Windows 7 Release Date
 October 22, 2009
Windows XP Release Date
October 25, 2001 

 Windows Update - Second Tuesday each month

Supersite for Windows

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Upgrading to Windows 7

Windows 7 Extra Programs

Windows 7 is now available

Microsoft Releases Free Antivirus Software
DO NOT INSTALL TWO ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
Free computer application that finds and removes malware

 

More users are upgrading existing PCs from Window XP to Windows 7, more then Microsoft expected, maybe 25 percent more.

It' not a easy upgrade for the average user, because you must format your hard drive. A better choose is to back up all of your data to a USB drive, and then replace the hard drive with large, faster drive.

What you should know about hard drive.

1TB hard drive are less then $100. 1TB hard drive are getting cheaper because 2TB drive are available for $150-$200

First, you should run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.

What are the system requirements for Windows 7? They're very similar to those for Vista. According to Microsoft, here's what you need:
1GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
GB RAM (32-bit) or 2GB RAM (64-bit)
16GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Take those with a grain of salt. Vista runs slowly on a PC with just 1GB of memory; Windows 7 may do better, but you're still likely to be disappointed with 1GB memory.