RSSTip for Vista users thinking of going to Windows 7
Posted by callthatgirl on February 18, 2010
If you are one of those folks getting a bit frustrated with Vista and want to upgrade, here are a few things to keep in mind. Just don’t buy Windows 7 and throw it in the drive and install it…until you have backed up the following:
- My Documents/Documents folder
- Desktop items
- Pictures
- Music
- Outlook PST files
- Favorites
I think there is an assumption that if you upgrade your Vista to Windows 7, that all of your stuff and programs will still be there. This is not verified by Call That Girl as we have read reviews out there and haven’t done an upgrade, only full installs. The reviews are not good about upgrades. What we do know is that if you do the full install, all of your stuff, data, programs are gone. You will need to have your disks ready to reinstall on the computer. Itunes too!
As I have said in past posts, I am all for moving to Windows 7. I have found very few problems with my testing to not recommend it. Your Vista computer should have enough hard memory (RAM) to be able to make Windows 7 run pretty smoothly.
If you are thinking of upgrading and want help, give us a call and we can certainly help you with this! Can we help you with this remotely? We sure can! No need to bring your computer to our office or have us come to your home, this should be fairly simple to do via the remote tools/internet.
Hey Lisa. I have done several inplace upgrades from Vista to Windows 7. Now the installer will check the computer to see what programs compatible with windows 7. The upgrade will take a few hours or more. There was an article from a microsoft Engineer that stated an upgrade to windows 7 could take up to 20 hours..lol…
Yes backup your files before any upgrade. Dont forget you can always use the Windows Easy Transfer Wizard which takes you files and settings, etc and will transfer them to a new windows 7 system..
I’m trying to decide what’s best should I offer upgrades to windows 7 or just do clean installs?
If i’m going to offer upgrades then I have to tell my customers up front that maybe some of there software programs are no longer going to work ?
When I clean installed Windows 7 Professional 64-bit on workstations running Vista Business 32-bit, I was pleasantly surprised to find the process did not wipe out everything on the C: drive. There’s an option during the install process that offers to file everything in a folder called “Windows-old.” After the install, all of the user settings / app data / etc. still needs to be restored – but it’s all on the disk already without needing to be backed-up to external media beforehand.