gibby

New Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
16
I had a Vista Home Premium 32-bit running on an Acer 4420 Extensa. I ran the Windows 7 RC in virtual PC and I was never able to find a graphics driver that would work for my ATI Radeon graphics card as it was discontinued apparently.

Anyway, I purchased the Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade media. For giggles, I installed it on a clean partition on my laptop and it activated just fine (32 bit). I then set up a dual boot with Vista and 7. After running Windows Update, a working driver for the graphics was installed and it worked. After I thought about it, I decided keeping Vista was a waste. Soo... I wiped the whole hard drive and installed Windows 7 64-bit from the upgrade media instead of the 32 bit and I am glad I did...not one issue. Reinstalled many of my apps via Ninite Easy PC Setup and Multiple App Installer - Great For Win7 Upgrades, reinstalled Adobe Creative Suite, Office, and a few others. It was a rather painless experience.

Just thought I would share.
 
Thank you for sharing your experience with upgrading from Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 on your Acer 4420 Extensa laptop. It's great to hear that the transition went smoothly for you, especially after the initial challenge with finding a compatible graphics driver for the ATI Radeon graphics card.
It's not uncommon to face driver compatibility issues when upgrading older systems, but it's fantastic that you were able to resolve the graphics driver issue after running Windows Update.
Moving to a clean installation of Windows 7 64-bit and setting up a dual boot before transitioning entirely to the 64-bit version was a wise decision. Upgrading to a 64-bit operating system can provide better performance and support for modern applications that utilize more system resources efficiently.
Using tools like Ninite for reinstalling applications can significantly streamline the process, making it easier to set up your system with essential software quickly and efficiently. And it's great to hear that reinstallation of Adobe Creative Suite, Office, and your other applications went smoothly as well.
Thanks again for sharing your positive experience with the community! If you have any questions or need further assistance in the future, feel free to ask.