Comments for What's the difference between an upgrade and an upgrade?

Comment from Mike on 2009-09-05

2009-09-05T19:05:29Z

What comes to mind for me about Upgrade or Full install: Okay, they're both the same, but the Upgrade checks for an existing version of Windows and then I can select a Full install. All well and fine. Now, two years later, I've got lots of problems and a complete reinstall is really the easiest fix. My old version no longer exists, whether it was XP or Vista. Does Win7 count as an existing version for the upgrade version of Win7 to work? Or would I have to buy another Full install copy?

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Comment from Hector Metzlbach on 2009-07-13

2009-07-13T16:20:47Z

I've been running Windows 7 Ultimate, Eval. Copy, Build 7100 for about 2 months now. I "upgraded" from XP Pro after doing a backup. I wound up pretty much re-installing all my old programs any way because of registry/compatability problems. MS has a download on the W7 Site, that when run, will alow you to see if you computer will support W7. I have a HP with Pentium-4 that's 4 years old.
I have a fairly new GForce graphics card & 3.5 gigs of ram though. When Installed, W7 will do a Driver Check,& update all drivers that require it.
That feature, as well as many others in the trouble shooting dept. are pretty cool. I never had the Vista OS, so to go from XP to W7 is quite a change, but I'm very impressed. Thanks for letting me ramble. Hector

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A comment on: What's the difference between an upgrade and an upgrade?

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Comment from John Wurdeman on 2009-07-08

2009-07-08T16:54:48Z

Very timely discusion (for instance in view of MS' just-issued MSDN offer of half-price early upgrades.) Can't quarrel re inherent complexities of somehow offering seamless upgrades for XP users. You do touch on the inevitable driver compatibility problems, however: To me, and probably most XP users, the major hit in going to 7 would be loss of most (all?) of my app suite (including Office suite.) I'll probably sit tight in XP as long as I can (with MS doubtless allowing it to become increasingly uncomfortable to do so.)

You won't lose your app suite. You'll simply have to reinstall it.

- Leo
09-Jul-2009

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A comment on: What's the difference between an upgrade and an upgrade?

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Comment from Simon Yorke-Davies on 2009-07-08

2009-07-08T11:10:49Z

An interesting article and I think given the way Microsoft changes the way they market their products at a moments notice – and we just have to accept it – answered the question asked very well.

One small point it might be an idea to point out that if you go the "Upgrade - this version requires that there be a pre-existing version of Windows" route you will probably have to keep your old Windows XP CD (and Product Key) for the lifetime of the computer. Because if the hard drive goes down or that you have to reload Windows 7 for any other reason, Windows XP would have to be loaded onto the new hard drive first. This is because your “Upgrade” version of Windows 7 would once again need to identify that you actually have a previous version of Windows.

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A comment on: What's the difference between an upgrade and an upgrade?

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Comment from Paul Mierop on 2009-07-07

2009-07-07T17:55:53Z

With the experience I have with win 7 RC version is that if you have Win XP on an older computer that you may run into problems with drivers that are not compatible with Vista for graphic boards and printers and you will end up with a new computer, and it is not the program alone that you have to upgrade.

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Comment from whs on 2009-07-07

2009-07-07T17:45:30Z

I ordered the $50 special early bird upgrade version of W7 Home Premium. On my system, I have currently Vista Home Premium - an HP OEM version that came with the box. I like to install W7 on a second Sata in my system (which is actually a 60GB OCZ SSD) because for the time being (in Oct.09) I would like to keep my Vista as the main OS. The installation I would do by physically disconnecting the Vista HDD so that W7 will only see the SSD. Later I will switch the 2 operating systems with the BIOS boot sequence. That worked well with W7 Beta.
I wonder how the verification process will work since I only have the recovery DVDs that I burnt from the recovery partition.

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Comment from Dale O on 2009-07-07

2009-07-07T16:56:59Z

Appreicate the depth and generality to try to understand MS-speak.

If there's way to do a Win7 backup before installing Win7, I'd like to know more. My normal concern of restoring from a backup in-between upgrades to a newer OS would be remapping/restructuring of the Registry in the new version that might cause the restored programs to not get hooked into it correctly. -- Sounds like a new topic . :-)

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A comment on: What's the difference between an upgrade and an upgrade?

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Comment from Kirk Meaux on 2009-07-07

2009-07-07T16:02:24Z

To much info for his brain I'll bet. A bit too long winded in the answer Sir. Just do the win 7 install you can get your programs back from your backup....you did do a win7 rc backup?????

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A comment on: What's the difference between an upgrade and an upgrade?

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