The installation of the Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit Public Beta 1 (Build 7000) was easily accomplished despite the lack of visual feedback. In short it was very difficult to judge the progress of the install and for several steps of the installation I thought that my computer had locked up. For others about to install Windows 7 Beta 1, just wait these long non-responsive pauses out.

My goal was to install Windows 7 and dual boot Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Thanks to Neowin, I was able to find a download for the Windows 7 ISO (link), and obtain a Product Key (link). Using freeware burning software, ImgBurn, I burned the image to a DVD. Then I proceeded to launch the Windows 7 installation program from the DVD from within the Windows Vista OS. The setup presented two (expected) options: (1) Upgrade installation, or (2) Clean installation. The setup screen also contained information and well taken cautionary advice about backing up important data before installing this beta OS.

I selected the 2nd option, and directed the program to install on a free partition. That would leave Windows Vista on Disk(0)Partition(0) and place Windows 7 on Disk(1)Partition(0).

Disk(1)Partition(0) (named "Harmony) was already formatted NTFS and had a few files on the disk. I backed these files up, but left copies of them on the disk to see what Windows 7 Installation might do with them. Windows 7 made no attempts to format the drive, and proceeded to install on the NTFS volume. I was a little disappointed that the installation did not prompt for a clean format option, but I appreciated the safe-route taken as oppose to formatting without my consent. The files that I had left on the hard drive were not removed by the install.

"Copying Setup Files... 0%"
It hung there for about 25 mins, until I decided that maybe installing from within Windows Vista was not a good approach. It appeared as though the installation was hung up. Windows Vista would not properly shut-down either. There may have been a stray process causing problems with the Windows 7 installation.

A boot from the DVD to launch the installation outside of Windows Vista yielded better results. The installation presented the same set of options, messages, and dialogs as it had before.

The installation was on its way. However, very little progress could be perceived. Most of the time the installation appeared to be locked up. I found myself wondering if I should wait it out or restart my computer at several points in the installation. The installation appeared to hang at something like 1% and then knock out the whole 100% in one swoop.

On the "initial" boot (which is a secondary installation phase) there was even less visual feedback on how the installation was going. At one point the video was completely shut-off. The hard disk activity of the installation could still be heard for a moment, and then silence. The setup seemed to be locked up. I waited 35 minutes anxiously...waiting...thinking about restarting the install...unsure what the Setup was doing to my computer or even if it was still doing anything....no disk activity.....feeling very tired. Finally I decided to just go to bed and see where it was in the morning.

The installation was not locked up, and I was greeted in the morning by a Windows 7 welcome dialog introducing itself and asking me to introduce myself as well as set a password and some local network preferences.

The dual boot was setup automatically. Upon boot I have as options Windws 7, Windows Vista, and also my *cough* install of Mac OS. I had configured the Mac OS boot option under Windows Vista and was pleased that the entry remained after the Windows 7 installation. However, the option appears to be broken. I am not sure if the Windows 7 install broke the Mac OS boot option, or if something else did (I have not booted it in a few weeks now, and had only installed it to toy-around with).

One thing that was noticed immediately was the absents of my Vista drive (Disk0Partition0) from Explorer. A quick internet search revealed that this other people do not have this mounted either. The solution to mount it to another drive letter (or NTFS folder, as I decided to place it in C:\Vista\ as oppose to a drive letter), was easy to do by following other peoples tips. I suspect the issue was that Windows 7 wanted its install to be the C:\ drive. I have not booted Windows Vista to see if this messed up anything. Hopefully not.

I remember Windows 2000 and Windows XP installations not landing on the drive that the system declared was "C" in the past on a few installs. This did not create any immediate problems, but some applications seemed to protest about this as they expected windows to be C:\Windows as oppose to E:\Windows (for example). In short, I think that Windows Vista and Windows 7 are forceful on regulating the C:\Windows path in order to keep some applications that the user may install happy.

So far the OS seems snappy and responsive. I tried World of Warcraft out, and the performance was about the same as it was in Windows Vista (although I have not installed my video drivers from nVidia yet). The overall look of the OS is very much like Windows Vista, and I hope that they do not change this. They should refine the Vista interface further for Windows 7 as oppose to inventing a new one.

One thing that has struck me as odd is my C:\Users\<username> folder contains the old style "My Documents," "My Music", and "My Pictures". This language his hidden from the explorer sidebar, as well as the start menu. Microsoft had removed the "My" prefix from Windows Vista user directories as they felt like it sounded too childish (it really does). It appears that this language has returned at least in this Beta, which I am a little disappointed to see but it really doesn't matter much.

Thats all for now. I'll post more opinions later after experiencing Windows 7 further.