I know you can't upgade from XP to Win 7 direct but can you do the upgrade from xp to vista and then to win 7 in stages?
Windows 7 Officially Released To Manufacturing
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Upgrade installs a re not recommended. Clean installs almost always work better. Doing two of them one after another woudi ncrease the chances of a problem
xp to Vista and then vista to 7 would generate SPECIFICALLY what sort of problem and if it does generate issue(s), why isn't there any specific information on it other than speculative hearsay?
I recall my first experience with Vista 64 bit on my wife's laptop. There was just one problem and that was the wifi would lose connection and need reboot. This was a well documented bug and SP1 fixed it. Today, I have no issues with Vista on her machine nor my HDTV video editing desktop. It runs like greased lightning.
BTW- I have a windows 7 64bit beta download installed to a separate HD for my laptop. It runs fine but knowing that it will expire, I didn't want to install any of my expensive apps yet. Wait until the release version is out. But my backup will be the original hard drive with XP. IT would be cool if I could simply make a clone of the XP drive with those apps, upgrade to Vista, then upgrade to 7. That I think would be easier than reinstalling dozens of apps for my video editing work. The problem I have is the application upgrade followed by the lengthy plugin reinstall and the scripts that have to be rewritten too. Even at the cost of buying Vista for that transition, it would be worth it. BUT, the real question is would it work with little or no "issues" you allude to.
I recall my first experience with Vista 64 bit on my wife's laptop. There was just one problem and that was the wifi would lose connection and need reboot. This was a well documented bug and SP1 fixed it. Today, I have no issues with Vista on her machine nor my HDTV video editing desktop. It runs like greased lightning.
BTW- I have a windows 7 64bit beta download installed to a separate HD for my laptop. It runs fine but knowing that it will expire, I didn't want to install any of my expensive apps yet. Wait until the release version is out. But my backup will be the original hard drive with XP. IT would be cool if I could simply make a clone of the XP drive with those apps, upgrade to Vista, then upgrade to 7. That I think would be easier than reinstalling dozens of apps for my video editing work. The problem I have is the application upgrade followed by the lengthy plugin reinstall and the scripts that have to be rewritten too. Even at the cost of buying Vista for that transition, it would be worth it. BUT, the real question is would it work with little or no "issues" you allude to.
If you buy the upgrade for 7, you can start with a blank drive. Essentially it should work like the old Windows XP installer that searched for a boot floppy or cd for Win988.
I can't tell yu that you WILL havea problem Don andI icertainly hope that you don't.
Having said that everything i have read from MS and from bloggers like Paul thurrott, tells me that the upgrade process is long and arduous---often taking longer than a complete install. In the case of windows 7 the upgrade effectively does reinstall the old apps (which is why it takes so long) but in a largely unattended way that prevents you from making choices in that reinstallation that might help you.
Still if you want to go through two upgrades that is your choice.
I am sorry if that is just "speculative hearsay" It was intended s friendly cautionary advice but sometimes that is taken differently .
Here is one article that discusses some of the hazards of upgrading. http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2910
Some of the other hazards include non working USB devices (though he discusses that somewhat ) and even USB ports not working and drive slowdown due to leaving a lot of unnecessary files on the drive.
BTW ther seesm to be some disagreement as to whether you can use the upgrade disc to do a clean install on another drive. Officially MS has said yes but some of their FAQs etc seem to indicate that you cannot.
Having said that everything i have read from MS and from bloggers like Paul thurrott, tells me that the upgrade process is long and arduous---often taking longer than a complete install. In the case of windows 7 the upgrade effectively does reinstall the old apps (which is why it takes so long) but in a largely unattended way that prevents you from making choices in that reinstallation that might help you.
Still if you want to go through two upgrades that is your choice.
I am sorry if that is just "speculative hearsay" It was intended s friendly cautionary advice but sometimes that is taken differently .
Here is one article that discusses some of the hazards of upgrading. http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2910
Some of the other hazards include non working USB devices (though he discusses that somewhat ) and even USB ports not working and drive slowdown due to leaving a lot of unnecessary files on the drive.
BTW ther seesm to be some disagreement as to whether you can use the upgrade disc to do a clean install on another drive. Officially MS has said yes but some of their FAQs etc seem to indicate that you cannot.
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In the past, I have always opted for the clean upgrade, but that clean upgrade really was a new machine as well. However, this time, for me the first time, I feel my present laptop is robust enough to handle win 7 just fine. Core 2 duo 2.66 Ghz with 4 Gb ram and 420 Gb 7200 RPM sata drive. Otherwise I'd consider a new computer to upgrade to win 7.
What I will likely do is cost it out vs. the expected 1 week of reinstalls I believe I'll have to do.
Currently, I have no time crunch to make it happen since I have a separate drive for the upgrade or fresh install while keeping my XP drive as backup until the upgrade proves out.
The next decision is when to make the move. Do I wait for win 7 SP1?
Finally, what do I do about two old applications I run regularly that do not work on Vista plus several Sony Vegas Plugins I need that do not work on Vista 64 but do work on Vista 32? Do I maintain that older XP drive to access those programs, or is there a work around to this predicament for applications that have no upgrade path?
What I will likely do is cost it out vs. the expected 1 week of reinstalls I believe I'll have to do.
Currently, I have no time crunch to make it happen since I have a separate drive for the upgrade or fresh install while keeping my XP drive as backup until the upgrade proves out.
The next decision is when to make the move. Do I wait for win 7 SP1?
Finally, what do I do about two old applications I run regularly that do not work on Vista plus several Sony Vegas Plugins I need that do not work on Vista 64 but do work on Vista 32? Do I maintain that older XP drive to access those programs, or is there a work around to this predicament for applications that have no upgrade path?
Registry problems, primaraly.
And it isnt just hearsay.
Nobody but Microsoft actually can quantify the problems and they ain't talking.
I don't think because they don't want to but because they don't know.
One example.
If you ever want to install Cisco IPsec client, it explicetely states that it will work under Vista only as a clean install.
Diogen.
I did a clean install of Vista x64 on several machines a couple of years ago. All of those went thru upgrades of Windows 7 beta, RC and various interim builds and are now Windows 7 RTM.
Not the "recommended" path but it darn well worked fine for me. Just the occasional thing here and there I needed to get rid of or upgrade for it to still work. Virus software, virtual pc, that sort of thing.
All that said, I wouldn't touch an XP-to-Vista-to-7 upgrade path with a 10 meter pole. Though in theory, one could install Windows NT4 or earlier, and upgrade through all the iterations since then, just as a "can it be done" exercise. Assuming of course you had hardware that was compatible the whole way thru. IDE drives, generic video cards, etc.
Not the "recommended" path but it darn well worked fine for me. Just the occasional thing here and there I needed to get rid of or upgrade for it to still work. Virus software, virtual pc, that sort of thing.
All that said, I wouldn't touch an XP-to-Vista-to-7 upgrade path with a 10 meter pole. Though in theory, one could install Windows NT4 or earlier, and upgrade through all the iterations since then, just as a "can it be done" exercise. Assuming of course you had hardware that was compatible the whole way thru. IDE drives, generic video cards, etc.
Ya, it's really not a speculative heresy thing, but more of a technical rule of thumb, it just isn't ideal to upgrade. It can work, but you need to be prepared to deal with some random-ish issues, both hardware and software that may come up.
What is the actual procedure for a clean upgrade from xp to Win7? Do you need to enter the xp coa? Do you need to insert the xp cd? Or do you have to have xp installed, activated and WGA-ed on the drive? I know xp upgrades you could just pop in a win98 cd for a minute as proof you owned windows before but that (win98) was before a lot of the activation of windows.
I would agree with that it might work flawlessly both times and you might wind up with a perfect or near perfect windows 7 installation. it just is not recommended and coud wind up taking as long or longer than a clean installation.
With Vista you could use the upgrade disk to do a full install. You only needed to install the software without a key and then reinstall and enter the key on the second installation.
question? from the posts i am reading i gather i should buy a new computer if i want windows 7 is that right? i am not as computer savvy as most. regards
It really all depends on what type of computer you have today.
Go here and see what the upgrade advisor says.
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
Not necessarily!
If you have a computer that came with Vista or has a "Vista-compatible" label on it, than you should have no problems running Win7 on it.
If you have an older computer that was never intended for Vista, then you should think twice before putting Win7 on it.
Are you saying that with a Vista upgrade disk you could take a bare drive, install vista without entering the coa key, then "upgrade" your unactivated vista and on that second install enter the key (meaning you wouldn't actually need a previous version)?
Yes that is what I am saying. I have done this going to Vista as I wanted a fresh installation instead of upgrading my XP workstation.
