acollegestudent

Many of you might have heard of Windows 7 beta being released to the public. It’s actually very cool and  a lot of people use it as their primary operating system now. It’s a lot snappier than Vista and doesn’t require such a powerful machine to run. If your into Windows I highly recommend you pick up a copy and try it out. However, installing it can be a bit of a hassle.

First you need to get the beta. Go here and READ IT. It tells you stuff like the fact that the beta will expire in August and you won’t be able to use it anymore. So keep the copy of Vista or XP you already have. Then go ahead and download it. If you don’t know what system you have I recommend the 32bit version. Now after downloading it you need to burn it to a DVD using burning software. Make sure your optical drive is capable of burning CD’s. Then do a quick google on the software your will use. I’m sure you’ll find directions on how to burn an ISO image onto a disk. For NERO all you have to do is open “Nero Burning Rom” and the select the “Open” option and select the ISO and then click burn. For most software it’s probably that easy.

Once you have the image on a disk you have to face a real challenge. Do you want to erase your entire disk and install windows 7 over it? This is probably the easiest way, and if you don’t use a lot of old programs you can easily get away with it. If a program doesn’t work in Windows 7, right-click it, and select “Run in compatibility mode for Windows Vista/XP” and you should be fine. However if you have disk partitioning software such as “Partition Magic 8″ then you can break off a chunk  at the end of your drive. You’ll need about 12gb but I recommend 20.

From there just pop the disk in and boot from it. You have to make sure your computer is set to boot from a CD/DVD in the BIOS. Tap F2 or F12 or whatever to enter the BIOS setup utility when booting. Then go to the boot order and re-arrange it. If you have any questions, just ask.