How to upgrade from XP to Windows 7
the easy way.
How to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 the easy way
If you have Windows XP on your
computer, you will have to completely replace Windows XP with Windows 7. Before you begin, make sure you have
the original installation disks for your programs. This is all the programs that you have installed over
the many years that you have been using Windows XP. For example, MS Office or any games that you might have
installed. After you install Windows 7, you will need to manually reinstall your programs and restore
your personal files and settings. Follow my steps below to learn how to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 the
easy way. Windows 7 upgrade is so easy even a cave man can do it! So push on, move out and have fun doing
it.
Follow these five steps to see how to upgrade from XP
to Windows 7 the easy way
Step 1: Do The Checks
Does your existing computer hardware meet or exceeds the requirements
for Windows 7? Windows XP has been running on computers for many years and your computer hardware could be too old
for Windows 7. Take a look at Microsoft's suggested system requirements:
- 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
- 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
- 16 GB of available disk space 32-bit operating system
(most people use this one)
- 20 GB of available disk space 64-bit operating system
- DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Windows Upgrade
Advisor Windows 7 can check your computer to see if it will run Windows 7. I really like using this too
cause it works really well. So download it for free and find out quick and easy if you can run Windows
7.
Step 2: Back It Up... Or Lose It....forever
Good data backups is something that we all believe we should have and do. However,
the truth is....most of us just simply procrastinate on getting backups done. When upgrading to Windows 7
from XP a clean install is being done. Your personal files, custom settings, programs you have installed and
your data documents will not be saved or carry over automatically for you. You will have to back them
up manually to an external hard drive or to a USB flash drive.
Or by using Windows Easy Transfer program. Down load the latest version of it
from Microsoft from here http://windows.microsoft.com/windows-easy-transfer
Or you can find it on the Windows 7 DVD that you received from
Microsoft. Browse to the folder named " support " and then to
" migwiz " on
your Windows 7 disk. Find and double click on " migsetup.exe
" file. Windows Easy Transfer tool will start
up.
Don't forget to grab your personal files from these folders:
- My Documents
- My Music
- My Pictures
- Is this your work PC ? What about your projects folders and
files?
- IE favorites and Firefox bookmarks
- Any files and folders that you have saved under other folder
names
and under other installed program folders
- Are you using MS Exchange or Outlook Express email...address
and contact information and any email you have saved on your computer?
Important: take your time with step 2, better right than sorry that you missed
something important....forever!
Step 3: Gather The Install Discs For Your Programs
You'll need to manually reinstall your programs in Windows 7, such
as Microsoft Office or any other software programs or games that you personally installed in Windows XP.
Gather the installation discs for your programs and any associated product/license keys or serial numbers.
You might be able to download some programs from the Internet. Set these aside for now until after your
Windows 7 installation is complete. Than you will be able to install your software programs you had in XP
into Windows 7. In some cases you might have to upgrade to the latest version of a software program or
game in order for it to work properly in Windows 7.
Step 4: What About Those Crazy Drivers?
See Step 4 and 5 "The Great Install" on the next
page in part 2 of How to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 the easy way.
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