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Why Flea Markets and Other Businesses should Consider Upgrading to Microsoft Windows 7
1/3/2010 12:00:00 AM
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Microsoft’s new operating system “Windows 7” is already launched and many flea markets and small business owners are still uncertain to upgrade their current IT infrastructure to Windows 7. This uncertainty has also arisen due to problems faced by many of the businesses from the Microsoft’s earlier operating system “Windows Vista”. Most of the small as well as large businesses never upgraded their Windows operating system when Vista was released and continued using XP. Some of them who got upgraded to Vista or acquired Vista as a new purchase got themselves downgraded to XP later. A lot of the marketing jargon put out by Microsoft has been focused on Windows 7 being "faster" and "easier." The company says it listened to the concerns of small businesses, such as time constraints, compatibility issues and security, in developing Windows 7. Microsoft assures business owners it has tackled those concerns in this latest release, including faster start-up and shutdown, extended battery life, a smaller file size with less demanding hardware requirements and fewer alerts.
Before discussing on the worthiness of upgrading to Windows 7, let us review some of the questions one should review before upgrading current computers to Windows 7.
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What will the upgrade cost me?
This will depend on the number of computers Windows 7 would have to be installed on.
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Whether the current computers are compatible for Windows 7?
The business owners can check the computer’s compatibility by downloading and installing the “Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor” from the below link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1B544E90-7659-4BD9-9E51-2497C146AF15&displaylang=en
This creates an icon on the desktop and business owners can run the upgrade advisor to check if Windows 7 can be installed on their current computers.
The minimum hardware requirements for Windows 7 are given below:
Windows 7 system requirements
If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:
o 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
o 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
o 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
o DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Additional requirements to use certain features:
o Internet access (fees may apply)
o Depending on resolution, video playback may require additional memory and advanced graphics hardware
o Some games and programs might require a graphics card compatible with DirectX 10 or higher for optimal performance
o For some Windows Media Center functionality a TV tuner and additional hardware may be required
o Windows Touch and Tablet PCs require specific hardware
o HomeGroup requires a network and PCs running Windows 7
o DVD/CD authoring requires a compatible optical drive
o BitLocker requires Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2
o BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive
o Windows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available hard disk space, and a processor capable of hardware virtualization with Intel VT or AMD-V turned on
o Music and sound require audio output
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How much change can my employees handle? Will they need to be professionally trained, or will they accept an instructional guide?
Most of the changes in “Windows 7” are user intuitive and can be easily picked by the current employees. This should not be a bottleneck in upgrading to Windows 7.
New Features in Windows 7:
There are many new features in Windows 7 and some of the important ones are listed below:
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Live Taskbar preview and find the window you need.
With Windows XP, a taskbar shows the programs you've got open and lists the associated files you're working with. With Windows Vista, if you hover over a program on the taskbar you can see thumbnail images of files you have open with that program. But you can't interact with the files.
With Windows 7, you can point to a taskbar icon to see actual images of all of your open files or programs. Then, move your mouse over the image to preview the window full-screen. Click on the full screen image, and you can start working with it immediately. You can even close windows from the thumbnail previews—a big time saver.
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Parental Control
When your kids are using a PC, you're probably worried about how much time they spend, and what kind of games they're playing. With Parental Controls in Windows 7, it's easy to supervise each of your kid's PC use without having to peek over their shoulders.
For starters, you can decide what times of the day are right for your children and what programs they can use. And if you have games on the computer, it's really easy to decide what games your kids can play based on the game's ratings.
With the Parental Controls in Windows Media Center (available in Windows 7 Home Premium and above), you can also block access to objectionable TV shows and movies.
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Sleep and Resume
Windows 7 is ready when you are. When resuming from Standby, Windows 7 is designed to reconnect to your wireless network faster so your PC will be ready to use in seconds. You'll spend even less time waiting for your PC to be ready if you use the Sleep mode.
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Home Group
Home Group is a new addition to Widows 7 and easily allows sharing the photos, music, and files on each of the PCs running Windows 7 on your home network. It's especially handy when you want to share a printer.
Conclusions:
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I’ve been using Windows 7 for some time now and I find it to be a worthy upgrade. While the improvements over Vista and even Windows XP aren’t dramatic, they are significant and worth upgrading.
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Before spending between $119.99 and $219.99 for a Windows 7 Home Premium or Ultimate Premium upgrade discs respectively, the business owner should evaluate the cost of upgrade vs. buying new computer pre-loaded with Windows 7. With personal computers prices at near record lows, the business owners may be better off replacing current computers rather than upgrading. The upgrade cost can be significant if we consider the upgrade cost on the licenses as well as on the labor, if the upgrade is being done by an external consultant. The upgrade has to be done for not only the operating system but all the drivers and current software, if required, should be upgraded to the ones which are compatible with Windows 7. The exact license cost along for each of the Windows 7 version can be reviewed at http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/compare/default.aspx .
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By getting Windows 7 on a new machine you not only avoid the hassle of upgrading but you’ll probably wind up with better hardware for less than you paid for your old system. For example, Dell’s laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium is available at a cost of $120 along with a pretty fast processor, 3 gigabytes of memory and a 320 GB hard drive whereas an upgrade license for Windows 7 Home Premium may cost anywhere from $120 onwards. If you bought your computer recently, check with your computer maker or Microsoft to see if you qualify for a free upgrade.
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