Windows 7, Should I upgrade?

I was asked this question a day or two ago by a co-worker and the discussion that followed made for what I felt was a worthwhile post.

Ultimately only you can or should make the decision on whether or not to upgrade. You should however do a little research to determine if the upgrade is beneficial to you. Also, be sure you understand the requirements of any upgrade prior to spending your hard earned money.

A few questions you may want to ask your self:

1) Does my current Operating System provide me with the services I need? If so, regardless of the OS you are running, why upgrade? The cost is substantially higher than most software you will buy and beyond that fancy new splash screen or special effects, what do you really gain?

2) Is my current OS still supported. Vista will be supported for many years to come, Windows XP on the other hand has reached end of life status by Microsoft. However, be sure you fully understand Microsoft's product support before upgrading on this premise alone. What most people do not realize is that Windows XP entered into what Microsoft call "Extended" support on April 14th of this year. It will remain a supported product until April 08, 2014. What does this mean to you? That not much really changes. Extended support means that Microsoft will continue releasing security fixes but any non-security related fixes are only offered to companies willing to pay for the development of such fixes. In other words if it works today it will work tomorrow but over time some software may become incompatible with your Windows version.

3) Are there upgrades to software that I do use that is not supported by my current OS? If so, then it may be time to upgrade. While most software companies design with backward compatibility for the most recent OS releases there may be added features in a new OS that prevents this backward compatibility.

4) Will my hardware support the new OS and is it compatible? This can be a huge factor in two ways. First, if your hardware is not supported or lacks the horsepower to properly run the new OS then you are faced with spending a couple hundred on the software, only to have to go buy hardware upgrades, or perhaps even a new PC. Second, if your hardware just will not do with the new OS then you will probably come out cheaper buying a new PC that comes pre-loaded with the newer OS. This is usually cheaper than buying the OS and then upgrading hardware. Just be sure to plan on a means of transferring your existing documents and other data to the new PC.

If you do decide to upgrade then good luck to you and please post a comment on your decision and what factors helped you make your choice.

Regards,