Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Things To Keep In Mind When Upgrading From Windows XP

So, the Windows XP support has officially expired. Now, it’s about time you upgraded to Windows 7 or Windows 8. The whole Windows 7 vs Windows 8 argument is slowing tilting in favour of the latest Windows 8 operating system. With the new Windows update – Windows 8.1 – Microsoft has fixed some of the problems in the latest operating system.

System requirements for Windows 7 and Windows 8

You can make a Windows 7 vs Windows 8 comparison, if you like. Both operating systems have almost the same system requirements. Windows 8 would run even without the touch screen. You need a 1 GHz or faster processor, a minimum RAM of 1 GB for 32-bit OS and 2GB for 64-bit OS, free hard disk space of 16 GB for 32-bit and 20 GB for 64-bit, and a DirectX 9 graphics card or higher with WDDM driver.

Now, Microsoft has released an application called Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant, to make upgrading to the new OS smoother. Download and install this application. When you run this application, it will generate a system compatibility report for Windows 8. This will tell you whether your system is Windows 8-ready or not.

Create a backup of all your important files

A simple OS upgrade that leaves your files and data intact is not possible, when you are upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 or Windows 8. This means all your hard disk data would be wiped out. So, make sure that you create a backup of all your important files before you install Windows 7 or Windows 8.

However, if you are upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8, then you can choose an installation option that would preserve the compatible applications as well as your files and data.

Create an OS backup for your system

One of the best precautionary measures you can take is creating a recovery disc or an OS backup for your system. In case of an error, you can use this disc to recover the system back to its initial state.

These are some of the things, which you need to keep in mind while upgrading to Windows 7 or Windows 8. You can upgrade directly to either Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. Windows 8.1 is available as a free update to all the Windows 8 users. So, if you are installing Windows 8, you can easily upgrade it to Windows 8.1 by visiting the Windows Store.

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