Many (if not most) users of Microsoft Windows based computers are wary when considering whether to upgrade to Windows 7.  Vista never seemed to be a viable upgrade path for many (if not most) Windows XP users, for many reasons including performance, stability, and usability.  So, has Microsoft finally provided a stable and usable upgrade path from Windows XP?

Perhaps before we answer that question, we will ask another – “Why should I consider upgrading to Windows 7?”  There actually are a few good reasons to consider upgrading:

Security – Perhaps the most compelling for moving to Windows 7 is for security.  Microsoft finally attempted to protect users from unwanted changes to the operating system with UAC (User Account Control) in Vista, which prevents updates to the system unless authorized by the system administrator.  However, most users found it extremely annoying to be “bugged” by their computer, confirming they “really want to perform action X”.  In the end many users simply disabled UAC which of course defeats the purpose, and leaves the computer exposed to many forms of viruses and malware.

UAC exists in Windows 7 also, but is much more intelligent.  For example Windows 7 can ignore certain operations that are initiated by the mouse or keyboard, indicating to Windows “Leave me alone and let me do my job!”  UAC in Windows 7 is friendlier, is more apt to be left enabled, and therefore is more likely to be in a position to protect the computer from nasty attacks.  Many users have fallen victim to “phony antivirus pop-ups” that trick users into installing an “update”, but instead actually corrupts the computer, which is costly to correct.

Organizational Consistency – Microsoft stopped shipping Windows XP at the end of 2009, meaning ALL new computers are shipping with Windows 7.  Organizations with a mixture of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 installed face increased complexity and costs for supporting users as invariably some computers in the office will work differently than others. This doesn’t sound too bad, but there can be hidden costs such as supporting different versions of printer drivers for shared printers.

New Features – Sorry, but “gadget” folks like us can’t leave this out!  Windows 7 offers significant improvements like faster Search, more powerful Windows Media Center, and a much more usable interface.  Laptop users will also notice some improvements in power efficiency, yielding longer run times between charging.

“What about performance?” Various benchmark testers continually compare performance between Windows 7 and XP – results are mixed.  In tests using older “XP era” hardware in 32 a bit environment XP seems to outperform Windows 7 in most operations.  However, much of the work to display screens was moved to the video card in the Aero interface found in Vista and Windows 7, so the user experience feels faster to users, since users never see slower processing in the background.  Windows 7 is actually much faster than XP booting up Windows, hibernating, and also shutting down.  For an operating system that is much more modern feature rich than XP, Windows 7 actually holds up pretty well.

So there are good reasons to upgrade, and performance won’t suffer – the question remains “Does it make sense for MY business to upgrade?”  There are a number of factors to consider, including:

• Will your hardware support Window 7?  Generally speaking if your computer is three years old or newer (Vista compatible), your hardware will support Windows 7.  Microsoft provides a Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx) that will examine your system and alert you to any concerns.  If you are planning on updating from 32 bit to 64 bit, the Advisor will alert you to any shortcomings on your system.

• Will your software support Windows 7?  Major software vendors like Symantec, Adobe and Intuit had access to Windows 7 long before official release.  But if you need to upgrade your software VERSION to be compatible with Windows 7 there will likely be a cost.

The Microsoft Upgrade Advisor will identify compatibility problems, as well as Microsoft’s Windows 7 Compatibility Center (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-7).  In case you have software that will only run in XP, Microsoft includes a special “XP Mode” that will allow your “XP only” software to run from your Windows 7 computer.

I decided to take the plunge about a month ago – I backed up my laptop and chose the reload method.  Windows 7 installed very quickly, the performance gain I got feels like I got a brand new computer.  I am very happy with the results.  We have updated several other computers at SAMSA to Windows 7 with similar results.

The bottom line? In our opinion Microsoft has finally delivered a viable update path from Windows XP.  We are recommending that our clients migrate to Windows 7 as soon as possible – the benefits from improved performance and enhanced security definitely make the upgrade worthwhile.