Thinking about Windows 7?
Windows 7 has received a ton of hype and from what I’ve read, most of it is good. Many of us have skipped Vista for a long list of reasons. In the office and at home, I’m still running Windows XP and hope to keep doing so for some time. From what I’ve read, the upgrade from XP to 7 is not direct. As Bill Bott wrote in Can you upgrade an old XP PC to Windows 7? Should you?, “You can’t directly upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. Microsoft’s Windows Easy Transfer utility moves settings and files, but not programs.”
In Blott’s IT world, he assumes that nobody is running on OS older than Windows XP, but I know differently. Plenty of you are running automated test and measurement systems on Windows 2000 and Windows 98 (DOS?). You can bet that Microsoft hasn’t provided an upgrade path to Win7 from those.
Are you even investigating Windows 7? Leave a comment.
Destry commented:
This was so helpful and easy! Do you have any atrciels on rehab?
Henny commented:
Pin my tail and call me a donkey, that really hpleed.
Martin Rowe commented:
A friend upgraded from Vista to Win7 over the weekend. Win7 cleared a driver incompatibility issue with a RAID card. Upgrade was easy and clean. So far, so good.
Bill Thomas commented:
I have a desktop that is running 32 bit Vista that I may upgrade to 64 bit Win 7. I have never liked Vista. However, the laptop I'm typing this on is running XP pro and it will be until it dies.
RalphB commented:
We're currently running stable & reliable XP. (Made sure our last PC buys were with XP) Taking into account regular registry clean-ups and similar maintenance, performance and start-up are good. It works! Since a straightforward W7 upgrade from XP is not possible and more or less a platform change, we are going to eval it against Linux etc when the time comes. Simply put, there's no real advantage to be had from staying with a Windows OS, the hidden risks are real, especially in the drivers area and hence it's a good time to evaluate our platform strategy. And we are so tired of having to pay to be Microsoft lab-rats...
WireMan commented:
I'm a Mac user and dropped Windows and Microsoft years ago to get a good computer that actually works. Never looked back.
N commented:
My biggest concern about moving from XP is the instrument driver issue. Many of the instruments we use are some years old. Is there anyone who has any experience in running older instruments on Win7 (or Vista for that matter)?
Roger commented:
There is a lot of pent up demand for laptops and desktops. Many have laptops that have died but they wouldn't buy a new one with Vista. They are waiting for W-7. If it is not as bloated or nagging I think it will be a shot in the arm for the computer industry. Last year when my laptop was in need of replacing I bought a MacBook Pro 15" instead of a PC with Vista. Very happy with that decision. It also runs XP better than a PC. My home desktop is in need of replacing. It will be a tough decision between a 27 inch iMac or a Quad Core Intel PC with W-7, 1TB HD and 8GB RAM.
Leonard commented:
I was running XP at home but it was vulnerable to virus attack - tried Norton but it was worse than the viruses. Got a new desk machine with Vista which I really like except it won't start every other time I power up and won't display file name extensions. Will be getting a new laptop and want to try Win7. I think it's important to keep up with technology.
Martin Rowe commented:
Now that Windows 7 is on the market, the hackers and virus writers are hard at work looking for vulnerabilities.
Bob B commented:
We are indeed running EVERYTHING from Win 95 and NT 4.0 to XP Pro and XP Embedded. We did trash two installations of DOS apps. The majority are 2000 and XP. We have not looked at Win 7 yet and I'd bet it'll be another 2 years before we do.
KenW commented:
Running a Mac here, so don't plan to use Windows 7! :-)
Ha!
Martin Rowe commented:
For me, the biggest issue will be how to move 6 GB of Outlook Express e-mails to Win7, but only when my home desktop PC dies.
Victor commented:
I will only go to Windows 7 if I buy a new system; I've been contemplating buying a laptop for some time, now (didn't want to use Vista). Otherwise, I plan to keep my present desktop systems running XP.
JOHNNY69 - Milwaukee commented:
I agree with some of your posts. Windows 7 is simply just "Too New" to change to yet. We, and our customers, are still running XP Pro. (Service Pack 2)
I know that you said that no one is running anything older than XP. WRONG! Milwaukee's Federated Public Libraries are running 2000. Reason? The cost for licensing the large number of workstations they have is too costly. Inefficient as it is, it doe serve their purposes.
My company, one of three, is called "Two Old Farts & A Laptop" we have made a nice living downgrading Vista, any version, to XP. Complete customer satisfaction.
Answer me one perplexing question. Why does Microsoft keep coming up with new operating systems to replace ones that don't work? Could it be to increase sales?
End of story.
Boris commented:
No, we will not move our embedded systems to W7 for year or so, because old XP based
installations runs fine and also nicely polished. For the new hardware we switched to FreeBSD, Ubuntu and Gentoo, although learning curve were a little steep, it turns that we starting to make a profit from it.
Jeff Buterbaugh commented:
An extensive documentation of the expected impact of Windows 7 on Test, Measurement, and Control applications can be found on our website here: Getting Ready for Microsoft Windows 7 - National Instruments ni.com/windows7
DaveC commented:
Having already made the mistake of “upgrading” to Vista, I am now questioning if I should further upgrade to W7 to fix some of the “less than perfect” parts of Vista. Or is it a case of leave well alone…?
Allan Campbell commented:
The name of the game in computers is compatibility. I have absolutely no wish to change to Windows 7 unless there is a very good reason. Anyway, Linux is on the horizon and seems a better upgrade path for when it is ready.
Dave commented:
WSJ ran an article on 14 October about a product (yes, you have to buy it but not from Microsoft) that automated the transition from XP to W7. Review generally very positive. Product is PCmover Windows 7 Upgrade Assistant from laplink. Since the "Upgrade Advisor" from MS does not even run on the computers I maintain, W7 is not likely until one of the machines must be replaced. For now, I am sticking with the old saying - if its not broken then don't fix it!
Mohan commented:
Windows 7 is just another OS and like all other OS, it does nothing by itself - so if your present OS is working fine with all your applications why bother to change?
George commented:
I have systems running MSDOS, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP all running specific applications. I never considered upgrading to Vista and probably won't get Windows 7 unless I buy a new computer with it already installed.
AMA commented:
I'm excited for Windows 7 and have an order in for a new system that will come with it. That said, I won't be upgrading any of my older machines. (I also skipped Vista and am running XP on a desktop, a personal laptop and work laptop and Windows 3.1 on a very old machine for a specific ap) If the XP and older systems work great, why bother upgrading, unless you're just sandboxing/having fun? If you need something to work and it's working, I vote for stability...if you require something better, upgrading software often isn't enough anyway. Honestly, with the way hardware improves to accomodate more and more taxing software it makes sense just to wait until you buy a whole new machine. Usually the only reason for running the old hardware and OS's are because you've got legacy programs or cards that aren't compatible with the newer systems anyway, negating the ability to upgrade anyway.
RobS commented:
Windows 7 seems solid and, with the 64 bit version, better suited for my large data set applications (MCAD, HD video, large photo compositions). Me? I'm switching one system over entirely with a clean install...but keeping another system on XP just to be sure. And due to the application transfer issues you describe.
