Upgrading to Windows 7

I can only use Microsoft's previous OS to go by.

You can do a clean install with Windows XP/Vista Upgrade. The installer would simply require a validating product (whatever you were allowed to upgrade from) to be inserted in the drive before installing. Requiring you to install an old OS just to upgrade to a new OS whenever you wanted to wipe/reload would be just very annoying.

 

This trick has worked with every version of Windows and I don't think it'll be any different with Windows 7:

Click!

This article was written specifically for Vista but should work for 7 as well, though I have no proof or verification.

Hope that Helps!

 

This is from Microsoft's UK site, but will almost certainly apply everywhere -

Running Windows Vista?
If you have Windows Vista, you can purchase Windows 7 Upgrade versions. You can do a clean install (back up your files, clean install, and reinstall your applications) or an in-place upgrade (Windows 7 installs over Windows Vista).

Running earlier versions?
If you have Windows XP or Windows 2000, you can purchase Windows 7 Upgrade versions. But you must back up your files, clean install, and reinstall your applications.

 

That is basically correct and is a gray area on licensing. I guess the intent here is the main thing. As Papa said, it should work just as rearming still works in W7 as it does on Vista. I'm sure there's tons in google about this.

 

Best to wait and see what the experts say and find out.

(From the same site linked earlier, on a pay for link dated 7/23/09)

I say wait because it'll be a shame to pay for a full install if you already have Vista.

 

To install W7 you pop the DVD in while running your current OS. You don't boot from the W7 DVD. That's how it validates what you have atm.

I'm sure the OP can rely on the extract I posted above.

 

But that's an update routine, Laura wants a clean install.

 

It's cleverer than you realise That's how you start the process, but as it progresses you get the upgrade/clean install option - as long as you are running Vista. That's why it tells you to back up your files first.

 

I'm trying to recollect from my look at the RC whether it allows you to install W7 to another partition, and I believe it does but I'm not certain. That would allow both a clean install and a Vista/W7 dual boot, which might suit some. Otherwise you lose Vista either way, which having paid for it you might not really want.

Anyone know for sure? I really don't want to install the RC again just to find out.

 

Am I being obtuse again? :-o

I'm just against anyone buying the full version if there's a documented way getting the full version with the update disk. Especially if one has a copy of any type of Windows. Windows 7 then is an upgrade period. Just my thoughts though.

 

I'm pretty sure now that if you buy the upgrade you lose your previous OS, whether Vista or XP. But if you buy the full version you can retain previous OS and dual boot if you want. So you would only buy the full version if you want to also retain what you have atm.

Mind you, I can't see what would stop you from imaging your present OS with say Acronis, doing your upgrade, and then restoring your image to another partition. Easy peasy if you use a boot manager that hides one OS from another. Possible, but not so easy, if you dual boot the Windows way.

 

You can shrink your Vista partition and install W7 with the double install dance and have a dual boot that way but I find that really pointless as what works in Vista will work in W7. Now XP is different and you might want to keep an XP partition and dual boot with W7. If you only have one drive you will first have to shrink the XP partition using a 3rd party tool, create a new partition and then install W7 to the new one.

 

You're all set then but just out of extreme caution I would not format the hidden drive for a few extra GBs just in case as I always like to have a plan B. I'm a scaredy cat.:-D

 

I don't believe so as the only way folks see it is when they use something like Partition Magic etc. so I guess I worried you for nothing.:-o If it does show up then you'll see by it's size that it's way less than your hard drive capacity. I've never had a machine with a preinstalled OS so perhaps I should bow out of here.

 

Guess I'm thinking for myself then. My kid's computer that I bought for them a year and a half ago came preinstalled with Visa, I wiped the disk and installed XP Pro. So --- just because I did that, I would have to pay for a full install disk, if I wished to do so. (I'll get a new comp for myself with Win 7 installed because this comp of mine is now 7 years old!) It just grates me the wrong way, I guess.

 

Here's a thread exactly dealing with the recovery partition question. It's specifically for Toshiba but applies to all.

 

But that isn't so Papa. The only difference between installing an upgrade disk over XP compared with over Vista is that with XP you have to do a clean install. You cannot do an upgrade install.

But you can still use the upgrade version.

 

Well then, welcome to the world of W7 as you're all set!

 

... and after all that I don't think I'm going to buy W7 at all. I tried the RC and realised that Vista SP2 does it all for me :wave

 

This is a really refreshing comment to hear as I've liked Vista since the beta days though they did go too far with the UAC IMO. I get very tired reading posts that trash it for superfluous reasons. However, I find W7 even better but then I'm a bit of a 'new is better' type. Most likely the 'new toy syndrome'.:-D

Besides, the only 'mission critical' thing I do is folding@home.

 

Do you have any idea how long it takes to setup Sims2 with all the packs? Days I'm telling ya, days! :cry rolleyes :-D

 

I would hardly call peoples woes superfluous, Vistas main problem was that too many 'puters got declared "vista ready" when they were anything but.

Now while that may seem like a nice scapegoat for the fail... the fact it has problems running on so many 'puters compared to virtually any other OS is reason enough to call it a fail.

On the other hand, i have seen it run blisteringly well, for days on end, outperforming my XP install.


Win7 is what vista should have been, now, i dont even like 7 but i can't mock it like i can vista, as it is pretty tidy... has run in EVERY box ive tried it in and it has worked, and i always tell people if ther not attached to XP to get 7 unlike the operation i launched to stop as many people i know from getting vista as i could [i am the one they call when it does what it does best ]



errr on topic.... if microsoft sell an upgrade package, won't they want the old OS details if you ever need to speak to them, to activate or anything?

Q

 

Ya, that was a marketing disaster ATT but one could also put a lot of blame on the OEM's too for selling marginal crap to reduce their inventory of such garbage. Heck, games are marketed similarly, you have minimums and then there's recommended hardware which to me always meant the minimum.

I was only talking about Vista itself running on proper hardware. Heck, it ran fine on a Venice 3000+ 1GB rig with a lowly N6200TC vid card but don't try to multitask. They really blew that 'Vista Ready' campaign and lots of folks then wanted to install XP as a dual boot to keep their machines from becoming an expensive doorstop!

Yup, I absolutely agree there. MS was under pressure to get something out as the Longhorn project could not come to fruition with their over zealous ambitions and they're still not there with W7. Mind you I did like Longhorn 4074 and ran it as my main OS for quite a while. All in all, I think Vista was a money grab as much as ME was, though with better code. Hmm, me thinks I went slightly off topic here.:-D

 

Honestly ME was just insulting, i wish i had a picture of my face the moment i heard, i would be a failblog star

I think they could have got away with a "new XP" instead of vista and waited for 7 or 6 as it may be


Like i said 7 is a good lil OS but im just like ????? it doesnt do anything new for me, it looks pretty and i hate pretty on a comp, text based or classic all the way

Q

 

Well, just one example of Vista/W7 stability compared to XP. I have had 3 instances that I have noticed since my machines are on 24/7 where I have an nVidia driver problem, W7 just goes black screened for a few seconds and then recovers, whereas in XP the same error would have given me a BSOD. Way more stable!

 

Yep i have not figured out yet Augie why W7 does that but it always recovers.

I like W7 it is smoother than Vista and a world apart from XP (dinosaur)

What i find reading between the lines is that some (not all ) XP users are just afraid of the learning curve.

 

I guess for some folk it's like going from a left hand drive to a right hand drive car.:-D The basics are still there but habits are tough to change. Where does the bloody key go?

 

@ Q - you don't have to have pretty with 7

 

Fairplay mate, good point, but i have only ever had BSOD on other peoples computers.
My XP Pro is outstandingly reliable, so to imopress me it has to be better than perfect really

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@BILLMCC - I agree on the learning curve, however XP a dinosaur??? Hmmmm? i often forget my XP experience is not what most people get, i have a severely stripped out lightweight XP-Pro install, that has literally took me years to tweak it to the state it is in, sometimes when i go on a normal XP install i feel like im in a different OS.

I will be butchering 7 as soon as i get a final copy, see what it can do then, but i plan on using XP till at least support stops [2014 i beleive].

However, I will admit i dont like *new* at all really, and i know a lot of people are flummoxed by the idea of not being in XP [thank vista for that]

But i have never had a problem with accepting the new OS till vista, then, when i seen 7, i was just like "it seems like vista" (but it works ) and like i said above i am entirely satisfied with My XP.

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@-satrow... does that theme carry all the way through? cos i remember having a twiddle and ther was many parts i thought looked to *new* (lol) and just hated, also im not a fan of skins and what not.


Q

 

Theme? Just hand-tweaked down to the basics. Anything in particular you want to see?

 

How people's perceptions vary! Up to now I've always been a day-one upgrader, all the way from Win 95 to Vista, but not this time. For me Vista SP2 has been a really fine system - providing you've got the right hardware, and I just can't see anything about W7 that looks to be anything more than a minor Vista tweak. I just don't see what I would gain from shelling out for it.

OTOH I also keep XP Home SP3 on this same machine, mainly to enable me to help other users, and every time I boot it I feel like I'm getting into a ten year old motor. It works, but, well you know ...

Eventually I shall have to give in on W7, I know that, but not yet awhile.

 

I absolutely agree, there is basically no point in shelling out money for W7 if you're satisfied with Vista. I only upgraded because I got W7 Ult for free from a friend who has an MSDN account. After buying Vista last year, there was no way I'd pay for W7 too until my next build.

 

Yup, that's my taskbar, I'm a multi-tasker too ^^ that's only one of the 3 PC's I'm using

 

I should have said.... does it have that look throughout?

Im gonna fire 7 up in a bit and see if i can find the bits i mean....

edit: oh yeah, that is one hell of taskbar .........i thought i was bad

Q