Time to Prep for Windows 7?

I've written a few columns already about Windows 7, touting some of its new features and benefits, especially for IT folks. But a recent October report has prompted me to again write about the new OS. Research firm Forrester's (News - Alert) Windows 7 Commercial Adoption Outlook report argues that IT pros should start now to prepare for Microsoft's latest operating system, advice that makes a lot of sense.

 

In the report, Forrester analyst Benjamin Grey points out several reasons why Windows 7 should be high on your radar screen now. To compile the report's findings, Forrester interviewed 655 decision makers at North American and European enterprises and SMBs about their Windows 7 adoption strategies.

 

Microsoft (News - Alert) will end support for Windows XP in 2014. Though that sounds like a long way off, time has a way of catching up, particularly in the IT world. Other projects and priorities surface. So it's important to ensure that Windows 7 is fully in the door and XP fully out the door long before the due date arrives.

 

Grey believes that IT pros should prepare for the new OS now through a number of steps:

 

1. Begin to test application compatibility against Windows 7. As a starting point, you can search for your key applications at Microsoft's Windows 7 Compatibility Web site to see if they're already tagged as Win 7 compatible.

 

But you know that field testing is the real priority. I had written a prior column on the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, a tool that checks a PC's hardware and software to determine if they'll run under Windows 7. But you'll want to go the next level by creating or cloning test PCs with your core apps. Then upgrade them to Windows 7 yourself to make sure those apps work.

 

At my former company, I ran a bank of PCs in a test lab to which I could apply an image of our operating system and core applications. I could then upgrade or modify those PCs to test for compatibility and other issues.

 

2. Forrester next suggests that you plan on rolling out Windows 7 in small batches on new hardware initially. This brings up a key question for every new version of Windows—do you upgrade or at least hang onto your existing computers, or do you bring in new hardware to run the new OS? If you're running Vista and your computers are still fairly new, you'll probably want to upgrade them. If you're running XP, remember that there is no direct upgrade path to Win 7. So you'll need to install the new OS and all your applications for each user fresh, whether you use your existing PCs or new ones. That leads to Forrester's next point.

 

3. Weigh the costs and benefits of upgrading existing machines with at least 2 GB of memory. If your PCs are still running fine and have at least 2GB of RAM (News - Alert), you'll want to test Windows 7 on some sample machines. With IT budgets still tight these days, it pays to hang onto your existing hardware as long as possible. Of course, this also depends on whether you purchase or lease your PCs. At my old company, we leased most PCs for three years, which also factored into our upgrade decisions.

 

4. Forrester then recommends that you begin to develop training sessions along with tips and tricks. User training is always a key ingredient for any change, and one that depends heavily on the size and makeup of your company. Do you feel your users’ need formal training to move to Windows 7? Or would documentation be enough? A good IT department has a sense of its user population, but a survey among your users could be helpful to gauge which ones would benefit from a formal class.

 

If you have the staff and time, you may want to handle training internally, with some of your IT people leading the classes. The advantage here is that you can customize the training to fit the needs of your users. If this isn’t feasible, then you'll have to contract out to an external training firm. At my former company, we typically contracted out to outside trainers for major upgrades. But we worked with them as closely as possible to customize the course material so it would be relevant for our users.

 

To supplement any formal training, you'll want to create a Web site and perhaps printed documents with tutorials on Windows 7. I also used to write a regular column on our Intranet in which I'd share tips and tricks for our operating system and core applications. So training is always an ongoing process.

 

5. Forrester's final piece of advice - Prepare for, and embrace, empowered users who want to be early adopters. Every organization has its power users and tech aficionados. These are people who may already be running the latest operating system at home. In my experience, I found such folks were usually eager to help out IT by being beta testers for major changes. We'd typically nominate a few people in each group or department to act as early adopters. Since many of our non-core applications were department-specific, this helped us test a wide range of software, more than we could in the lab.

 

Naturally, these steps will vary depending on your company. But with Windows 7 looking like a success so far, now is the time to start planning and prepping for Microsoft's newest OS.