Windows 7 Live Install

Published on October 24th, 2009

Posted by Marc Perkel in Technology, computers

The brave and the foolish. My 5 year old XP laptop is dying today so I went to Fry’s to get a new laptop. I was thinking that the Vista laptops would be heavily discounted but the Windows 7 computers were both newer and cheaper. Generally I don’t buy a Microsoft OS until at least service pack 1. But I’m taking a chance here so let’s see how it works. I’m using my Acer netbook to write this and going to do the install live and blog about it while it happens. So if it works then that’s what I’ll write. If it doesn’t then it gets slammed. So refresh this article today (Oct 24) because this is a live review.

The computer is an HP DV7-3060. 4 gigs of ram. 500 gig hard drive and an AMD Turion II dual core CPU.

The time is 1:25 pacific time. I am turning the computer on now for the first time. As expected – the bootup is pretty. Asking me for user name and password and clicking on the license.

1:30 it sees my wireless and connected. It wants to go to the web right away.

It’s preparing my desktop.

I’m not in a HP setup screen wanting me to register. Time: 1:35.

Said to do update. No to Norton security.

Finished HP setup. It looks like I’m back to windows mode.

Time 1:40.

Time 1:43 – computer appears to be up and working. I am now going to try to get online updates. I have to say that the install went faster than I expected.

Time 2:00 – just fixing the line wrap problem because the netbook display isn’t wide enough to edit with Wordpress. I tried to get online with IE to fix this blog post but IE doesn’t like Dvorak’s blog. So downloaded Firefox which I’m using now. Got to Windows update with IE and downloading 22 critical updates so we’ll see what happens when that is done. The more updates the better as far as I’m concerned since this is just the day after it was released to the public. We’ll see if IE works after the updates are installed.

IE is now working with this blog although there is some strange message about a page not found. I have yet to migrate anything significant over but the computer is basically working without and significant strangeness yet. Time is 2:23.

Looking for an XP to Windows 7 migration tool if such a thing exists. Sure would be nice to move my apps and settings.

44 users responded in " Windows 7 Live Install "

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# 1 WanKhairil said, on October 24th, 2009 at 12:39 pm

why do you need to ‘live’ install the OS? Doesn’t the notebook come pre-installed with Windows 7?

And what’s with the awkward line break?

# 2 interglacialman said, on October 24th, 2009 at 12:52 pm

I prefer Linux but I have to say Windows 7 is really very good. Been using it at work and it’s Vista with the annoyances, cpu-hogs and bugs worked out of it. Hope your install goes well.

# 3 StoopidFlanders said, on October 24th, 2009 at 12:54 pm

I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Windows 7, is in fact, Windows Vista SP3, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, Mojave Experiment 2.0. Windows 7 is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another marketing scheme by Microsoft to trick users into trying Vista, a full OS as defined by Microsoft.

Sorry bud, those squirrel stories were more interesting than this.

# 4 chuck said, on October 24th, 2009 at 12:55 pm

18 minutes to switch on a new PC (with Win7 pre-installed) and get it up and running actually sounds about typical.

I’ve done other PCs (with XP and Vista) in about 30 minutes, including updates and customizing settings the way I want.

My Windows 7 “upgrade” experience is here.

# 5 deowll said, on October 24th, 2009 at 1:06 pm

I suppose you might have problems but I’d doubt if it was because of the OS.

My own main computer is a couple of years old and looks to be good for several years so I’m just going to have stick with what I have.

# 6 Marc Perkel said, on October 24th, 2009 at 1:20 pm

BTW – is there some sort of migration tool to move my stuff for an XP computer to Windows 7?

# 7 rcool said, on October 24th, 2009 at 1:25 pm

Marc: Google “Windows User State Migration Tool”.

# 8 dusanmal said, on October 24th, 2009 at 1:26 pm

@#3 Though it is “in the eye of beholder” as to what is indeed new OS, most important changes from Vista to Win 7 are definitely not service pack like. On surface (GUI) differences are minimal and could be done by SP. What is real difference is most of the underlying code. Majority of it is completely rewritten (according to independent experts, not MS). You cant change that with SP.

None of this changes my personal view of MS. Practices introduced with Vista made the XP my last MS OS. In particular ingrained DRM implementation affecting both hardware capabilities of my own hardware and on legalese level, my own rights. Since Vista MS OS design does not address customers wants, needs and rights first but third party interests. Unacceptable.

# 9 sargasso said, on October 24th, 2009 at 1:36 pm

#7. yes, but too complicated for most users. Another way is the “Windows Easy Transfer” utility, that which comes bundled with Vista and Windows 7. Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Windows Easy Transfer

# 10 chuck said, on October 24th, 2009 at 2:22 pm

The “Easy Transfer Tool” is also on the Win 7 DVD, so you can run it from XP to backup your settings.

If you want to backup all your apps too, try PC Mover from Laplink. I think it’s $30

# 11 chuck said, on October 24th, 2009 at 2:26 pm

A little comparison:
On my desktop PC, running Win XP Pro 32-bit, the WINDOWS folder is 6.41GB

On the same PC, separate partition, running Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit, the WINDOWS folder is 11.4GB

# 12 conrack said, on October 24th, 2009 at 2:49 pm

Fry’s?? Why wouldn’t you just go to Tiger Direct?

# 13 Floyd said, on October 24th, 2009 at 2:54 pm

Chuck–that’s an apples to oranges comparison of disk space. XP has fewer features than either Vista or Win7. You can reduce disk space requirements by installing Win7 (or for that matter Vista) Professional instead.

Personal experience: Vista is much less likely to blue screen (2 blue screens in 3 years) than Win XP. I suspect that Win7 is even more stable.

# 14 ArianeB said, on October 24th, 2009 at 3:40 pm

I had two Vista computers and bought the 3 computer upgrade pack (way cheaper than buying 2).

One computer I did an upgrade. Took about 3 and a half hours.

On my laptop I did a clean install. Took less than an hour, and all the drivers were already on the DVD.

Firefox crashed once, but other than that I have had no problems with Win 7.

# 15 ArianeB said, on October 24th, 2009 at 3:43 pm

#11 A clean install of 32 bit Windows 7 home premium came in at around 8 GB

# 16 Syrinx said, on October 24th, 2009 at 4:00 pm

I also got the Upgrade Family Pack. 3 licenses for $125 plus tax? I couldn’t resist.

On Thursday I only knew of one method of doing a clean install on a bare drive using the upgrade disc, which pretty much amounts to installing it twice. It went well.

Yesterday I found out about a registry workaround, where I can use the upgrade disc on a bare drive without having to install it twice. I’ll give that a shot.

# 17 Terere said, on October 24th, 2009 at 4:09 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT9c_1R7wNc&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbJGzyYV_X8&feature=player_embedded

Upss…

# 18 dvdchris said, on October 24th, 2009 at 4:10 pm

This post is oddly written…I’m not sure if you bought a new computer (I think you did) or are installing Win7 on an existing computer.
If you bought a new pc with Win7 on it what’s to install??
Did you expect this PC not to work? I’m confused.

# 19 Marc Perkel said, on October 24th, 2009 at 4:27 pm

The reason I went to Frys is:

1) I want it now.
2) I like to actually touch and see it before I buy.

# 20 Troll said, on October 24th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

OK, let me get this straight… your idea of doing an OS install is to buy a new computer with the OS pre-installed and pushing the power button to the “On” position… Is that what’s happening here?

# 21 tikichaos12 said, on October 24th, 2009 at 5:22 pm

PCmover by LapLink should do the trick for you:

# 22 Marc Perkel said, on October 24th, 2009 at 5:32 pm

#19 – yes.

I know it’s not like installing Linux but the issue is will it run? Will my apps work? I have a higher standard of review and that is if it does what I need it to do. It’s bjust like when I review cell phones by evaluation if it actually make phone calls.

Running “east transfer” now. If this works I’m going to be very happy with Windows 7.

# 23 888 said, on October 24th, 2009 at 6:55 pm

Marc Perkel: “I have a higher standard of review”

Soo… this is a “review”?
Please enlighten us, what are yuou reviewing here: the easyness of pressing “ON” power button on a new laptop, or the integrity of a pre-installed Windows 7 OS on that laptop? Because I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I’m confused with your so-called “review”.

Good God, if you really do such “reviews” of anything (you’ve mention cell phones) please let us know where, on which websites! (so we will know what horseshitcrap sites to avoid…)

# 24 888 said, on October 24th, 2009 at 6:57 pm

BTW: Are you really Marc Perkel? You sound like Lance Ulanoff (the smart-differently “genius” from pcmag)

# 25 Zybch said, on October 24th, 2009 at 7:23 pm

Pity you chose an HP machine. Those things are so full of crapware you have to spend a couple of hours getitng rid of the stuff before the computer will start to run smoothly.
30 ‘free’ games that expire after only 1 hour of play IS NOT something I ever want on any PC I buy, nor is some stupid HP branded DVD player when I can just use Media Centre, or a 375Mb Customer Feedback Survey program as HP usually installs ‘for your benefit’.

So far Dell notebooks have come the cleanest, with only the bare minimum of Dell branded stuff to annoy me with, I’ll never buy an HP or Toshiba ever again thanks to all the crapware they bundle.

# 26 Maidaa said, on October 24th, 2009 at 7:37 pm

# 16 Syrinx said,

“I also got the Upgrade Family Pack. 3 licenses for $125 plus tax?”

Where?

# 27 chuck said, on October 24th, 2009 at 7:50 pm

I’d be a lot more impressed with Windows (any version) and a new PC version if you could just switch it on and start using it.

# 28 Freyar said, on October 24th, 2009 at 10:57 pm

My father bought three “upgrade” copies of Win7 Upgrade through one of Newegg’s deals. (Awesome). The funny thing was the first set of discs were screwed up majorly. The x86 copy wouldn’t boot, and the x64 copy ended up installing properly up until the part where the license had to be verified. Apparently the local verification after the install was corrupted to the point where any key didn’t work.

End result was he used the second set, and congratulations it worked. Makes me wonder how many other copies were shipped with borked discs (despite that I know it happens on occasion, I’m surprised that the first copy had this problem.)

# 29 pedro said, on October 24th, 2009 at 11:35 pm

#26 By the sound of your post, it seems you need to be taught where the “on” button is.

# 30 bobbo, third self built puter and still a noob said, on October 25th, 2009 at 12:14 am

Well, I just got thru installing Win 7 and three different monitors all get stuck on 800×600 resolution and driver update/rollback/install from video card disk doesn’t do a thing.

Brings up whole issue of how poorly M$ is at screen resolution control. I’m running three monitors and nothing works the way it should with resolutions. Just like their word processor program. There should be “a switch” where everything is “WYSIWYG” instead of all this formatting crap we get instead.

I’m saying this doesn’t work for me and give it another year. Won’t recognize my sound card either. Does seem a little quicker, and IE8 was working like a champ.

# 31 Jim said, on October 25th, 2009 at 1:12 am

#29… so did you go to the vendor websites and check for win 7 drivers? Almost all reputable vendors have a well stocked support site with new drivers, unless you’re talking something from eight years ago. You also might have to check for monitor drivers, though if they are dvi that shouldn’t be an issue unless you didn’t pick the monitor type.

Driver searching is a standard microsoft solution, I would never ever trust that every driver is on their install disks nor the vendor install disks for at least 6 months after a release.

# 32 cheapdaddy said, on October 25th, 2009 at 1:30 am

Win7 is a lie! Run Winver.exe and you get ver 6.1 (Vista is 6.0) So it’s kinda like Vista Snow Leopard. (Snow Big Deal)mmmmmm Marketing!

# 33 pedro said, on October 25th, 2009 at 2:18 am

#30 Well, I know of one vendor of high end pro audio cards that found a problem with MS’ new firewire driver implementation on win 7. They contacted MS and they acknowledged the problem.

In their reply, they kindly told the vendor to hold until they fixed the thing… in about 12 months!

MS has turned into a bigger crap and their copy attempt on mac user stupi…. er friendly has made it even worse.

# 34 Bob West said, on October 25th, 2009 at 4:49 am

I upgraded from Vista 32bit to Win7 64bit, took 20 minutes, it’s running in 1280 x 1050. No problems using IE 8 64bit. I have 3 printers, a Canon inkjet, Epson wide format and a HP 1200 Laserjet, it found 64bit drivers for all including a 9 year old photo scanner. As for DRM issues I’ve never had one, still able to make backups of my DVD’s. Next on my lists is to add a Blu-Ray drive.
I like in particular not paying extra for the 64bit OS disc, paid $49 from Amazon.

# 35 thecommodore said, on October 25th, 2009 at 6:58 am

I’ve installed the public betas on 4 different machines, and so far I’ve had better experiences with the 64bit versions. The 32bit installations felt sluggish on the 32bit machines; they were better on the 64 bit machines (naturally because they were faster to begin with). Feed the 64bit installations as much memory as you can afford, especially when running virtual sessions. I think overall you’ll find Win7 64bit useable right out of the box and preferable over Vista or XP.

# 36 Angel H. Wong said, on October 25th, 2009 at 9:07 am

I couldn’t care less for win7. I need my weekly Ganesha update.

# 37 Improbus said, on October 25th, 2009 at 1:40 pm

A friend of mine just got a Windows 7 laptop and I have to say the OS is fairly decent. This was the first time I had ever used Windows 7 and I could find all the OS tools I needed with out much trouble. Verdict: Adequate but not worth stealing. I will wait until I get a new PC to get a Windows 7 license.

# 38 bobbo, world traveler and bon vivant said, on October 25th, 2009 at 4:23 pm

#31–Jim==yes, trying to get that done. Some of the install commands are impossible to read at 800×600 w 16 colors and some other niggly issues are interfering with normal driver updates.

Still—I HATE M$. How in the world so many Linux distro’s start up with everything working and connected and Win7 requires all this extra work is an OUTRAGE!!!!!!!

Further, I’m now running into the Homegroup in Win7 only being open to Win7 OS’s. My two other “main” XP machines are not switching to Win7 just to be able to have all my computers on the LAN. I see this may be an issue of the difference between “the Homegroup” and other file sharing options====but what a difficult mess, and yet M$ is still proud of its product????

I’m back to thinking XP works for me==why buy into all these hassles? My Win7 is being returned. Had the salesman write that on my receipt, we’ll see.

# 39 pedro said, on October 25th, 2009 at 9:20 pm

#38 To be fairly honest, if there’s something that’s worse with drivers than windows is linux.

And that crappy homegroup idea that it would only work among win7 machines was known to anyone who dared read a preview of the turd7

# 40 zorkor said, on October 26th, 2009 at 7:39 am

Windows 7 is the best out there right now. Most of those who post anti Windows crap here have never even used it properly but they come here bashing all those who say anything good about it.

I have used Windows 7 beta, RC for over 6 months and I was highly impressed of it. Even though it still suffers from the usual (more you use me, more frequently you must format me) disease. Gets slower by the time. I hope its fixed in the retail version.

Other than that, its a solid OS.

# 41 ECA said, on October 26th, 2009 at 8:33 am

Zorker??

“have never even used it properly but they come here bashing all those who say anything good about it.”

Umm, can I ask you how much have you programmed in your life? I have 10 years of programming under my belt, from year ago.

I understand the concept of security and how you get it in programming.
ALL I see here is..
GRAPHICS, its pretty lets buy it does not impress me.
BLOATED OS, that REQUIRED MORE and MORE and MORE..
OLD tech, that hasnt changed. Look up DYNAMIC DRIVERS.. Look up MEMORY manager.. Look up running only what is needed for the program, THEN being able to DUMP them when they arent being USED.
OLD hardware design. Look up WHO created windows NT, then wonder WHY MS cant program that way. Look up OLD systems like BOs, and Amiga that the VIDEO cards did the WORK of decompiling and processing the VIDEO, not the CPU.. Look up PARALLEL processing, and then WONDER why MS cant get ALL the cores working properly. Look up and WONDER why we still use IRQ and a SERIAL based system, that WAITS at every DEVICE before it can continue. THEN windows trying to BYPASS, something thats NOT NEEDED with software. WONDER why multi CPU works under windows and Multi CORE does not..AND you PAY FOR IT.

You want the truth.. Wonder why MS just bought out a HIGH end computer company that KNOWS HOW to program for Multi CPU machines. Because 99.99 % of MS does not know how to PROGRAM for multi core. the ORIGINAL multi CPU windows NT was not created by windows. Windows programmers have NO idea how to Fully program. THE CORE of vista and win7 have lost most of the programming created under NT.

Wait for the NEXT versions that SHOULD be able to increase speed by at LEAST the number of cores on the CPU.

# 42 pedro said, on October 26th, 2009 at 10:11 am

#40 Solid enough to send the new video messages from Osama? Since you’re inside the loop, you should know.

# 43 ask me said, on October 26th, 2009 at 3:46 pm

at #41

Your rant does you no credit. You’re confusing HW designs choices (e.g. IRQ, serial) with MS SW. I’ve used Linux for a decade at work, and Windows 7 is as stable and a heck of a lot more user friendly for the desktop. In fact look what a *mess* KDE 4.0 (one of the main graphical desktops for Linux distros) was – so don’t start getting on your high-horse that MS don’t know how to program and that you, with your 10 years of experience, can do sooo much better. PS OS X has some fairly major bugs too

Win7 security is no doubt significantly improved. Users need education into UAC – after that it’s pretty similar to the unix concept of user rights.

Windows has been handling screen resolution very well with my laptop, which I alternate between work (19″ VGA monitor) and home (26″ DVI). Perfectly happy with its performance on a 1.66GHz dual core with 2.5GB

# 44 Laplink said, on October 26th, 2009 at 5:18 pm

We at Laplink have a program called PCmover that is able to migrate all your programs, files and settings from your old computer a your new computer (XP to Windows 7 etc).

Please see this site for more information.

Feel free to contact me at any time if you have any questions or comments.
Thanks,
Daniel Donohoe, 425-952-6023, daniel.donohoe@laplink.com

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