Windows 7 Computer Advice - Windows 7 Support.

Windows 7 was officially launched by Microsoft on Thursday October 22nd 2009 and effectively replaced Windows Vista.

If you are currently running Windows Vista and are generally happy with the performance, the same computer should run Windows 7 more quickly, more reliably and more intuitively. This is because Windows 7 is less resource hungry than Windows Vista, it runs more quickly and is more stable.

Windows 7 is intended to replace Windows Vista (which was considered by many in the industry to be a failure) and Windows 7 is considered to be a definite improvement over both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Please Note; Genner Communications do not sell Windows 7. Therefore, we can be totally impartial and provide simple, honest advice about Windows 7 upgrades and Windows 7 support.

Also; since Microsoft no longer allow Windows XP Recovery CDs to be supplied, rather than "throwing away" their computers, many users can now upgrade to Windows 7. Genner Communications are currently developing a range of products (drivers and support packages) to help people to upgrade to Windows 7.

There are a number of different versions of Windows 7; Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate. the chart below is intended to help identify the differences between the systems.

Please note; for the majority of users, Windows 7 Home Premium is more than sufficient.

WHICH WINDOWS 7 IS BEST FOR YOU?	HOME PREMIUM	PROFESSIONAL	ULTIMATE
Makes the things you do every day easier with improved desktop navigation.	•	•	•
Faster and easier to launch programs and find the documents you use most often.	•	•	•
Make your web experience faster, easier and safer than ever with Internet Explorer® 8.	•	•	•
Easy to create a home network and connect your PCs to a printer with HomeGroup.	•	•	•
Watch, pause, rewind, and record TV on your PC.¹	•	•	•
Run many existing Windows XP productivity applications in Windows 7.²		•	•
Connect to company networks easily and more securely with Domain Join.		•	•
Recover your data easily with automatic back-up to your home or business network		•	•
Help protect your data on your PC and storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker.™			•
Work in the language of your choice or switch between any of thirty-five languages.			•

WHICH WINDOWS 7 IS BEST FOR YOU?

HOME PREMIUM

PROFESSIONAL

ULTIMATE

Makes the things you do every day easier with improved desktop navigation.

•

Faster and easier to launch programs and find the documents you use most often.

•

Make your web experience faster, easier and safer than ever with Internet Explorer® 8.

•

Easy to create a home network and connect your PCs to a printer with HomeGroup.

•

Watch, pause, rewind, and record TV on your PC.¹

•

Run many existing Windows XP productivity applications in Windows 7.²

•

Connect to company networks easily and more securely with Domain Join.

•

Recover your data easily with automatic back-up to your home or business network

•

Help protect your data on your PC and storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker.™

•

Work in the language of your choice or switch between any of thirty-five languages.

•

Please note; if Windows 7 is to be installed on a Netbook Computer, windows 7 will normally need to be obtained on a memory stick.

Also; most netbooks typically come either with Windows XP Home Edition or a version of Linux, such as Ubuntu preinstalled. A typical netbook using the latest Atom processor from Intel and possessing at least 1gb (1 gigabyte) of RAM typically can even run Windows 7 Ultimate, the top-of-the-line edition of Windows 7 without problems.

However; with older equipment, the question of hardware requirements for Windows 7 is not so simple.

Microsoft state that Windows 7 requires a 1 GHz or faster processor, at least 1gb (1 gigabyte) of memory for the 32 bit edition of Windows 7, or 2gb (2 gigabytes) of memory for the 64-bit edition, 16gb (16 gigabytes) of available hard drive space, and a graphics card that's compatible with DirectX 9. However, we advise that the 32 bit version of Windows 7 will run much better with 2gb of memory, and the 64bit version will run much better with 4gb of memory.

You will also need a 3D capable Graphics card with at least 128mb of memory which is Direct X 9 Compliant. Shared Video memory must leave at least 1gb of general memory free; eg if your computer has 1gb of memory, but some of this is used for graphics, the total amount of memory available to Windows 7 will be less than 1gb.

Please note that some newer games will require a graphics card that's compatible with DirectX 10.

Note; many people seem to extolling the virtues of the Windows 7 touch screen facility. However, this facility obviously requires a touch screen monitor.

Additionally; both Windows 7 Professional Edition and Windows 7 Ultimate Edition include a Windows XP compatibility mode which allows users to run Windows XP programs. However, the ability to run in XP mode requires 2gb RAM and XP Mode uses Virtualisation technology which is built into some of the latest CPUs (Central Processing Unit = Processor) such as the Intel VT and AMD V processors.

Core 2 Duo	Support for XP Mode?
E4300/4400/4500/4600/4700	NO
E6300/6320/6400/6420/6540/6550	YES
E6600/6700/6750/6850	YES
E7200/7300/7400/7500	NO
E8190	NO
E8200/8300/8400/8500/8600	YES
Core 2 Extreme
QX6700/6800/6850	YES
QX9650/9770/9775	YES
X6800	YES
Core 2 Quad
Q6600/6700	YES
Q8200/8200S/8300/8400/8400S	NO
Q9300/9400/9400S	YES
Q9450/9550/9550S/9650	YES
Core i7/Core i7 Extreme
I7-920/940	YES
I7-965	YES
Pentium D/Pentium EE
805/820/830/840	NO
915/925/935/945	NO
920/930/940/950/960	YES
955/965	YES
Pentium for Desktop
E2140/2160/2180/2200/2220	NO
E5200/5300/5400	NO

Mobile CPU - Processors

Core 2 Duo Mobile	Support for XP Mode?
L7200/7300/7400/7500	YES
P7350/7450	NO
P7370	YES
P8400/8600/8700/9500/9600	YES
SL9300/9400/9600	YES
SP9300/9400/9600	YES
SU9300/9400/9600	YES
T5200/5250/5270/5300/5450/5470	NO
T5500/5600	YES
T5550/5670/5750/5800/5850/5870/5900	NO
T6400/6570	NO
T7100/7200/7250/7300/7400	YES
T7500/7600/7700/7800	YES
T8100/8300	YES
T9300/9400/9500/9550/9600/9800	YES
U7500/U7600	YES
Core 2 Extreme Mobile
QX9300	YES
X7800/7900	YES
X9000/9100	YES
Core 2 Quad Mobile
Q9000	YES
Q9100	NO
Core 2 Solo
SU3300/3500	YES
U2100/2200	YES
Core Duo
L2300/2400/2500	YES
T2050/2250	NO
T2300/2400/2500/2600/2700	YES
T2300E/2350/2450	NO
U2400/2500	YES
Core Solo
T1300/1400	YES
T1350	NO
U1300/1400/1500	YES

Please note; to obtain the correct Printer Drivers for your system, please call us on 01952 405264 or 01952 405265. Printer Drivers CDs cost £10 & are available on CD - DVD or via download.