Considerations for upgrading to Windows 7

When deploying a new version of the Windows operating system, there are two ways to choose. Either a new installation or an upgrade to the original operating system. These two methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, and the system administrator needs to choose the appropriate way according to the actual situation of the enterprise. This article has not been used to describe the Windows 7 experience, interested friends can refer to the article practical skills Windows 7 use the new experience.

First, the advantages and disadvantages of performing a new installation.

The benefits of the new installation are obvious. After the original operating system runs for a period of time, it will generate a lot of junk data. And there may be some unstable factors. For this reason, from scratch, a new installation of the Windows operating system can eliminate the original garbage data in the operating system. It also eliminates some of the unstable factors that existed in the operating system. For this reason, if the original operating system of the enterprise has already experienced some unstable situations, it is a good choice to upgrade the operating system by the opportunity of upgrading.

But it will cause a lot of trouble for the new installation of the operating system. If the original configuration is lost. If the operating system is an enterprise authentication server, it needs to be reconfigured. The most troublesome thing is to install some application software. Because some applications have copyright issues and require software vendor licenses to install. They will calculate an authorization serial number based on the server's CPU or a message from the network card before they can be installed. For this reason, it is better to use it carefully for new installations. If you really want to install a new one, it is best to install it on a new server. Because you want to relocate the services on the old server to the new server, it may not be done right away. It may take a few days or even longer. In order not to affect the use of other employees, it is best to be able to coexist with the new server system and the old server system. Wait until the applications on the old operating system are all ported to the new operating system, and the running system runs without errors before shutting down the operating system. While this requires an increase in hardware investment, this investment may be worthwhile for the continuity of web application services.

Second considerations for upgrading from a low version to Windows 7.

In addition to the new installation, you can upgrade your operating system from the old version to the Windows 7 operating system through system upgrade. If the upgrade of the system is completed through the upgrade, the system will retain the existing configuration of users, settings, permissions, and so on. So, after the upgrade, the system administrator does not need to reinstall the application or take action to recover the data. If the enterprise uses the Windows operating system as a server, I recommend that it be better to upgrade through an upgrade instead of a new installation. However, when upgrading from version to Windows 7, you need to pay attention to the following items.

1, you need to pay attention to the compatibility of the application after the operating system upgrade.

Although the Windows operating system was designed, it has made great efforts in forward compatibility and backward compatibility, and achieved good results. However, it is still not 100% guaranteed that all applications will run smoothly on the new version of the operating system. For this reason, the system administrator needs to test the compatibility of the application software before the system is upgraded. Sometimes, the system administrator can also let the software vendor cooperate to test. In general, some large application software companies will conduct compatibility tests themselves when a new version of the Windows operating system appears. However, this often has to come out after a new version of the Windows operating system has been withdrawn for some time. Because most companies don't use Windows 7 as soon as they are released. Because the version just exited often has relatively large defects, for this reason, there is no company to compete for the first person to eat crabs. Therefore, application software vendors will wait, and only if there are more customers, they will test and release test reports. Therefore, the system administrator also needs to postpone his upgrade plan. However, whether it is a software vendor test or a system administrator's own test, in short, the compatibility test of this application with the new version of the operating system is indispensable.

2. Make a backup before upgrading.

Although the process of upgrading a lower version of the operating system to the Windows 7 operating system, the probability of failure is not very high. However, for security reasons, system administrators should still do a backup of the operating system, application software, and related data before upgrading. In fact, this is a basic requirement, and any application and data should be completely backed up before any type of server maintenance. System administrators can use the Ghost tool to back up the entire hard drive, or use the tools provided by the operating system to back up the system partition. In case of an accident during the upgrade process, you can also use this backup file to restore the original application in the shortest time. In addition, if you are backing up some low-level operating systems, you may need to back up the operating system state.

3, only the appropriate version of the same version can be upgraded.

When the Windows operating system is upgraded, there are often version restrictions. The limitations of this version are mainly reflected in two aspects.

One is the restriction on the version number. Since the official documentation for the Windows 7 version upgrade has not yet come out, the limitation on the version number is not very clear. However, from the upgrade of the 2008 operating system, we can see a little bit of clues. To upgrade from a lower version of the operating system to 2008, it must be the 2003 operating system, and at least the 2003 operating system with the SP1 patch. Direct upgrade from 2000 Server, XP and other operating systems to 2008 is not supported. If you want to upgrade, you must first upgrade to 2003 and then upgrade to 2008. For this reason, I speculate that there will be similar restrictions on the Windows 7 operating system upgrade. However, since Windows 7 also provides a normal version, the upgrade of this version may not be so strict. Maybe you can upgrade directly from XP to Windows 7 operating system.

The second is the restriction on the version category. With the same version of the operating system, Microsoft is often divided into a server operating system and a common operating system (home operating system). Or the standard version and the enterprise version. This version category is limited during the upgrade. If the lower version of the operating system is a standard version, then it is not possible to upgrade to a higher version of the enterprise version of the operating system. Therefore, when upgrading the Windows operating system, the restrictions of this version category also need to pay attention.

However, it is better to do it. The system will first determine whether it can be upgraded before the upgrade. If this is not possible, the system will force the upgrade process to be interrupted without affecting the original system. For this reason, system administrators sometimes do not have to worry about whether they can upgrade. Now test it on the test server and let the operating system itself judge.

4. Do not perform multiple upgrades.

If you upgrade from Windows 2000 to Windows 7, you can't do it in one step, but you need to upgrade step by step. Although this multiple upgrade is feasible, I do not recommend that the system administrator do this. On the one hand, the operating system has been upgraded for generations, and applications are often upgraded. They will develop more stable and powerful applications based on the characteristics of the new operating system. For this reason, the original application software can run on the new version of the operating system, but the stability and performance of the system may not be as good as before. For this reason, even if the operating system upgrade is successful, you may need to upgrade the application software. At this point, it is better to have a new security.

There is also a feature of the Windows OS version upgrade, that is, each upgrade will put a higher requirement on the hardware of the system. Only the hardware configuration is improved, and the features of the new version of the operating system will be reflected. If the operating system requires multiple upgrades to get to Windows 7, then some hardware, such as CPU or memory, may be out of date. At this time, if the hardware is not upgraded, the upgraded operating system performance may still be better than the original operating system. There is no need for an upgrade at this time.

Although it is possible to upgrade a lower version of the operating system to Windows 7 through multiple upgrades, I do not recommend that the system administrator perform multiple upgrades. In general, a level upgrade is possible. If you go through multiple levels, you need to be cautious.

The last thing I want to remind is that whether it is upgrade security or a new installation, it is best to conduct detailed testing on the test server in advance. After the test is no problem, come to a new installation or upgrade installation. At the same time, it is best to back up the original operating system (including applications and data). Minimize the risk of operating system upgrades.