How can I use jQuery 1.7 without having issues in the admin pages? Is anybody successfully running jQuery 1.7?
I'm using a jQuery component on my pages which requires jQuery 1.7 or later. This version causes some unwanted side effects in the admin UI, such as checked checkboxes that don't reveal additional controls when available, or field widget not being active.

I was wondering if there's a solution that could let me easily work with jQuery 1.7.

I saw this answer before asking. As far as I understand, there are 2 separate issues: updating src of the jQuery to 1.7.x, and updating the javascript used by admin. I tried to use the latest jquery_update development snapshot, and apply a patch, but it does not solve the above-mentioned problems with UI.
I would look at Clive's advice on doing it manually here:

How do I update jQuery to the latest version I can download?

and add some more intelligence into the script to not do it on admin pages, eg:

if (arg(0)=='admin') {
  return;
}


You would also have to do that on node/#/add and node/#/edit pages etc so as to not disrupt anything "core" there, or, if you want, dive into drupal core and bring everything else up to 1.7 as well.

Depending on what version of Drupal you are running, this might also work:

function YOURTHEME_preprocess_page(&amp;$vars) {
  if (YOUR CONDITION HERE) {
    $scripts = drupal_add_js('PATH TO YOUR JQUERY FILE');
    unset($scripts['core']['PATH TO DRUPAL JQUERY FILE']);
    $variables['scripts'] = drupal_get_js('header', $scripts);
  }
}


where you could set "YOUR CONDITION HERE" to be whatever pages you want the new jquery on, eg, arg(0)!='admin' etc.