Installing Win7 64-bit

Hi

As Augie points out 2GB will be ok and I would not go for 64bit Windows 7 unless you are a power user and use software like Photoshop or Office 2010 x64 as these apps are native dedicated 64bit whereas most other applications are only psudo 64bit as they are compatible but are not native.

Question, what do you use your PC for?

Q1/2
Overheads, well hard question as each user and PC setup is different, as it equates to the apps you run as to what Windows will need, but in a plain default (no 3rd party) apps install, then Windows 7 and its re-designed kernel and memory management works bette than Vista (although Vista's works better that XPs).

2GB will be fine as I have a netbook (2gb) with Win7 Home Premium and a laptop (2gb) with Win7 Ultimate x64 and both are snappy, I would urge you to choose wisely on security apps as these can be the bottleneck of most PCs, also scale down the startups to crucial apps only.

ECS from their website support for your motherboard dont support Windows 7 but its very likely that the drivers can be found elsewhere and the main ones are

Chipset 945GC (can be found on Intels website)
Lan (Realtek should have this one)
Audio (realtek should have this one too as its the ALC655 driver)
Nvidia have Win7 32/64bit drivers for that card


Q3
If as mentioned you have the disk for Office still (or as its also available via download from the Microsoft Store, you have the download file and access to your account which has the licence key saved), but if you dont have the media then thats an issue and you wont be able to transfer the app as it really needs installing so to add the registry keys, but if you just dont have the licence key then this app HERE can help find that for you.

But I would before you install Windows 7, uninstall Office from the Windows version you have now, then reboot, this should help as when you install Office again, if it was still on another PC then it may register with the licence server and block your new install, it can also happen that you maybe asked to re-activate it anyways and thats just a freephone call to MSFT support and tell them you upgraded Windows version and they will re-activate you (do have the CD and your Licence code handy)

Q5
You can actually download manually the updates but in reality it would take ages to do and without a comprehensive list of the actual order to install them it wouldnt be advisable. Its just a pity SP1 is not out yet for Windows 7 but as it is on 22nd February then you could download the full network install version which will be available (dont know the sie of it yet but likely to be a few hundred megabytes in size) then you can install Windows 7 thn install the Service Pack 1 and you are then current, likely bar a few updates that would have been release prior to the ESCROW signoff of SP1.

So maybe you may not install Windows 7 before that release date.

Q6
Open the Chrome Bookmarks Manager and choose Organize and Export bookmarks (see screenshot below of my Chrome install) or use an app like Transmute HERE (standard version is free) or Google Chrome Backup



iTunes - backup HERE


If you let us know what version as in Windows 7 32bit or 64bit you go for we should be able to assist in driver and app, personally I would with your PC go for 32bit as you dont have the ram to take advantage of 64bit.

Also use an app like Easeus ToDo or Macrium Reflect *both apps are free and good* to create an image of your current Windows HDD install, just in case you need to revert back as the image backups allow you to recover your install as if you never left it (just need to create the restore boot disk that apps create)

I would suggest that you download all the drivers needed and all the current versions of applications be they the likes of CCleaner or your antivirus and have them on a CD/DVD or USB pen ready to install, also have a read of this guide for security thoughts How to Protect yourself from malware!