After my wife trashed her computer with an email virus a few months ago, I finally got around to retrieving her data and reinstalling Windows (I got tired of her using my laptop).

I've heard so much about Windows 7 lately that I have been seriously considering trying it, but I didn't want to test it out on my work computer. Too risky.

So last night I installed Windows 7 on my wife's 5 year old Pentium. Now this isn't a computer that Vista wanted to install on, so I didn't know what would happen or if it would even work.

The installation went smooth (I chose to format the entire system as I wanted to kill the virus too).

And within a short time Windows 7 was running. And might I add, running fast.

The part that took the longest time was finding the right drivers for either of my network cards (until I finally found the right model name in the documentation in the back of my closet) as it didn't recognize either network card automatically. So until I got the driver installed I didn't have internet access. But once I did, Windows 7 started to look on the internet and installed various other missing components.

True the computer is empty, but it feels like it is running faster than my top of the line laptop with Vista installed - even after I just bought it. And it boots and shuts down quickly too.

After I play with it a bit more I will report further on Windows 7, and decide if I want to take the risk and install it on my laptop.

One thing I will say, I think Microsoft should give Windows 7 away for free to all Vista owners as a free upgrade (Service Pack 2?). Even from my few hours with it last night, it is clearly a major step up from Vista (which I happen to like by the way, despite that it is heavier than XP).