Austin Lane

Windows 7 was released to the public on October 22, 2009, and since that time has received very few poor reviews. By all accounts, Windows 7 is the followup to Windows Vista that Microsoft had hoped for. While those that have stuck with Windows XP will eventually be forced to migrate to a new operating system, there are a few things that can be done to ensure your systems are Windows 7 compatible:

• Ensure third party software is Windows 7 compatible: This issue isn’t nearly as much of an issue as it was with Windows Vista, it is still an issue. There are many programs still in use on older systems that are written using a 16-bit architecture. The preferred version of Windows 7 is the 64-bit edition, which allows users to install more than 4GB of RAM in their systems. 64-bit versions of Windows 7 do not allow users to run any 16-bit software package. As a result, make sure your software packages are compatible. XP mode for Windows 7 allows you to run applications that are designed specifically for older versions of Windows that are not yet available for Windows 7, but it runs slower than an application designed specifically for Windows 7 would.
• Ensure peripherals are compatible: When Windows Vista was introduced, it broke compatibility with a wide range of older devices. Windows 7 maintains compatibility with the majority of devices that Windows Vista worked with, but there are still some devices, most notably printers from HP that haven’t yet received updated drivers.

If you are concerned that your applications or peripherals are not compatible with Windows 7, please contact Austin Lane Managed IT Services.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 3rd, 2010 at 8:58 am and is filed under IT Services, Jeff's Tech Tip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.