I’m normally extremely skeptical about installing Windows Beta’s. The last beta version of Windows I installed was Windows 2000, and BSOD’s were the order of the day. The hype machine has been working overtime the last few weeks with everyone singing Windows 7’s praises. It’s faster, it’s stable, it’s what Windows Vista should have been.

It’s that promise that got me thinking about trying it out. Sometimes it seems that I’m the only person who actually likes Vista. When Vista first came out, and I tried it out on a test machine it was a complete mess. Devices didn’t work (most notably 3G data cards), it was slow compared to a XP install, and I basically wrote it off. Customers would ask me whether they should upgrade, and the answer was always ‘Wait for service pack 1’.

This wasn’t all Microsoft’s fault though. The hardware vendors really dragged their feet to release drivers, Software vendors dragged their feet to make their software compatible, and users basically just got frustrated with the whole mess.

But, Microsoft obviously had a vision. They knew they needed to make fundamental architectural changes to their operating system, and as with any big change to a complex piece of software, they knew there would be teething problems. I don’t think they were fully prepared for the Internet Hate Machine though.

It’s been 2 years since Vista’s release, and fortunately most (if not all) of those issues are gone, and Vista runs as it should. Hardware and Software vendors have caught up, and things are as they should be. I finally took the plunge and installed it on my work machine just after the release of Service Pack 1, and I’m pleased to say I have had no problems. It does what an operating system should do. It allows me to get my work done without crashing and causing problems.

So, I decided to give Windows 7 a try – on my work machine, making it my primary operating system. Yes, extremely dangerous. I can’t really afford to be without my PC, so I hoped that nothing catastrophic would happen. Just in case, I backed up all my data, and proceeded to download the Beta, burned it to a disk, closed my eyes and clicked the install button.

Disturbing visions of spending my evening reinstalling Vista and getting it back to the way I like it flashed before my eyes. I clicked the upgrade button, said a little prayer, and went to do something that would keep my mind of the impending doom I expected. A little over an hour later, I came back to see that the upgrade was complete, and I saw the familiar login screen. I slowly entered my username and password, closed my eyes and waited for the excrement to hit the proverbial fan.

To say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement. My profile is intact. All applications I am used to using working with all load without issue. All my hardware still works. Even OpenVPN (which I use quite extensively to remotely access Customers systems) works without a hitch – this took me two days of frustration when setting it up on Vista.

What about the claims of it using less memory, being ‘faster’ and all that? To my untrained eye, there is no difference. Vista used 33% of memory after a clean boot, and Windows 7 uses 33%. Exactly the same. Programs starting up actually seem a little slower, but I have no scientific measurements to substantiate that claim. I work on feel, and I imagine most users do as well. Perhaps the mere fact that I’m noticing load times makes it seem slower.

One gripe I do have though is Internet Explorer 8. It does some funny rendering on some web applications I use quite often, but I’m hoping these issues are fixed before launch. Strangely, IE8 beta on Vista does not have the same problems, weird. And, yes Microsoft, I did try and submit feedback using the ‘Submit Feedback’ links you have on every Window, but logging in using my Windows Live ID informs me that I don’t have permission to submit feedback.

Another small gripe is it seems every time I open a remote desktop connection to another PC, and move the resulting window around, it resizes itself to a smaller size. I then stretch the window to its actual size, and its fine, but every time you move the window around there are problems.

I really like the new taskbar, it’s a nice improvement over the standard taskbar, and I really like the fact that the open applications are represented by their icons. It saves a ton of space, and for people like me that have a lot of applications open at the same time, every little bit of space matters.

Overall, it’s been a good experience so far. I’ll be posting again in a few days with some more feedback. Let’s just hope nothing bad happens :)