Upgrading Windows Vista sp2 to Windows 7...chronicle...

Finally took the plunge and upgraded my 22 month old win Vista sp2 machine to Windows 7:

Downloaded and installed Windows 7 upgrade advisor....and my PC passes all tests.
(Ran my anti-virus before hand, as advised, and then disabled it before beginning win7 setup)

It went something like this:

Inserted upgrade DVD and clicked on Setup.exe

After selecting the "Upgrade" option (as opposed to "Custom")...

5-point-menu displayed (Started at 12:30pm):

#1.Copying Windows files

#2.Gathering files, settings & programs.
machine does an auto restart after #2 after 30 mins (1pm)

#3.Expanding Windows files.

#4.Installing features & updates.
after a further 30mins, another auto restart (1:35pm)

#5.Transferring files, settings & programs. (install spends ages upon ages at "694374MB of 949330MB transferred"), then after 62% - 714027MB -(3.39pm) another auto restart.

949073 (72%) copied as of 4pm. ...and again, spends ages (30mins) at "949073MB of 949330MB  transferred "!

949330MB, finally done at 4:28pm. Another auto restart!

Resumed with request for vista product key:

Three choice menu
1. Install all latest updates (i.e. use recommended settings)
2. Install only important updates
3. Ask to Install updates later

(I choose option 2)

Date & time setting appears.

Network choices are next:
1.Home
2.Work
3.Public

(4:40pm) Windows 7 logon screen...yea!!! Yeehah!!! Woohoo!!! Yippeee!!!

The very 1st dialog I see after logging on is: "Setup has detected that the .Net framework version 4 needs to be repaired. Do not restart your computer until Setup is complete."

4:47pm, taskbar finally appears...mousing over the update icon shows "Windows is downloading updates"

4:58pm, yet another auto restart!
"Logging off..." screen is displayed for ages! (13 mins)
I finally give up and push reset button. Had to do this twice as 1st restart appeared to hang on black, blank screen (panic!!!)

Finally, (5:20pm, back at the Win7 desktop....Woohoo!!!)

Every thing seems to be working just fine, as before. So far I've hardly had to re-install any of my previous programs, applications, games, device drivers, etc., Swell!

Don't forget to click on 'Start Menu' -> right-click 'Computer' -> select 'Properties',
(alternatively goto Control Panel->System and Security->System), then under "Windows activation" entering your new product-key and then click to "Activate" your new copy of Windows 7.

Oh, and also don't forget to re-enable anti-virus.

For anyone having any doubts about upgrading...I say go for it. Hopefully your experience will be fairly painless as mine has been.

PS: I noticed hours later - I did need to re-install Windows Movie Maker (needs to be downloaded and is now part of package called Windows Live Essentials).

Also, strangely enough, I had IE9 installed previously, and this got rolled back to IE8 by the Win 7 install...quite odd!