Should I upgrade to Windows 7 from my existing Microsoft Operating System?

Will my equipment handle Windows 7?

This is a Good question and the right one to ask. Below is what we at Entec believe you should have as your minimum specification before thinking of going to Windows 7; (Microsoft’s recommendation is lower, but we know you want to actually do work on your PC …)

Upgrading from Windows XP Pro

This is likely to be the easiest path to work out.  If you have a machine which is three years or older, you will most likely not have the hardware requirements to upgrade to Windows 7.  You can run the following from Microsoft to check on your current hardware. 

Download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from the site below and it will let you know if your hardware is up to specification (remember; this is to Microsoft’s specification, not Entec’s)

• Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx

After running the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, it will give you a list of any incompatibilities on software, hardware and suggestions or links to fix them, if they are available.  A sample of what the report looks like is below:

Upgrading from Windows Vista

The good news about upgrading from Vista is that your hardware is most likely able to run Windows 7 as the hardware specifications for Windows 7 are the same as Vista (Microsoft specifications).  To confirm this, you could also download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (as above).

Cost to Upgrade to Windows 7

Education, Charities, Not for Profit organisations, Museums, etc can upgrade from any previous version of windows to any version of Windows 7 (eg: from Windows XP Home to Windows 7 Ultimate).  In the commercial world, in this case, the Windows XP Home would need to be upgraded to XP Pro, then to Vista Pro before an upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate was allowed.

For charities, you can also check with CTX to get Windows 7 (whichever version) for reduced costs compared to the commercial world.

For full advice on the least cost route please call or email the Entec Sales Team on sales@entec.co.uk or 01462 499599.

What are the Advantages of going to Windows 7?

With newer hardware becoming cheaper and more being purchased, you’ll want to take advantage of it.  No use buying a new engine then leaving the car in the garage!

Windows Vista tried to do this, it had lots of great features, but it was “fat”.  It loaded features whether you wanted them or not, it didn’t release memory when applications closed and there was a lot of code written in to it that made it memory hungry and slow. 

You may have noticed in the press that it was not very well accepted by most of the IT world.

Windows 7 has improved on a lot of the great features Vista introduced, but it has been put on a diet.  It runs faster, it is more reliable.  It has better security (especially if in a Windows Server 2008 domain) and introduces even more features.

To get a better idea of where Windows 7 can improve on efficiency for you, look on the Windows 7 website here:

• Microsoft Windows 7 Website
  http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/windows-7/whats-new.aspx

Windows 7 - Summary

The technical team here at Entec have been running Windows 7 on a PC for months (first as evaluation, then release candidate and now as the retail edition).  I’ve included the PC specs below. 

We ran it on 1.00GB of RAM as recommended by Microsoft initially (as it is a 32-bit version) and found it a little slow when we had Outlook, our Helpdesk software, Excel, Word, ACT! and a couple of instances of Internet Explorer 8 open.  Adding another 1 GB of RAM to 2.00 GB made a world of difference.

As usual, any questions, give me a call or send me an email.

Rob Grealy
Tech Specialist
E rob.grealy@entec.co.uk
T 01462 499591

Entec Novare Limited is a specialised supplier to UK Education and Charities providing ICT products and services throughout the UK.
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