So you’ve decided to take the Windows 7 plunge, having heard all the paeans to Redmond’s latest operating system. For many users, setting it up will be a simple case of popping in the installation disc and following the prompts. But there are a few steps you should take and decisions you need to make before and during the process.
Check Your Machine’s Specs
The first thing to do is check whether your desktop or laptop PC is capable of running Windows 7. If it’s already running Vista with acceptable performance, then the answer is yes. Officially, you need at least a 1-GHz CPU and 1GB RAM, but testers of the OS have successfully got it running on machines as out of date as a 266-MHz Pentium II with 96MB of RAM. Go ahead and try that kind of thing if you want, just don’t use your license key on that type of machine. It may run, but you’ll spend a lot of time waiting for it, and it won’t display the glassy new Aero interface and enhancements.
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If you’re unsure whether your current system can run Windows 7, download and run Microsoft’s Upgrade Advisor to assess your hardware’s capabilities. When I ran it on an aging XP laptop, it told me I needed to back up my files and perform a Custom installation (see below), that my hard disk didn’t have enough free space (you need 16GB), and that the laptop wouldn’t run Aero Desktop. The good news, however, was that my 1.6-GHz CPU and 1.5GB RAM were sufficient. The advisor actually checks a lot more than the basic system requirements, and it lists every piece of hardware and software you have installed at the bottom of its report.
Choose an Edition
There are lots of different editions of Windows 7, but only three you can buy: Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. For most people, Home Premium will make the most sense. If your company decides to upgrade, Professional supports domain joining, network backup, and XP emulation. Ultimate includes everything in both other versions, and adds BitLocker encryption.
The key thing to consider here is that you have to do a clean installation—without the ability to carry your apps along—if you move from one level of Vista to another level of Windows 7, say from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional. The exception is Windows 7 Ultimate, which will let you perform an in-place upgrade from any level of Vista—as long as you don’t change whether you’re using the 32- or 64-bit version.
Don’t forget to look into special pricing offers, such as those for students and family packs. And if you’re installing on a machine you’ve freshly built, you can pay less for OEM versions that don’t include all the packaging and support. The Student upgrade license is just $29.99, and PC part suppliers offer the OEM versions at steep discounts as well.
Choose 64-bit or 32-bit
Any computer manufactured in the last few years will probably have a 64-bit capable CPU. The rule of thumb is that if you have, or intend to install, more than 3GB of memory on your PC, you want 64-bit Windows.
And don’t worry about your old 32-bit programs—compatibility features inside Windows allow most of these to run in the 64-bit OS, the exceptions generally being antivirus software and hardware drivers. One significant holdback, however, is Adobe’s Flash: If you run the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer that comes with Windows 7, you won’t be able to view Web sites that use Flash. But there’s an easy fix: Run 32-bit IE for those sites until Adobe gets with the program.
Both 32- and 64-bit installation discs come in the Windows 7 box, so you only have to specify which you want if you’re downloading the code. In short, my recommendation is that if your system can run 64-bit software, go for it: You’ll be using your CPU and memory more efficiently, and you’ll be future-proofed for upcoming 64-bit apps.