Are you ready for Windows 7?

Windows 7 will release tomorrow morning at events in Auckland and Wellington's respective CBDs.

Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 7, will launch tomorrow morning at events in Auckland's Queen Elizabeth Square and Wellington's Civic Square.

If, like many, you're planning on buying and installing the long-awaited replacement for ugly duckling Vista, getting your PC ready for could be the difference between a straightforward and smooth upgrade - or a chaotic IT nightmare.

Luckily, migrating to Windows 7 is relatively straightforward and it's a doddle to use. Windows 7's look and feel is not too dissimilar to Windows Vista and Vista of course isn't that different to Windows XP.

First things first however, check that your PC meets (or exceeds) Microsoft's minimum specs for Windows 7.

Windows 7 32-bit
CPU: 1GHz 32-bit
RAM: 1Gb
Graphics: Direct X 9
Storage: 16Gb free hard drive space + DVD drive

Windows 7 64-bit
CPU: 1 GHz 64-bit
RAM: 2 GB
Graphics: DirectX 9
Storage: 20Gb free hard drive space + DVD drive

If these tech specs are blinding you with science, no worries, you can download the Microsoft Upgrade Advisor and it'll do all the hard yards and work out if your PC and peripherals will play nice with Windows 7.

Even if your PC meets these minimum specs you may still want to consider some upgrades. While Windows 7 will work with 1-2GB of RAM, 4 or more will make a massive difference to its performance.

Perhaps the single most important thing to do before you even consider popping a Windows 7 install disc into your PC's DVD drive is backing up. Preserving irreplaceable photos, music, documents and the other digital detritus you've accumulated is definitely a no-brainer.

Backing up your data can be as easy as plugging in an external USB drive and simply copying selected directories across. Should you want to be more thorough however, use backup software such as freeware SyncBack which can back up your PCs entire hard drive, or selected directories.

Upgrading from Vista is perhaps the easiest option as data and settings will remain largely unchanged. There are however some downsides.

Depending on the amount of files and applications are on your PC, upgrading to Windows 7 can some time. Uninstalling seldom-used applications and giving your PC a spring clean before upgrading with an application like CCleaner can make a massive difference to the overall upgrade time. Either way, don't forget to back up your PCs contents just in case.

If you're currently running Windows XP the good news is that you can upgrade to Windows 7, but the not-so good news is that you'll probably have to do a clean install which will wipe out your current PC configuration.

Should you want to keep Windows XP, you can set up your PC to dual-boot which will require you partition your hard drive.

Upgrading from Windows XP still means you can buy the Upgrade version of Windows 7, but it'll do a complete install of Windows 7 on a blank hard drive. Either way, backing up the existing applications and valuable data makes a whole lot of sense.

Microsoft have a free User State Migration Tool that'll copy and transfer existing Windows XP settings over to a new Windows 7 installation.

This said, if you've got concerns about compatibility in Windows 7, Windows 7 does have a "Virtual XP Mode" that'll run just about any Windows XP programme under windows 7 with no issues.

At the risk of receiving several truckloads of hate mail from Apple Mac-toting fanboys, I can also say that there's little to nothing stopping curious Mac owners from installing Windows 7 on Intel powered Apple Macs with Boot Camp.

Doing so not only gives Mac owners access to a fresh operating system, but also to the massive amount of games and applications that simply aren't available on Apple hardware. There are dozens of easy to follow guides to getting Windows 7 on a Mac such as Simple Help's excellent wtep by step walkthrough.