Blog...thoughts from Taylor Made
Windows 7 – Time to take the plunge?
Microsoft Windows 7 appears to be settling in nicely and has received positive feedback from within the industry and end users (despite the questionable quality of the adverts on TV). But is the hype a justifiable enough reason to start to introduce it into your network and what benefits would it offer?
The negative experience of Vista understandably created hesitancy amongst most users to upgrade– in fact one of Vista’s lasting legacies will be that it proved XP was actually one of Microsoft’s most reliable and functional operating systems to date. As with everything in IT though, technology moves on!
Microsoft officially ended mainstream support for the now nine year old Windows XP on the 14th April, 2009. Since then clever people with little else to do other than create viruses, spyware and other methods of annoying everybody else have managed to find several security holes in XP that Microsoft are not obliged to plug that quickly.
The shortcomings of the ageing software were even shown up unintentionally by a faulty McAfee antivirus update that caused global PC reboots and failures. Both Vista and 7 escaped unscathed! There is an argument that it was outside of Microsoft’s control, but the situation did highlight in quite spectacular fashion that XP is a vulnerable target.
Security aside, why would you want to change what is familiar? It is a fair question, but a nine year old piece of software is, well…nine years old! The way we all work has evolved and we expect results faster and more efficiently. The actors in the Windows 7 adverts will not win any awards – but the message they promote is accurate…Windows 7 contains new features that allow you to work more effectively.
The layout of the desktop does initially seem alien to any XP (or even Vista) devotee, but after a small amount of time it all begins to make sense. You’ll be amazed how one less click of the mouse here and there can streamline the simplest tasks. Features of note include the new task bar and search facility…small changes that make a big impact.
Finally, the economic situation of the last two years or so has created a widespread mindset to maintain and make the most of existing PC hardware. This is a good policy in many cases and the typical life cycle of a branded PC is definitely longer than in previous years – we generally find 5 years is now a realistic target.
There is a point though where the machines’ level of performance begins to be detrimental and hinders productivity. So many of us have experienced the scenario of ‘arrive at work, switch on PC, go make coffee, find PC still booting up, have a chat with the person next to you about what you had for dinner the previous night, PC still booting up…’. Thirty minutes may have passed before you can simply read your email. Now multiply that by your number of employees and you start to accumulate a lot of lost time. Investment in replacing those older machines with new hardware and Windows 7 could give your business that extra boost of productivity and competitive edge.
To summarise, all good things come to an end and like it or not, this is the case with Windows XP. It can be very easy to follow the universal policy that ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it’. It is difficult to disagree with that theory; however, whilst not entirely broken, XP is starting to show cracks and Windows 7 does genuinely represent a positive move in the right direction following the less than successful Vista.
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