Main Desktop

My main desktop machine, where I do most of my gaming and just general personal computing, was the first machine that I migrated to the Windows 7 Beta.  I had some issues with video card drivers at first, but that was quickly resolved.  Other than occasional video weirdness, which I think may actually be hardware related, it performs wonderfully.  I haven’t had any problems with games that would’t play or performance or anything.

Media Center

The second machine I upgraded to the Windows 7 Beta (and recently upgraded to the Release Candidate) is  my media center PC.  This machine is a Dell XPS 420 with dual ATI digital cable tuners that serves as the hub for all the media in my house.  It serves streaming HDTV, movies and more to Xbox 360s located in other parts of the house.  It was a bit risky moving this machine to Windows 7, but I left my Vista install there in a dual boot setup just in case.  I haven’t booted back to Vista on that machine once.

The upgrades made to Windows Media Center are incredible.  The new guide features are great, with the ability to set up favorites lists, color code the guide entries and more. The interface is a much improved, generally tighter and nicer looking version of the one included in Windows Vista.  In general, I’m loving all the media functionality of Windows 7.

Netbook

I have an HP Mini 1030NR that I immediately installed Windows 7 on.  It came with Windows XP and I just cannot imagine myself ever going back to that operating system again unless forced to.  Windows 7 performs really well in 1GB of memory on an Atom processor.  It’s nice and quick for those times when I just want to get online real quick to check a few things or when I’m out and about and need to get online.

Work Laptop

I recently upgraded my Thinkpad work laptop to Windows 7 because I was having some performance issues with Windows Vista on it (and because I was so used to it on my other machines I really wanted it on the machine I spend 8-10 hours a day on).  It’s been great and the performance is much improved.

Kid’s computer

I just put together a low-end AMD X2 machine for the kids this weekend and immediately put Windows 7 RC on it.  They seem to be able to navigate it pretty easily, and they love the new Aero Themes with the nice color options, sound themes and cool wallpapers.

All in all I must say that I’ve been extremely pleased with Windows 7 and I really look forward to it coming out in a final release.  Anyone else using Windows 7?  If so, what do you think?

Right now, I’m in the middle of changing my media center PC over to Windows 7. It’s interesting, running into some compatibility issues here and there with some of the third party software I use, but so far pretty good! I already made the switch to Windows 7 on my desktop PC, and I’m loving it! I’ll write up a post about that and my new hardware goodie that I bought when I did the upgrade in the next few days as well.

There are some screenshots of the interface on The Media Center Blog.  They’re kind of small but they give you an idea of what the interface looks like.

I admit that some of the features I’m looking forward to are already available in the TV Pack.  However, I haven’t taken the time to figure out how to install the TV Pack, as it doesn’t seem like it’s really a straightforward process.  The biggest feature I’m looking forward to is guide favorites so that I can set up a “Kids” favorites, etc. to make it easier to find groups of channels.

I’m attending an MSDN Developer Conference in January and we’re supposed to be receiving a DVD with the beta copy of Windows 7 on it.  In fact, as far as I can tell we’ll be the first group of people to to get it, as I’m attending the first conference that it will be available at.  I’ll report back once I get my hands on it.