One point to note with Windows 7 launch is the confusion about the upgrade process and compatibility with business networks and domains.  Below is a graphic from Microsoft’s website detailing the Windows 7 upgrade & install process.

Use this chart to determine whether you should do an upgrade or custom (clean) installation.

UPGRADE TO:		Windows 7 Home Premium	Windows 7 Professional	Windows 7 Ultimate
Windows XP, all editions
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Ultimate

Upgrade available Custom (clean) install required

To upgrade an earlier operating system than Windows XP (for example, Windows 95 or Windows 2000) you will need to purchase a full license of Windows 7 and perform a custom installation.

Speaking with several clients we still hear some misconceptions about upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 and upgrading from Vista to Windows 7.

Windows XP – Home and Professional Versions

As noted in the info above you cannot perform and in place upgrade from any version of Windows XP to Windows 7.  That means you will need to save data from the Windows XP install to an external drive and then install Windows 7, which will erase everything on the disk including Windows XP and all the data.  This is the same as upgrading or migrating form Windows XP to Windows Vista.

Windows Vista upgrade to Windows 7

With Vista you can perform in-place upgrades to Windows 7.  This means you simply insert the WIndows 7 installation media, CD, DVD, and upgrade with a valid license to start using Windows 7.  The graphic above shows the different versions of Vista and the upgrade options to Windows 7.  One nice thing Microsoft did was to change the names back to the Windows XP version names of Home and Professional editions.

So there is not any confusion for business users, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate may be joined to a Windows server domain.  Windows 7 Home Premium, the only home edition, cannot be joined to a business network Windows domain.

Windows 7 easily works great for home as well as business users.  The professional and Ultimate editions of WIndows 7 may be joined to your Windows business network domain, including SBS, with ease.  It is a solid alternative to XP and Vista and provides compatibility with older Windows XP programs if needed.  One other point to note when looking to upgrade or change to Windows 7 is to make sure you get the correct version regarding business use as well as 32 bit or 64 bit for your hardware and programs.

Let us know if you are interested in upgrading or moving to Windows 7 computers for your business network.  We can help. Indianapolis computer service provided by L5 Solutions.

Business technology really can help your business and not just exist as a necessary evil. If you’re interested, you can learn more by talking to us and our customers.

Get a solid backup and recovery solution for your business. Don’t cut corners, or costs, on this one. What would happen if your business server(s) quit working right now? Even if you have a backup, such as on tape, on an external USB or even on one of the many cheap offsite backup options, would you be able to recover your server and how long would it take? If you’re using tape to backup still I really recommend making a change. Tape has a pretty significant rate of not allowing you to recover data. That rate varies depending on study, but often I see 50% failure for tape backups when trying to recover data. The cheap offsite or online backup is cheap. But when you calculate how long it will take to process and download your data it becomes a measurement in days not minutes that you need for a business that is down.

We’ve gone through the whole evolution of backup media options, software, hardware, offsite, imaging, data centers, etc… After much searching and a number of trials we’ve got a proven backup and disaster recovery solution that really works. this backup/imaging option is a server (NAS) that sits onsite at your business. It takes multiple incremental snapshots throughout the day, up to every 15 minutes if desired. It handles SQL and has some pretty great Exchange mailbox item recovery built-in (it actually works!). So if you delete a file or need to go back and check revisions of files/folders it’s all there. The recovery is fast because the device is on your internal office network.

So what if your server crashes completely, like if someone decides to use it as a coffee table and spills their cup o joe. If your server crashes this NAS backup device can be up and running an image of your server in under 30 minutes. Yep, less than 30 minutes and your business is working just like nothing happened. This gives you time to purchase a new server and then port the image onto your new hardware and BAM… your new server is going and your a happy camper.

So what if there is a major incident like a water line break or a tornado… in this case the NAS also allows for transfer of data/backups/images offsite to secure data centers in Colorado and Maryland. The data is all encrypted using the highest available schemes such as blowfish or 256 bit encryption.
…besides the fact we recommend placing the NAS backup device at a different area of your office than the server…

It’s just like going to buy insurance, no one wants to take time to do it or spend money on it, but boy, when something bad happens and you can recover from it quickly you understand why you need it.