ablack, I am
not an expert (and i defer to the many experts on here), but i would leave vista on if you only have the upgrade version of 7, since it needs to "see" an active version of vista to do the upgrade (I think?);
what i did was create a new partition, install Windows 7 (using upgrade disc) onto it, then formatted the vista partition, and everything works fine so far; i am happy to report:
-> boot time reduced about 80%, from 5-6 minutes with vista ultimate to 1:20 with Windows 7 ultimate; this is huge improvement;
-> shut down time down 80-90%, from 2-3 minutes (vista) to 20 seconds (Windows 7)
(note: above stats are will all same software and hardware, no 3rd party apps except firefox);
-> and, although i am not in any way shape or form religious, i literally got on my knees and prayed to a higher power when Windows 7 recognized my printer (although i had to go to the Brother website and grab the
driver), added the printer, and, wait for it...THE PRINTER WAS STILL THERE AND FUNCTIONAL AFTER REBOOT (with vista, i ALWAYS had to delete printer and re-add new printer each and every time my PC was shut down, a MAJOR PAIN!
Windows 7 is seeming to be very snappy and so far no crashes or freezes; i am happy so far but it is only day one - and after Vista I am very leery of being optimistic so soon;