Windows 7 Sneaky way to get Windows XP PRO ==>W7 via UPGRADE

[jimbo45]

Hi guys
This only works for W7 X-32.
A weird irritant is that you can't upgrade to Vista (and hence W7) directly from XP PRO (although you can from XP HOME --strange isn't it. Who can ever understand minds that think of this stuff and come out with BS DRM / regional codes AACS etc etc).

OK get around here -- Beg / Borrow a copy of 32 Bit Vista Ultimate -- chances are you'll have this installed on say 1 computer akready on your Network.

BACKUP the XP system first in case you need it again or the W7 system doesn't work well for you.

Do the XP ==> VISTA ULTIMATE Upgrade --DO NOT however enter serial nr / product code and uncheck the Activate Windows automatically box.

In performing the the upgrade - you might have to uninstall a program -- NERO is one that needs to be uninstalled (Drive Image in Nero doesn't work of course).

The Vista upgrade --takes around 2 - 3 hours depending on what you've got installed.
Now do the WINDOWS UPDATE to get all the latest VISTA ultimate updates plus stuff say for Microsoft office etc. When installing W7 via upgrade its best to have the latest VISTA fixes installed.

Now do a VISTA Ultimate X-32 ==> W7 X-32 upgrade. Do it however with 30 days or your VISTA ULTIMATE will expire -- Don't activate as it's already activated on another machine,

Works a treat and 99% of Driver / other problems solved and the W7 activation lasts till Aug - wheras the VISTA activation would fail (you've already got this product key installed on another PC = so you'd only get 30 days anyway).

If you need to go to W7 X-64 then however you look at it a clean install is required but for probably the majotity out there with 4GB RAM or less w7 X-32 is fine and at least it will show you what works before attempting a clean W7 X-64 install.

This method is quite legal since you aren't going to run the VISTA ULTIMATE permanently.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[kevin from Chi-town]

jimbo...

I disagree. You can overwrite and install win 7 through xp pro. Thats exactly how i did it. Since my plextor drive wouldn't recognize the burned ISO, I had to install something. So I partitioned my 160gig drive at 2 partitions @ 80 gig apiece. I threw my XP Pro 64bit on the 1st partition with the intention of dual booting. With XP loaded on 1 partition I tryed to load 7 on to the unallocated....no dice. The plextor still didnt recognize DVD (tryed 3 dvds from different medias thinking maybe I had a bad dvd). Then I ran XP 64 and oddly enough it could read the DVD. Clicked on it and it let me install. Now I had several issues during installation that gave me multiple BSODs. I had 1 512 stick of AMP brand RAM that caused alot of problems. So many problems, that at the time I thought it would be better to reinstall XP 64. The PC would not let this happen due to an APIC error. Realizing it was a hardware error, I began butchering the pc until ultimately I found out it was 1 RAM stick. Once I yanked it, it installed flawlessly. As a matter of fact, I reinstalled that same RAM after completed installation and so far so good.
So as of now I'm running 7 on a Biostar 754 board/Athlon 64/1.5 gig RAM (Crucial and AMP)/ on 80 gigs of hard drive space with a GeForce 5200 PCI video card.
I Like 7, and now I will build another pc to accodate the final version.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there.

I think you've missed the point here -- Yes you can install so long as you have a Windows XP system on the disk first -- But if you go from XP PRO it will disable the upgrade option and force you to do do a CLEAN INSTALL. The XP PRO files are moved to a folder called Windows.OLD which you can delete later.
You've still got to re-install all your applications again afterwards.

The point of my post was to show how you could UPGRADE XP PRO to VISTA and then W7 without having to do a CLEAN INSTALL.

(Now there are different merits on upgrading vs clean install but that's another issue entirely.

Cheers
jimbo