When you’re faced with the usual Easy Install screen (the one containing the Customize button), press Command-Option. Notice that the Help button changes to say About.
If you click the About button, you’ll be treated to several consecutive screens of lighthearted credits by the programmers (and a button that changes to say More About). Yes, it’s the Apple Installer — as it says, “The hottest installation technology anywhere!”
Moving to System 7 for the first time
A hard-disk driver is an invisible set of software that tells your Mac how to control your particular brand and model of hard drive. It’s among the most important software on your Mac.
A driver that worked fine under System 6 probably won’t work fine under System 7, however. Although it’s less certain, a System 7-savvy driver may need to be upgraded for System 7.5. This is one of the most under-publicized aspects of migrating to a new System: You must update the hard-disk driver!
Updating the driver, fortunately, doesn’t mean that you have to erase the entire disk. Just run the Apple HD SC Setup program provided with your new-version system disks. (Or, if you have a commercial hard-disk formatting program, such as Drive7 or Hard Disk ToolKit, use the latest version of that instead.) But do it. If you don’t, you’ll get all kinds of erratic and unpleasant system crashes and hangs once you’re up and running in the new system.
As a matter of fact, anytime you upgrade to a new system, you should also check out your hard drive using Disk First Aid (again, on your system disks) or a commercial hard-drive doctor program like MacTools or Norton Utilities. This step takes care of any lurking corruptions or problems that may get magnified under the new system.
One final thing: For best results, do a clean install of your new system version, as described earlier in the Installer Secrets. And when that’s done, to be extra safe, don’t just throw all your extensions and custom control panels into the new System Folder. Add a few at a time, restarting the Mac after each batch; this helps you track down any incompatible extensions you may have. (If one of them gives you a system crash, you’ll have a better idea of which one it was.)