Upgrade from XP via Vista to Win 7

[Dick K]

I have a desktop PC which runs XP Pro under downgrade rights
from Vista Business. My manufacturer supplied recovery disks
offer the options of installing XP or Vista. I'm considering
migrating to Windows 7 Pro. One route would be to install
what is now a three year old version of Vista, which I
assume includes SP2, from the recovery disks and then run a
Win 7 upgrade. I'd be grateful if anyone could confirm that,
if I were to follow this route, I wouldn't need to apply
three years worth of Windows updates to the temporary Vista installation
before running the upgrade to Windows 7?

 

[philo]

I have a desktop PC which runs XP Pro under downgrade rights
from Vista Business. My manufacturer supplied recovery disks
offer the options of installing XP or Vista. I'm considering
migrating to Windows 7 Pro. One route would be to install
what is now a three year old version of Vista, which I
assume includes SP2, from the recovery disks and then run a
Win 7 upgrade. I'd be grateful if anyone could confirm that,
if I were to follow this route, I wouldn't need to apply
three years worth of Windows updates to the temporary Vista installation
before running the upgrade to Windows 7?

If you used your recovery disk to install Vista, then upgraded it to
win7 you would not have to perform Windows updates on Vista.

 

[Dick K]

If you used your recovery disk to install Vista, then upgraded it to
win7 you would not have to perform Windows updates on Vista.

Many thanks. That's what I was hoping for.

 

[...winston]

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/upgrade-advisor
- you might consider running it on XP and Vista

Also your Vista to Win7 upgrade paths are
•Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium
•Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional
•Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate

i.e. if you have Vista Home Premium and wish to go Windows 7 Pro, a clean
install is necessary.

--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

"Dick K" wrote in message

If you used your recovery disk to install Vista, then upgraded it to
win7 you would not have to perform Windows updates on Vista.

Many thanks. That's what I was hoping for.

 

[Dick K]

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/upgrade-advisor
- you might consider running it on XP and Vista

Also your Vista to Win7 upgrade paths are
•Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium
•Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional
•Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate

i.e. if you have Vista Home Premium and wish to go Windows 7 Pro, a
clean install is necessary.

Thanks. Upgrade adviser revealed no real problems
on XP. That was expected because, irritatingly,
the system would have come with XP Pro under
downgrade rights from Win 7 had I bought it a
month later, allowing me to install Win 7 as a
recovery option.

I'm reconciled to a clean install at some point.
The ideal path would be an upgrade from 32 bit XP
Pro to Vista Business followed by a second upgrade
to Win 7 Pro. In principle that would preserve
programs and data but would require the purchase
of two upgrades which would be too expensive.
A clean install of Win 7 could involve a hunt for
drivers. I hope largely to avoid the latter by a
clean installation of Vista Business from the
manufacturer's recovery disks then upgrading
to Win 7 Pro.

 

[...winston]

"Dick K" wrote in message Thanks. Upgrade adviser revealed no real problems
on XP. That was expected because, irritatingly,
the system would have come with XP Pro under
downgrade rights from Win 7 had I bought it a
month later, allowing me to install Win 7 as a
recovery option.

I'm reconciled to a clean install at some point.
The ideal path would be an upgrade from 32 bit XP
Pro to Vista Business followed by a second upgrade
to Win 7 Pro. In principle that would preserve
programs and data but would require the purchase
of two upgrades which would be too expensive.
A clean install of Win 7 could involve a hunt for
drivers. I hope largely to avoid the latter by a
clean installation of Vista Business from the
manufacturer's recovery disks then upgrading
to Win 7 Pro.
Good luck.
- if that were my plan, I'd probably ensure I checked [even more so if 64
bit) for (and downloaded) any Win7 drivers (just in case the Vista or XP
don't work) for select hardware
- Lan, Printer, Chipset, Video, Audio,

 

[Steve Hayes]

I'm reconciled to a clean install at some point.
The ideal path would be an upgrade from 32 bit XP
Pro to Vista Business followed by a second upgrade
to Win 7 Pro. In principle that would preserve
programs and data but would require the purchase
of two upgrades which would be too expensive.
A clean install of Win 7 could involve a hunt for
drivers. I hope largely to avoid the latter by a
clean installation of Vista Business from the
manufacturer's recovery disks then upgrading
to Win 7 Pro.

On my desktop computer there is a "WindowsOld" directory which still has
Windows 98. My Win 98 computer, which I bought in 1999 had the biggest hard
disk money could buy, all of 8 Gigs. Later I added a second 40 Gig hard disk,
which I divided into 4 partitions, D, E, F, and G. I installed several program
on E, because it had more room than the C drive.

Then the motherboard died, and my son gave me his old computer, with a clean
instal of XP professional. So mI reinstalled some programs, but there are some
that I did not reinstall, and they still take up space on the E drive. I just
reinstalled the programs that I used most frequently so that I could begin
working again. When that hardware died, I had it backed up on Acronis, and so
bought a new computer with no operating system and two 500 Mb drives, and
restored the Acronis backups, so it is the same setup, no reinstallation, and
more room. One day, if I get a mike for the computer, I may try to reinstall
Dragon Naturally speaking, which I haven't used for about 8 years, though it's
still sitting on the disk, but not in the registry. It has all my accent and
vocabulary quirks noted.

I have Win 7 on my laptop, because it came with that, but I dread having to
reinstall stuff after a hardware crash, or, as in the case of the laptop, when
the previous one was stolen.

 

[Dick K]

"Dick K" wrote in message Thanks. Upgrade adviser revealed no real problems
on XP. That was expected because, irritatingly,
the system would have come with XP Pro under
downgrade rights from Win 7 had I bought it a
month later, allowing me to install Win 7 as a
recovery option.

I'm reconciled to a clean install at some point.
The ideal path would be an upgrade from 32 bit XP
Pro to Vista Business followed by a second upgrade
to Win 7 Pro. In principle that would preserve
programs and data but would require the purchase
of two upgrades which would be too expensive.
A clean install of Win 7 could involve a hunt for
drivers. I hope largely to avoid the latter by a
clean installation of Vista Business from the
manufacturer's recovery disks then upgrading
to Win 7 Pro.
Good luck.
- if that were my plan, I'd probably ensure I checked [even more so if
64 bit) for (and downloaded) any Win7 drivers (just in case the Vista or
XP don't work) for select hardware

XP? Win 7 surely.

- Lan, Printer, Chipset, Video, Audio,

Thanks. This is all 32 bit. I intend to run my perfectly
good printer and scanner, for which no Win 7 drivers
exist, under XP mode. The PC hardware drivers are all
freely available and could be downloaded on another
system if necessary, though I hope to avoid that.

 

[Wolf K]

On 2013-08-21 11:33 PM, ...winston wrote:
[...]

- if that were my plan, I'd probably ensure I checked [even more so if
64 bit) for (and downloaded) any Win7 drivers (just in case the Vista or
XP don't work) for select hardware
- Lan, Printer, Chipset, Video, Audio,

Upside: W7 does this automatically for any devices for which it doesn't
already have a driver. Also, post-installation W7 updates include many
driver updates. I installed W7 successfully on a 2006 motherboard.

Downside: If W7 can't find a driver, there almost certainly isn't one.
Go to the manufacturer's website, sometimes older drivers will work with
reduced functionality.

FWIW, I had no issues with any peripherals, but they are all 3 yrs old
or younger.

HTH