Why Your Business Should Upgrade to Windows 7 Professional

Most companies that have computers and use a Microsoft-brand operating system use the XP operating system. It's stable, still gets support from Microsoft, and most applications run great on it. When Microsoft's Vista operating system came out most people were hesitant to touch it due to the reported bugginess and quirks of the operating system. It's been a couple of years since Vista came out and it seems that businesses are still hesitant to jump over to Vista. Microsoft's Vista operating system seems to be more of a hit with home users than with business users who still rely on XP to get the job done.

I want to point out five reasons why your business may want to consider jumping over to Windows 7 Professional operating system when it's fully released. I know most information technology teams may be a little bit hesitant to do a massive upgrade immediately, and that's understandable. Let's just look at a few features of Windows 7 Professional that may ease some fears and win some supporters.

Aero Desktop

First introduced in Windows Vista, Aero Desktop provides its users with a new look and feel for their desktop. Visualize and work with your information differently than you did with XP. With its sleek graphics, crisp design, and stability you'll experience your desktop in a whole new way. In Windows 7, the taskbar has been improved as well. So in addition, to this new desktop experience, your daily tasks can take less time, causing you to be more efficient.

Better resource management

Windows 7 makes smart tradeoffs between performance and power consumption. Windows 7 also offers power plans and settings to help you get the most out of your battery life and thus out of your worktime. With more prominent warnings of battery life you'll visually see better when it's time to get to a power source or switch a battery.

Internet Explorer 8

Windows 7 Professional includes Internet Explorer 8 as the main web browser of the operating system. Internet Explorer 8 helps protect your business from malware by identifying fictitious sites, block malicious software, and help protect your privacy. Internet Explorer 8 includes in-private browsing which is technology used to protect your privacy by not storing cookies, temporary internet files, website history and other data.

Networking Features

With Windows 7 Professional you can create your own network, or find other networks with ease. You can even have your network find you. With Windows 7 you can share documents, photos, video, music and more securely with homegroups. Homegroups are used for businesses who don't use servers and have computers that are running Windows 7.

Windows XP Mode

In the world of computers, compatibility can be the life or death of a business. If an application is only compatible for one operating system, in about two years it will become incompatible. What will become of a business's data? Massive conversions would need to happen, that's what would become of it. This means time and money spent every couple of years when it may not have to be necessary. With Windows 7 comes the possibility of utilizing Windows XP Mode which is a program that you can run from the Windows 7 Professional desktop.

Windows 7 is scheduled to be released on October 22, 2009. The only problem with an upgrade to Windows 7 if you're an XP user is that you'll probably have to upgrade to Vista first before making the jump to Windows 7. If you don't do the gradual update process, you'll have to do a clean install of Windows 7. Either way I would recommend doing an audit of software you have on your computer(s) to make sure everything ports over correctly.