After getting install downloaded and hard drive prepped, you’ve got a couple of options for actually getting Windows 7 onto your computer. The first, and easiest, is to make a Windows 7 disc by burning the image to a DVD using something like ImgBurn.
If you’re installing Windows 7 on a Mac, you can burn the image to a DVD with Disk Utility.
Or, you can do what I’m doing since I’m out of blank DVDs at the moment, and put it on a flash drive for installation. This is also how you’ll get it on a netbook or MacBook Air. You’ll need a 4GB USB 2.0 flash drive and a mounting program likeDaemon Tools on Windows or MountMe on Mac. Format the flash drive in FAT32, mount the Windows 7 image, then copy everything over to the flash drive.
Installing
Hello easy part! Pop in your disc or your flash drive. Boot from it, and follow the wizard, installing Windows 7 on your clean partition (under Custom installation type). On a Mac, Boot Camp Assistant will take you through the process after you slide in the Windows disc.Make sure it’s the right partition or you will hose your actual current Windows install. Then go watch some TV or take a poop while it does its thing. Come back, and you’ll have a few more setup screens—hope you wrote your license key down!—then you’ll be up and rolling with Windows 7.
Now what?
The initial setup is fast and easy, but you might wanna check out your driver situation. Mac users, for instance, have a little bit of work ahead of them, since you’ll have to install drivers from the OS X disc, and if you’re running 64-bit, download theBoot Camp 2.1 update.
Well, there’s a lot to check out in Windows 7. Like the new Media Center, which has 10 new features we’re really hyped about, like sweet dissolve effects, turboscrolling, virtual channels and remote copying.
The new taskbar is one of its major new UI features that’s both exciting and at first a little confusing, since it works a lot differently than the taskbar you’re used. Checking out Microsoft’s video tour before you jump might save you some frustration. There’s also Aero Shake, which knocks all the clutter off your desktop instantly; Snap, with its instant window resizing; and Peek, which is like turbocharged thumbnail previews.
Oh, and whatever you guys do, don’t play your MP3s in Windows Media Player, since it could corrupt them! Update: There’s a patch out for this issue, here’s the 64-bit download and here’s the 32-bit.
There’s definitely a lot to play around with. Let us know in the comments once you get your install running what else you think people should check out as soon as they get their machine fired up! If you’ve got any other install tricks, let us know about those too!
