Windows 7 Installation

So I, like just about everybody else on the planet, recently installed Windows 7. Lured by the promise of "looks like Vista but is fast", I fired up Virtual PC and installed it.

I'd like to complement the installation procedure. I've installed various versions of Windows quite a few times, from the days of 3.11 where you had to insert about 10 different floppy disks, to Windows 98, to Windows XP. The Windows 7 installation was hands-down the easiest I've ever done.

It asks you for three bits of information at the start: your language, where it should install to, whether you agree to the license; and that's it. Then it goes and installs. After a few restarts it's done, and you get asked a few more questions (username, security settings and product key), but really, compared with the stop-start nature of Windows 98 and the "stop in the middle" nature of XP, this is just fantastic. Well done to the guys that designed and implemented this. It's really good.

Here's a screenshot of my installation. Note how the length of the "collecting information" is pleasingly smaller than the "installing" bar.