Windows 7 Corporate Migration Considerations

When you decide to migrate to Windows 7 there are lots of considerations to think about.

First of all you have to consider your hardware fleet. But to decide if you have the right hardware you have to decide which architecture you are going with: 32-bit or 64-bit.

This is the minimum hardware requirement for Windows 7:

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Windows 7 64-bit doesn't have the limitation of a maximum of 4GB of RAM that can be used. But if you choose the 64-bit architecture then you have to consider not only the minimum hardware requirements but also your applications and drivers.

Check that all your hardware have 64-bit drivers available.

Most 32-bit applications will run in a 64-bit OS but some won't and those have to be remediate in some way. Keep in mind that some applications that work in Windows XP 32-bit won't work in Windows 7 32-bit as well. So for Windows 7 64-bit you have to consider the applications that won't work with Windows 7 and the applications that won't work with the 64-bit architecture. If you are migrating from Windows Vista 32-bit then you will probably only have to worry about the architecture incompatibility.

Examples of applications that are incompatible with Windows 7 are: applications that run in Session 0, applications with deprecated components, hardcoded paths, etc.

There are some options to mitigate these incompatibilities: upgrade the app when possible, repackage, apply shims, use a virtualization solution as MED-V (App-V can be used in some cases).

Examples of applications that are incompatible with 64-bit OS: applications that have device drivers that were designed to 32-bit OS, 16-bit applications and applications that rely on 32-bit kernel mode device drivers.

The only solution in this case is to replace the application, replace the drivers when the drivers are the issue or using MED-V (or other virtualization solution).

So as you can see there is a lot to think about. But that's only the begining. When you start building your image there are lots more considerations like default user profile, user experience, whether you will be using bitlocker, applocker, directaccess, branchcache, etc.

My next Windows 7 post will be all about those considerations.