Windows 7 is out, and that means a massive search for Windows 7 compatible software is on. While Microsoft’s new operating system has received widespread praise for its efforts to remain compatible with the majority of existing applications, incompatibilities do exist, especially in the areas of system security and system maintenance. Will the tools you’ve relied upon for years for your Windows XP or Vista systems have trouble under Windows 7? Read on for some answers.
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bQ/b: I understand that the antivirus software I currently use on Windows XP may not be compatible with Windows 7. Can you recommend some antivirus software that works with Windows 7?
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bA/b: During Windows 7’s lengthy pre-release phase, only a handful of antivirus applications were compatible with the operating system. That has changed, though, with the final release of the operating system. Currently, most of the major antivirus makers have either updated their existing products or released new versions of their security software to address Windows 7 compatibility. Depending upon the security software you currently use, you may have to pay an upgrade fee to get the version that’s been certified to work properly with Windows 7.
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If you don’t like the idea of paying for antivirus software, however, or if you’re running Windows 7 without antivirus software, you should probably give Microsoft’s own Security Essentials (http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials) package a try. It’s free to registered users of Windows 7 — and earlier versions of Windows — and it generally gets high marks in the areas that matter most to computer users. Its detection rate is good, its footprint is small, and it doesn’t annoy you with false alerts as much as many other packages do. In short, it’s probably all that most people will need.
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bQ/b: I have used Partition Magic for years with Windows XP. Is this compatible…