Got the nod from IT support to install Windows 7 on my work machine last week. When I got some time at the weekend, I did the upgrade from Vista. It did say that it could take several hours and it really wasn't kidding. Anyway, I've been using Windows 7 for about a week now and so far I feel my laptop is running for longer between charges and the hard drive isn't getting constantly hammered as it did under Vista. Another thing I'm pleased with is the time it takes to become usable after a cold start. Restoring from Sleep and Hibernate also seem quicker as does the shutdown. There really isn't anything more annoying or distracting than having to wait for your computer to do things - well there is, but I'm just talking about computers here.

So far, I'm liking Windows 7, but wait, this task bar is a bit different - is that good?

I'm actually excited about this latest version of Windows.

Why? Well, from what I've read about Windows 7, it should run quite happily on low powered devices such as MIDs, UMPCs Netbooks or older machines. It’s even been claimed that it will “out perform” Windows XP and Vista on everyday tasks.

At home, our machines are running Windows XP, which is fine but it’s getting old, and XP will soon be unsupported by Microsoft. Unfortunately, our machines aren't really up to running Vista, they don't have enough memory or processor power to make the experience pleasant and unobtrusive. There are some really good reasons (apparently) for moving over to Vista, but the cost associated with the extra hardware and the OS are too much to justify.

Windows 7 has a lot to prove, and if it makes the same impact on Users as Vista did, then even more people are going migrate over to the Mac.

I so hope Windows 7 gives us the “Wow” that Vista didn’t.

To find out first hand, I downloaded the latest public beta from Microsoft and installed it as a Virtual Machine. If you've tried running Vista as a Virtual Machine, you'll know how bad it is. My theory is, if Windows 7 runs well as a Virtual Machine, then it should run rather well native.

So far, Windows 7 seems to perform pretty well as a virtual machine, which is also impressive given that it's a beta. I'll be honest, I've not done much with it yet - time will tell.