Scott Lawrence

When it comes to software, the process of getting the software onto your machine doesn't get the attention it should.  My most recent reminder of this is my experience with the Windows 7 beta.

Knowing that the number of Windows XP users still exceeded the number of Windows Vista users by a wide margin, I was sure that the Windows 7 beta would offer an upgrade install option to XP users so they would be encouraged to upgrade.  Unfortunately, this was not the case.  Even worse, the installer let me attempt to upgrade from XP and only told me I couldn't after going through a couple of dialog boxes.  Even so, I gave Microsoft the benefit of the doubt, thinking that the final version of Windows 7 would address this oversight.

My benefit of the doubt was not rewarded.  According to this article, Windows XP users will only have the clean install option if they want to upgrade to Windows 7.   Even though the operating system upgrade experience has seldom been smooth with Windows, by offering nothing at all to the majority of their user base to make the upgrade process easier, Microsoft missed an opportunity to build goodwill with their customers.  Because the existence of Windows 7 is due in large part to poor adoption of Vista, it is clearly in Microsoft's best interest to make it as simple as possible for XP users to go directly to Windows 7.  Instead, they've made getting onto Windows 7  more difficult for precisely the customers they want to attract.  If it's difficult for users to get up and running in the new environment, it won't matter how much better Windows 7 is.