Hi everybody - I have a question that I hope someone can help me with.

When I got discharged, one of the first things I did upon getting home was t buy a new PC (I got tired of using a lap top)

When I bought the PC - an Acer - they offered me a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it came out. So I opted for it.

The CD arrived yesterday. Is it worth installing it or not? I really do not care for Vista at all, I much preferred XP. I have read both good and bad about Windows 7. I guess I'm scared of the unknown basically.

The CD I got will upgrade me to Windows 7 Home Premium. If I do decide to upgrade, do I stand a chance of losing any data during the upgrade process?

Any advice is appreciated. I miss the days of when the computer manufacturers included the OS disc with the computer. At least that way if something went haywire you could easily reformat the machine and reinstall the OS rather easily.

Thanks in advance - I'm off to see if I can read up some more on Win 7.

I saw a good article on Win 7...will look for it tonight.

Hey Warvet - Yes, upgrade. I'm assuming your upgrade version is "Home Premium" right? In any case, you have Vista and Vista is crapp so its worth upgrading. Since the CD came from the OEM (Acer) it should have included any drivers that need to be upgraded along with 7 so you shouldn't have any issues (keyword = shouldn't). Good luck and make sure you back up your profile, data etc. before you begin.

Wof..

Warvet,

There are tons of articles here on Win 7 (good, bad, how-to-upgrade, etc.).

http://search.techrepublic.com.com/index.php?q=windows+7&t=0&go=Search

I just upgraded mine from Vista the other day. Worked like a charm and I didn't lose anything even though I was prepared. It took a couple of hours to install but well worth it.

Windows 7 is a cross breed between XP and Vista. Best of both worlds. Ordered my CD 3 months ago and got it in my mailbox on the 23rd. I have been using the beta version anyways. I love it. So much more that you can do with it.

Thanks. Looks painless enough. I might do it later on tonight (been a bad day here today). Just one more question if anyone should know.

Hardware/software compatibility. Are there any known conflicts? It's bad enough that my printer software isn't compatible with Vista. I don't want any other surprises if you know what I mean.

I thought one of those articles said that Win 7 has an "XP" mode that allows older software to run OK.

Windows 7 w/an XP downgrade was the term I heard. What the heck is a downgrade? An inadequate upgrade?

I developed software for the fed govt for years. Downgrade is not a term I have ever heard anyone use, except as a joke.

New software should always be compatible at least one version back, if not more.

Microsoft is really starting to lose it. I have been a pc person for decades and I am starting to lose respect for them.

Its called "compatible mode" No such term as an XP downgrade

On the Dell website (purchase business laptops) one of the operating choices is called Windows 7 w/an XP downgrade. Maybe it's a Dell mistake. Who knows. I am not making this stuff up.

I think what the chatter is about, is OEM's like DELL, HP, Lenovo for example that will ship Windows 7 with an XP downgrade should you want to run XP instead of Windows 7. You are right with the terminology. They are even talking about a Windows 7 to Vista downgrade. Who would want to downgrade to either Vista or XP given the good reviews so far with 7? I wouldn't, but that's just me.

I thought you referring more to software. For example IE8 will run in "compatible mode" and Office 2k7 has a compatible mode feature.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=2456

almost every company i have worked with that bought new systems with batch licenses did the same with vista, they had to purchase a vista license and downgrade to XP, because vista SUCKED. so it looks like W7 wont be any better if microsoft is already giving consumers the option to downgrade to XP. (that is no longer sold OEM or retail) sad, sad, sad...

XP is not supported. I do not believe it is offered. If so, I would wait until Win 7 SP2.

Well I confused some of the terms, that I admit, but the message is clear. Microsoft stinks.

So our choice is an OS that does not work well (based on the fact that they are still offering the downgrade) or one that does work that is not supported. Pathetic.

And at this point, we don't even know what the compatibility issues may be.

Old, read the link I posted a couple of post's up. According to a MS rep, it is or will be.

Yep, and thank God it does or I would be out of work.

I heard the Windows 7 was built on/from the XP code. Microsoft just skipped over the Vista code.

Boy I hope the Vista Project Directors lost their jobs. Talk about a waste of money.

Your absolutely right, Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate editions comes with a built in "Windows XP Mode feature" which runs a fully fledged version of Windows XP SP3 in a virtual machine. You will need a CPU that can run in virtualization mode or the virtual machine wont start. This is good for companies that have software that wont run in native windows 7 and will need to run in a familiar environment like XP

sounds like the REAL upgrades are in the latest hardware....not the operating system.
vista what?

Now I'm nervous lol

I remember the XP downgrade. I was active when Vista came out and alot of the guys that were getting lap tops got them with Vista installed. If I remember right so many people hated it or had issues with it, M$ offered to downgrade their machines to XP free of charge.

As far as I know, I think that Dell is the only manufacturer that still offers machines with XP pre-installed. A very smart move by them I think.

I really like the machine that I have, but now I wish that I would have went with Dell, just for the option of getting XP. I'm sure that I could downgrade myself, but I just can't be bothered.

What I hate is that I just start getting a feel for Vista and now Win 7 is here. The more that I see M$ products FUBAR, I now understand the Mac people more and more.

While alot of people complained about XP, I found it to be pretty darn dood. WAY better than 98, Win 2000 Pro was maybe a bit better, and XP was damn sure better than Win ME.

Even though I preferres Win 200 Pro, I found XP pretty easy to live with, and never had any major issues with it. I find Vista to be a bit too controling. Is this the issue with Win 7 also?

I really want to try it, but I guess I'm afraid of the unknown.

It's bad enough that I have to do a BIOS flash on this machine - something that always scares the heck out of me regardless of the machine. I have a small issue of the machine hanging during booting. I will get to the ACER screen and it will stop there. Then I have to turn off the power and reboot - then it will boot without issue.

I guess I could pay and have Plum Choice do it, but I would really prefer to save the $$ if I can.

Myself and some of the other guys found PlumChoice to be a lifesaver while we were deployed. We could get an appointment anytime 24/7, and we found them to solve any problems we were having rather quickly.

I know that some people probably frown upon such services, but when you're thousands of miles away from home and need something taken care of - it was nice to know they were there to help us.

Everyone knows that soldiers are always looking to earn some extra scratch, and the computer guys were no exception. They would have gladly worked on our machines - at a premium price (and of course when their time allowed as Uncle Sam's work came first - which of course is 100% understandable). PlumChoice was cheaper in alot of instances - especially for a troublesome virus. I only used them for a tune up once and a spyware problem that I couldn't get rid of. They did good by me, so I'm not complaining at all.

Warvet,

Where did you buy the PC? Places like CompUSA and others will load the software for you free. Also, I read it's a good idea to partition your hard drive into C: and D: partitions and load the OS software to C: and put all your other personal files on D:. That way, if you ever have to reload your OS software for any reason, you don't wipe out your personal files.

I bought mine through NewEgg.com.

You're right about the partitions. Whenever i buy a new machine, I always say that I'm going to do that. Do I? Never. I just get too lazy, or whatever else.

Then of course the inevitable happens.

At least I'm taking small steps. When i bought this machine, I also bought two 1 TB external hard drives to back up important files on. Bought two because they were on special for $80 a piece.

One I keep totally offline - I only hook it up when I have files to add to it or have updates to files that exist. Personal information mainly.

The other I keep hooked up to store different things that I come across - whether it be funny pics, shortcuts to interesting websites, downloaded files, personal pictures, etc.

One of these days (probably after the next catastrophe) I'll learn and keep one partition exclusively for the OS.

it is not sold retail or OEM anymore, but you can downgrade to it IF you pay for a vista or winblows 7 license. as i have stated before, i am in the structured cabling business and do some IT consulting. my wife is also a microsoft partner. (although i make her use my macs at home, bwaa haa haaaa, if she wants to run that clunky [censored]] she can go out and buy her own laptop and give me the MacBook Pro back that i bought her although i will admit we do dual boot OSX and XP on most of our machines at home) every customer they have, when getting a new machine, has to buy a vista license then they downgrade to XP. i am talking enterprise customers, not home users. (vista is that bad... not one customer out of hundreds that they manage uses vista, literally 100% of them buy the vista license and downgrade to XP)

microsoft stopped selling XP commercially and OEM in Jan 09, but you can still downgrade to it. once a product is officially taken off the market, a company still has to support it for 5 years by law. so even though you cant buy XP, but downgrade to it, it will be supported until 2014 per microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-xp/end-of-sale.aspx

i take that back, they stopped selling XP on June 30 2008, but OEMs that sold PCs were allowed to sell machines with XP pre installed until Jan 2009

I prefer Macs they are much easier to work on and they do a lot of neat stuff. They just look better also.

hmmmmm....then how is Dell still offering XP? New Old Stock maybe??

Ugh.....wouldn't you know it - one of my 1TB external HD's that is less than three months old took a dump.

Started off with a knocking noise - then the beep beep beep beep beep of death.

What really sucks is that I just transferred gigs of files onto it over the past couple of days.

I could get it replaced under warranty, but that can't replace the files that I lost.

Hopefully it is just the controller thats's shot and the HD is still good. Going to try and swap it out into the other enclosure tomorrow.

Ugh....what's next????

There's something odd about those external drives. I've had two fail and I didn't use them more than about 30 minutes each. CompUSA somehow retrieved my files though.

What I do now is buy a second internal drive and connect it as a slave drive and use the "disk clone" software that came with the new drive to make an exact copy of the first drive. When my main drive finally died, I just connected my clone drive as the master drive and booted right up.

I opened it up and swapped it out ith the one that does work - no dice. I hokked it up via a portable cable - no luck. I kust keep getting the damn beeb beeb beeb beeb beeb.

Oh well. Guess that I have to start all over again, finding as many of the files again that I can. Thankfully nothing too important was on it.

Now to get the info off the other drive and put it onto DVD.

exact same thing just happened to me, lost years of stuff.
I have read that if you put the drive in the freezer for 24 hours then hook it up to your pc it can fire up for s short period of time, maybe enough to get some data off.

I know it sounds daft but google it, it has worked for some people. Not for me sadly. And you have to be careful about condensation forming when the drive comes out of the freezer. (i packed mine in a freezer tray with loads of frozen stuff surrounding it.)

i also got my Acer disks today, gonna update my laptop soon.

downgrade from vista license. they pay for vista and downgrade to XP.

LOL....I actually tried that trick earlier - no dice.

I believe that the HD overheated and fried. I didn't realize it when I bought them, but these are "silent" models - hence no cooling fan.

Where I had it there wasn't good enough air flow.

Lesson learned the hard way.

Let me know how that Win7 upgrade goes - I'm still a bit queeezy about doing it.

Could a microsoft office pack for vista be used in a windows 7 machine?

Loaded it a few days ago, so far I really like it.

Been Using It A Couple Days Now...Definitely More stable when you have multiple things going on --- like it's less resource hungry.

If you have XP, it's a crap shoot. I like it a lot better and most enthusiasts/power users will but XP is plenty stable and secure enough. If you have Vista - you'll be in another world. Not only is performance a lot better but everything is a lot better. You won't have any disappointment.

do you use the usb flash ram with the vista i heard its great

So, it looks a lot like XP, but is better, basically? I'm thinking about upgrading & buying new for Xmas gifts, so I'm trying to determine if this is the way to go- thanks!

I love my Window7. Going to upgrade on the rest of the computers in the house also. I was using the beta version for a few months so I could play. I'll probably go and buy the 3 package deal.

Yep I love the windows 7. Great upgrade from vista actually. They spent more time on writing this program than the government did on the health care bill. Yep its great

If I was running XP I would not upgrade to Windows 7 until some of the bugs are worked out and more drivers available. XP is/was a very good OS. HOWEVER, I have VISTA which is junk so I can't wait to go to 7. I ordered a hard drive backup and as soon as it gets in I'm switching over.
r/P
p.s. thanks 2nd-star; that was nice of you.

If you are running XP and that is what shipped on it, you would need a new system anyway. As for Vista, if the unit came with Vista installed, you should have no issue upgrading the OS as long as go from 32bit to 32bit or 64bit to a 64bit OS. I suggest using the Windows Analysis tool before doing anything (except your backup which is ALWAYS FIRST). Then disable or uninstall your AV and begin the installation of 7 from within windows (a little prettier) or boot with the WIN7 DVD in and perform an upgrade. Use caution because a fresh install will completely wipe the PC files! I have upgraded about 100 PC's so far and it has been a flawless Vista to 7 upgrade. I have also performed a flawless user setting and file transfer from an XP to a brand new Vista unit without incident. My next experiment will be upgrading XP to to a new 7 unit but I see not reason why this would not work also.

PK

If I have a microsoft vista office suite CDs (word, excel, pp, etc) would I be able to load it on a windows 7 machine?

my husband got Windows 7 installed on his IBM tablet and un installed within 3 weeks. he says there were way too many bugs. also it wasn't compatible with any of our 7 printers. he is a computer guru too so im not sure what is wrong with windows 7 or if maybe it just isnt compatible with his computer?

I loved reading your post, being the trial and error type myself. I'm lucky computers can be reset to "manufacturers settings". Usually I don't much miss what I've lost, just happy to have the thing working again. Savvy, eh?

You really need to run the Win7 assessment tool first. This will often indicate all the drivers and application that will and won't work after the upgrade. Before upgrading, see if you can resolve all the incompatibilities. But I am telling you, if the unit came with Vista installed, W7 is not a huge upgrade and most Vista ready PC's will run it just fine while retaining your settings.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...;displaylang=en

Hi WV:

If you would like a "blow by blow" description of upgrading from XP or Vista to Win7 let me know. Maybe admin will allow us a separate thread to describe it.

I just so happen to be in the middle of upgrading a new laptop from Vista (which I hate but it came with the LT) to Windows 7 Pro.

I have ALREADY found 3-4 bugs BUT have also found several new features that I think I'm going to REALLY like. I installed Win7 the day before yesterday and am moving software over from my old Laptop.

So far I am trying to overcome a couple of surprising incompatibilities. But like I said, It is running with minimul software VERY nicely.

Let me know (but check with admin for his ok) and I can post a progress report.

Anyone?

Of course you can. The Office Suite (since at least 2003) is both 32 and 64bit compatible, something most folks do not know. I have Office 2003 loaded and working perfectly on a W7 install.

PK

I like Win 7 (windows 7 Home Premium). Using an ASUS 8GB, 1TB desktop. Be careful with 64 bit IE. There are some downloads I tried with 64 that just froze but worked with 32. MS Office 2007 works great on it. One thing that I do not like is how it aggregates files (to make it easier to get content). My feeling is this: If I put something in a directory, I know where to find it. It also handled my TV card with the built in Windows Media Center. It also works great with my freeware video software.

I love Win 7!!! JMO

I just stick with XP and Windows 2000.
Forget Vista and "7" I'm not sure about
7 if it were designed based on Windows Vista platform
who Knows?

7 is what Vista should have been. If you are talking about XP and 2000, I have to assume that your PC is not that new. Vista or 7 would likely require and entirely new system, in fact, I would recommend one. I think XP was MS finest product to date and you seem happy. Unless you have money to burn, hold off on upgrading just the OS. Upgrade the entire system, whenever that time comes.

taht is what I did. XP ran well for many, many years! 7 is great compared to XP and I loved that OS

I am getting Windows 7 for xmas. I have heard the best way to upgrade is to wipe the hard drive.

I am willing to do that as I don't have much I need to save.

Is there some easy way to do this? My pc currently runs vista which stinks big time.

you dont have to. 7 has transfer wizards that move most of your setting especially from vista to 7. Run this first:

NVM: see post #975638 pharma covered it exactly as i would have told you. and #975175. I would read them all. They are recommended proceduures.

K, I will check those posts. Thanks.

I've been using 7 since it was released, and I'm happy with it. That being said, I don't think it's worth the upgrade from Vista, especially if you have Vista Ultimate.

7 is basically what Vista should have been all along- it's just a glossier experience overall.

I just upgraded my laptop from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 which I got for xmas. Went well, not too hard. I read nothing and just clicked on [continue] etc...

I also backed up nothing coz most of my important files are on another computer.

Took about an hour. I will let you know how it seems to work as I use it more. I am mostly hoping for less req'd upgrades which seemed to run ALL the time when I had Vista.

I am also looking forward to the quick start feature and Vista took forever it seemed to start up.

Next I am gonna load my blackberry software so I can type in all my contact info and then transfer to my blackberry (my other xmas present).

OMG, I may be heading into the 21st century. Or do I say 22nd? I always get that wrong!