Windows 7: My First Install (Part 2 – Revenge of the Jedi)

Yeah.. I know.. It was “Return of the Jedi”, not “Revenge”. And it wasn’t Part 2, or even "Episode II”. It was Episode 6 (or more correctly, “VI”). Episode II was actually “Attack of the Clones”. Unless you’re counting from the second movie made (Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back). But this is just a blog. Who’s counting? Don’t get excited, you geek. Made you look.

“When last we saw our hero in part 1, his installation was in full-swing…”

Thanks.  Yes.. the installation is running. 

It restarted the machine right in the middle of this “expanding files” portion of the list, so I’m not able to get any screenshots other than from my digital camera.

Then it took about 15 minutes more of expanding files. 

Another restart (I missed it.. sorry I didn’t get a picture. I’m also trying to do REAL work on another PC).

OOh!  That’s pretty!  The little fuzzy window symbol is pulsating brighter/darker/brighter/darker… (you have to see it to really appreciate it). 

Then after “Starting Services”, we get back to installing.

It alternates between “Setting up your system”…

…and “this can take several minutes”.

At some point a new video driver kicks in at the resolution I originally had before the upgrade.

And we’re also “Migrating files and settings”.

Another pretty restart

Back to migrating…

This takes a long time.  Sorry I didn’t time it, but it’s definitely worth taking lunch, or doing this overnight if you can’t afford to stop work.  (This is the same with Windows Vista.  An upgrade has a lot of work to do saving and restoring your configuration.  A fresh install takes very little time at all.)

Another restart…

Ooo.. this looks promising.

Good… Good…

Ah ha!  Interesting.  I wasn’t asked for a key up front.  I have the chance to enter it now.  I’ve posted my key here.  (just kidding)

Of course I “Use recommended settings”, because that’s how I roll.

Cool.  It kept my time zone the same.

Woo hoo!  It’s ULTIMATE!

And obviously it knows and kept the fact that it was a domain-joined machine.

And it remembers who logged in last!

So I log in. 

And it’s not my original desktop background, but I think that may be because I was using the default from Vista before (the green one with light streaks through it). 

Hey.. this is cool.  It ran and installed an update immediately.

And successfully (I caught this dialog just as it was fading out).

And I’m done!

In Part 3 (or “Episode III – The Phantom Menace”) (yeah yeah, I know) I’ll tell you about some of the good-news/bad-news for my install. 

Hint: It is good, but wasn’t all roses.