Installing Windows 7 Beta 1

I must start by saying that I haven't been excited or interested in using any Microsoft product for quite some time. Other than various versions of Flight Simulator that have come out over the past few years, the last product that interested me was Windows XP. It's been a while since I looked forward to trying some new Microsoft software.

Windows 7 has put an end to the apathy. I've been following its progress on various technical reports for the past month. Microsoft was reporting that the beta would be available to the public in early January. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft announced that the beta would be available on January 9. So, yesterday I waited and refreshed and waited and refreshed my browser over and over again. Unfortunately, I was unable to connect to Microsoft's site to start the download.

Then there was an update. Microsoft said the beta would be available in the afternoon. Well, who's afternoon? Certainly not east coast because it was already after noon. So I continued trying to get the download started - no luck.

Then I found a blog with a direct link to the beta on the Microsoft server. Yes, now I was getting somewhere. I started the download of the 64-bit version before going to bed last night. This morning, I burned a DVD of the disk image and tried to install it on my spare 30GB partition. At first, my computer would not boot off the DVD drive, so I tweaked the BIOS to make it boot the DVD before the hard drive. I restarted and again, the computer booted from the hard drive. My monitor doesn't display immediately after the computer starts, so I figured I must be missing some instruction, like "Press Enter to boot from the DVD. " So I restarted again and pressed Enter several times while the DVD was spinning in the drive.

And there is was; the Windows 7 setup program was now running. The installation was completely mindless. It only asked for my name, time zone, and a Product Key. I hadn't been able to get a Product Key, so I left it with the default value.

It rebooted once, and then the trouble began. Windows 7 Beta 1 failed to load a driver for my network card, so I was unable to connect to the internet. In the mean time, I was finally able to get both a 32-bit and a 64-bit Product Key from Microsoft. I wanted to activate my beta, but without a network, this would have to wait. Then I realized that you can activate the software with a modem, so I plugged the phone line into the modem and it worked like a champ - oh so 1995.

I spent the next hour booting back into Windows XP and downloading drivers for Vista64 that I hoped might work on Windows 7. After four or five tries, I found a winner. With the network card working properly, I was able to get on the internet and run Windows Update. The update found newer versions of five of my drivers, including the network card driver. Then I downloaded and installed one of the Microsoft recommended anti-virus programs.

With the basics out of the way, I then moved on to other applications. First I installed Google Chrome. It failed out of the chute, so I had to go search Google with Internet Explorer and try to find a solution. Like most computer problems, someone else experienced the same problem and there was a solution available. I applied the solution and now Chrome is working fabulously.

So far my experience has been going well. It will be interesting to see what problems arise over the next 8 months; the beta runs through August 1. If all goes well, I'll have to see what Microsoft wants me to pay for Windows 7 and then decide if it is worth it. I'd personally like to see the sub $100 upgrade, but I highly doubt that will be the case.