Let there be Windows 7

I have installed Windows 7 on my Sony VAIO FW490 for a few weeks already, and I am loving every minute of it. I have to admit that I have a very high expectation for Windows 7, after reading all about it on the web during its beta and RC releases. I am happy to report that the final retail version of Windows 7 did not disappoint. The OS is quick to response, the visuals are attractive, the Aero features (Aero peek and Aero Snap in particular) are quite useful, and the new taskbar is a godsend. Gone are those annoying UAC warnings and confusing security settings. It reminds me of the good old days of Windows XP; everything just works. There are, of course, still some minor problems that I hope Microsoft could fix. For example, the inability to minimize Windows Media Players to the right side of the taskbar, and the inability to overwrite an existing theme (currently, you have to save a new theme and delete the old one every time you make changes) can be somewhat frustrating.

Anyway, I am not writing a full review on Windows 7, at least not for now. Today, I just want to share my experience on installing Windows 7 on the FW490. Overall, the installation process is rather straightforward; you only need to decide how you want your hard disk partitioned. The entire process took about 30 minutes and involved two restarts. If you can install a software on Windows Vista, you should be able to install Windows 7 on this machine without reading this post. Think of this simple guide as an entertainment, instead of an instructional material.

To begin, you will need:

1) A copy of Windows 7 - You can download a copy of Windows 7 from MSDN or MSDN-AA library after August 6, 2009 or wait until October 22, 2009 for the retail version. If you system has 4Gb or more memory, it is recommended that you get the 64bit version. Here I will use the Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit version.

2) Your Sony VAIO FW490 with a fully-charged battery (it is always best to have a full battery whenever you are doing something that could potentially mess up the system).

3) A copy of the Ricoh® MS Memory Card Reader/Writer Driver (64bit) and Alps® Pointing Device Driver (64bit) from Sony eSupport

4) An external hard drive, a flash drive, or some blank DVDs for backing up your old documents.

Let's begin!

Step 1) Backup all your important documents! Since we will be doing a clean installation, all the files on your hard disk will be erased! Remember to backup your desktop and bookmarks in addition to My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, etc.

Step 2) Turn off your laptop, insert the Windows 7 Installation DVD, and turn the laptop on again. After a few second, you should see a text saying "Press any key to boot from CD/DVD..." or something like that. If you do NOT see that, chances are you have changed the boot sequence in the BIOS before. To change it back to the factory setting, restart your computer and hit F2 to enter the BIOS setting page, navigate to the third tab to change the boot sequence.

Step 3) Hit any key to boot from DVD, you should see the beautiful Windows 7 animated logo and the installation page 40-50 seconds later. Simply choose your installation language (English by default) and hit "Next". Afterward, you will see a giant "Install Now" button, hit the button.

Step 4) Read the End-User License Agreement, if you have the time, then check the appropriate box. The next step is critical! You MUST choose the "Custom Installation". It is absolutely essential that you do this, because this is the only way you can install a fresh copy of Windows 7 on your laptop. It is always a good idea to do a fresh install of the OS (as opposed to an in-place upgrade) as your system will perform better with a fresh install.

Step 5) Next, you will be asked to select a partition onto which Windows 7 will be installed. At this point, you can also change, create, and delete partitions in your hard drive. The VAIO FW490 has two partitions by default. The first one, about 10.4GB in size, is the Recovery partition, which holds an image of the Windows Vista installation located on the second partition. If you happen to ruin your Windows Vista, you can use the image in the Recovery partition to restore your laptop to factory condition. Since Windows 7 is clearly much better than Windows Vista, I highly doubt that anyone will want to go back to Vista. I recommend deleting both partitions and create new partitions yourself.

The image on top shows the original Recovery partition and the Vista partition on the Sony VAIO FW490. The image at the bottom shows my partition setting. I created a 148GB partition (Partition 2) for Windows 7, and two 75GB partitions for data and backup purposes. Notice there is a 100MB System Reserved partition; this is created automatically by the Windows 7 installation wizard. Do NOT attempt to delete or change the System Reserved partition.

Step 6) When you are satisfied with your partitioning, hit Next one last time, then sit back, relax, and watch Windows 7 install itself on your machine. The process is surprisingly fast (about 20 minutes; in contrast, installing Adobe Studio CS3 takes an hour). During the process, your computer will restart twice. When it does, simply do NOTHING. Do NOT hit any key or eject the DVD. Wait until you are asked to choose a username and password, then follow the instructions to finish configuring your Windows 7.

Step 7) Finally, you will be greeted with the Windows 7 welcome screen and you will get to play around with all the awesome new features of Windows 7. When that initial rush of excitement has subsided, remember to install the MS Memory Card Reader/Writer Driver (which is the Unknown Device listed in the Device Manager, and the Alps Pointing Device Driver that you downloaded earlier. This will enable the touchpad's scrolling function.

Step 8) Check the Device Manager (Control Panel > System and Security > System), all the hardware should function normally (no exclamation point anywhere). The volume control and playback control on top of the keyboard should function probably. The mute button (Fn+F2) should also work. The brightness control and the application launcher buttons do NOT work. You may choose to also install the Sony® Shared Library and the Sony® Notebook Utilities to enable these functions, but I rather skip them because I prefer to keep the system as light as possible.

I have also prepared two video clips demonstrating the installation process. Enjoy!