Public Service Announcement - Windows XP

[rjohnson]

Posted about this before but here is your two month warning. Get rid of your XP systems before April. If you still have XP on a newer system you may be able to simply upgrade to Windows 7. Go here and run the adviser tool http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... aspx?id=20.

If you can upgrade I would HIGHLY recommend backing up your data and completely wiping the computer. Then do a clean install of Windows 7 and NOT AN UPGRADE to Windows 7. There can be many issues popup with an upgrade from XP to 7. Clean install is always best.

Just a PSA for everyone.

[GrizwalD]

So is Windows95 still good tho

[fireplug]

[teul2]

Ronnie, could you please come upgrade / wipe / install about 250 pcs here at work for me?
Don't have time, or money to pay you. But I'll buy ya a steak and beer.
Thanks.

[edub20]

[deltadukman]

[rjohnson]

[Deltaquack]

rjohnson.....do you still see 32 bit Windows 7 systems available anywhere? Most of these dental technologies aren't compatible with 64 bit.

[edub20]

app compat testing for win 7 took forever. with 300ish "core" apps across the globe locating and performing app testing on win 7 was a nightmare. We had to lock down config changes for 7 before moving forward too. working with a 60-70k client PC environment has it's challenges and nothing is quick... not to mention working along side security teams etc. to make their requested changes then perform model testing across 20 ish different "standard" models in the environment.

Fun times being the guy responsible for the image/processes global... and that's just my "part time gig" still have to do F/T infrastructure support for the Jackson Site.

[rjohnson]

edub that sucks, too many wheels to grease at once.

deltaquack we can purchase new systems with Win7 32bit from Dell for now. I hope we can continue to get Win7 for a while from the PC manufacturers. You can purchase a volume license for Win8 and you can install Win7 with that license. The volume license allows you to downgrade. If your dental software doesn't run on 64bit I would strongly encourage you to look at other vendors. You are limiting yourself to 4GB of RAM on each workstation which is about the bare minimum I would run on Win7 period. By limiting yourself you are going to basically be working on handicapped workstations until they get onboard with 64bit. For example we seldom order a new workstation without at least 8GB of RAM. A good number of companies are getting 16GB of RAM as their standard now. The systems just run so much better with 8GB or greater. There is also another option that you might ask them about. See if their software will run under XP mode on Windows 7. As their software grows in complexity and resource requirements I suspect it will only run slower and slower over time with the 4GB constraint you are under.

[cwink]

[rjohnson]

Cwink I would still back everything up to an external drive first just in case. What we do in our lab is take the drive out, clone it to a spare drive, put it back in, and then make changes or upgrades. This way we have a perfect copy of the way it was before making any changes to the original. If the original goes south we just clone the copy back to it and it was like nothing changed. That may be a little overboard but we don't have to worry about losing anything and can fall back if the upgrades/changes go bad.

[edub20]

[teul2]

[rjohnson]