finally

finally, after hours of downloading my student copy for windows7... i wasted around 5hours because I downloaded the wrong version. I downloaded the 64-bit Windows7. So, I spent another 5hours in downloading the 32-bit Windows 7.

You must be wondering why I can get a copy of Windows 7. Its a collaboration between NTU's School of Computing and MSDN - Microsoft Development Network. You can know more by searching MSDNAA ( MSDN Academic Alliance).

Well, I shall comment about the new OS.. It took around 40mins to install. But I felt could be faster because it backup-ed all my system files in Vista, which I already did before hand. After installing, I had to download quite a number of software, Anti-virus.

List of softwares now on my Windows7

AVG Free9.0
CCleaner
Spybot - Search & Destroy

Adobe Photoshop Elements
DestroyTwitter
Eclipse

Firefox 3.5 ( wanted to try 3.6beta but certain plug-ins not for 3.6beta yet)
MSN messenger
Skype

And I went to check the Windows Experience Index - my score was 5.4! I felt this is a significant improvement from Vista. Based on my memory, my score in Vista was below 4.0

Yes, Windows7 is still Windows. There are still lots of security issues and driver compatibility issues. I spent close to 2 hours in searching online and find the correct drivers for those which Windows7 don't recgonise.

But finally its done. And well, the task bar has improved. Only problem is that its difficult to differentiate the icons that are pinned to task bar from the icons that are currently running. And all those Aero stuff - I feel it's just extra stuff, only adds on to the "feel good" factor.

The only problem which I can't fixed is that under My Computer - System properties. It stated that out of the 4.00GB RAM installed, only 2.96GB is usable. I read on forums, some said it might have got to do with the 32-bit/64-bit version. Some said this might be rectified in the BIOS, which I am not comfortable in adjusting. So I left this problem alone as even with 3GB, it felt like Vista's 4GB!