Windows Upgrade Advisor – Is My PC Ready To Install Windows 7
If you’re thinking of installing Windows 7 but are wondering whether your machine can safely run the new OS or not, Microsoft has just released a handy tool to test your setup: Windows Upgrade Advisor.
Download and install the software (I’m not sure why it can’t be a standalone .exe), make sure all the devices you normally use are plugged in, and hit ‘Start check.”
Windows Upgrade Advisor will then take a few minutes to scan your hardware and let you know whether your machine is ready for Windows 7 or, if not, what action you need to take. As you can see in the screenshot, because my machine is running XP, Upgrade Advisor is recommending backing up all of the data on it, as it will require a clean install of Windows 7.
The hardware requirements of Windows 7 are not much more onerous than those of Vista, so even fairly old machines should be able to run it. However, it’s useful to have a tool to check before committing to the upgrade.
Windows Upgrade Advisor is still in beta (so may still have some bugs) and is free to download and use.
