Windows 8 will almost certainly hit the market later this year, but an amazing number of businesses have not even launched Windows 7 yet. This may be a vital thing for businesses to do because as of April 2014, Microsoft will no longer support for Windows XP. So companies will need to upgrade to Windows 7, at least, if they still want to receive formal support from Microsoft. Before rolling out a new operating system across the board it\u2019s important that companies make sure their computers are ready to make the transition.<\/p>\n
Analyze hardware and compatibility<\/strong><\/p>\n Business IT departments or Manage Service Providers will first have to evaluate the hardware\u2019s ability to run Windows 7. One way businesses can do this is by using the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 7.0 to complete an assessment of their current equipment. Manage Service Providers will need to determine if a company\u2019s applications will work with Windows 7.<\/p>\n What OS images to deploy<\/strong><\/p>\n Businesses will need to decide if they should deploy just the Windows 7 operating system and install applications later, deploy the operating system and all apps at the same time, or take a combination technique, deploying the operating system and the most critical applications that are required by all users. Those who take the latter approach can then deploy other applications in the future as needed. This is a recommend route as it is the fastest type of Windows 7 deployment.<\/p>\n Choosing the right image deployment tool<\/strong><\/p>\n Once a company has settled on a deployment approach, they must decide which tool they\u2019ll use to create, manage, and deploy the Windows 7 image. There are many tools that can assist with this including Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2012 and System Center Configuration Manager 2007 or 2012.<\/p>\n In the end, upgrading your company\u2019s operating system has to be done every couple of years. When it\u2019s time to do it, it must be planned for and executed well by individuals who have taken all of these things into account. Making sure you have a good plan will help the conversion go smoothly and with less anxiety.<\/p>\n ><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Windows 8 will almost certainly hit the market later this year, but an amazing number of businesses have not even launched Windows 7 yet. This may be a vital thing for businesses to do because as of April 2014, Microsoft will no longer support for Windows XP. So companies will need to upgrade to Windows 7, at least, if they still want to receive formal support from Microsoft<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-technology"],"yoast_head":"\n