Upgrade From Windows XP to Windows 7

If I upgrade to Windows 7 from Vista, will all of my Office 2007 Excel documents (with macros) still work if I send them to friends using Vista?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I don't see why not. Nothing in Office/Excel will change when you move to W7.

Can Windows Vista be updated to Windows 7?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, see http://askbobrankin.com/upgrading_to_windows_7.html

In 1st paragraph you say: "...you can't directly upgrade an existing Windows XP installation to Windows 7....they are not providing an "in-place" upgrade option for the millions of XP customers who have decided to skip Vista."

But then under Option 1 para 3 you say: "If you bought a "full" version of Windows 7, it's OK to format the drive first. But if you got an "upgrade" version of Windows 7, Windows XP must be running when Windows 7 is installed or product activation will fail. So do not format your hard drive before starting to install Windows 7."

It appears these 2 paragraphs are contradictory. Am I missing something? Thanks!

EDITOR'S NOTE: No contradiction. In the case of the upgrade version, it needs to inspect your hard drive to verify that you have XP, which qualifies you for the cheaper upgrade edition. If found, it prompts you to format the disk and proceed with the Win7 installation.

I'm running Win 7 RC on a computer and have a full set of applications installed, and when the release comes out, I'd like to install it in place of the RC.

I own a Win XP Pro CD not installed anywhere, but am I right that I'll have to trash the Win 7 RC, install the XP, and then install the Win 7 upgrade?

EDITOR'S NOTE: That's not clear to me. It would be NICE if we could just install the final version of Win 7 over top of the RC, but I can't find any confirmation that it will work that way.

You mention under Dual Boot Setup that some Windows XP applications will not run under Windows 7. Do you have a list or article on what those applications may be? Thanks!

EDITOR'S NOTE: I've addressed that here: http://askbobrankin.com/windows_7_xp_mode.html

According to this video on Microsoft technet, all you need is 30 minutes and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Beta, In this video, Jeremy Chapman discusses the latest beta of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, specificallly the User State Migration Tool, to transfer the user settings and files from a Windowx XP installation to a new install of Windows 7 on the same PC.

Reportedly, "one of the really cool features in this new version is hardlink migration. In the past, if you wanted to back up all of a users files and settings, those had to be transferred to a different drive, and the new OS install would wipe the machine, complete the new install, and then you'd transfer the files back. With hardlink migration, all the files stay in place on the machine, and the Win7 install just updates file locations with hardlinks. This means the install and settings transfer happens much faster, because the files aren't transferred at all, just the paths to them are updated. It's really cool, and means you can have a fresh install of Win7, with all your XP files and settings, completed in as few as 30 minutes."

See the video at this link http://edge.technet.com/Media/User-State-Migration-with-Windows-7/

EDITOR'S NOTE: That's very cool, thanks. I wonder why this is not being publicized better? But it does seem there is a downside -- all the crud and malware will come along for the ride as well.

So, it seems I have to buy and install a DVD drive just to install Win 7? That strikes me as unreasonable, as I have no other use for the DVD drive.

EDITOR'S NOTE: No, that's not correct. See http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/installation-instructions.aspx -- it says "insert the installation disc into the computer's DVD or CD drive".

You mentioned creating a partition and keeping XP and running Windows 7. Is it possible to put a second hard drive in your computer and put Windows 7 on it?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, that is essentially the same thing. You can have a dual boot system with two physical drives.

I am running XP and have only one hard drive but it has several partitions, one of which is my c:/ where the operating system is. When Windows 7 reformats will it reformat my entire hard drive or just the c:/?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Format works on a partition basis, so just the C: will be affected.

If you are choosing the dual-boot route, please keep in mind that you should install anti virus/anti spyware software on _both_ partitions. Just because you have anti virus/anti spyware software installed on your Windows XP partition, does not mean that you are protected when surfing the Internet etc. while using software installed in your Windows 7 partition.

This can be a headache if you did not purchase anti virus/anti spyware software with a license that allows multiple installations...

EDITOR'S NOTE: People still *purchase* anti-virus software? See http://askbobrankin.com/free_antivirus_programs.html

I will be purchasing a new PC in the next couple of months. Will I have problems migrating my XP software to Windows 7? Would I be better off to buy a machine now with Vista, then migrate to Windows 7 (free upgrade with the machine purchase) when it comes out?

EDITOR'S NOTE: The vast majority of XP software will run fine on WIn7. And the free Win7 upgrade on Vista machines is a good deal.

There is one other alternative, if you don't mind shelling out a few bucks for a third party program. Laplink's PCmover will offer a more or less direct upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7. Details are on their website. I was even told that you could upgrade from 32 bit Windows XP to 64 bit Windows 7. A consideration for those who bought a 64 bit machine only to find it came with 32 Bit XP pre-installed.

OR we could just stay with XP and save the hassle!

Thanks for the tutorial. I did the install on a fresh partition and the everything worked swimmingly. The problem is that I cannot get back into my XP partition. When I reboot it doesn't give me the option to get back into XP, it just boots right into Win7. I can see that the XP partition is still there by looking at the drives on my computer in Win7, so I know I haven't deleted the partition. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

I like the idea of keeping XP on a dual boot so that I wouldn't have to reinstall XP when I want to reinstall Windows 7. I'm wondering if I could use nLite to make XP just small enough to activate Windows 7.

I saw an ad on the internet for a company that has written a program that will let you upgrade directly from Windows XP to Windows 7. Anyone know anything about this program?

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you could give the name of the program...

To Ben;
Since you have to reformat your hard drive, then you wouldn't need to reinstall XP, right Randy?
I heard (not sure where from and can't find it again) that Win7 will ask for the WinXP CD to validate that it is an update.

I have a Win 7 upgrade disk and XP already on one computer. This may be a dumb question, bot when you state in option 2 that XP must be running, does this mean that the computer should already be turned on when the Win 7 disk is put it or not? My XP is an educator's copy and due to a number of reformattings before replacing the computer, I have concerns about the key continuing to work if I mess this up. I am technologically paranoid about making mistakes I will regret later.

I have Win XP Pro installed and am considering installing Win 7 Enterprise as a dual boot on my XP. I had seen on the Internet that intermittent problems, e.g., failing to boot up, could occur installing Win 7 on the same drive as Win XP.

I noticed that you had done this on your laptop. Are you aware of any such problem(s)of installing Win 7 on same drive as XP?

EDITOR'S NOTE: No, I can't see why it would cause a problem.

If I format one hard drive on my computer as Windows 7, will it be able to see my second internal hard drive that was formatted under XP? I'm keeping all my media on the second drive, and want to import everything over once the first drive is upgraded to Windows 7.