What is the best way to install W7

[tunesmith]

I am reading the posts here and I am learning so much about W7. I want to protect the files on my computer. I backed up everything on another drive. I understand that personal situations differ, but in general what is the best way to install W7. Dual boot, or Virtual PC on a separate partition, or clean install on a separate hard drive or partition or upgrade.

I have a lot of audio software that requires many hours to install, is there a way to install W7 and not have it take my whole weekend to install these programs.

I have two machines - A Vista SP1 laptop, and an XP Pro Sp3 desktop.

Thanks

 

[swarfega]

I would seriously clean (format) install windows 7 and forget vista. If you do have software compatibility problems you can always try XP Mode. Ive not had any issues with drivers on RC.