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  1. #1
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    Windows 7 Upgrade

    So I want to upgrade my PC to Windows 7 Home Premium from Windows Vista Home Premium. From what I can gather from reading various sites on the internet, this sounds like a fairly easy task. Put in Windows 7 upgrade CD and keep your files while you upgrade your operating system, is what they all say. My question is, is this true? I'd like to hear from people that have actually done it before I try it.

    Would I be better off just buying the full version and reformatting / doing a clean install? I'd prefer not to do this because I don't want to lose all my files, but I would if it makes a big difference.

  2. #2
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    Ya you can just boot with W7 CD and choose upgrade it's gonna do everything for you.

    Of course even though the program will do it, you stillshould backup your files.

    Upgrade will not erase your programs


    But the question is will you do 32bits> 32 bits or 32bits >64bits

    If you do 32>64 bits you need to format

  3. #3
    Kevin Chang
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    I don't know if this experience will hold true for you but I did 32 Vista Ultimate to 64 Win7 Pro and I didn't need to format, the installer moved everything in my old installation to a "Windows.old" folder. Programs of course didn't work but I had backups of everything necessary.

  4. #4
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    I'd be going from 64 bit to 64 bit so no issue there at least. Probably at least going to give the upgrade a try, I have a 600GB external drive that I can back up my files to just in case.

  5. #5
    Pandemonium
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    I did Vista Home Premium x64 to Windows 7 Home x64. I was honestly surprised at how well the upgrade process went. The only thing I had to do afterwards was get new drivers for my video card and printer. It retained all my settings, even the positioning of my widgets.

    I did image my hard drive before doing it, and I'd recommend you do the same. Don't wanna be left in the cold if shit hits the fan.

  6. #6
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    Reformating and doing a clean install is always going to beat Upgrade...

    Pretty sure there's a trick to do a clean install from an official upgrade DVD as well, I'll see if I can find it.

    Found

    * Install Windows 7 on the computer
    * Disconnect from the internet (RJ45 out, wifi off) and stop it from making any update through Windows Update.
    * Open the Registry Editor Start -> regedit
    * Go to key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/
    * Edit MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0
    * Close regedit
    * Start -> cmd to open MSDOS invite window, right click inside the window then "Execute as an administrator"
    * Then type : « slmgr /rearm » and confirm with enter
    * Reboot and when Windows 7 is loaded, start the activation program. Insert your key and activate Windows.
    Few months old, not sure if it got fixed but if you don't let it update it should be fine.
    Sorry for the poor translation.

  7. #7
    Relic Shield
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    In response to the post above, I have a Windows 7 Professional upgrade DVD and it let me do a fresh install on a formatted drive without any kind of workarounds.

  8. #8

    Quote Originally Posted by Gredival View Post
    I don't know if this experience will hold true for you but I did 32 Vista Ultimate to 64 Win7 Pro and I didn't need to format, the installer moved everything in my old installation to a "Windows.old" folder. Programs of course didn't work but I had backups of everything necessary.
    ^ this

    with features like this (putting all the files from the old windows partition into a Windows.old folder), it's a wonder why anyone still does upgrades rather than clean installs.

    And actually, the programs in the Windows.old folder will run, but it will act like the first time you've run them (at least most of them. I haven't run across any that haven't run yet, both simple executables and registry dependent programs). I would still recommend reinstalling programs on the new OS though, rather than running all your old programs from the old windows files.

    When doing this though, make sure you do not format your HDD if you want all your old shit in the Windows.old folder. And if you were wondering, this does imply that you can do a clean install without reformatting.



    Edit/warning: if you're using an upgrade disc to do a clean install, you will have to reformat

  9. #9
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    We do Win7 installation at work, and the upgrade in place option fails 66% of the time. The system goes into an endless reboot loop trying to set the OS back to the Vista install, and we have to wipe the drive with a clean install to get it working again. Clean install leaves less clutter, and leaves you without the junk software bundled on most branded systems. You can boot to the upgrade disc and do a clean install as long as it sees Vista or XP on one of the hard drives in the machine when it boots.

  10. #10
    Relic Weapons
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    Or if you can get your hands on the full official disc of your version, install that, use key, if it rejects it, re-install right after (should take about 20-30min), will work 2nd time around. Just make sure to activate it once you're in Windows.

  11. #11
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    I have a question, wtf is the difference between Profesional, home premium and ultimate

  12. #12
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    unlocked abilities of windows 7. Essentially win7 is same throughout all of em I think, big thing on thinking. Just more money to unlock parts of it.

  13. #13

    The big one that ultimate gives you that non of the others do is Bitlocker, which is a data encryption of your hard-drive and up to 35 language support.


    Here is the list tho.

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...oducts/compare

  14. #14
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    perfect thanks

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Edgie View Post
    I have a question, wtf is the difference between Profesional, home premium and ultimate
    Not a lot you are likely to use. Pro adds the ability to work on a domain, download the Virtual PC XP machine for XP mode (which you can install yourself if you have a copy of XP, it just saves you the cost of buying a copy and activating it), and network backup capability. Ultimate adds the drive encryption (which you probably don't need and needs more CPU usage to decrypt on the fly) and the multi-lingual system interface (the ability to read and type other languages is available to all Windows versions since 2000, this just lets you change all the menus in MS programs and Windows to the language of your choice as if you had bought WIndows in that region). The only other difference isn't likely to be a big deal right now, which is the RAM ceiling. You can't put that much RAM in a current non-server machine yet to absolutely need Ultimate.

    All Vista and 7 installs are Ultimate, features are just disabled until you register the right version.

  16. #16
    Relic Weapons
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    Pro and Ultimate also allow you to have up to 192GB of RAM while Home Premium is capped at 16GB.

  17. #17
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    One other question, if I buy the upgrade and upgrade my OS to Windows 7, but don't like the way everything is, can I still do a clean install or am I boned?

  18. #18
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    You can always do a clean install with an upgrade disc, even if the drive is formatted. It may ask for the key again after installation.

    Example: Upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 using the upgrade method. You find out you want to do a clean install, so you just boot using the DVD, format the drives to your liking (full or quick), and just install clean from there. The first method will have a Windows.old folder, the second one will not, so back up your files if you're doing that.

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