Upgrading to Windows 7? Check the compatibility site
Geoff Spick30 October 2009, 1:00 PM
If you're thinking of upgrading to Windows 7 but haven't started yet, you can check your software and hardware on a Microsoft site to see if your PC can enter Win 7th heaven
Microsoft has made some decent strides in compatibility testing since Windows XP and with Windows 7 it now seems to have every base covered. There's the downloadable compatibility tester utility for your PC and now a full website where anyone can check the compatibility of any individual items of kit. Some items are just listed as "compatible", others are "Windows 7 certified compatible", which means they will work with 32/64bit Windows 7 guaranteed.
Visit the
Windows 7 Compatibility Center and you can check if any particular bit of hardware or software is going to work with the new operating system. Just enter the product name and it can show the family of software, hardware or a long list of all similarly named products/components. A big green tick and all is well, we're not sure what the "Information coming soon" message you see for the likes of Adobe Photoshop Elements version 7 means, is that a yes or a no?
Check your kit for compatibility. Does it work or doesn't it?If you do have some generic older hardware though, a search on "ATI" or similar and using the "Not compatible" filter will show products that definitely don't work like ATI TV Wonder Elite PCI cards. You can also change between 32-bit and 64-bit flavours of the OS. There is also a "Future support" filter, although if its older gear and it doesn't work now, we doubt support will be added retrospectively, let us know if you come across any examples of this happening though.