Upgrade vista to windows 7?????

flopsy1973

Hi
I have a dell laptop bought in 2008 with vista installed, after recent problems and with applications taking while to load up. I have been told to upgrade it to windows 7 as this is far better????. How do i go about doing this i think there is a free upgrade from microsoft??? Im not very tech minded so any help would be appreciated
Thanks

debitcardmayhem

The free upgrade refers to Windows 7/8x to Windows 10 , wait for advice from NiftyDigits , but put the dell service tag from the laptop in this thread , since that will help him....

debitcardmayhem

If you don't know what the service tag is look here http://www.dell.com/support/contents/uk/en/rc1050266/category/Product-Support/Self-support-Knowledgebase/locate-service-tag

Le_Kirk

There is a tool from Microsoft that you can download to see if your system will take an upgrade to W7 (and you will have to pay for W7) then you will be offered the "free" upgrade to W10. However, what about fixing the reason for the poor performance? It may not be related to the OS and upgrading to a different OS could still leave you with a poorly performing machine.

J_B

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

The free upgrade refers to Windows 7/8x to Windows 10 , wait for advice from NiftyDigits , but put the dell service tag from the laptop in this thread , since that will help him....

/|\ This ....

prowla

AFAIK, there isn't a free upgrade from Vista to anything.

You can pick up genuine Windows 7 media & COA stickers on ebay or at a computer fair.

Alternatively, original Dell media may install the OS without requiring a key, but you'd still not be legal. However, you might then be able to upgrade that to Windows 10 for free, with a genuine Microsoft key...

If your aim is to go to Windows 10, then it may even be cheaper to go to Windows 8 first, rather than 7, and then update.

As far as performance goes, Vista was generally perceived to be a hog, and 7/8/10 should be OK on the same machine; you might consider more memory if that is limited though.

Some people are also giving older machines a speed boost by putting in SSDs to replace hard disks.

shaun_from_Africa

prowla wrote: »

Some people are also giving older machines a speed boost by putting in SSDs to replace hard disks.

I did this on an old Toshiba laptop that I have and the difference it made was unbelievable.
The new drive cost just under £50 (it's only 120Gb which is plenty for what I need) and I simply cloned the old drive.
I don't think I would ever go back to a HDD again.

flopsy1973

prowla wrote: »

AFAIK, there isn't a free upgrade from Vista to anything.

You can pick up genuine Windows 7 media & COA stickers on ebay or at a computer fair.

Alternatively, original Dell media may install the OS without requiring a key, but you'd still not be legal. However, you might then be able to upgrade that to Windows 10 for free, with a genuine Microsoft key...

If your aim is to go to Windows 10, then it may even be cheaper to go to Windows 8 first, rather than 7, and then update.

As far as performance goes, Vista was generally perceived to be a hog, and 7/8/10 should be OK on the same machine; you might consider more memory if that is limited though.

Some people are also giving older machines a speed boost by putting in SSDs to replace hard disks.

How would i do the upgrade you talk about here i still have the original dell disk that came with the laptop ????
All i want is to make the machine more useable as it is very slow at the minute.
also the other reason i wanted to get rid of vista was that i couldnt download windows office on to it

Thanks for any help

pappa_golf

A ssd drive would probably speed the old machine up.


you cannot do a direct upgrade from vista to win 10 , HOWEVER you can buy a win 7 / 8 licence or even an eligible sticker THEN upgrade from 7/8 to win 10


people have posted links to win 7/8 licences on many other threads , (from £30 up) look for threads "how do I ,,,,, from xp/vista etc" then load the correct ISo on your new drive and upgrade to win 10 for free

NiftyDigits

flopsy1973 wrote: »

How would i do the upgrade you talk about here i still have the original dell disk that came with the laptop ????
All i want is to make the machine more useable as it is very slow at the minute.
also the other reason i wanted to get rid of vista was that i couldnt download windows office on to it

Thanks for any help

or refer to posts #2, 3 & 5. You'll get nowhere fast if you choose to ignore helpful posts.

flopsy1973

Hi
The service tag is BKM5M3J

thanks