BANGALORE, INDIA: To upgrade or not to upgrade is always the burning question on everyone's mind, whenever Microsoft releases a new version of Windows. What makes this cycle even more interesting is that every new OS release from MS is far more feature rich than the previous one, making you wonder whether you really need all those new enhancements.

So why should it be any different this time?

Two reasons.
One, Windows Vista wasn't very successful with a lot of organizations preferring to stick with the previous Win XP. And two, most companies had shelved their hardware and OS refresh plans due to the economic slowdown. As a result, many companies have exceeded their refresh lifecycles. Now that we're seeing early signs of global economic recovery, companies are putting their purchase plans back in place.

This makes for the perfect backdrop for Windows 7 to be launched.

So will it be worth upgrading to Windows 7?

You'll find the answer to this question in the pages to follow. Presented here is a comprehensive analysis of the soon to be releases OS from Microsoft. This time, besides evaluating hot new features of the OS, we've also analyzed its performance against five other Operating Systems. These include Vista, XP, and several Linux distros. Not only that, but we've taken both 32 and 64-bit versions of all Operating Systems. As most PC hardware today supports 64-bit, it actually makes sense to consider going for a 64-bit OS as well. How feasible will this be has been answered in our performance benchmarking story.

Not only that, but we also spoke to some CIOs who decided to risk adopting the RTM (Release to Manufacutre) version of Windows 7. They've given their feedback on what they liked and disliked about the upcoming OS.

Lastly, if you have any further questions or queries about Windows 7, then feel free to post them at the PCQuest online forum at http://forums.pcquest.com. We'll try out best to answer them.