Well I finally bit the bullet. While I had tried vista on my work laptop, and after sweeting it for 3 months, went back to xp.
Microsoft Windows 7 seemed to be the answer to what I was looking for.

So I finally decided to use the Beta on my main gaming machine. My main work machine is a MAC.

First, Lets see how well the beta behaves. So I created a new VM on my Mac, and did the install from the ISO.
Wow, it went smooth and easy. Very fast install compared to XP. And so much better than Vista.

So after playing a bit with that, I decided that my gaming machine needs a cleanup. So its a great time to
give Windows 7 a try. In my house I currently support 2 desktop for my kids under Vista, another of the same desktop for my wife, and a desktop for myself, plus a laptop. I've migrated most things to my MAC.

For me on the Gaming Machine, WOW is very important. Vista generally left something to be desired on Gaming performance.
So Windows 7, I thought there was hope.

So first making sure that I had copies of everything, I decided to do a "new" install without formating the disk.
(Not something I generally like doing by the way). Windows 7, renamed the windows folder, and moved the Document and Users, as well as the Program files under the Windows.old. I like that implementation. I then went into the Windows.old, and dragged the documents folder back to the Windows 7 location. Wow, it noticed and put the photos in the right place.

I then turned on my Pixma 5000 USB printer, and Windows 7, went out and grabbed the right printer driver and installed that as well. Nice.

Now to do a first go/no-go test. I sent a shortcut from my WOW.exe to the desktop. And ran it. It worked right out of the box.
WOW client is actually very good at copy and go. And with Windows 7 it was no different. Good job Microsoft. I'll do some detailed testing tonight, but so far the performance and drivers look good

Now lets move on and try a older version of office. Installed was clean.
And to my shock, the old version of Office was FAST. Now that is a improvement.

So I'll update the post over the next few days. I really want to try some of the new VM offerings from VMware,
and Microsoft.