Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Upgrade Edition for XP or Vista users (PC DVD), 1 User

Having reached the point of almost tearing my hair out due to the sheer inadequacy of Vista, I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to the 32-bit version of Windows 7.

The whole process ran very smoothly and only took around three hours from start to finish. However, the really amazing thing now is that I've yet to find an app that worked with Vista but doesn't work with W7. For my money, I now have a fast and stable box which no longer freezes at the drop of a hat and actually shuts down when asked.

So, on the one hand I'm left wondering why Microsoft didn't release a service pack for Vista which addressed all the faults that W7 seems to have fixed, whilst on the other, I'm thrilled to bits with Windows 7. Shame on you, Microsoft, for not supporting your Vista users.

Whilst certain differences in the new interface such as 'Libraries' may take some getting used to, if you're thinking of upgrading from the loathesome Vista, simply do not hesitate.

If I had upgraded from XP, I would have given this product 5 stars, it really is a very good OS - easy to install, easy to use, every program seems to run on it first time (so far!) and there's some very nice new features.

So, it's perhaps a little harsh that I have only given it 3 stars, but that is purely because, in my mind, I already bought this product 2 years ago when I bought a new desktop with Vista installed. There is very little to differentiate it from Vista, apart from one big thing - it works!

My experience with Vista wasn't all that bad, but I have had constant explorer freezes over recent months and since August, Windows Update hasn't worked at all and therefore upgrading (or re-installing XP) was my only option (I'd tried to fix the problems without any luck). I therefore justified the cost, especially as I thought I might be getting something new as well.

£80 (or £65 through Amazon) is a lot of money to have to spend because the previous product didn't work. I'm not sure any other company would get away with this - if you'd bought a brand new car and it constantly didn't work and repairs didn't help, would you just buy a newer version!?!

Anyway, I did, and I'm happy that it works, happy I got a good price through Amazon, but not happy with Microsoft for not just releasing a further service pack - for this is all this product really is.

As previously mentioned, there are some nice new features (especially if you are coming from XP). The Aero interface is nice to look at, they've added the Snap, Peek and Shake features since Vista, which are all ok, but nothing groundbreaking. The taskbar thumbnails are better than before, especially when you can actually interact with them when using Windows Media Player or iTunes

Windows Media Center is better than before, as is for the most part Windows Media Player - a couple of items have been removed at my annoyance, and the gadgets are a bit better, as they don't have to be on the sidebar (which has been removed) so can be anywhere on the desktop.

But all in all, the biggest improvement is that it works - no freezes, no crashes, no blue screens of death. Hopefully, with future service packs (the first due in December) this will continue to be the case.

So if you want a version of Vista that works, get Windows 7

Upgraded from XP to Windows 7 in an afternoon as from XP you have to do a clean install. Windows PC transfer and upgrade advisor not really that useful. Upgrade advisor said the only issue was my network card. The reality was the network card works perfectly but my Zoom ADSL modem won't work as the software is incompatible. Windows PC transfer is a waste of time, you might just as well copy your files to a USB disc manually and export your browser settings. Photoshop Elements' catalogue didn't work as the file locations were different so this had to be imported from my backup. Windows Live Mail is different to Outlook Express so manually copying the emails, contacts and accounts was required.
Once everythings installed, Windows 7 works just great. It boots a little faster than XP but shuts down much faster. Takes about 650MB RAM with just the operating system and AVG anti virus running. Jump lists and the way the task bar works really speeds up everyday tasks and snapping windows side by side is very handy.
Well worth £65 and an afternoon's effort in upgrading.