If you've managed to get your hands on the latest copy of the September 2009 PC Authority magazine (on sale at your local newsagent now), you'll have your own free full version of Windows 7 Release Candidate to install from our cover disc (without maxing-out your download quota).
We've already covered the raw performance benchmarks, and gaming performance, which show improvements, though as our data shows, it's not an immediate big speed bump. So what about boot times?
Microsoft has been working hard to improve boot times in Windows 7. Microsoft identified that only 35% of Vista systems booted in 30 seconds or less, and 75% in 50 seconds or less - a statistic that Microsoft deemed unacceptable.
To reduce this, Microsoft has been trying to streamline the number of system services the PC ploughs through when booting, as well as enabling the parallelisation of driver activation, rather than queuing them all up to be enabled one-by-one.
Our tests measured the time it took for the PC to arrive at a usable desktop, although none of our systems broke the 30-second barrier: XP took longer than a minute, with Vista taking 49.3 seconds and Windows 7 reducing this to 47.2 seconds. It's an improvement, if not exactly ground-breaking.
Next up: DivX and Xvid in Windows 7
Also in our series, Windows 7 the complete guide:
Part 1: good news for gamers?
Part 2: raw performance benchmarks
Also see: The 30 Best Features of Windows 7