external hard drives, writable DVDs, flash drives, whatever method you prefer.)
  
• Do your upgrade on Saturday morning or some other downtime when you know you will not need your computer immediately in case you have problems and need to call tech support for help.
  
• Arrange access to a secondary computer if you use yours daily, again in case you need to call tech support. (Can you use a friend or relative's computer, or the public library's? Or one at your school?)
  
• Budget a few hours to spend babysitting the computer as Windows 7 installs and then downloading drivers, re-doing your settings, installing applications, etc.
  
• If you are a real geek, chuck Windows altogether and install Antix. Antix is a lightweight graphical version of Linux which takes only a tiny bit of hard drive space and runs well on old computers. I like it even better than Windows 7.