Windows 7 Upgrade Provides Clean-up Opportunity

If you’re running an older version of the Windows operating system, you may be wondering if Windows 7 will speed up your computer a bit. For users like you, there’s good news and bad news.

Windows 7 Migration May Provide Cleanup Opportunity

Actually, the good news is kind of thin. If you’re already running Windows Vista, you’re probably in good shape for Windows 7. You’re likely to have all of the hardware support you’ll need, but you could still run into a few pitfalls, not the shallowest of which is Vista Home Basic. If you’re running Vista Home Basic, there’s no easy road from Vista to Windows 7 for you.

You’ll either need to reinstall the operating system or upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium first, as opposed to just upgrading what you’ve got to Windows 7. Sorry! That means you’ll need to take special care with your files and applications. On the other hand, if you’re transferring files from your old system to a new one that runs Windows 7, Migration Day would be a great time to rid yourself of old applications, taskbar widgets and the virtual tons of stuff that takes up space on your hard drive but doesn’t perform even one useful function.

Cleaning out your old applications and re-installing the ones you still use on your new OS is the opportunity to regain some speed from your old hardware. When you re-install your applications, however, take a good look at the “standard installation” before you choose that route. Often, the standard installation will pull the old “start on bootup” trick, meaning that the application will start up every time you boot your computer. This takes up a lot of memory and will degrade the performance of your computer if you let that one slip by often enough, especially for little applications and widgets that you don’t really need.

Cleaning out your old hard drive will also give you the opportunity to leave old files behind. In many cases, these things just take up space, hastening the inevitable disk fragmentation that will occur. If you think you may need old files at some point, burn them off to a CD or store them on a USB drive. My bet is that you’ll never need these items. If you do, they can be kept handy without bogging down your computer.

If you’re running Windows XP or an even older version of the OS, Microsoft recommends that your “upgrade” to Windows 7 consist of buying a new computer with the OS pre-loaded. (Seriously!) That’s fine if you’re in a position to do that. It’s Microsoft’s way of saying that you’d need to do some serious hardware upgrades to your old computer if you really want to run the latest software.

Photo Credit: Certified Su, via Flickr

Related Blogs

Tags: clean up your computer, speed up your computer, windows 7 migration, windows 7 upgrade