Win 7 & Lose XP 64-bit - Your Input

[CEHill]

Could someone assist in selling the idea of migrating the OS to Windows 7 from Win XP 64-bit. This will be a really difficult task from the local IT tech and myself to sell to the IT manager. We need any information / observations from reliable sources including yours.

We suspect that the Autodesk software instability issues on my new Dell T7500 workstation are due in large part to limitations in the Windows XP 64-bit OS environment.

We are focusing on the OS **ONLY** after several rounds of reloading CAD software and installing service packs/updates, accounting for any network issues, checking connections etc.

Thanks in advance!

[cadtag]

Win7-64 or 32?

one reality is that XP64 is still-born. essentially unloved and supported barely if at all by both hard and vendors. Win7 is new, lacks drivers for older devices, but seems much more stable and robust. I've only played with the 32 bit version, but if your hardware is up to XP64, you should like Win7-64 performance.

[KRice00000]

Possibly have you're IT Manager check out this Microsoft Technet article titled "Ten Things IT Professionals Should Know About Windows 7" which might shed some light on some of the positive aspects focused towards IT systems management and security Windows 7 has to offer.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd350196.aspx

Where I work we've been performing extensive testing on Windows 7 to prepare for company-wide use. We use many (100+) different engineering and design applications that needed to be tested for compatibility. We've also run into our share of problems with some applications that do not follow standard development practices and are always difficult to get working on new OS's. It's also expected since the vendors don't provide updates on a normal schedule. That's not to say we've not been able to overcome the issues with various work-arounds such as using different types of virtualization technology where necessary.

Check out my releated post here:
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=112828

[KRice00000]

You could also share the information from the following site with your IT Manager:

http://www.microsoft.com/everybodysbusiness/en/us/products/windows7.aspx

At my company we're also in the middle of upgrading all of our Domain Controllers to Windows Server 2008 R2 to allow us to take full advantage of all the Windows 7 IT management features such as AppLocker, BitLocker, Direct Access, Branch Cache, etc.