jasoncross.org

Today is the first “official” availability of the final Windows 7 bits. What everyone is calling “RTM” and should probably just call “final” or something, now that it’s sort of out. If you have a TechNet subscription, or if you are getting a free copy because you were in the invite-only technical beta, you can download the final Windows 7 today. In English. Other languages to follow.

In fact, that’s what I’m doing right now. I spent a good bit of time yesterday evening backing everything up, because I’m going to wipe my system out totally and start from scratch. Of course, I’m running the Release Candidate of Win7 today, so this is something of a formality. I use these new OS releases as an excuse to really back up all my stuff to an external hard drive. That part is easy.

The more complicated part is downloading and dumping into a folder on said external drive all the drivers I’ll need (not many, just audio, graphics, and Razer mouse) and all the downloadable programs I use. WinRAR, VLC, bDule, Zune, iTunes, Steam, Impulse, web browsers, the list goes on and on.

Later today, I’ll nuke my hard drive from orbit, boot to a bootable USB key with the Win7 files on it, and start the reinstall game. I’ll check in with word on how that’s going.

Update: Well, everything went totally smoothly. The worst part was the painfully slow downloading, until I found out this tip. Well that, and the interminable boredom of re-installing all my applications. Today I update my notebook. At least I have the Batman: Arkham Asylum demo to wile away the hours.