For those still running Windows Vista and who might be fascinated by upgrading to Windows 7, I decided to document my experience of upgrading from Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium to provide an inventory of the items to watch for, what desires to be thought-about, an plan of how long the process can take, and a general feel for how it all works. Though in my case it was with the x64 (sixty four-bit) Home Premium versions of Windows, the same should be true for the x86 (32-bit) versions.
The PC I did this on was built from new components in late 2009, and is an Intel Core i7 920 with 6GB DDR3 RAM, two linked CrossfireX graphics cards, 1TB SATA2 (C:) and 300GB SATA (D:) hard drive. Your mileage may vary in terms of the time the process takes for you.
Preparation
Prior to inserting the Windows seven DVD, I took a few steps to hide myself against sudden complications. These involved the following:
* My C: drive contains the operating system and programs only. All my information is on another drive, and I have necessary C: drive information secured elsewhere.
* Downloaded the Windows 7 version of my network card driver to my desktop.
* Downloaded the Windows seven version of my video card driver to my desktop.
* Disable all third-party software that begin automatically.
* Disable antivirus software, because the install program recommends.*
That was it, really.
Everybody says it, and I am no totally different: backup any knowledge that you cannot face losing before you start.
Note: I twin-boot between Windows and Wubi Ubuntu Linux, so that’s worth considering below once I mention Windows boot menus, It’s possible that most Windows-only installations will not show a menu normally, and it additionally shows that this method will work if you multi-boot your PC.
Initial Run — Compatibility Check
Upon inserting the DVD and running SETUP.EXE, I told it to put in Windows 7 that, among alternative things, got it to run a compatibility check.
It flagged a range of devices and programs that “might not work after installing Windows 7″:
* Device drivers: IDE storage controller and Canon USB scanner (ten years recent currently and only usable via VueScan’s generic scanner driver).
* Programs: iTunes (stroke a chord in my memory to de-authorise it first), DaemonTools, and therefore the ATI Catalyst software for my graphics cards.
The install software automatically removed the motive force software, however this caused some problems for my SATA DVD-RW drive till I made a BIOS modification (forced ACHI emulation rather than IDE), then I removed the programs as recommended.
Installation
Currently for the install process, as I experienced it (time is shown in hours and minutes):
* 0:00: Step one: Ran setup.exe on the Windows 7 upgrade DVD. Performed and passed compatibility checks, then started the installation proper (“copying Windows files”).
* zero:05: Step a pair of: Gathering information.
* zero:twenty five: Step 3: Expanding Windows files.
* 0:30: System rebooted, Windows boot menu showed a “Windows 7 Installation” choice which was automatically selected.
* zero:40: Continuation of file expansion.
* zero:50: Step four: Putting in options and updates, screen flickered a few times (video drivers, etc).
* 0:53: Reboot. Same boot menu option automatically selected.
* 0:fifty five: Step 5: Transferring files, settings and programs.
* one:fifteen: Reboot. Boot menu currently showed “Windows seven” (rather than “Windows Vista”).
* one:27: Reboot. Came up doing video performance checks. It made me enter my licence key at this point,** and then began the post-install setup process (update installation schedule, clock and timezone, network and firewall settings, etc).
* 1:32: The Windows seven login screen appeared. Once I logged in with my existing username and password it followed by preparing the desktop, personal settings, etc.
* 1:38: Finally at the new Windows 7 desktop. Windows Update ran at this point and downloaded 65MB of updates. It included driver updates for my motherboard and peripherals (NIC, audio, video, etc) and I let it do all of them, figuring Microsoft had had thus several problems with third-party driver updates over the years that they need to have gotten it right by now. Sadly not.
* 1:forty six: When updates were all put in the machine needed to be rebooted, therefore I did.
* two:00: Upon coming back duplicate I realised that my network association was no longer working. Windows Update had got the NIC drive update (this is why I downloaded the Windows 7 version of the motive force before beginning the upgrade method). Ran the software to put in the motive force manually, and everything began working correctly. Did a manual installation of the video card drivers as well. This needed another reboot.
* two:twenty five: All done.
The initial compatibility check run was first performed an hour before all this, thus — as well as the preparatory work of downloading drivers and removing incompatible drivers and programs — the entire process took regarding 4 hours. It’s truthful to mention that you ought to be in a position to try and do it in a night, providing you have second-guessed Microsoft’s record and you know what you are doing.
Outline
Except the third-party driver updates screwing things up, it all worked perfectly well when a bunch of installations and 6 reboots. The rest of the work to be done was adding the removed software, re-enabling the software I wanted to automatically startup on boot, and general customisation. Everything was running fine.
The ultimate aesthetic changes I made are as follows, though you may like to skip these:
* Disabled Aero Peek. I suppose it’s a resource-intensive gimmick, though I can see how others would love it.
* “Unpinned” everything from the Taskbar.
* Re-enabled the Quick Launch Bar.
It has currently been some months since I performed this upgrade, and I am still terribly pleased with it. It is a a lot of a lot of solid and usable platform than its predecessor.
Note: All the intellectual properties mentioned in this text are the property of their respective owners.
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* If not for the inbuilt firewall in my ADSL router, Microsoft’s decades-recent requirement to disable antivirus software when putting in or uninstalling their operating systems would be of significant concern. Anyone who still connects to the Web without some quite firewall between their PC and therefore the Web is still at risk.
** It asked me for the licence key virtually three hours when starting the installation process. Good thing I had the case containing the key with me at the time.
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