Cover Me; I'm Going In

With the wariness of a Marine going into a building in downtown Baghdad, I'm entering into the unknown territory of Windows 7. I'll be taking the time this weekend to install the much-lauded version of Windows that I received for free.

I enter into this fight with a little bit of comfort--I have an install disc that was designed for my computer, and I have an install "helper" file from the manufacturer. It's all supposed to be a breeze..."It's just a simple update."

I have made the recovery DVDs for my laptop, and I am backing up EVERYTHING. I hope that my backups will be unnecessary, but their existence is almost as comforting as extra ammunition.

What I really don't look forward to is the attempted migration of my software applications. There are so many things that I had to renew, update, reinstall, etc, when I got this new computer. Will I have to mess with all of that again after the update? According to my computer's manufacturer (and that evil bastard known as Microsoft), I will have a smooth migration of that stuff. I don't believe it for a second.

I'm already angry about the chaos that represents the comments on this blog; this is just another cog in that wheel. If it doesn't work, I hope that I can backtrack, and not give in to the desire to go chew out the manufacturer rep at the local PX.

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UPDATE: All of this information is based on an upgrade from Vista Home Premium (64 bit OS), to Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit). My laptop has an Intel dual core processor and 4Gb of RAM.:

After utilizing my computer manufacturer's update assistant, it appears that Windows 7 has installed properly and, so far, everything looks shiny and new. In addition, the update assistant seems to have successfully salvaged all of my software, documents, settings, etc. It forewarned me that it would download the newest drivers for hardware, and uninstall various features prior to the update. It spent the night downloading updates, and then I began the actual installation of Windows this morning. It took a couple of hours today, but it didn't seem to encounter any problems.

There appears to be a few utilities on Microsoft's website that will test your computer, and give you a list of software that must be uninstalled prior to upgrading. It will also tell you which version of Windows 7 your computer will support (Basic, Home Premium, Pro, Ultimate, 32 bit or 64). Toshiba's upgrade assistant feature seems to have done that pretty seamlessly. I have not yet encountered anything that doesn't work, but I will compile a list if I do make such discoveries.

Using Toshiba's upgrade assistant provided me with the ability to automatically use the manufacturer's own updating system to install the newest, Windows 7 compatible drivers for my computer's hardware, but it also brought all of the notorious "crapware" with it. You know all of those gadgets and whistles that come with a new computer? Crapware. Windows 7 gave me the option of checking for the newest updates, but I was instructed to not select that feature.

The procedures for upgrading were pretty simple, but I did have to write down a couple of instructions before the process, since there are a couple of choices to be made during the install. Selecting the "upgrade" option, instead of the "clean install," made things a little easier. The clean installation would have wiped the HDD, and I would have been without all of my existing applications, documents, media, etc.

Hats off to Toshiba for providing me with an upgrade utility that worked (so far). I felt a little like the guys on the original Apollo Project must have felt..."I hope this sucker makes it, and doesn't blow up."