Main differences between XP and 7 for computer illiterate users?

[Kelemvor]

Our company is going to migrate from XP to Win7 next year. We support thousands of users around the country and many of them are average to below average computer users.

I'm trying to compile a list of common things that will be confusing to these people.

The easy ones I came up with are:
Start button/menu is different
Start bar/quick launch is different
Adding a printer looks different.
UAC stuff regarding pop ups asking for permission

We use a lot of internet based apps so those wont' change much but mainly looking for things a normal Windows user might come across.

If anyone else has gone through a migration at their place of work, let me know what you've seen.

Thanks.

 

[Chapbass]

The removal of the term "My" in computer and other referenced locations.

Ummmm maybe the fact that pictures/music/movies is not inside of "my documents" anymore but rather in the username.

By default, open programs do not have their names, only the icons.

 

[SanDiegoPC]

OK let me add one thing: XP - as much as I love it, is pert near a decade old. And I support a hundred machines using it.

But the new OS (which I use here in my office) supports a LOT MORE hardware than XP does. Current hardware, things that your clients may buy at Best Buy or Office Depot. So in that particular sense, Windows7 is a good bet.

 

[simonizor]

Yes, hardware installation was pretty painless in my experience with Windows 7 RC. Basically all hardware that you install can be plug and play if you allow Windows to search the internet for it.

 

[Kelemvor]

OK let me add one thing: XP - as much as I love it, is pert near a decade old. And I support a hundred machines using it.

But the new OS (which I use here in my office) supports a LOT MORE hardware than XP does. Current hardware, things that your clients may buy at Best Buy or Office Depot. So in that particular sense, Windows7 is a good bet.

Only 100? heh. We have about 16,000 PCs using it. And when we go to Win7, as of now they will only send it out on new PC. Existing ones will stay with XP so we'll be supporting two OSs for years.. Should be fun.

 

[Red Squirrel]

This is more a support thing, but one major change is the profiles are not in c:\documents and settings, and they are encrypted. If you boot with a live OS disc, you wont be able to see anything. So that stops the ability of being able to recover profile info from a dead OS.

Also it's heavier on resources, so everyone's PCs will be slower then they are now (corporate environments tend to be very behind in hardware so even XP can be quite slow).

If they are upgrading the PCs to dual or quad cores with at least 2-4GB of ram then this should be less of an issue. The visual changes are probably the biggest that will be big learning curve for users. Users hate change so even if it's good in the end, there will be lot of complaints.

 

[Kelemvor]

Yeah. We're looking at things that we can educate the user on beforehand to hopefully cut down on confusion and support calls. The PCs are brand new so that won't be a problem at all. That' partially why we won't let people with really old machines upgrade.

I haven't check, if you log in as one user, can you access other user's profiles by manually just going to the folder assuming you are an admin?

 

[JackMDS]

With this number of computers, One would think that your business is big and rich enough to hire someone that is specifically an expert in helping writing or producing Video to help the users in the migration.

 

[Kelemvor]

With this number of computers, One would think that your business is big and rich enough to hire someone that is specifically an expert in helping writing or producing Video to help the users in the migration.

You might think that but our users are all independent contractors and they never read or watch anything any way. But we want to at least get the basics down so when we publish it and they don't read it and they call us, we can just direct them to what they should have read in the first place.

 

[JackMDS]

You can try to Download this file.

Read the content and expand the explanations on those issues that you think are relevant to your clients.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...CC-7E82-4993-B0D6-FEC84216DD9C&displaylang=en

 

[SimMike2]

The power saving features in Windows 7 are way more advanced over XP. I like the Gatgets also, which is something that you could add to XP with Yahoo Widgets.

The main things I like are the increased stability, the MS essential virus protection and the fact that it starts up much faster and smoother.

 

[Binky]

OP - you'd better start preparing yourself to be cast as the evil villian that stole XP from the users. In a couple of years, one or two of them might thank you. That's nothing compared to the hundreds of complaints you'll be wading through for months.

Show them the start menu search functionality first. Hands down the most noob-user-friendly feature in an XP-Win7 change. That will make them smile, then show them the taskbar changes...

 

[InverseOfNeo]

You can always revert the Start Menu/Taskbar do behave and look like it did before.

 

[Chapbass]

You can always revert the Start Menu/Taskbar do behave and look like it did before.

I would definitely include this in some sort of documentation and be proactive about it...else you're in for a world of hurt :X

 

[Barfo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_7

 

[thedosbox]

A few other things I can think of:

- the control panel has changed. Lefties who want to change their button assignments might need some pointers.
- if they've been using IE6, you may need to explain the favorites panel in IE7/IE8
- you'll need to explain the concept of libraries
- and why folders may appear very different when they contain specific file types

 

[Nothinman]

This is more a support thing, but one major change is the profiles are not in c:\documents and settings, and they are encrypted. If you boot with a live OS disc, you wont be able to see anything. So that stops the ability of being able to recover profile info from a dead OS.

Profiles are most certainly not encrypted by default.

Also it's heavier on resources, so everyone's PCs will be slower then they are now (corporate environments tend to be very behind in hardware so even XP can be quite slow).

Only if your machines are very anemic. My laptop with 2G runs better with Win7 then it did with XP. Mostly because Win7 is so much smarter about it's memory management and preloading the things I use a lot.

 

[Scotteq]

From a corporate perspective, most of the changes from a user perspective are cosmetic. The start button looks different. You can pin programs directly to the task bar, and assign {Windows Key + a number} keyboard shortcuts to them. 'Snap'ping windows in place is nice when you're using multiple apps.

I'm a little surprised, though, at the conversations regarding UAC, changes to the Control Panel, and the like. I mean, wouldn't/shouldn't (most of) the functionality which would set off UAC be locked away from users anyhow? Maybe I'm missing something...





and IE6 needs to Die.

 

[Anubis]

You can always revert the Start Menu/Taskbar do behave and look like it did before.

pretty sure you CANT make the start menu look like it did in win 2k there is no "Classic" option in 7

the only way i know to do it is to download a program to specicially change it, and it wont work with ultramon correctly so im stuck with the shitty w7 start menue

 

[Nothinman]

I'm a little surprised, though, at the conversations regarding UAC, changes to the Control Panel, and the like. I mean, wouldn't/shouldn't (most of) the functionality which would set off UAC be locked away from users anyhow? Maybe I'm missing something...

Way too many places let users have local admin rights so UAC will come into play there.

 

[Scotteq]

Way too many places let users have local admin rights so UAC will come into play there.

Ah - The last few companies I've worked for, as well as my present employer, keep their machines locked pretty tightly: Can't install or uninstall... Can't use the Control Panel.. Can't play with system properties or settings, etc... Users can change their monitor resolution, wallpaper, and move Icons and such. But nothing of any significance unless you have a 'business need' to do so. (To the point where I had to physically show an IT gnome that IE6 doesn't work with a needed customer site, and produce an eMail from the customer saying they wouldn't change their site to accomodate IE6 before I won the exception to upgrade my browser..) While annoying it's for good reason, both for security and for some very expensive custom apps which require a specific environment, so I don't begrudge that. Rather I presumed it's common practice at larger organizations to keep everything locked tight.


As far as my current place of employment: We have a limited number of Win 7 installations on a some new machines. Basically, the Executives, Sales guys with new Lappys, and their associated administrative assistants. Rank/File emplpoyees who do have an actual computer - instead of a Toaster connected to Citrix - will likely continue to use the sh*tbox they have until it dies and gets replaced with either a new PC {unlikely} or a new Toaster {most likely}. You may have Office 2007 instead of 2003 if you want, but the older version is still standard.

The results so far are that the transition to the OS has been rather uneventful. However, the change to Office 2007 caused a bit of uproar among some of the administrative staff, and it took a while to retrain them to efficiently use the ribbon interface.

 

[thedosbox]

Ah - The last few companies I've worked for, as well as my present employer, keep their machines locked pretty tightly: Can't install or uninstall... Can't use the Control Panel.. Can't play with system properties or settings, etc... Users can change their monitor resolution, wallpaper, and move Icons and such. But nothing of any significance unless you have a 'business need' to do so.

The specific example given was the mouse settings, something which does not generally require admin privileges. There is most certainly a business need to allow this as it's an ergonomic issue. Try telling a lefty that they have to use their middle finger for the primary mouse button and see what reaction you get.

 

[VirtualLarry]

This is more a support thing, but one major change is the profiles are not in c:\documents and settings, and they are encrypted.

They're not encrypted. Whatever gave you that idea?

They should be under C:\USERS now.

 

[Modelworks]

Libraries.
It can get confusing for people because these are shortcuts to files stored elsewhere not the location of the actual file themselves. Instead of libraries they should have called it card catalog.

Networking.
Abysmal system for handling networking functions. Manually configuring something takes many more steps than before.