Windows 7 Upgrade XP to Win7 -- Method Should Work!

[busydog]

All of the forums and postings say you can't upgrade from XP to Win7. I bet you can in the following scenario...

"Borrow" a Vista Upgrade Disk (any flavor above Basic). Upgrade XP to Vista w/o entering a key. Within the 30 day "keyless" grace period, upgrade Vista to Win7 using any flavor of Upgrade Disk entering the WIN7 upgrade key. You may get some issues in the compatability check but they can probably be worked around.

Since there are no Win7 Retail Disks to try this out on, this can't be verified.

This also assumes that there is something to be gained by upgrading from XP. My advice..... Do a clean install.

 

[yogi365]

nice trick thanks man.

 

[RobMinor]

Whatabout.....

OK, riddle me this then..................

I went right from XP to 7, never had Vista at all. Ended up with only the 7 RC on my main desktop now. If I can't do an "upgrade" from the RC, does that mean I have to reinstall XP, or is it possible that all 7 will ask for is a valid XP key to install? I gather its going to be a clean install no matter. Any wisdom?

 

[busydog]

You upgraded from XP directly to Win7 (not a clean install) and kept your apps and settings? I love to have your instructions on how to do that. NO ONE has done that per the forums and posts I've read. Anyone can do a clean install from within XP.

 

[RobMinor]

You upgraded from XP directly to Win7 (not a clean install) and kept your apps and settings? I love to have your instructions on how to do that. NO ONE has done that per the forums and posts I've read. Anyone can do a clean install from within XP.

No, no, sorry, did not do that, it was the clean install to 7 Ultimate. I'm asking if when I get the 7 Upgrade, I will have to delete everything and reinstall XP, then install the upgrade. Or if you can put in the upgrade disk, then just enter either an XP key or insert an XP disk to show your previous ownership. I vaguely recall a previous release, maybe '98 worked like that.

 

[busydog]

This thread has taken a right turn..... to answer your question, you will not have to reinstall XP, just put in the XP disk when asked or enter the XP Key. You will then be able to do a clean Win7 install.

Back to the original thread..... I am going through the XP to Win7 upgrade (via Vista) as I type this. I'll post the results but Vista is installing right now without a key as an upgrade to XP. When that is done, I will upgrade Vista to Win7 X86 7260. If that works, then I have no doubts that the XP -> Vista -> Win7 Retail upgrade will work with all XP Settings preserved.

 

[busydog]

Finished XP to Win7 Upgrade

Just finished the XP to Win7 X86 7260 upgrade. All XP app's came across fine. I didn't have to enter a Vista key and hence could have borrowed the Vista Disk from anyone as the crutch needed for the upgrade.

 

[Radenight]

This follows the exact same method (or at least the same idea) as the Clean Install with Upgrade Media trick.. Very nice work busydog..

 

[jimbo45]

Hi all

Please note the restriction on XP===>VISTA===>W7 upgrades.

I can verify that the XP===>VISTA===>W7 upgrade path actually works BUT ONLY WITH XP HOME EDITION, NOT THE PRO EDITION -- although you will probably find some legacy apps and older hardware like older scanners etc won't necessarily work -- or you might run into one ot 2 compatabilty problems.

If you have some older gear this might in fact be the only way to get it to work on W7 although you can't guarantee it will be 100% successful.

It's worth a shot of course -- DO NOT ACTIVATE THE VISTA install as you might want to attempt this method on several machines.

Take a complete backup of your XP system before you start in case you hose it all up.

If you do have old stuff like scanners etc I would tend to go for keeping XP but running it as a Virtual Machine either with VBOX/VMWARE or use the Virtual PC systtem you can download from the MS site.

However this is as far as I know the ONLY way to upgrade XP to W7 without doing a clean install and it actually only works for Windows XP HOME edition not PRO) so even here you need to be careful.

There certainly isn't yet any DIRECT method of doing aan XP==>W7 upgrade directly.

Incidentally another advantage of using the Virtual Machine approach is that your new Windows 7 system could be a 64 bit version. If you upgrade via the VISTA method then you will only be able to upgrade to the X86 version.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[busydog]

Hate to disagree but....

My test case was XP Pro to Vista Ultimate to Win7 Ultimate. So XP Pro does work. What version of Vista did you try to use?

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there -- I had VISTA Home Premium -- however I'm quite happy to be corrected if VISTA ULTIMATE works with the XP PRO upgrade. From there in either case as you said its an easy upgrade to W7.

This was the ONLY way I could aactually get an old legacy HP plotter to run on W7 -- I couldn't manually install any drivers or the program application as the firm no longer exists and I don't have the original install "Floppies" (yes it was on floppy disks) or any hardware to install from.

I've still got some applications that didn't work however -- also old legacy stuff so I'm keeping the Windows XP virtual machine around for a while.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[scorrpio]

So, has there been an official word from MS on exactly HOW will *Commercial* Upgrade version work in a RE-install scenario,, or they are keeping mum on this?

Here's the scenario: I get a W7 Upgrade, and do a clean install on my XP machine. It either gets my XP key during initial verify, or prompts me to enter one during activation. What happens to my XP key? Does it get 'eaten'? does my W7 Upgrade key get bumped to full-license status? Should I still keep my XP sticker around?

Say I need to reinstall a couple years later (major upgrade). Do I have to re-install XP, do I have to activate it (will I even be able to?) in order to install Upgrade? Say I get a copy of regular W7 install DVD - can I install from that and activate using my Upgrade key? (Or maybe upgrade key + original XP key)?

I guess we'll know for sure in a few days, but this is really eating me....

 

[Vgolfmaster]

64 bit question

First thing, if anyone has verified the functionality of the xp -> vista -> Win7 route, I'd be very interested in seeing if it works. I'm a bit myphed that Microsoft won't allow an upgrade from XP to 7 without doing a clean install.

Second, I have xp Pro 32 bit installed right now, but have a 64 bit processor. I tried the MS compatibility check, and it suggested Win7 32 bit. Not sure why. I decided to HOPE that it was because it was checking a system that had SP Pro 32 bit installed, and created a partition and installed Win7 to dual boot with XP. I have a Win7 64 bit install dvd, and thought I had it beat, as it installed to the partition ok without asking about bit versions, and gave no errors. Went in and looked at the OS version, and it installed the 32 bit version. . . . again, not sure why . . . .

Would a clean install allow the 64 bit version to install?

Did it install 32 bit because the XP version on here is 32 bit?

Can my processor show 64 bit but NOT be?


so many questions, so little time, lol

 

[busydog]

First thing, if anyone has verified the functionality of the xp -> vista -> Win7 route, I'd be very interested in seeing if it works. I'm a bit myphed that Microsoft won't allow an upgrade from XP to 7 without doing a clean install.

Second, I have xp Pro 32 bit installed right now, but have a 64 bit processor. I tried the MS compatibility check, and it suggested Win7 32 bit. Not sure why. I decided to HOPE that it was because it was checking a system that had SP Pro 32 bit installed, and created a partition and installed Win7 to dual boot with XP. I have a Win7 64 bit install dvd, and thought I had it beat, as it installed to the partition ok without asking about bit versions, and gave no errors. Went in and looked at the OS version, and it installed the 32 bit version. . . . again, not sure why . . . .

Would a clean install allow the 64 bit version to install?

Did it install 32 bit because the XP version on here is 32 bit?

Can my processor show 64 bit but NOT be?


so many questions, so little time, lol

I posted the "sticky" because I did upgrade xp -> vista -> win7 to verify the method. As far as installing X64, in Retail, they are separate disks and you can't install X32 with the X64 disk. A clean install with the X64 disk WILL give you X64.

 

[Vgolfmaster]

Thanks busydog,

I did clear up my 32 / 64 bit issue, seems I didn't label the disks properly when they were burned. We have downloads available through school and I did several in a short amount of time and just got the disks backwards.....

The upgrade route -vs- a clean install was brought up there as well, and while the upgrade is possible it seemed that Microsoft is now stressing a clean install for all versions, even those where upgrades were previously 'ok'd by MS. I'm going to go the safe route and just install it cleanly now, and go through the long version of this to install it properly and test it.

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated

 

[jagaman]

I don't think I could recomend going from XP to Vista as a path to Win7. XP runs good, I haven't had any problems with Vista 32 bit. When you install Win7 on XP it saves all your data files so you just need to reinstall your program disks and track down your data under Windows.old

 

[aikma]

Mate,

You won't be able to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. Microsoft made the upgrade for Vista users, like myself. I use to have Windows Vista a few weeks before the release of Windows 7. Now I have Windows 7. If I were you, do a custom installation , this will destroy all data on the hard drive and reinstall Windows 7, the new operating system.

Hope this has helped you.

Kind Regards,

Aikma

 

[samurusawyer]

Go to the "Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor" website from the "Resource" link.

Click "Download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor" button on the page. The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor checks the hardware and software in your computer to establish if you can upgrade to Windows 7 without any compatibility issues.

Save the installation file to your computer.

Double-click the installation file and click "Install." Click "Close" when the installation finishes.


Double-click the "Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor" icon on your desktop and click "Yes."

Click "Start Check."

Read the report and recommendation to fix any issues, if there are any.

 

[John L]

Mate,

You won't be able to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. Microsoft made the upgrade for Vista users, like myself. I use to have Windows Vista a few weeks before the release of Windows 7. Now I have Windows 7. If I were you, do a custom installation , this will destroy all data on the hard drive and reinstall Windows 7, the new operating system.

Hope this has helped you.

Kind Regards,

Aikma

You can upgrade from vista to windows 7 ? windows 7 pro or home basic or premium?
I have bought one windows pro key online at $ 99,there only have one issue.
I have to activate it through the VPN([SIZE=-1]Virtual Private Network[/SIZE]) account the seller gave me. Otherwise, Microsoft will be prompted to: the product key you entered can be used only in certain countries or regions. Either activate Windows where you bought it or buy a new product key.
Yesterday I bought one office 2010 professional product key code from the same website at the same price $99. I can activate it smooth and register the software to Microsoft, no other operations,VPN account is no needed. Great!

 

[wiznot]

Re: Hate to disagree but....

Wish to 1) Upgrade from XP to Win7 AND 2) go from old HD to new HD.

I have XP (OEM) version installed. Need to install Win7 on a new HD. Have Win 7 upgrade CD. Can someone tell me how to do that?