Since its recent official
release in October 2009, Microsoft's newest Operating System Windows 7
has been receiving plenty of attention. With many positive reviews, it
would be fairly tempting to try out the new OS. If you are one of the
many people still on Windows XP, hoping and praying for something
better than the over-bloated Windows Vista, this is your chance.
Windows 7 with its fresh new look, and better features doesn't
demand much from older PCs and has even been reported to run better on
Netbooks than Vista.
The majority of Windows 7
reviews have been mostly positive, praising its usability when compared
to its predecessor, Windows Vista. CNET, a widely popular and trusted
computer and technology website, gave Windows 7 Home Premium a rating
of 4.5 out of 5 stars, stating that it "is more than what Vista should
have been, [and] it's where Microsoft needed to go". Similar review
websites have also confirmed their findings.
But the question that seems to
be on many people's mind is: is it possible to upgrade from XP to Win7
without losing all your data and settings? The short answer is yes.
Unfortunately Microsoft has not made it easy to migrate from XP to Win7
like it is from Vista to Win7. Unlike Vista you won't be able to do an
"in-place" upgrade from XP to Windows 7 like you can from Vista to
Windows 7. There are two options; the first and most obvious option
would be to do a fresh installation, which means that you will need to
back up all your data and programs, install a fresh copy of Windows 7
and your other programs and restore your backed up data. The second
option is somewhat tedious and is an option for the more technically
minded individuals. Fortunately a detailed
upgrade tutorial provided by Microsoft
is available to guide you through the different stages of the update.
Is your system Windows 7
ready?
Before deciding to make the
leap, you'll need to know if your system is powerful enough to handle
Windows 7. This shouldn’t be a big worry since Windows 7 is
not as bloated as Vista and doesn't take a heavy toll on system
resources. Another good thing is that it can run on most netbooks. The
minimum system requirements listed by Microsoft are:
| Architecture |
32-bit |
64-bit |
| Processor |
1 GHz 32-bit processor |
1 GHz 64-bit processor |
| System Memory (RAM) |
1 GB of RAM |
2 GB of RAM |
| Display Adapter (Graphics) |
DirectX
9 graphics processor with WDDM driver model 1.0 (For Aero) |
| HDD required |
16 GB of available disk space |
20 GB of available disk space |
| Optical Drive |
DVD
drive (only to install from DVD/CD Media) |
For more comprehensive review
on whether your XP machine can handle Windows 7, run Microsoft's
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. It
will give you a bottom-line appraisal of your XP-based hardware.
Preparation and planning
After you get the confirmation
that your system can run Windows 7, there are some preparations you
need to make to avoid getting burned if something goes wrong during the
upgrade. First and foremost, make sure to make a disk image of your XP
machine as it exists now. There are lots of free backup programs for
XP, which can create a disk image, a bit-for-bit copy of the hard disk.
Macrium
Reflect Free Edition is a very
good choice and run on XP and let you create an image on to a DVD,
external drive or flash drive. We would also recommend that you create
a list of the applications currently installed on your XP system,
including the license keys of the programs installed. This may be a
good time to do some housecleaning. Identify the programs you really
need and plan to keep them, and cast off those you don't. Windows 7
does allow you to use it in compatibility mode for older programs, but
this is not an ideal solution.
Applying the finishing touches
After Windows 7 has been
installed and the required user settings and data restored from XP,
everything seem in place. Now is the time to reload applications and
programs that you want to use. You might also need to update some of
your system drivers (normally Windows 7 does a good job of
auto-detecting the drivers and installing them as required). One thing
you need to remember is that some of the applications that run on XP
might not be compatible with Windows 7. You will need to check which
applications are compatible and if needed you might need to use the
latest versions of apps.
Again, we stress the importance
of backing up your entire system before proceeding with any of the
above mentioned upgrade methods. The optimal method would be to create
an image (bit-wise copy) of your entire hard drive, so you can revert
back to the way things were, should something disastrous occur during
the update. Good luck!
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