Here’s an Upgrade for Ya!

In the small business space, I frequently see businesses purchasing computers at a retail store and then wanting to add them to the domain network in their office. The rub is that most computers purchased in retail stores run a home version of Windows, which cannot be added to a domain network. In the past, this was a costly mistake as a professional Windows upgrade needed to be installed to the computer, which usually meant purchasing a new Windows license (an upgrade version) and performing a fresh install of Windows. With Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade process, the costly mistake is not so costly.

Image via CrunchBase

I recently was helping a client with a new computer, and the computer that had been purchased was running Windows 7 Home Premium. I did a little research before arriving at the client’s site and found that it was a very easy upgrade process from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional edition. Not having experienced this before, I was a little skeptical about the ease of this process. In the past, Microsoft was not known for the ease of upgrading the operating system.

Microsoft has included an icon to begin what is known as the Windows Anytime Upgrade. You click on the icon and are prompted to either purchase a license for the version of Windows 7 that you wish, or enter the product key for the version of Windows 7 that you have in your possession. “How could it be that easy?” I found myself asking. We proceeded through the Anytime Upgrade process and Windows 7 began to go step through the upgrade. The screens are very similar to the patching screens that Microsoft has been employing for Vista and Windows 7. After a few “Please Wait” screens and a restart, the computer was upgraded from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional.

After the upgrade, we added the computer to the domain. This was almost two weeks ago, and I have only heard great things from this client about Windows 7. What possessed Microsoft to resolve all the painful upgrades that we previously had to endure? I can only imagine that years of criticism finally made a dent in the Microsoft armor, and the solution that they unveiled with Windows 7 is certainly slick. I am glad to see that Microsoft is finally making their varied products more accessible to consumers.