Xp to windows 7 upgrade

[KCINREBAK]

Why can't XP be upgraded to windows 7 but vista can? I want the actual technical answer.

 

[Jonathan_King]

I cannot give you an answer based on the source code or anything.

The short answer is that Microsoft did not support it. It is possible to upgrade from XP to Vista to 7, but it is not recommended.

Windows 7 uses different drivers than XP. Almost everything compatible with Vista is compatible with 7, but not XP.

You will agree that the XP settings are also different than 7's, so they will be all but irrelevant.

A clean install is highly recommended.

 

[WalkerA WinTeam]

Why can't XP be upgraded to windows 7 but vista can? I want the actual technical answer.

Hi there,

I assume you're talking about an In-Place upgrade vs. Custom ("clean") install, in which case you're right that Windows XP can't be upgraded in-place to Windows 7. Jonathan_King's answer is accurate; Windows 7's architecture draws heavily upon Windows Vista, although this page has a great breakdown of the differences between 7 and Vista.

In case you're confused about which actual Windows 7 product needs to be purchased in order to upgrade to Windows 7, let me clarify: Windows XP can be upgraded to Windows 7, but a Custom install is required. You only need to purchase the Full Version of Windows 7 if you want to replace a version of Windows that's older than XP (such as Windows 95, 98, 2000, or Me) or a different OS entirely.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20146-custom-install-windows-7-a.html

Cheers,

Walker
Windows Outreach Team

 

[1Bowtie]

To go one step further than Jonathan and Walker, Vista and Win 7 are on the same kernal so can be inplace upgrade, XP is on a different kernal so can't be upgraded in place. Hope this makes sense.

Smitty

 

[Shinobi73]

Also a bit of info on architecture. With both Vista and 7 Microsoft had removed a lot of unnecessary subsystems that were present in XP that utilized too much processing space. To Maximize your processing power some subsystem functions were re routed to other components of your computer.

One example of this is the display – hence the Aero Feature is now completely controlled by your graphics processor rather than your CPU. These features are not present in XP.

Because of the number of subsystems that would be removed it would make the XP platform unusable and thus incompatible with current functions present in Win7

Regarding Vista – this OS is released as a precursor to Win7 and already has most of the subsystems already running that makes it the primary candidate for an “Upgrade”. All Win7 installation needs to do is add the rest on top of Vista and it’s good to go.

 

[bobkn]

I'm not competent to weigh in on this, but no one has remarked that XP could be upgraded-in-place to Vista.

That suggests that the reasons for not permitting an upgrade-in-place from XP to Win7 may not have been primarily technical.

Consider the history:

Windows 98, 98SE, Millenium Edition, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000 (aka NT 5.0) could all be upgraded-in-place to XP (NT 5.1). 98, 98SE, and ME were all on the same development branch as Win95. NT 4.0 and Win2k were on the NT branch.

Only XP could be upgraded-in-place to Vista (NT 6.0).

Only Vista is permitted to be upgraded-in-place to Win7 (NT 6.1).

I don't see a pattern there. The phrase "business strategy" comes to mind, not that it explains things.

 

[win7clutz]

To go one step further than Jonathan and Walker, Vista and Win 7 are on the same kernal so can be inplace upgrade, XP is on a different kernal so can't be upgraded in place. Hope this makes sense.

Smitty

Sorry, it makes no sense... If your rational was valid you could not upgrade from XP to Vista.

 

[Jonathan_King]

The answer is that Microsoft simply did not write the code to upgrade from XP to Vista. I am sure they could do it, if they saw a reason to, but to avoid problems, they didn't.

 

[manhunter2826]

I'm not competent to weigh in on this, but no one has remarked that XP could be upgraded-in-place to Vista.

That suggests that the reasons for not permitting an upgrade-in-place from XP to Win7 may not have been primarily technical.

Consider the history:

Windows 98, 98SE, Millenium Edition, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000 (aka NT 5.0) could all be upgraded-in-place to XP (NT 5.1). 98, 98SE, and ME were all on the same development branch as Win95. NT 4.0 and Win2k were on the NT branch.

Only XP could be upgraded-in-place to Vista (NT 6.0).

Only Vista is permitted to be upgraded-in-place to Win7 (NT 6.1).

I don't see a pattern there. The phrase "business strategy" comes to mind, not that it explains things.

I have to agree; this is - in the main - pure marketing on Microsoft's part. I'm not criticizing them but the technical minutiae are beginning to wear thin. Nice thread anyhow and thanks OP for asking the Q.

 

[KCINREBAK]

Hp dv6000 bsod

Been getting alot of blue screens lately referring to files in
AppData\Local\Temp\.... folder. couple of the files were .sysdat extension another was teefer2.sys. Could be driver problem just wondering if maybe I need to update my bios?

 

[Jonathan_King]

Been getting alot of blue screens lately referring to files in
AppData\Local\Temp\.... folder. couple of the files were .sysdat extension another was teefer2.sys. Could be driver problem just wondering if maybe I need to update my bios?

If it is pointing to a lot of system files, try running sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt