According to all available sources; Microsoft are giving Windows Vista SP1 users an easy upgrade option to Windows 7 when they release it. kkomp.com’s prediction is that Windows 7 will be available later this year (2009): probably in late August.

The hardware required to run 7 will be no different to that which Vista runs on; but some XP users with older computers may not be able to meet the minimum specification set out for running Win. 7. The minimum hardware requirements for Windows 7 are as follows:

1 GHz CPU 

1 GB RAM 

  At least 16 GB free hard drive space

Graphics card or onboard graphics with support for Direct X 9 graphics and 128 MB memory.

XP users with older computers may find that they have to upgrade their RAM to 1GB and fit a graphics card or a better graphics card. XP users who use computers with a processor that is less than 1GHz should, in my opinion, keep using XP on it for now, relegate it to a second machine or give it to the kids, or use it as a server, and buy a new machine with Windows 7 pre-installed after it is released.

What I mean here is that if your machine has a processor less than 1 GHz, then your machine is getting very old and may not last much longer anyway. Upgrading to a faster processor will probably entail replacing the motherboard for a newer model capable of running a modern processor, which might also mean replacing the PSU too. Unless you want a retro-look machine with today’s standard capabilities; plus you have the money, time, and expertise to fully rebuild it, it’s simply not worth bothering with.

So let’s assume that you do have a machine capable of running Windows 7, but which you’re currently running XP on. What are the options? Many users didn’t bother with Vista due to rumours, mostly true; of driver incompatibilities, software issues, performance problems, and hardware dysfunctions. I’m one of those users myself.

Microsoft will allow us XP users to purchase an install Windows 7 at a discount; but the upgrade option is seemingly a no-no. Unless you’re a Vista user it’s a backup your important data, reformat, and install Windows 7. – No easy upgrade option for us traitors who failed to follow Microsoft’s every move to the letter. Oh no; we dared to disagree with the almighty software-giant and we must now accept our punishment.

Would it have been so much easier if we’d moved up to Vista when we were commanded to do so? In short no: in my opinion the extra hassles, problems, toils, crashes, downtime, confusion, etc, that moving to Vista pre-SP1 would have involved would far outweigh a simple backup, reformat, and install.

- And then there’s a matter of crap: Crap builds up on any disk from the moment it’s first used with a Windows operating system: Bits of deleted files, broken links, data and file-system corruption, registry errors, unseen malware; it all increases with time and starts to slow your system down, cause crashes, errors, and further data corruption. Upgrading your operating system from, in this case, Vista to Windows 7, brings all that crap with you into your new installation, causing problems right from the start.

I suggest taking the XP user’s route anyway, whether or not you’re running Vista right now: Backup anything important, reformat, install Windows 7.

In fact I’ll go one further than that and say if your hard-drive is more than 2 years old: No matter which company manufactured it and how great it appears to currently perform; replace it with a new and  larger one.

Why? The average working life of a hard-drive; depending upon manufacturer, is 2 to 4 years; more commonly 3. If yours is 2 years old or more it has probably at most another 2 years of life in it. Also when you purchased it; whether preinstalled in your new machine or as a replacement for the old one, it seemed huge and you thought you’d never use all that available disk-space. (I remember thinking that when I purchased a new machine with an 80GB HDD in 2001. By 2007 when I built myself a new machine I’d almost used all the available space and had fitted a second, larger, hard-drive also.)

Think big, think forward: 250GB – or whatever the capacity of your current hard-disk – may sound reasonable today, but in 2 years time you’ll probably be replacing your almost worn-out and full 250 GB drive with a much larger one, if you haven’t experienced a disk-crash by then.

Go buy a 1.5 terabyte disk and install it as your main drive, your C: drive. By all means use your existing drive as a second hard-disk, a data-store for little-used files perhaps, but as I said; think forward. Format your new 1.5 terabyte drive in NTFS and install Windows 7 on it. Delete any junk on your old disk; subject it to every security scan imaginable just to be on the safe side, and use it while it lasts.

Maybe Microsoft’s in the light of reality done us XP users a favour? What’s your opinion?