2. Upgrading
When most people talk about upgrading to a new version of Windows 7, they are typically referring to what's called an in-place upgrade.
When you perform an in-place upgrade of Windows 7, you replace your
existing version of Windows with Windows 7. An in-place upgrade, it is
hoped, will bring with it all of your applications, documents, and
custom settings. It is hoped.
The reality is that in-place
upgrades often don't work as planned. For this reason, we don't
recommend upgrading from your current Windows version to Windows 7. If
you simply must perform such an upgrade, behave as if you were doing a
clean install just in case, and back up all of your crucial documents
and other data ahead of time. That way, if something does go wrong you
won't be stranded.
Before even attempting an
upgrade, you should understand what kinds of upgrades are possible.
Windows 7 ships in a wide range of product editions, most of which have
direct relations in Windows XP and Vista. That said, only Windows Vista
can be used to perform an in-place upgrade to Windows 7. If you're using
Windows XP, you will instead need to perform what's called a migration.
In this type of upgrade, Windows 7 Setup backs up your Windows XP
install, does a clean install of Windows 7, and then reapplies your
settings, documents, and other data back to the new install. Because a
migration and an in-place upgrade are very different in practice—though
it is hoped that they have similar results—we cover them separately
here.
NOTE
From a licensing
perspective, only certain Windows versions are eligible for a Windows 7
upgrade. That is, you can't purchase and install an Upgrade version of
Windows 7 unless you're using a supported Windows version now.
If you're running Windows 95,
Windows 98 (or Windows 98 Second Edition), Windows Millennium Edition,
Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000, you are out of luck. You cannot
purchase an Upgrade version of Windows 7, and you cannot perform an
in-place upgrade from your current operating system to any Windows 7
product edition. Instead, you must purchase the Full version of the
Windows 7 product edition you want, and perform a clean install.
If you're running Windows XP,
you are eligible to purchase an Upgrade version of the Windows 7 product
edition you desire. However, you cannot perform an in-place upgrade.
Instead, you need to perform a clean install, as discussed previously,
using the Upgrade version.
The only Windows version
that qualifies for a Windows 7 Upgrade version and can be upgraded
in-place to Windows 7 is Windows Vista. However, within this set of
operating systems there are still some restrictions. These include the
following:
Windows Vista Starter can only be upgraded to Windows 7 Starter.
Windows Vista Home Basic can only be upgraded to Windows 7 Home Basic.
Windows Vista Home Premium can only be upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium.
Windows Vista Business can only be upgraded to Windows 7 Professional.
Windows Vista Ultimate can only be upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate.
32-bit versions of Windows Vista can only be upgraded to 32-bit versions of Windows 7.
64-bit versions of Windows Vista can only be upgraded to 64-bit versions of Windows 7.
Okay, let's get upgrading.
2.1. Upgrading Windows XP to Windows 7
While Windows Vista allows
you to perform an in-place upgrade to Windows 7, Windows XP does not, so
you'll need to use a built-in utility on the Windows 7 Setup DVD called
Windows Easy Transfer to transfer your documents and settings from your
XP-based PC to a backup location first. (This backup location is
typically an external hard drive, but you could also use network-based
storage if you have such a thing.)
NOTE
Windows Easy Transfer does
not back up your applications, so you will need to reinstall those
manually after Windows 7 is installed.
After this backup is
completed, you perform a clean install of Windows 7 on the PC and then
use Windows Easy Transfer again to transfer everything back. This may
sound pretty simple, and it is, but it's a time consuming process.
Here's how it works:
On your Windows XP PC, insert the Windows 7 Setup DVD. Cancel any auto-run window that may appear.
Open
My Computer, right-click on the Windows 7 Setup DVD, and choose Open.
Then, navigate to D:\support\migwiz (assuming D:\ is your optical
drive).
Run migsetup.exe. The Windows Easy Transfer utility will start up, as shown in Figure 23. Click Next and Windows Easy Transfer will scan the user accounts on your PC for data to back up, as shown in Figure 24.
When
the scanning process is complete, the wizard will show you how much
space the data from each user account will take up (see Figure 25). You can click the Customize link under each account to customize what will be backed up. As you can see from Figure 26,
the resulting window, Modify your selections, provides you with an
Explorer-like view of the PC, allowing you to dive in and manually
select (or deselect) content that will be backed up. When you're done,
click Next.
In the next phase of the wizard, you are prompted to provide a password for the Easy Transfer file that will be created (see Figure 27). This step is not
optional, so provide a password you know you'll remember later, or
you'll have to start all over with the transfer process. Click Save to
continue.
Now
you are prompted to save your Easy Transfer file, typically onto a
USB-attached external storage device. Click Save to continue. As shown
in Figure 28,
the Windows Easy Transfer wizard will now (slowly) save this file to
your destination of choice. When the save is complete, click Next to
complete the wizard.
NOTE
At this point, it's
advisable to use whatever backup utility you have to back up your entire
Windows XP PC if possible. If you do not have such a utility, consider
copying the entire contents of the XP hard drive to an external storage
device (like a USB hard drive), just in case. This manual backup will
not allow you to get back to your XP install if all goes poorly, but it
will provide you with access to some critical data that the Easy
Transfer wizard may have missed. It's better to be safe than sorry.
Now,
following the instructions in the previous section, perform a clean
install of Windows 7 on your Windows XP–based PC by booting from the
Windows 7 Setup DVD. You will most likely need to delete the hard
drive's XP partition in order to do this, so be sure you've backed up
everything first.
Once
Windows 7 is installed and up-to-date, it's time to bring back your
XP-based settings and data. To do so, connect the external storage to
which you saved the Easy Transfer file, open it, and double-click on the
file. Windows Easy Transfer will launch, open the file, and present you
with the password entry screen shown in Figure 29. Enter your password and click Next.
Windows Easy Transfer will open the file and then display one or more users (see Figure 30),
giving you the option to choose which data to transfer over. Note that
you can click the Customize link as before and use this wizard to get at
a very particular piece of data if you'd like. Make sure the
appropriate user(s) are selected and then click Transfer.
NOTE
You could also click the Advanced Options link to display the window shown in Figure 31.
This provides some very important functionality, including the ability
to map a user account on the old XP-based PC with a differently named
user account in Windows 7. Nice!
The data and settings will be transferred over as shown in Figure 32.
The amount of time this takes will, of course, be determined by the
size of the Easy Transfer file; but it takes a lot less time than
creation of the file.
Once
the transfer is complete, the wizard will provide a list of data that
was transferred, as well as a list of applications you may want to
install in Windows 7. You might notice things like your old desktop and
other changes as well, as shown in Figure 33.
After you close the wizard, you'll be prompted to restart your computer.
NOTE
The information provided by Windows Easy Transfer here is quite valuable. If you click on either link, See what was transferred or See a list of programs you might want to install on your new
computer, you'll be provided with a detailed transfer report and, more
compellingly, a program report that explains which of your old Windows
XP applications have more modern equivalents. The program report also
lists applications that were installed on your old XP install, along
with links so that you can re-download and install them under Windows 7
(see Figure 34).
NOTE
In case it's not
obvious, Windows Easy Transfer isn't just useful if you are installing
Windows 7 on a PC that used to be used for Windows XP. You can also use
it to migrate from an old XP-based computer to a new Windows 7–based
computer. That way, you can have all your old settings and documents on
your new PC too. In fact, you can do this with Windows Vista as well as
XP.
2.2. Upgrading Windows Vista to Windows 7
If you're undaunted by the
process of upgrading your copy of Windows Vista to Windows 7, in-place,
then you've come to the right place. This section describes how it's
done. The big
difference is time: in our experience, upgrading from Windows Vista to
Windows 7 can take several hours, especially if you're doing so on a
well-worn PC.
Here's how it works:
Launch
Windows 7 Setup from within Windows Vista. Simply insert the Windows 7
Setup DVD into your PC's optical drive, triggering the AutoPlay dialog.
Click Run setup.exe and the Setup routine will run (after a UAC prompt),
displaying the window shown in Figure 35.
Click
Install now to continue. After some preparatory work, you'll be asked
if you want to go online to get the latest updates for installation.
Always do so, because Microsoft continues to improve Windows 7, and
updates the Setup process specifically. Setup will search for and
download any updates.
Setup then asks you to agree to the EULA. In the next step, shown in Figure 36,
you are asked, "Which type of installation do you want?" It's time to
step back a second and regroup. This is where we veer off into new
territory.
Instead
of choosing Custom, choose Upgrade. Setup first runs a compatibility
check to determine whether any of your hardware or software needs to be
rein-stalled—or will work at all—after the upgrade is completed. After
scanning your system, Setup presents you with a Compatibility Report
(see Figure 37).
What you see here depends on how old and weather-beaten your system is.
The more stuff you've installed, the greater the chance problems will
occur. A version is also saved to your desktop as an HTML file (see Figure 38).
NOTE
Sometimes the Setup
wizard will find enough incompatible programs on your PC that it cannot
continue. In other cases, it will list incompatible programs and
recommend uninstalling them before continuing. In either case, you
should uninstall any offending apps before proceeding, and then hunt for
replacements after Windows 7 is installed.
Assuming you haven't found
any show-stopping problems, Setup will continue similarly to how it does
during a clean install. Unlike in previous Windows versions, Windows 7
Setup literally backs up your settings, data, and application
information, performs a clean install of the operating system, and then
copies everything back such that it should all work as it did before.
Setup could take several
hours and reboot several times. When this is all done, it will step you
through an abbreviated version of the post-Setup steps you see with a
clean install: you'll be prompted to (optionally) enter your product
key, configure Automatic Updates, review the time and date settings
(which, unlike with a clean install, are already correctly configured in
most cases), select the computer's current network location (Home,
Work, or Public), and then optionally configure HomeGroup sharing. After
that, Windows 7 Setup finalizes your settings, prepares your desktop,
and then loads it.
If everything goes well, a desktop that looks reasonably like the one you configured for Windows Vista will appear (see Figure 39).
The big mystery, of course, is your data and applications. Spend some time testing each application to see if everything works. Figure 40
shows the Firefox Web browser, previously installed and configured in
Windows Vista, up and running with a few weird add-on errors.
NOTE
Because of the
potential for problems, we recommend backing up any crucial data and
settings before performing any operating-system upgrade.
