Windows 7: My First Install (Part 1)

Okay.. so not only did I download the beta immediately when it was available from the TechNet Subscriber Downloads site, but I also decided to run my first install as an upgrade to a fairly cleanly installed Vista machine.

“Upgrade? Using a beta?!”

Yeah, I know. Crazy. But this machine was only serving one simple purpose on my network right now. It’s running Virtual PC 2007, with a single virtual machine; a Windows Server 2003 box that is my home domain’s lone DNS Server and Domain Controller. So.. if anything bad were to happen, I have a backup of that .vhd file and I’m fine running that from another machine.

The host machine is running Vista Business x64, with 4GB of RAM.

Step 1. Insert DVD while running Vista.

Autorun asks me if I want to run the setup.exe. Of course I do.

Step 2. Install. Easy choice.

Step 3. Updates? Yes.. check for ‘em.

That’s nice. And in fact there was a quick update download, and it restarts the setup automatically. Goes right to…

Step 4. License. I accept. (After carefully reading, of course. Yeah, right.)

Step 5. Upgrade. Yay! I’m getting the Upgrade option! I click it, and it checks my system for compatibility. But..

Interesting. It tells me that there is a system change it has to make before it can do the setup. Maybe it’s because I’m running Vista SP2 Beta on this machine.

I do the restart, and launch the setup again.

It take me through the same steps again.. does the “check for updates”, and even says it’s downloading them. Restarts setup. Agree to the license agreement. Choose “Upgrade” again. Compatibility check…