It can be quite a challenge to upgrade machines that don’t come with a CD or DVD drive. Trying to deal with such tricky situations, Microsoft has been thinking of convenient ways to offer Windows 7, one of them being on a thumb drive so that Netbook owners could easily upgrade their machines.
The thumb drive option, however, is still under consideration.
In the past, Windows Vista never worked well on netbooks and Microsoft was forced to sell Windows XP as its answer to the low-cost notebook phenomenon.
Alternative?
The other option is to sell a downloadable version of Windows7 which will allow users to put the OS on their own thumb drive.
Not as simple as it sounds
Most Netbooks run on Windows XP. If the user has to make a switch from Windows XP, then before he could upgrade, he will have to:
- Back up all data
- Do a clean installation of the operating system
- Then reload the applications.
The same applies for all XP owners and those looking to move from a higher-end version of Vista to a lower-end version of Windows 7.
Microsoft recently also officially announced the initial pricing for Windows 7, saying that the prices for the Windows 7 operating system are more or less in line with those for Vista.
Let’s wait and see what comes along in the time to come.
(Source: CNET)