With the freshly-burned Windows 7 Beta DVD in my PC’s optical drive, I was ready to begin the ordeal, chore, task of installing Windows 7 onto my pristine and much beloved Windows Vista test computer.

I suppose I could have tried to boot my PC with the Windows 7 Beta DVD, but instead, I just shoved it back into the slot. Immediately a Windows 7 Beta splash window appeared. I cautiously clicked the Install Now button.

Get Updates

The next step is to get “important updates for installation.” Even though I downloaded an ISO (disc image) from Microsoft, apparently Microsoft can’t figure out how to refresh that image on their own web site. That missing step requires that you download updates, which I cautiously did.

Yea, verily, there were no important updates, or they were installed in a stealthy manner and I didn’t notice.

Read The License Terms

I don’t know anyone who actually reads the EULA, or software license. I suppose some lawyer might be able to read it and understand the thing, but that presents two problems: First, the lawyer wouldn’t know who to bill for his reading time and, Second, he would vociferously object and refuse to agree to the thing. So there’s no point in not clicking the Accept button.

Choose Installation Type

There are two options: Upgrade and Custom.

The Upgrade Option takes your productive, well-functioning PC and turns it into the horror of a PC beta test computer. Risky.

The Custom option is what I chose. I wanted to install Windows 7 Beta on a second internal hard drive in my Windows Vista test system (a computer that I love). According to the directions I barely read on the Microsoft web site, the Custom option lets me create a multiboot system.

But wait!

I cannot create the multiboot system on my secondary hard drive. Windows cannot boot from anything other than the primary hard drive. That means I now have the following tasks:

1. Shrink my drive C partition to free up some space on that drive.
2. Oops! Delete some files and programs to clean up some disk space first.
3. Now, I can shrink drive C. Shrink-shrink-shrink.
4. Create a new partition on drive C for the Windows 7 beta.
5. Re-run the installation DVD.

Three hours later, I’m trying to install the beta on the new volume I created, which is currently drive W (get it?) on the PC’s first hard drive. Yes, it works. The files are copied. More waiting ensues. Windows restarted the PC several times. I’m not certain how many because I took a break for lunch.

When I came back from lunch, I saw the Windows Boot Manager startup menu. There are two options: Windows 7 and Windows Vista. They both worked. I’ll cover my thoughts on Windows 7 next post.