Recenly Microsoft announced that they will be ending support for Windows XP in August of 2014. This means that they will no longer be providing system updates for the operating system. Therefore, they recommend that all users upgrade to Windows 7, the most current version of the Windows operating system.

Before making the move to upgrade, existing users need to examine their current hardware. For those who have PC's that are older than 5 years, it may be better for them to buy new computers with Windows 7 on them. After four years, PC's tend to become less reliable and more unstable.

Users who are still running Windows Vista and are not experiencing freezes or blue screens should strongly consider upgrading their memory to at least 2 gigabytes. If Vista is not giving you any problems, there's little reason to upgrade to Windows 7, since Windows 7 is simply Windows Vista that works.

There are two new additions to the world of high speed interfaces, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt. USB 3.0 (developed by HP, Intel, and Microsoft) is the latest revision of the popular Universal Serial Bus standard which dramatically increases the data transfer rates of USB 2.0 from 480 mb/second to 5 gigabytes/second. Thunderbolt (developed by Apple and Intel) is another high speed connection that transfers data at a rate of 10 gigabytes/second.

USB 3.0 ports are quickly being phased into the mainstream in two ways. One way is from motherboard manufacturers. Although Windows 7 does not provide built-in support for USB 3.0, it will function if drivers are installed from the motherboard’s manufacturer site. Secondly, USB 3.0 ports are backwards compatible to USB 2.0 so users do not have to buy USB 3.0 devices to work with the new USB spec. Another reason why USB 3.0 ports will become more popular is because since they are more high-powered they are capable of charging devices faster.

On the other hand, although Thunderbolt ports are faster, it is likely they will not be used for the broad range of devices that USB 3.0 is used for because the cables that work with them are very expensive ($49) compared to a USB 3.0 cable ($1). These ports will most likely be used for RAID data transfer and High Definition video. However, these are very early days for these interfaces, so Thunderbolt may still wind up being the most popular.

Small organizations that don’t require a hosted email/exchange server and need simple file sharing should simply buy a NAS device. These appliances offer many of the same features that can be found in a full blown Microsoft server without blowing a hole in your business’s balance sheet. Some features include user access controls, RAID (a means of configuring redundant hard drives), remote access, and integration with other appliances like a UPS. Notable NAS vendors include QNAP, Buffalo, and Netgear.

The hardware requirements for running the 64-bit version of Windows Vista are now available on the Microsoft Website. However, a chart of hardware requirements don’t provide a clear picture as to how much memory, video card memory, etc will provide a user with a decent computing experience. And when I mean a decent computing experience, I mean one that does not include frequent freeze-ups, windows that open quickly (the “snap factor” as you will), and a PC that is not working slower than you are.

In the newest version of Windows, Microsoft tries to remedy this problem by providing you with different rating levels that indicate whether a PC’s present configuration by providing a user with a measurement designated as the “Windows System Performance Rating”. The rating system rates the individual parts of a PC (video, processor, memory etc) and then provides a composite score. So for example, if a computer’s hardware does not totally provide the best performance for Microsoft Vista, the composite rating will go down to a “1”. Whereas if a computer’s hardware is the most optimum for Vista, the rating will go up to a “5”. What this rating system attempts to do is remedy the “you don’t know what you’re missing syndrome” that many users experience with previous versions of Windows. This new tool prevents a user from not realizing that their PC’s sluggishness is due to not running with enough memory and not due to an inherent problem with Windows.

The only problem with this rating system is that you can only access it with a working version of Windows Vista. What if you are currently using XP or older and you need to know whether your current system will support Vista? Fortunately Microsoft has provided a downloadable tool to evaluate your current configuration which will inform you as to what needs to be upgraded. This tool will also inform you as to what different aspects of Vista are supported by your current configuration such as the Aero interface.