Down under here in l'il old NZ we got it first! (Thats Aotearoa - New Zealand - three Islands in the South Pacific). (And at least 4 hours flight from Australia over the Tasman sea)
(We are just after the start of the international date line)
I went to the launch party downtown in Oueen Elizabeth Square, complete with band, compere, and x7 giveaways of HP computers with win 7. Started at 7 in the morning and finished at 8.30AM. Didn't win a computer prize though - bummer.
Went and bought an Pro upgrade for my Compaq nx6320 nb (which originally came with XP, then upgraded to Vista) and now on its 2nd upgrade, it upgraded no probs. Only stuff I had to pre uninstall was the HP Protect tools and the credential manager (for the fingerprint sensor which I did actually used to use). Was pleasantly supprised that my external Logitec webcam had a Win 7 driver sitting there, waiting on the website, - well done Logitech..
I remember upgrading to Vista, when there was all sorts of probs with device drivers early on. Doesn't seem to be the case this time.
Also did a clean install of the 64 bit Ultimate on a new disk. Only prob is that the Canon MP130 printer (yes, yes, an old one) , attached to it only had a 32 bit driver on the website. Wrote to Canon requesting a 64 bit one - well - you never know - they might oblige.
Tell you what I don't like that was not on the 'beta' (which Isort of used for several months beforehand) was the huge ugly Windows logo slap bang in the middle of the default desktop. Have changed it to a plain colour (yes, yes, I know - defeating the 'aero' stuff).

Anyhow, Ill' tell you something, until you REALY start using it for all your essential stuff, you don't really get into it properly. I'm having fun exploring.

Grand so, you got it first. If you need me to show you how to install it....PM me.

Only j/k mate.

Gonna get a copy of it myself. Wish that the Home Premium had the XP option all the same.

That's great Jules, I'm sure you must have been pretty excited. What I'm most interested in is if you can use the Windows 7 upgrade and install it on a previous XP machine from scratch and just insert the full windows XP disc when it asks for verification of full software.

The Windows XP upgrade edition had this "feature". You could upgrade from a full version of Windows 2000 from a blank hard drive. The XP upgrade disc would only ask for a verification that you've had a previous full version of Windows 2000, so what you did is just insert the disc and windows XP will recognize it and began the installation.

I've had Windows 7 a few months now :]

I'm getting Ultimate x64 for free today from a personal connection, woohoo!

In the box was a little instruction sheet for upgrading from XP.
The short message is that it will erase everything.
You are told to:
1. Run the upgrade advisor
(see what will not work, and what you must uninstall first, and if you need 32 bit or 64 bit, and what versions you can upgrade to.)
2.Save all your files and settings on an external hard drive
(Good practice anyhow)
3. You'll need to re-install all your programs eg MS Office
4. After you start the upgrade it asks 'custom' or 'upgrade'. With XP you have to do the custom one.
(There is a 'click on' to 'help me decide'.)
5. Restore your files and settings.

As I had Vista Business on this machine, it transferred all the files and settings no problem. - Im impressed. Though it did take rather a long time mainy for the 'transferring files and settings'.
Don't know if you would have to 'verify' your XP by putting in your installation disk - I suspect not. I did not have to 'verify' going from Vista to Win 7.

My local computer hardware/software supplier had a 'special' for the first day. I think about 25% off Good on them.
In any case, it wasn't half as expensive as when I upgraded to Vista on the first day (all that time ago). Then I paid a small fortune.

Anyhow, when you have to get it, you just have to get it - to h**l with the cost.

I've had it since July.

Well Tam, I've had it since July too - the 'beta' that is.
The full version was only released to OEM sytem builders in August, I think.
How did you manage to beat the system?

I posted this at the start of this thread



Well, guess what, Canon came good and sent me a 64 bit driver.
Which they have now posted on their website.
Good on you Canon. Thanks a lot.

July 19th, 2009
http://www.redmondpie.com/download-windows-7-rtm-build-7600.16...0713-1255/
Wzor is reporting that Microsoft has signed off Windows 7 Build 6.1.7600.16385.090713-1255 as the final RTM Build.

And Wzor was right -- the SHA-1 checksum of the disc image uploaded matched the checksum of the disc image on MSDN.