GamersCircle

There are a lot of Windows XP users who are hoping Windows 7 is their operating system salvation. Even though it’s pretty obvious that Win7 is more like Vista than XP, the e-mail and blog comments around the net indicates heavy interest.

As Mary Jo Foley writes at ZDNet, that presents a problem for Microsoft, who must cater to hardware partners who see Windows 7 as a chance to sell more shiny new machines:

. . . I’d bet Microsoft and its PC partners aren’t very keen on seeing users run Windows 7 on older machines. They want to encourage them to buy new — and preferably more expensive — PCs. (That’s a big part of the reason Microsoft and its OEMs are pushing multitouch as a new, hot feature for forthcoming Windows 7 PCs.) Even if Microsoft could support the older XDDM drivers on Windows 7, I doubt that it will do so, as that would send mixed messages about both its intention to move users to the new WDDM driver model, as well as its desire to get users to buy more new PCs.

It will be interesting to see whether Microsoft offers users the option to upgrade directly from XP to Windows 7 — or whether it will only offer upgrades from Vista to Windows 7 — once Windows 7 is released in final form. The question becomes even more pressing given that Windows XP will likely be a bigger competitor to Windows 7 than any other operating system out there (just like IE 6 is one of IE 7/IE 8’s most formidable rivals, from a market share perspective).

In terms of process, Windows XP users won’t have much choice when it comes to putting Windows 7 on their existing systems. A Microsoft product manager said at CES last week that there will be no way to upgrade Win7 on top of XP, so that your settings and applications remain intact. You’ll be able to do an upgrade install, but it will nuke your Windows XP installation and move its files into a folder called windows.old. This is currently one option in a Windows XP-to-Vista upgrade, but it’ll be your only choice in XP.

This scorched-earth XP upgrade is currently what you’ll see in the Windows 7 beta, in fact. If you’re an XP user, you’ll essentially have to make a backup, cross your fingers and pray real hard when you hit that Install button.

Once you do, though, I think you’ll find that Windows 7 runs quite nicely on older hardware. It has the same minimum requirements as Vista – a 1-gigahertz processor, a gigabyte of memory, and a graphics adapter with at least 128 MB of video RAM in order to see the Aero glass effect in the interface.

Related posts:

1. Microsoft: Windows XP to Windows 7 upgrade possible
2. Microsoft provides latest Windows 7 roadmap
3. Windows 98 lifeline ‘prompted by Linux threat
4. What is a Windows Vista Capable PC?
5. Microsoft to push IE8 as an automatic update