IT Management >
IT management Forums
>
IT Management Planning and Technology
>
Vista and Win7 Hardware requirements
Vista and Win7 Hardware requirements
- We're migrating 25 WinXP machines to Vista or Win7.
These are on a 2003 SBServer.
We are trying to make a decision on going with Vista or Win7 and
I'm trying to find out the "reasonable" hardware configuration required to run Vista or Win7.
Are they the same?
I'd love to discus the migration with someone who has gone from XP to Vista.
John
All Replies
- We went through a pilot program with Vista. Most of the the clients were not satisfied with the performance on the hardware that had been completely satisfactory with XP. Our minimum Vista box would have been a Dell Optiplex GX620 with a 2.6Ghz cpu 1.5 GB of memory. There were still problems with some of the applications from outside enterprise vendors, a lot of retraining to get benefits (such as moving to office 2007).
The current decision was the expense of replacing all of the XP hardware and software at this time was not worth the cost. The people that have tested the beta of Windows 7 have liked it better that Vista on the same hardware, in cases, the hardware the Vista would not perform satisfactorily on, Wiin 7 when tuned for the hardware, was judged to be as good as XP. - I have not yet configured Vista in the enterprise... thought about it, but now that Win 7 is pending I think I will wait.
I have Windows Vista and Win 7 RC at home and both work quite well. Yes Vista is resource intense and slower, IMHO, than 7, but for surfing and mail it works ok.
Windows 7 RC is great. It is on my everyday laptop and other than tinkering with it to learn where things have moved and what new items are available, I love it. I think the release of the Windows 7 OS could be huge for Microsoft.
Derek Schauland, MCSE | 2008 Microsoft MVP | Technology Addict - John, I have been working with Vista for a while now. Although we have not implemented it here at the college yet, I have been working with student computers for a while. The hardware requirements are too much. I have loaded Windows 7 RC1 on the same computers that I have tested Vista on and it is much better. The software runs smoother and the computer is much faster. If I were you, I would just wait for Windows 7 to release and go with that. That is what we are going to do.
If you have any other questions, please let me know. - Good evening John
I have been testing Windows Vista for a while now and still I am still trying to avoid the implementation and deployment in our production environment. Most of the systems that we are still getting from vendors are Vista Business DOWNGRADED to XP Professional. After start a bit ago to test Windows 7 RC even in one Acer Netbook I am completely surprised that for the one(s) where I though that I will have a lot of problems, specially with drivers and some compatibilities, I can tell you... even for the Acer Netbook I had no need at all to have to install drivers (1.6GHz Atom CPU, 1GB 533MHz RAM, 120GB HDD, Wireless, Webcam, etc...)
If I have to compare between have to deploy Windows Vista and Windows 7 I will wait until Microsoft finally will delivery the 7 for OEM Builders, Partners and Retail. No doubts at all, for the resources and investment that I will have to advice vs the performance, productiviy and budget that I will suggest to the clients and corporations where I am available to make an opinion I can tell you... I will go with Windows 7.
I still have to do a lot of testing but in terms of hardware requirements vs hardware fatigue and comparing how much do I have to invest in roll out Vista vs how much I will have to invest with Windows 7 I still think that I can make a better decision based on financial and technical point of view choosing Windows 7 over Windows Vista...
For the few ones that I had to migrate from Windows XP to Windows Vista (laptops with Dual Core, 4GB RAM, etc... and for some desktops with similar hardware configurations) in most of the cases I have two scenarios: The client hate the upgrade and have to go back to XP or The client had a lot of compatibility issues and have to roll back to XP Pro. Starting to test under Windows 7 RC environment and even the way how the client reacts it is a little bit more friendly... Still have to do more testing but, at this point, so far so good...
Regards,
JSH/- Proposed As Answer byJorge Handal Wednesday, May 20, 2009 3:32 AM
- Dear John,
to run Vista on a computer smootlhy you'll need a Dual Core processor and at least 2 GB of ram. So if your old XP machines don't have that just wait for Windows 7. I think it'll be released in October (that's just a buzz). I think the 7 will work fine on a machine with 1 GB, but more is strongly recommended. Test all of your software that you are using now on Vista. You'll be surprised how many vendors don't have drivers and patches for Vista still today.
I moved about 40 computers to Vista and had a little problem with printers but I solved this preety quick. Some network application also didn't want to work proprely. It always popped out the UAC window to enter credentials to elevate privileges, but you can solve this also with Microsofts application compatibility toolkit. Oh, I used WAIK to make the image and then distribute it over the network with ImageX. It's really simple. So that will be the least of your problems. Read about it here.
Also I had the experience of a little resistance from users using the computers, but they got used to it and now I don't have anymore problems regarding that.
If you plan to stay on a 2003 domain be prepared for some problems regarding group policy, because 2003 server doesn't include al the group policy settings for Vista and so on. This can be solved by importing ADMX templates. Read about it here.
My suggestion is not to upgrade existing XP OS with Windows Vista. Just back up files from the client machines and deploy a clean image. It takes a little longer to copy all the files back to client machines but trust me it can save you a lot of work later.
I can say to most people that are against Vista in a corporate enviorment (granted mine is small, but...) that for me it works just fine and that I am satisfied with it. But I can't wait to get to Windows 7.
And also in terms of security Vista and / are much better than XP.
So my recommendation to you is if you are not in a hury wait for Windows 7 and maybe consider migrating to Windows 2008. Also if you need to buy new hardware that's also a good reason to wait. Maybe your present XP machines will be able to run windows 7 quite all right. As I mentioned before Vista is very resource consuming.
Good luck!
- I am a Microsoft referbisher and just had 42 Dell GX260 ans GX240s die for unknown reasons, all at the same time and day. I found that the cpu was tampered with. Keep an eye on your PC.
- I have found that most Gateway computers can not be down graded to Xp due to the chip set drivers only work in vista. So for some PCs I hope that win 7 will work with the drivers needed.
- Na! Im afraid you will find they do not work!
- Im afraid you are under the spell of the computer wizard of OZ, and need to follow the yellow brick road.
- Windows 7 is good but being a pirate I can tell you that we saw all this coming and crated are own hybrid version of Win XP/Vista or is that Windows 7.
- Don't bother if you havn't got the latest copy of Cyber---- rouge copy that is possibly better and works with ------- it's on our website @ www.--------------co.uk
- Slowdown Jhon, your going too fast and you know were that get you! with the kind of knowledge that you have stored in that bucket
