Windows 7 Installation Experiences

I couldn't wait to upgrade my systems to Windows 7, seeing that almost all reviews for the OS were very positive. Ironically, Vista ran pretty well except for some display driver issues on the desktop PC.

First upgrade from Vista 64bit to Windows 7 64bit:
(New) Dell Studio 1737
Dual Core Processor w/4GB of RAM

The upgrade took a very long time - I'm talking about 3 hours. When the upgrade finally finished, the only problem I experienced, was Windows not being able to see my DVD drive. After countless searches on the internet, it seems that nobody has a silver bullet solution.

- I updated the BIOS
- Disabled driver signatures
- Uninstalled all programs that might take control of the drive (Nero, Dell Media Player)
- I downloaded updated firmware, but when I go to install it, it doesn't see a DVD drive to update

If anyone has a fix for this, I'd like to hear it!

Second upgrade from Vista 64bit to Windows 7 64bit:
Dell XPS 630i
Quadcore Processor w/8GB of RAM

This upgrade was done in about 2 hours. When Windows did the compatibility check in the beginning, I did have to uninstall SQL Server 2005 (professional, not express), my graphics card display management software, and a few other piddley programs. The main thing I was worried about, is the dual display support, especially after having to uninstall the display manager software. Installation chugged along and rebooted the machine about 5 times, but when it finally came up, I was able to right click the desktop and select "Screen Resolution."  The new display manager worked like a charm - actually even better than the ATI one I had before. So far, the upgrade has been flawless - no problems - knock on wood.

To be honest, I don't experience much difference in performance versus Vista. There are a few UI goodies that are nice, like pinning programs to the taskbar, but for the most part, it feels the same. The OS loads pretty fast and shuts down quickly. I think only time will tell if what's under the hood has improved. I hope Windows 7 is more stable.