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Summary:
You listened to your inner voice and avoided Vista -- but now that
voice tells you to upgrade to Windows 7. Here's how.
If Microsoft wants Windows 7 to succeed, to do better
than limp like Vista, it has to convince the
majority of users to ditch their comfortable-as-an-old-shoe -- older
than an old shoe, actually -- OS.
Microsoft has to beat itself by one-upping its most
successful OS edition of all time: Windows XP.
That's going to be
tough. Even Microsoft knows that. Last month it conceded to critics,
including Gartner's Michael Silver, who had complained that the
company's policy for continuing XP "downgrades" was a "real mess"
<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9134453>.
In response,
Microsoft actually extended the availability of XP
until April 2011:
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9134528/Microsoft_backtracks_extends_XP_availability_to_2011>.
So
the pressure's on to make an XP-to-Windows 7 upgrade as painless as
possible. But is a pain-free process what you'll face if you make the
move? Not exactly.
Where are the bumps in the upgrade road? How difficult
will the migration really be? Excellent questions.
We'll try to answer them.
Can I upgrade from Windows XP straight to
Windows 7? You betcha. And no, you don't have make Vista
a middleman.
There's always a catch. What's the catch
this time?
Unlike people running Vista, you can't do an "in-place" upgrade from XP
to Windows 7 (even though that was offered as an upgrade choice to
Vista, and Microsoft's bragged numerous times about how Windows 7 "is
Vista, a lot better":
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9117399/Ballmer_Windows_7_is_Vista_just_a_lot_better_>
Presumably,
Microsoft doesn't want to repeat the drama -- and complaints -- that XP
users generated when they threw up their hands over in-place upgrades
to Vista. It hinted as much in an April post to the "Engineering
Windows 7"
blog <http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/04/07/delivering-a-quality-upgrade-experience.aspx>:
"We realized at the start of this project that the 'upgrade' from
XP would not be an experience we think would yield the best results.
There are simply too many changes in how PCs have been configured
(applets, hardware support, driver model, etc.) that having all of that
support carry forth to Windows 7 would not be nearly as high quality as
a clean install."
Whatever the reasons, you'll have to do
what's called a "clean" install of Windows 7, which means you'll need
to restore backed up data, recreate settings throughout Windows and
reinstall all applications. ("Clean install" isn't a choice on the
Windows 7 install-type selection screen; you'll pick "Custom" from the
two-option list.)
What are the system requirements for
Windows 7? They're very similar to those for Vista.
According to Microsoft, here's what you need:
-
1GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
-
1GB RAM (32-bit) or 2GB RAM (64-bit)
-
16GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB
(64-bit)
-
DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher
driver
Take
those with a grain of salt. Vista runs slowly on a PC with just 1GB of
memory; Windows 7 may do better, but you're still likely to be
disappointed.
How do I know if my XP machine can handle
Windows 7? Run the "Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor," which as
of July, was in beta. Start here <http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/upgrade-advisor.aspx>,
download and install
the advisor, then run it.
The
advisor will give you a bottom-line appraisal of your XP-based hardware
and give you the green light, tell you the machine won't make it as is
or spell out what you need to beef up.
Can I buy the cheaper Upgrade edition of
Windows 7, or do I have to fork over a small fortune for the "full"
version? Yes to the first, no to the second.
Windows
7's Upgrade editions, such as Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade -- $120
suggested list -- check to see if there's a legitimate, activated copy
of Windows on the PC before it lets you proceed. At the least, Windows
XP and Windows 2000 qualify here. (Even older editions, such as Windows
98 may be eligible -- Microsoft's not been clear -- but it's very
unlikely that hardware that old will take the
Windows 7 strain.)
I'm running XP Home now. What are my
Windows 7 choices? You can upgrade to Home Premium
($120), Professional ($200) or even Ultimate ($220) if you want.
If
you were smart, you bought your upgrade during the two-week sale that
Microsoft ran from June 26 through July 11, when Home Premium was
priced at $50, Professional at $100. Unfortunately, those discounts are
done.
I'm running XP Professional. What are my
Windows 7 choices? Same as if you were running XP Home
now: You can upgrade to Home Premium ($120), Professional ($200) or
Ultimate ($220).
What's the process going to be like?
We won't know for sure until Microsoft makes final Windows 7 Upgrade
discs available, but the company will help you back up and then restore
settings and data with the Windows Easy Transfer utility it includes on
the Windows 7 DVD.
The process is too long to spell out here, but Microsoft
posted a step-by-step <http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd446674%28WS.10%29.aspx>
back in January,
while BlogsDNA added screenshots to
those instructions <http://www.blogsdna.com/3217/step-by-step-guide-to-upgrade-windows-xp-to-windows-7.htm>.
What should I do before I start the
upgrade? Tops on our list: Make a disk image of your XP
machine as it exists now
so that, if you later decide Windows 7 isn't worth the disc it's
written to and you want to revert to the ancient XP, you can do so
without a lot of hassle.
There are scads of free and
for-a-fee backup programs for XP, some of which create a disk image, a
bit-for-bit copy of the hard disk. Among the free choices are Macrium
Reflect <http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp>
and DriveImageXML <http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm>,
which run on XP and let you create an image on a CD/DVD, external drive
or flash drive.
I hear that the Windows 7 media comes on a
DVD. I don't have a DVD drive, just a CD-ROM drive, on my XP PC. What
do I do? Start crying.
Microsoft
recommends that you "rent, borrow, or buy one if you want to do the
installation yourself. Alternatively, you can take your PC and DVD to a
service provider that has a DVD drive available that can be used to do
the upgrade."
Right. The $50 to $120 you've laid out for Windows 7
Home Premium just wasn't enough to spend, was it?
Rumors have circulated
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10273188-56.html>
that Microsoft may offer Windows 7 Upgrade on a flash drive -- a 4GB
thumb drive has more than enough room -- but, so far, it's only wishful
thinking on the part of the drive-less, like people running netbooks.
You
can do it yourself by buying Windows 7 as a download from Microsoft's
own e-store -- the only one that now offers that delivery method --
then build a bootable USB drive. There are several how-to-do-that
guides on the Web; our favorites are by noted Windows blogger Long
Zheng <http://www.istartedsomething.com/20081104/tip-make-your-pdc-2008-usb-hard-drive-a-bootable-windows-7-install-disk/>,
and this step-by-step <http://kmwoley.com/blog/?p=345>.
Can I upgrade to a 64-bit edition of
Windows 7? Yes, if the processor inside your PC supports
64-bit.
Retail
copies and electronic downloads of Windows 7 will ship with both the
32- and 64-bit versions of the operating system, and since you have to
do a clean install anyway -- also a requirement if you're moving from,
say Vista 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit -- you can move up to 64-bit if
you want.
Download and run the free
"SecurAble" utility
<http://www.grc.com/securable.htm>
to see whether your processor supports 64-bit; as an added bonus, it
also says whether you'll be able to run the Windows XP Mode available
to users of Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate.
Will I be able to run my old Windows XP
software? Yes, if you bought the upgrade to either
Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate.
Those two editions let you run Windows XP Mode,
an add-on (and separate download; it doesn't come on the DVD), that
creates an XP virtual environment running under Virtual PC, Microsoft's
client virtualization technology, within Windows 7:
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9132119/Windows_7_gets_virtual_XP_mode_>.
XP Mode
comes with a fully-licensed copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), so
you don't have to spring for an additional license. The mode, however,
requires processor-based virtualization support. To determine whether
your PC's CPU provides that support, download and run the free
"SecurAble" utility: <http://www.grc.com/securable.htm>.
A beta of XP Mode can be downloaded
from here and run with Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC):
<http://tinyurl.com/WinXPModeBeta>.
I'm not forking over another $80 to
Microsoft just to run programs in XP mode. What are my options?
You have several.
First,
you can wait until you upgrade to Windows 7, then install and try out
the software you've been running on XP. It might work fine. (Most
likely to have fewest problems: Products from Microsoft and other major
vendors.)
If the program won't run, you can try to run it in
"compatibility mode." Right-click on the program's shortcut, select
"Properties," then click the "Compatibility" tab. Next, check the "Run
this program in compatibility mode" box, and in the drop-down list,
choose the version of Windows, in this case Windows XP.
Or you can run free virtualization software on Windows
7, such as Sun's VirtualBox <http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads>,
with a copy of Windows XP as the "guest" OS within the virtual
environment. You'll need an XP license to install inside the virtual
machine.
That may be your biggest hurdle, since if the copy
of XP you're now running came with the PC, you're not allowed to
transfer it to another system, even a virtual one (even if that PC is
now running Windows 7). And if you're upgrading from XP to Windows 7,
no matter how you acquired the license for XP,
the activation
key on the XP CD will probably not work. (During the upgrade, the PC
sends a key-cancellation request to Microsoft's servers to nullify the
XP activation/product key and link the machine to the new Windows 7
key.)
You can still buy copies of XP, but they're pricy. On
Newegg, for example, we found a copy of XP Home (the OEM edition,
designed for small computer makers, but you can use it, too) for $90.
What happens if I hate Windows 7. Can I
revert to Windows XP?
Yes, you can, but you'll have to do another "clean" install, this time
scrubbing the drive of Windows 7 and replacing it with XP.
Before
you do that, you'll need to back up your data files and note your
settings. Don't bother with Easy Transfer Utility, which is available
for XP; it's a one-way street and doesn't help in "downgrade"
scenarios, which is what we're talking about here.
You'll need to reinstall all your applications on XP,
too.
If
you thought of this before, you'd simply wipe the drive and restore
from the disk image you made earlier (see "What should I do before I
start the upgrade?").
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1998-2009, PC World Communications, Inc.
(Win7_XP-to-Win7.htm)
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