Microsoft Released Windows 7 to the Public: OTS Begins Charting Campus Deployment Strategy

Microsoft released Windows 7 to the public October 22, 2009 as its next-generation operating system. The Office of Technology Services (OTS) is collaborating with other technology professionals on campus to evaluate and test the new operating system. The following is an approximate timeline for deploying Windows 7 to campus.

• Fall 2009 – OTS and the Windows 7 Team will test the operating system for software and hardware compatibility. Extensive testing is necessary in order to find security vulnerabilities and issues that may make it difficult to support on campus.
• Winter 2009/2010 – Expanded testing from other departments on campus.
• Spring 2010 – Dell is releasing a new line of computers in spring, and we expect to deploy Windows 7 on the new model line since they have been designed around the new operating system. Full support by OTS will begin at this point.


New Computers
If you need to buy new computers before full support begins in the spring, we strongly recommend sticking with Vista until OTS advises otherwise. The current university configuration based on Vista has proven to be stable and reliable and moving to Windows 7 prematurely may lead to unwanted surprises and frustration.

Current Computers
Faculty and staff office computers currently running Vista or XP should continue with the current operating system for the remaining lifecycle of the computer unless there is a compelling business, instructional, or other critical reason to convert it to Windows 7. This approach tends to reduce the chances for compatibility problems with existing software, hardware, drivers and network resources.

To view some features of the new operating systems, please visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/features/default.aspx.

For additional questions, concerns or suggestions about Windows 7 please send an email to windows7@towson.edu.

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Contributed on behalf of: Office of Technology Services
Publish from: 11/02/2009 through 11/06/2009
Topic: Announcements
Division: Administration and Finance
Distribution: Faculty Staff