Factors you need to consider before installing or upgrading an operating system or productivity application.

Software installation and upgrades

There are some factors you need to consider before installing or upgrading an operating system or productivity application to ensure it will work. You should make sure that the application you wish to install is compatible with your operating system.

Hardware technology systems – This is the computer specification, particularly the CPU, video systems, amount of RAM and free disk space. If any of these are not good enough for the new software the installation will fail.

Accessibility features – If these are important to the user they should be checked to ensure they are included in the software before it is installed.

Cost of the software – An organization needs to check the full cost of the software before installation. The full cost will be the cost of the licences needed for all the computers plus the cost of setting the software up, training staff and paying for any support and maintenance.

Speed – this is important especially when new software will be run on older hardware. Slow software adversely affects the user experience and reduces the productivity.

Security features – these are important in a new operating system and includes firewalls, malware management and setting user permissions. An organisation needs to understand the security features, so they can be set up to protect the system and protect the users.