I installed on real hardware | Athlon64 3200+, 1gb DDR400, Various and Assorted SATA HDDs
Installation
Installation is very much like Vista's, with some extra graphicy bits & different wording. The entire installation process took just over 20mins to complete. Unfortunately I don't have any screenshots of this as it was on real hardware and no camera to hand!
Setting up
Once 7 has installed and booted for the first time it starts to check various peices of hardware and updates as it goes through (this replaces the initial Experience Index Rating in Vista). You are then asked to fill in details for the computer (Network name, users etc...) and then go to fill in Homegroup details (unfortunately this feature doesn't yet work. It looks like it will be replacing part of the networking settings - screens later on).
First Boot To Desktop
Once 7 boots into the desktop, you're presented with a desktop very much like Vistas with some differences. The gadgets are displayed directly onto the desktop with no gradient background to the sidebar. The Gadgets seem to be more integrated and built in to 7's shell - which is nice (and about time!)
Unfortunately if you add more gadgets the layout gets quite messy - it would be nice if they snapped to a grid etc...
The notification area of the taskbar has been worked on. The clock is still there along with Volume & Network notification icons. Next to them is a button which displays additional / 3rd party notification icons aswell as an interface for customising the way they are displayed.
There are some other differences throughout the UI. Primarily, new shell artwork in the control panel and various places throughout aswell as "Windows 7 Ultimate" branding. Aero glass also seems to remain transparent when windows are in full screen.
The Start Menu has had an bit of an overhaul & some useful features added. You can now pin things easily to the Start Menu. When you use the search facility, the results pane now takes over the entire width of the start menu.
Performance
In general, performance is similar to Vista SP1 - however I did notice that in 7 my graphics got a higher score & Aero ran much smoother overall. I have had no hangups or crashes yet - so seems fairly stable too. On first boot it uses slightly less resources that Vista and is much quicker to boot.
Networking Settings & Differences
The networking dialogs & settings seem to be getting an overhaul, and the name "Homegroups" seems to be popping up around the place. No real differences yet, apart from MS seems to have moved things from Vista's Networking Centre into seperate dialogs and screens. The network map doesn't work & some other bugs around it at the moment.
Media Player & Centre
An extensive overhaul of Media Centre & Player are also in the pipeline by the looks of things. The first thing I noticed was a Windows Media Centre Gadget, which launched Media Centre in a small screen to play music / slideshows. This works very nicely. There are also some other options added to Windows Media Player - not too much to report there yet though.
New Features
There are a few other new features popping up around the place. The Applications section in control panel now features a full program explorer, where you can view Programs, Gadgets, Updates etc... Quite a nice feature and it will be interesting to see how MS use it as 7's development progresses.
I think I have covered most of the main things here. I can't test the audio because 7 doesn't play with any of the drivers for my Realtek Audio.
Here's some other random screens I have taken
~HougTimo
