Windows 7E becomes 7EU

With the addition of U for U-turn of course, as Microsoft rapidly changed their position last month to allow the European edition of Windows 7 to do an in-place upgrade from Vista instead of requiring a full Rip and Replace approach. To overcome the European ruling on browser inclusion, the installation now incorporates a selection of Browsers from which the user can select and set default - thus no longer forcing IE8 onto every Windows 7 user.

With many partners like myself expressing concerns over the lack up an upgrade path (see previous blog from July ) perhaps they felt some pressure to make the change from their partner community. More likely, though, is that they reviewed the impact on the home user market and the fact that, while many enthusiastic early adopters would happily upgrade if it was automated, having to back everything up and re-install from scratch was a bit beyond them. The road to global domination was somewhat hampered by this simple fact.

From the technical point of view, the Rip and Replace option will still almost certainly give you the best results in terms of maximising the performance of the machine, but at the cost of time, and therefore money, I reckon a number of Small Businesses will take the upgrade option too. (Particularly if thay have recently purchased a machine with "free Windows 7 upgrade" included).

Corporates need to be on the "Twitter Ball"

A recent personal experience helped bring home to me the importance of the latest social networking tools to corporate business.

The road to completion of a car scrappage deal on behalf of my Father in Law was proving a long and winding one - with barriers at every turn. Although largely due to DVLA and Dept for Business, Innovation & Skills rules, my frustration was turned towards Toyota, from whom we were trying to buy the car. After venting my frustrations on Twitter, I was pleasantly surprised to get a response from Toyota Europe, with contact information for some people who may be able to help. And they had not just posted a reply on Twitter, but had gone out of their way to check out my website and use my response form to get hold of me via email.

I was then called directly by the Commercial Director of Toyota UK and entered into Twitter dialogue with the UK head of PR. Both of them helped enormously and negotiated with DVLA etc. on my behalf to sort the problems out, with the result that the deal finally went through smoothly.

This is a great example of how important it is to monitor the Social Networking space. Toyota were able to turn a disgruntled customer into one who has a great story to tell about the quality of their customer service but only because they were looking out for any mention of their brands on Twitter. Any business that is not doing the same is missing a huge trick, particularly as there are so many free tools out there to enable you to do it.

So if you are in business with a recognisable product that people may be talking about, make sure you monitor the Social Networking feeds for your company keywords and take action if you find something amiss. You could do yourself a lot of good.