How Do I Know If My PC Is Ready for a Windows 7 Upgrade?
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Loading ...A couple of months ago, Microsoft released its newest operating system, which it called simply as Windows 7. Given that Microsoft is an expert at marketing its products, pre-orders for this new OS shot through the roof and broke the sales records of online retailers such as Amazon.com. The growing popularity of Windows 7 nonetheless does not dispel the doubts that its predecessor, Windows Vista, created in the minds of most PC users. It is a fact that Vista failed to live up to expectations, primarily because the system had a lot of bugs and generated a number of compatibility issues.
Many computer users have that fear that if they go for a Windows 7 upgrade, they may encounter the same bugs and compatibility issues that made Vista riddled with holes. After all, who wants to change to an OS that will not recognize vital software applications that people use on a day-to-day basis?
Still, you will never know if Windows 7 works for you unless you give it a try. Perhaps the best way for you to alleviate your worries on whether you will still be able to use your old hardware and software with Windows 7 is to check their compatibility yourself. There are two ways to do this. First is to use the Windows Upgrade Advisor. Second is to visit the Windows Compatibility Center.
The Windows Upgrade Advisor
The Windows Upgrade Advisor is a piece of software that Microsoft has developed to check if a computer is ready for a Windows 7 upgrade. You can download this from the Windows 7 official website and install it on your computer. (Do not forget to open the official website using Internet Explorer.) When you have already installed the Windows Upgrade Advisor on your computer, run it and see what it will tell you.
Basically, what the Windows Upgrade Advisor will do is to check your system and see whether or not it can run Windows 7. It will also tell you if your computer meets the minimum requirements of this new OS, which are:
• A 1 GHz processor or better
• At least 16 GB of free space on your hard disk for the 32-bit version of Windows 7 and at least 20 GB for the 54-bit version
• DirectX 9 graphics processor that comes with the Windows Display Driver Model
• At least 1 GB RAM
You may also need additional memory and hard disk space, not to mention hardware, if you want to use your computer for Windows 7′s advanced multimedia applications, such as Windows Media Center and Windows Touch. In addition, the Windows 7 installer disk requires a DVD drive. Depending on what the Windows Upgrade Advisor tells you, you ought to get the hardware that your computer requires so that you can have your Windows 7 upgrade.
The Windows Compatibility Center
Once you have dealt with the hardware issues that the Windows 7 upgrade entails, you will need to handle the software next. In this, you will need to use the Windows Compatibility Center, which you will find at the Windows 7 official website.
The Windows Compatibility Center is basically a list of known software used for various purposes. The list has information on whether these applications are compatible with Windows 7 or not, and whether or not they need additional support files to run on Windows 7. The list includes word processing and business applications, desktop and graphics applications, multimedia software, games, development tools, enterprise software, and many others. You can also use the Windows Compatibility Center to check for hardware compatibility with Windows 7.
To use the Windows Compatibility Center, all you need to do is to browse the list or type the name of the software or hardware that you want to check in the given box. The search may take a while, but the Windows Compatibility Center is definitely a useful tool that can help you out.
It is understandable that you may be hesitant to get a Windows 7 upgrade because of possible hardware and software compatibility issues, especially if you encountered problems with upgrading from Windows XP to Windows Vista previously. Still, the Windows Upgrade Advisor and the Windows Compatibility Center are two great tools that can help you solve your dilemma.
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