I installed Windows 7 Professional (32-bit) on my main desktop PC the other week, having been using the Release Candidate on and off on both my main PC and one of our laptops for a good few months.
What an improvement over Windows XP (of which I have been a fan for many a year); and a tremendous improvement over Windows Vista (which I used for all of 1 week before upgrading my laptop to the Release Candidate and then Windows 7 Professional).
I’ve now installed it on one desktop and two laptops and each time the process was simplicity itself. The installer correctly identified all my hardware and installed the latest drivers for everything (apart from my Creative X-Fi soundcard the drivers for which I installed myself). From start to finish in less than an hour is pretty impressive.
However, despite the shiny finish and the months of beta testing by the public there are still a few rough edges, which will be hopefully corrected in a forthcoming upgrade. Like this typo in the Windows 7 Sync Center (sic):
Windows Mobile-based device
Synhronizing….
Ouch, that’s bad. Agreed about the improvement over Vista, 7 is much nicer.
Any reason you went for 32-bit rather than 64-bit?
I went for 32-bit as a stop gap measure. My print is an hp LaserJet 1000, which was made for Windows XP and according to the HP site shouldn’t even work under Windows 7. Remarkably it does using the XP drivers from 2005.
I installed the 32-bit version so that I could still use my laser printer. I can’t quite afford to upgrade my laser printer, but when I do I’ll get one that offers duplex, network support and 64-bit drivers. And THEN I’ll upgrade to Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.
Also, PsiWin 2.3.3 (for connecting my Psion to my PC) only works under 32-bit. I’m looking forward to seeing if it will work with the XP Mode under 64-bit.