Windows 7 Upgrade for Windows XP Users: There Isn’t One (P1)

This little blog involves a degree of mental strain. It is probably best read only after you have had your morning coffee; and post-lunch dozy afternoon reading is strongly advised against.

There is little doubt about it: Windows 7 is a raving success. On a scale of one to ten, if Windows XP was a 7, and Windows Vista a 5, then Windows 7 is at least an 8.5. 

Not counting corporate licensing (which is on a completely different axis) or OEM bundled licences (that come with a new PC when you buy one), Microsoft sold as many boxed new full licenses and boxed upgrade licenses for Windows 7 to regular folk in the first three months of release as it did for Vista in the first 12 months. Even more exciting, for Microsoft anyway, according to a survey of attendees taken at the “UK 2009 TechNet” event, 85 percent of attendees interviewed said they liked it so much they would actually pay for an upgrade to Windows 7, as opposed to creatively obtaining it without paying for it—in some way or manner.

When compared to Vista, and to a lesser degree Windows XP, Windows 7 is faster, smoother, looks more finished, is more robust, loads up less unwanted/un-needed background services, is more secure, requires slightly less system resources than did Vista, has some really neat little tricks up its sleeve, and, probably most importantly, is more fun to use (than Vista). And some of the new features in Windows 7 are actually useful to the average user, like Windows Media Player will now play just about anything (without you having to search the Web for a ‘codec’ to make it work) and if you really really need to run something using Window XP then Windows 7 can even do that.

But this blog is not about how much better Windows 7 is; it is about upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7.

The problem with upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 is that you can’t.

There is no Windows 7 built-in upgrade capability that will allow you to perform an upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows XP. This is not the case for Vista users. If you are a Vista user then there is a built-in and pretty slick automated upgrade from Windows 7 to Vista. Even so, you should think carefully before doing this rather than doing a fresh install of Windows 7 (keep reading).

However, although there is no technical upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7, the standard Windows 7 upgrade license allows you to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. Confused yet? Just to say that again in case you missed it, if you buy a Windows 7 Upgrade from Office Works, or JB Hi Fi, or Harvey Norman, or where-ever, it is perfectly legal and proper to use that upgrade to upgrade from Windows XP (or Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, or Windows 2000) to Windows 7. The only problem is that the software inside the package does not actually perform a Windows XP to Windows 7 upgrade. There! Did that make it easier to understand?

Basically there are two ways to get a new operating system onto a computer. You can do an upgrade or you can do a fresh install (a.k.a. rebuild). The following notes apply where the operating system and all data stored on the computer are in the same partition, which is likely to be the case with darn near all home and personal user computers (Corporations do things differently, but this post does not cater for corporate deployments).

Upgrade:  When you do an upgrade to a new operating system the new operating threads itself onto your computer such that, as much as possible, all your previous stuff is still there and all of it—or almost all of it—still works. Your printers and scanners are still there, your Internet favourites are still there, as is all your data (exactly where it was before), all your tools and programs are still there (but you need to test each one to see if it still works with the upgraded operating system), and your e-mail and such will still be there and working.

It is possible that video card drivers and some other drivers may need to be upgraded for the new operating system, but, by-and-large, most of what needs to be done has been done and the new operating system has been installed.

Fresh install:  When you put a new operating system on your computer using the fresh install or rebuild method everything on your computer will get fried. It will all be gone.

So before doing a fresh install you need to back up whatever you need to back up (cough). It is pointless backing up any tools or applications, so forget them. You will have to get these from original sources and install them all again. But you do need to backup your data. This is stuff like all your documents (from Word and Excel, etc.,), pictures, videos, mail, favourites, source code (if you do development), etc. You need all this backed up so that you can restore it back onto the freshly rebuilt PC when it is ready with its new operating system installed, and you have re-installed all your tools and applications (photo editors, picture viewers, Acrobat Reader, Word, Excel, mail client, etc.,).

Now that you know the above, I will just point out once more; there is no Windows 7 upgrade install for Windows XP—this is sometimes referred to as a 'technical updgrade' as opposed to just a license upgrade.

So—how does one use the Windows 7 Upgrade license for a technical upgrade when one only has a Windows XP computer? For the answer to this watch out for my follow-up blog “Windows 7 Upgrade for Windows XP: How it’s done”.

Barry