October 27, 2009, 10:16 AM — Microsoft sent me two copies of Windows 7 Ultimate last Friday (the 23rd) and I installed the 64bit version on the refurbished HP mini-tower I bought last year with Vista on it. Based on my interview with William Stanek, author of the just-released Windows 7: The Definitive Guide I did for the Daily Tip on Windows 7 Upgrade, I felt sure my fairly new HP would run 64bit Windows fine. Stanek promised almost every PC bought in the last
three years could run Windows 7 64bit. He's right in my case.
Not only fine, but faster and smoother than Vista by far. Since I went from 32bit Vista Home, I had to do a clean install. Fine with me – I wanted all traces of Vista gone and out of my mind as soon as possible. But as Stanek said, you can't go from 32bit to 64bit as an upgrade. Reports of Windows 7 upgrades stuck in a reboot loop? Early indications area that's caused by going from 32bit to 64bit as an upgrade, not a clean install.
Some applications have trouble with 64bit operating systems and need special versions to accommodate the OS. Nervously, I installed the apps I needed: Firefox and Chrome browsers, OpenOffice productivity suite, TheBrain mind mapping software, and the Foxit Reader PDF utility in place of Adobe. All work great without a hitch. So far, so good. I'm sure some older software I have around here may cause a problem, but I haven't gotten to those yet.
Windows 7 seems prettier than Vista, and cleaner and faster as well. Some or all of the speed difference can be attributed to the faster 64bit architecture, so I can't provide lab bench test numbers. Many other posts here and elsewhere have dissected Windows 7 already, so I'm more concerned about small business use of Windows 7 and whether they should work to upgrade or keep XP until they replace computers.
Is Windows 7 better than Vista? Absolutely. Is Windows 7 better than XP? Well, that's a harder question. Many people have trouble determining whether something is worse than what they have, or just different. Windows 7 is definitely different from XP, but not in the bad way Vista was different.
Should you upgrade working XP systems to Windows 7 just because? No. Don't go to the hassle and expense of upgrading good XP systems. On the other hand, when you get new PCs, don't go to the hassle and expense of downgrading them to XP like you did to avoid Vista. In that situation alone, we can see Windows 7 is a huge improvement over Vista.
I'll leave the argument about whether Microsoft should have made Windows 7 a free upgrade for Vista customers (they should, or just charge a few bucks for media and manuals) to another time (but Microsoft should have done that). For small businesses, Windows 7 won't hurt like Vista hurt. Don't be afraid.
