Vista to Win 7

tazwhoever

I have Vista Home Premium 32 bit and wish to upgrade to Win 7 Home Premium, but I have other programs installed too. I don’t wish to get rid off these and at the same time wish to upgrade to Win 7. Some said I have to back them up first?

What is the best way to keep the programs and upgrade to Win 7?

Thanks

colin79666

You can do a straight upgrade and keep all your files and (most) programs in place. However that sometimes causes issues due to incompatibilities. Given that the core of Windows, the kernel, didn't change much between Vista and 7 it is more likely to be ok than say XP to Vista.

If you download the upgrade advisor from Microsoft it can help check your PC over and tell you what should work and anything there are known issues with.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20

By backing up the best thing is to take a full image, that way you can roll the whole machine back if required. Also make sure you have the discs and product keys for all you apps (if they aren't free downloads). Obviously backup your files too but then you are doing that anyway just incase your pc should ever fail, right!?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/back-up-programs-system-settings-files#1TC=windows-vista

grumpycrab

You may find that the Windows 7 upgrade advisor says a clean install is required (but try it and see). I recommend trying the Windows 8 upgrade advisor too - I've had many successes upgrading Vista -> Windows 8.

Windows 8 Upgrade Advisor (ignore 8.1 advisor)
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-8/upgrade-assistant-download-online-faq

Windows 8 Upgrade (from Vista) is about £45 e.g.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Windows-Pro-Upgrade-Product-Card/dp/B008H3SW4I/

Backup your data as a precaution. Be warned that the (free) upgrade from 8 -> 8.1 can take longer than the Vista upgrade.

forgotmyname

Why do you want to upgrade? There will be very little difference between vista and Win 7.

J_B

forgotmyname wrote: »

Why do you want to upgrade? There will be very little difference between vista and Win 7.

Well, personally, I found Vista a bag of sh1, whereas I think W7 is rather good

Jivesinger

grumpycrab wrote: »

Windows 8 Upgrade (from Vista) is about £45 e.g.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Windows-Pro-Upgrade-Product-Card/dp/B008H3SW4I/

Backup your data as a precaution. Be warned that the (free) upgrade from 8 -> 8.1 can take longer than the Vista upgrade.

If the OP did want to clean install and go to Windows 8/8.1, having bought a Windows 8 Product Key, then I would suggest downloading the Windows 8.1 ISO from Microsoft as described here, and clean installing 8.1 without trying to install 8.0:
forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5109426

Windows 8.1 can be installed using one of the generic installation product keys mentioned in the note in that post, then activated with the Windows 8.0 Product Key that had been bought from Amazon or whatever. This would mean only going through one install and no need to run the lengthy 8 -> 8.1 process.

However it would mean that they would have to reinstall all their software, which I imagine is one reason why the original intention is to go from Vista to Windows 7.

tazwhoever

If I bought a new computer, how can I keep my current hard drive files and programs and transfer to the new computer?

I did try few times in the past to back up my files and programs to portable hard drive but I had error messages (I can’t the remember the error messages).

How to I transfer current data to a new computer if I buy one?

Thanks

grumpycrab

tazwhoever wrote: »

How to I transfer current data to a new computer if I buy one?

Use your portable hard drive. e.g. Documents
source :- (Vista) copy from c:\users\<user name>\Documents
destination :- (8) copy to c:\users\<user name>\Documents

Programs are different. You will need to reinstall them. e.g. Microsoft Office.

enkoda

tazwhoever wrote: »

If I bought a new computer, how can I keep my current hard drive files and programs and transfer to the new computer?

I did try few times in the past to back up my files and programs to portable hard drive but I had error messages (I can’t the remember the error messages).

How to I transfer current data to a new computer if I buy one?

Thanks

Data you can simply copy across.
Programs, unless you are a whiz with registry entries, will have to be re-installed when you have your new version of Windows up & running.

imatt

J_B wrote: »

Well, personally, I found Vista a bag of sh1, whereas I think W7 is rather good

Oh I dunno. Vista works well providing it is kept up to date with all the latest updates and service packs.

Scott_T

Remember if upgrading from vista to 7 ....you can only upgrade 32bit to 32bit / 64bit to 64bit
32bit to 64bit is doable ...only as clean install upgrading this way isn't really recommended

Also To install a 64-bit version of Windows 7, you need a CPU that's capable of running a 64-bit version of Windows. The benefits of using a 64-bit operating system are most apparent when you have a large amount of random access memory (RAM) installed on your computer, typically 4 GB of RAM or more. In such cases, because a 64-bit operating system can handle large amounts of memory more efficiently than a 32-bit operating system, a 64-bit system can be more responsive when running several programs at the same time and switching between them frequently (from microsoft)

Aoso pre built 64bit capable machines had vista 32bit installed as a cost saving exercise as OEM's would buy win vista licences in bulk