Generally, retail pricing of Windows 7 upgrades is cheaper than comparable upgrades to Vista were. That's good news for consumers. Microsoft surely wants to put the embarassment of Vista behind it as quickly as possible, so it's pricing Win7 to sell.
Check the PC vendor's website for details on getting your Windows 7 upgrade. This seems to be a shot at Apple which has been wooing the college market with discounts for ages, and released Snow Leopard at prices everyone had to read twice. The company has done stranger things, like Vista for example.
At least we don't have seven different versions of Windows 7 from which to choose, as Vista offered at first. Yes, Windows 7 comes in six editions but only Home and Professional will be generally available.
The others target niche markets like netbooks, "developing countries" and enterprises. That deals a blow to freelance tech journalists' incomes but simplifies life for the rest us enormously. It may even be possible for Microsoft to keep two operating systems updated and patched properly. If cost is the decisive factor in your upgrade intentions, don't neglect the Linux option. Its price - free if you download it somewhere, generally the cost of a CD and shipping otherwise - cannot be beaten unless the vendor includes a check payable to you.
Desktop consumer-friendly flavors of Linux are getting better and more popular all the time. Consider, also, the cost of upgrading hardware or buying a whole new computer capable of running Windows 7 at an acceptable level of performance. Take these official minimum hardware requirements for bit machines and double them, to get a realistic idea of what you need:. The good news is that Windows 7 seems a little lighter on its feet than Vista.
So it will probably run just fine, even on computers that are 3 or 4 years old. This article was posted by Bob Rankin on 14 Oct Posted by: Ted Martin 14 Oct Is there a test program available that will tell me whether the programs I am running will be compatible with Win 7? What I will need to upgrade? There is no major architectural change. Posted by: Alexander Nicol 14 Oct Posted by: MerryMarjie 15 Oct I first encountered Vista in a new laptop purchased the week Vista arrived, and later in the fall with a whole new desktop, and I'm definitely sorry I didn't stay with XP.
Vista brought more nightmares than could be counted, the majority in networking four computers. Yes, if you don't want to share files. At any rate, I'm not about to jump into Win 7, despite all the glowing reviews, until I see six months of ordinary user assessments, and even then I might wait for Win 8. Posted by: leon dombroski 15 Oct It could save you some time later.
Your computer will reboot a few times and eventually the Wizard will return, this time running in Windows 7. At this point, you'll be able to do things like set up a password, set security preferences, set time and date, etc. Finally, you're running Windows 7! And you have device driver issues. Let's take care of that.
Launch the device manager by pressing Start and typing Device Manager in the search box. If you see yellow exclamation points, those devices have driver issues. The easiest way to fix them is to double-click the item, then click the update driver button. Select Search automatically for updated driver software. If you're lucky, that will fix your issues. If you're human and you still have a few devices with issues, try looking at the Windows 7 Upgrade Adviser to see if the device and its new driver are listed.
If that doesn't work, check the manufacturer's Web site. Once you get your devices running to your satisfaction, time to install your old programs. Gather your CDs and external drives or whatever you used to store the programs earlier and get to installing. For some programs, you might want to download the latest versions. Finally, you can restore your data. It's all there in a folder called Windows.
But we don't have to mess with that, since we did the Easy Transfer Wizard earlier. Make sure your external drive is connected. Then click Start, choose computer, and under hard disk drives, choose the external drive where you stored your transfer data. Find the file you should have named 'Windows Easy Transfer--Items from old computer' and double click. Finally, you're ready to insert the Windows 7 disc. When doing a clean install, it doesn't matter if you restart and boot off the disc or just run it from within Windows.
It will give you one last chance to check compatibility. If you're sure you don't need that, go ahead and click "Install now. It will ask if you want to go online and get updates. I say yes. It could save you some time later. Your computer will reboot a few times and eventually the Wizard will return, this time running in Windows 7.
At this point, you'll be able to do things like set up a password, set security preferences, set time and date, etc. Finally, you're running Windows 7! And you have device driver issues. Let's take care of that. Launch the device manager by pressing Start and typing Device Manager in the search box.
If you see yellow exclamation points, those devices have driver issues. The easiest way to fix them is to double-click the item, then click the update driver button.
Select Search automatically for updated driver software. If you're lucky, that will fix your issues. If you're human and you still have a few devices with issues, try looking at the Windows 7 Upgrade Adviser to see if the device and its new driver are listed.
If that doesn't work, check the manufacturer's Web site. Once you get your devices running to your satisfaction, time to install your old programs. Gather your CDs and external drives or whatever you used to store the programs earlier and get to installing. For some programs, you might want to download the latest versions.
Finally, you can restore your data.
0コメント