Microsoft are circulating a Frequently Asked Questions document which addresses some common user questions when migrating to Windows 7. The guide may be downloaded direct from Microsoft here

If you haven't yet taken the plunge frequently asked questions for those considering Windows 7 are answered here.

Should you upgrade to Windows 7?

In my view Windows 7 is everything Windows Vista should have been. It looks similar to Vista but is much more consistent in the way the user interface works - with Vista I found myself going round in circles for example with network configuration where you would follow links through from one screen to another and eventually end up where you started. User Access Control is famously less obtrusive in Windows 7 than Windows Vista, whether it is also less secure remains to be seen.

My main impression with Windows 7 though is that everything seems to work properly - unlike Vista. Network discovery is faster and will show machines even if they aren't in the same workgroup or domain. I've also found plug and play works very well, if Windows 7 can't find the driver it needs (eg for older hardware) help screens seem to lead to the right place to get them. For example I installed on a laptop with an unsupported Intel graphics chip-set. The machine was setup with a default VGA driver and prompts took me to Intel's site where a usable driver could be found and installed.

The only think I've found so far that I don't like is the taskbar which is not as slick or as stylish as Apple's.  

If you are still on XP Pro (and why not if it works) your current hardware may not support some of Windows 7's newer features (Areo graphics), and while there are some nice utilities and gadgets with Windows 7 XP users can get equivilent or better elsewhere. It would probably not therefore be worth an in place upgrade until you replace your hardware and get Windows 7 bundled.

If you have a machine that came with Vista you probably already have hardware support for the Aero interface sported by Windows 7 and therefore the newer user interface features. if you have found Vista incredibly frustrating to work with then Windows 7, in my view, would ease the pain but upgrading isn't cheap - Microsoft have not been very generous with their upgrade pricing and you might still want to leave it until your next hardware upgrade.

To check your hardware's compatibility with Windows 7 use Microsoft's upgrade advisor here .

Finally; a question which is frequently asked but not tackled in the Microsoft FAQ is "...where is Outlook Express?". Outlook Express is gone from Windows 7 having been replaced by Microsoft's Windows Live platform, including Live Mail. This may be an issue for some. Windows Live Mail can be downloaded from here.

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