What is necessary in order to upgrade from vista to 7?

[leadfoot35]

If I just go buy windows 7 from the store will it be user friendly enought to install it by myself? Would it be easier to just take it to futureshop or something and get them to do it? I was thinking of dumping everything on my computer anyway to start fresh and I though it would be best to do it and install windows 7 at the same time.

 

[Frostmourne]

Do it yourself. Buy a full version of 7 and reboot with the disc, then choose advanced and delete the partitions, then let 7 create a new partition and a system reserved one. What are your laptop specs?

 

[Amdkt7]

It's pretty easy. You can do an upgrade, or a clean install. Win7 does a good job installing drivers for you, but the best drivers you would have to track down and install after Win7 gets done.

 

[zigzag3143]

If I just go buy windows 7 from the store will it be user friendly enought to install it by myself? Would it be easier to just take it to futureshop or something and get them to do it? I was thinking of dumping everything on my computer anyway to start fresh and I though it would be best to do it and install windows 7 at the same time.

Leadfoot

Hi and welcome to sevenforums

Its not that difficult to upgrade. Starting fresh would be more work but it give superior results. Just remember you will have to re-install your apps.
To install boot from the dvd and click setup. it will walk you thru the various options. It will need to be re-booted at least twice.

Just backup any data (serial numbers, etc) that you will need.

Let us know if you need help with any of this

Ken J

 

[Wii Master 64]

If you do a custom install without formatting anything, all of your old files (Users, Program Files, Windows, and I think something else) will be put in a folder called Windows.old. It's recommended to back everything up on an external hard drive, thumb drive, disk, etc., but if you're just too lazy, then Windows.old does a pretty good job. If you want to start completely fresh, then do what Frostmourne said.

 

[Frostmourne]

To that end, when you done with the windows.old folder, you can delete it via disk cleanup and regain space. I'd highly recommend a fresh new format though. You can also look into Windows Easy Transfer.

 

[Kosmo]

Win7 does a great job with drivers. It may have issues with minor things such as memory card readers or infrared atleast with my experiences so far. Save yourself some cash and buy the upgrade and do it yourself.

 

[bobtran]

Welcome to SevenForums..we are here to help.....

Do yourself a favor and buy the upgrade. You are completely elegible for the upgrade media and it costs a lot less. Furthermore you can do a "Clean" install by choosing custom option. No difference unless you plan to move it to another machine later. That is the ONLY difference between the upgrade and the full version.

Here is a tutorial on upgrading: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

 

[Frostmourne]

You can't really move the install somewhere else either. Windows will complain as it creates a hash from your hardware with your product key and this won't match up with new hardware on a different pc.

 

[leadfoot35]

My laptop is running windows vista 32-bit, with 2 gigs of ram, and processor is 2.00 Ghz duo core, a Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT graphics card. So if I just install windows 7 this windows.old folder will have EVERYTHING from my previous set up? Such as games, or my microsoft office? Also 32bit or 64bit? whats the difference?

 

[Frostmourne]

The windows.old folder will not have programs only data. For 2GB get x86/32-bit. Otherwise double the RAM if you know its type/frequency and install x64.

 

[leadfoot35]

So if I want my Microsoft office to stay on there is there a way to do that? I don't know if my serial code will work again...

 

[outlaw]

New here but not to installing OS's. Burn off your apps and files to a dvd. Delete current partitions and do a clean run. It will install quickly and will have almost all of the drivers you'll need and/or will find them for you online. No probs....you'll be golden.

 

[Frostmourne]

Your code should work. Otherwise you'll have to reinstall. For a backup use Macrium Reflect Free to create an image of your pc and a boot disk. You can use this to reinstall Vista (theoretically ). Then I would advise a complete reformat, rather than the option you are considering.