Gadgetory

many of you did not upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista but are planning to upgrade to Windows 7 there you leave the Microsoft upgrade path as a punishment you can't upgrade directly from XP to 7 you have to do what's called a clean install which means you're gonna have to jump through some hoops to keep your old data and programs not to worry we're going to show you a few ways to deal with the pain of installing Windows 7 on your XP machine and afterward Microsoft will forgive your trespasses maybe before you start do these three things first run the windows 7 upgrade advisor will let you know if your computer can handle any version of Windows 7 second check the windows 7 compatibility center this is different than the upgrade advisor it's going to tell you if you need to update your drivers or apps to make them work in seven and third make a copy of your hard drive just in case things go horribly wrong I recommend using Mac rim reflect it's a free download available from download com ok now you're ready to upgrade start by gathering all the installation files for all your applications windows 7 will put your data into a Windows dot old file for you but it's not going to reinstall your apps make sure you have all the CDs or if you downloaded programs back up any install files you have on an external drive also don't forget to gather all the license keys either off the product boxes or from emails you'll want them all handy in a place outside the computer you're upgrading and the last thing before we get to the actual windows 7 disc is to download and run the Windows Easy Transfer wizard this is going to allow you to backup all your files and settings to an external hard drive a different one and the one you imaged earlier go to Windows Microsoft comm and search for Windows Easy Transfer download the right version and install it launch the wizard and make sure your external drive is plugged in you can send your data to a network location too but in this example we're choosing an external drive the program will check for what can be transferred then give you an opportunity to password protect the data finally choose your external drive and begin the backup you shouldn't use your computer while this process is running it'll take a while to move all your data over once it's done you can set that drive aside you're not going to need it until after Windows 7 completes updating finally you're actually ready to insert the windows 7 disc when doing a clean install it doesn't matter if you restart and boot off the disk or if you just run it from within windows it's going to give you a last chance to check compatibility and if you're sure you don't need that go ahead and click install now it will ask you if you want to go online and get updates I say yes it could save you some time later then agree to the EULA choose custom install with XP if you choose upgrade the installations going to fail next pick the partition or drive you're installing Windows 7 on now one listener actually wrote in and said he put Windows 7 on a separate partition from Windows XP and it could still run as xp apps no guaranteeing that will work for you though a warning box will alert you that you're going to lose your old version of Windows and your old files will be saved in C colon slash Windows dot old then windows commences installing your computer will reboot a few times and eventually the wizard will return this time running in Windows 7 at this point you'll be able to do things like set up a password set security preferences set the time and date etc finally look at that you're running Windows 7 and you have device driver issues let's take care of that launch the device manager by pressing start and typing device manager in the search box if you see those yellow exclamation points those devices have driver issues now the easiest way to fix them is to double click the item then click the update driver button select search automatically for updated driver software if you're lucky that'll fix your issues if you're only human though you're still going to have a few devices with problems try looking at the windows 7 upgrade advisor again to see if the device and its new driver are listed and if that doesn't work check the manufacturers website for that device once you get your devices running to your satisfaction it's time to install your old programs yeah CDs and external drives or whatever you use to store the program's earlier and get to install it for some programs you might want to download the latest versions directly from the web finally you can restore your data it's all there in a folder called Windows dot old where you can manually move everything back into the proper directories under Windows 7 we don't have to mess with that though because we did that easy transfer wizard earlier so make sure your external drive is connected then click start choose computer and under hard disk drives choose the external drive where you stored your transfer data find the file you should have named Windows Easy Transfer items from a little computer double-click that file you can choose which accounts to move and the transfer wizard is going to figure out the rest for you if it fails your data is still in the windows old file you're just going to have to move it by hand and there you have it you've upgraded slowly and slightly painfully from Windows XP to Windows 7 now if you want to save a lot of this hassle you can get a program that will move all your data and your installed applications for you it's called the PCmover windows 7 upgrade assistance from Lapp link and it's going to cost you around $30.00 data and programs again without you needing to do any dragging and dropping or gathering of disks and license keys whichever way you decide to go once you're done do one last thing image your drive again with macri and reflect so you have a backup copy of your new Windows 7 machine that's just good practice and that's it I hope this helps you make the jump I'm Tom Merritt see Netcom you