Right I couldn't find it just now, duh! lucky I made an easy access copy when I was learning so here you go :-
http://www.filefront.com/16366675/Ki...er%20Guide.pdf
this guide explains everything you need to know very clearly.
With regard to Win7 yep every game I play got on average a 30% increase in performance when I upgraded from vista, It uses way less ram etc. and directx stuff is proper. One thing I would advise though (you may do this already) is to install games in a directory other than in the 'Program Files' default one, on a different drive ideally eg D:\Games\Ubisoft\SH4\ because like vista win7 has this user account control and it requires admin priviledges to alter files within these default folders.
And here's the other one I didn't find this one so helpful but again all neccassary information is in there :-
http://www.filefront.com/16366837/Ma...0Targeting.pdf