Thread: Testing your PC for compatibility with Windows 7

Even though Windows 7 is supposed to have a reasonable resource requirement, you would rather test whether your somewhat old notebook is fit for the new Windows at all.

As before for Vista, Microsoft also offers an 'Upgrade Advisor' for the new Windows for free, with which you can test the system for its suitability for Windows 7. The program is still in the beta phase, but is running stable. To be able to use it you will need to install the .NET Framework 2.0. First extract the Zip-Archive and open the contained MSI-installer packet. Then you can directly start the tool. Before further analysis, ensure that you have connected and switched on all the important external devices to the computer, so that these are included in the test. First click on 'Start check' and wait a few minutes till the result is there.

The advisor gives information regarding the compatibility and possible problems in the columns 'System Requirements', 'Devices' and 'Programs'. Besides, it recommends steps that help overcome difficulties. Thus, for example, a direct upgrade is not possible from an XP-computer. Instead, Windows 7 must be re-installed. A backup of My Documents is thus mandatory.

To check the further executed tests, click 'See all system requirements' or 'See all devices'. Using the button 'Save report', you can export the test results to an HTML file for later checking. For that, change the file type in the Save dialog to 'Web page complete (*.htm; *.html)' and click on' Save'.The links in the dialog do not always function correctly, but sometimes lead only to the storage folder of the tool. The driver search must be thus carried out personally on the Internet.