Windows 7 has been out for just over a year now and I have been happily running it on my main computer since. There were a few minor issues with the new operating system to start with but most of those seem to have been sorted out by some of the many updates and patches released by Microsoft so far. The first Service Pack is due to be released sometime during the early part of 2011 – this will contain the majority of the important updates and patches made available to date.
For those of you running Microsoft’s Vista on a laptop I would strongly urge you to consider upgrading to Windows 7.
Vista was OK if you were brave enough to try the 64bit version and had enough spare cash to put as much memory (RAM) in as your system would allow. Vista was a bit of a resources hog, so if your laptop only has 1 or 2GB of memory then the true performance is very likely being severely held back. Also nearly all Vista laptops came installed with one of the 32bit versions, so any more than 3GB of memory would be a total waste (32bit operating systems are only capable of utilising up to 4GB of memory but you usually only get to use around 3GB of this).
Windows 7 is what Vista should have been, that is the hype and after 13 months of using it I do tend to agree. Some of you are probably still using windows XP - well I have to say you are probably one of the more sensible ones. The trouble is Microsoft will eventually stop providing security updates and patches for XP, meaning any new vulnerabilities not already fixed will not get fixed after the cut-off date. No major panic – Microsoft have extended support for XP until April 8th 2014.
Windows 7 
Certain versions of Windows 7 do allow you to upgrade from within XP or Vista (In-Place Upgrade) but you need to check the Windows 7 upgrade table below to see which option is available for you.
The idea behind the In-Place Upgrade is you do not need to reinstall all your current programs, files, folders and settings. Unfortunately, when I attempted an In-Place Upgrade from Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit to Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit, it worked (after about 6 hours of installing) only for the system to become unstable to the point the laptop almost learnt to fly. I do not recommend this option! I would suggest a clean install of Windows 7 on a freshly formatted (or new) hard drive – after you have backed up all your important files and made a note of all the serial numbers for the programs which you are going to need to re-install.
With a clean (Custom) install of Windows 7 you can take this opportunity to step up to the 64bit version (if your system is capable of running a 64bit operating system). This will then allow you to put as much memory in as your hardware supports (and your budget permits). Another option would be to purchase a new hard drive – with the increasing availability of newer solid state drives, conventional hard disk drives are becoming relatively inexpensive. If you purchase a new drive with a bigger capacity than your existing one – the old drive can be removed and placed in an enclosure which can then be used to transfer your files to the new one and then be formatted and used as a means of portable external storage.
Whatever option you decide - upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 is going to be considerably cheaper than paying out for a new Windows 7 laptop (or desktop) computer.
