Gadgetory

if you're upgrading for Windows Vista to Windows 7 it should be a fairly easy install you can do what's called an in-place upgrade as long as you install the same version of Windows 7 as you have a Vista for instance if you have Windows Vista Home Premium you can upgrade to Windows 7 home premium you can also go from Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional and from Vista ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate any other upgrade like let's say you wanted to do something wacky like go Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional you're going to require a clean install does that mean well you can't just turn Vista into seven you have to export all your data erase the hard drive and then reinstall all your applications and data now a lot of computer experts actually think you should do a clean install anyway just to make sure your machine runs better see our video for upgrading XP to Windows 7 for that clean install process but if you're lucky enough to be able to do an in-place upgrade and you want to here's what you do first backup your data just to be safe I recommend Mac reom reflect is a great way to image your Drive next put in the install DVD and run setup dot exe press Continue if you're unsure whether windows 7 will run press check compatibility online though really you should check that before you buy windows 7 it'll take you to a web page where you can download and run the windows 7 compatibility advisor but if you're sure you're compatible go ahead and click install now windows 7 will begin copying temporary files and start the install it'll first ask you if you want to go online to get the latest updates I recommend you do it it could save you some time later then agree to the terms which you have fully read and understand select upgrade windows will check compatibility and then begin copying files after a while probably hours not minutes your machine will start back up into windows 7 now once you're all set you may find that some of your settings didn't transfer and got overwritten by Windows 7 defaults the most notorious of these problems is your taskbar program so be ready to do some tweaking to get things just actually the way you like them also since you didn't start fresh some of the quirks in Vista may carry over to seven most of them won't over although it's a much simpler and faster process than the clean install enjoy your new OS I'm Tom Merritt CNET comm