One Family’s Upgrade to Windows 7, Part Two

Andrew Cunningham | Nov 30, 2009 | View Comments

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The Spare

Hardware: Custom-built desktop PC
1.8 GHz single-core AMD Sempron processor (socket 754)
Nvidia GeForce 6100 integrated graphics
1GB RAM
40GB hard drive

Primary use: Spare desktop PC used primarily when something else isn’t working. Very lightly used.

Notes: This PC was probably the easiest upgrade, since it’s really not used for much of anything – some light word processing, Web browsing and iTunes streaming is the most action it sees. That’s probably for the best, since this hardware was low-end three or four years ago and hasn’t aged very well.

The Good: This computer actually runs Windows 7. It’s not quite as responsive as under XP, but programs launch reasonably quickly and it still handles its primary tasks just as well as it did with the older operating system.

Even though all of its hardware predates Vista, Windows Update had no trouble finding functioning drivers for everything – it had to download drivers for the chipset and the sound card, and everything worked fine afterward. Nvidia still supports the GeForce 6100 with regular driver updates, as well, so there were no hiccups on the driver front.

The Bad: I wouldn’t want to use this computer every day. The GeForce 6100 handles Aero, but not well (Flip 3D is particularly chuggy at 1280×1024), and the single-core processor joins forces with the low, shared RAM and old hard drive to make for a pretty sub-par experience.

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About the Author: Andrew Cunningham is a rarity - an IT professional with a liberal arts degree. Please don't hold that against him. When he's not supporting the faculty and staff of Kenyon College, he's writing about games, music and movies at his other blog, Charge Shot!!!

  • DanTG
    Wow, glad to help, Andrew!

    Bobby, I agree, CAD would definitely run better right on Win7.
    The main point of ZInstall is that it saves you a huge amount of effort in most of the cases - though not for hardcore apps like 3DS or CAD. After all, most of us just need the apps to be running as always, and care less about what goes on under the hood.

    Also, ZInstall can run Win7-incompatible apps just as well - I hear it's used with ACDSee products.
  • Bobby
    ZInstall would be a solution ONLY if you want to continue "using XP" on the Win7 PC. Essentially, it's a VM that runs the entire, copied XP environment within the newly upgraded Win7 environment. You "switch channels" like a TV to go from one to the other. So, your Father would still have to reinstall his CAD onto Win7 if he didn't want to use his CAD in the XP VM running on the upgraded Win7 PC.
  • Forrest
    With all those computers, They need a Windows Home Server To Back them up to and store stuff on. :) Good to see that it all want well.
  • do you have a WHS Forrest? I couldn't live without mine, but they don't seem to have taken off like I expected
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