Thread: Upgrade XP to Win7 -- Method Should Work!

nice trick thanks man.

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?

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.

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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