Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7

You’d think that upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 would be easy considering that 60% of PC’s worldwide run it. Unfortunately upgrading form Windows XP to Windows 7 is not as easy as simply pressing the upgrade button, because Microsoft did not add upgrade support. But don't feel sad because your not out of luck, there is a somewhat easy way to upgrade.

What you'll need are:

• A USB flash drive or another form of external media
• A copy of Windows 7
• A computer running Windows XP (that is Windows 7 compatible)

For a strange reason some people recommend that you upgrade to Windows Vista first then upgrade to Windows 7. I don’t recommend that method at all because it is a waste of your money. The other method (which Microsoft and I recommend) is a clean install which would obliterate Windows XP and replace it with Windows 7.

If you've been using Windows XP for the past 8 years chances are you have quite a bit of important data on the computer so its a good idea to back it up.

To back up or data insert the Windows 7 disk into the computer. If auto run opens click don’t run. Now, browse the DVD for a file named migsetup.exe, which is the Windows Easy Transfer tool. Windows Easy Transfer is designed to help easily move all of your documents and settings to a new operating system. Easy Transfer will not transfer or applications so remember to keep all of the product keys for your paid programs, and the download link for the free ones.

When the Windows Easy Transfer welcome screen opens you will be prompted to select three options for where you want to save the data to. I personally prefer the external hard drive or USB flash drive option because it’s easiest, but you can click whichever you prefer.

When the next window pop up just click “This is my old computer”

The Easy Transfer Tool will scan for user accounts settings and documents. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours so be patient.

You will then be prompted to type in a password so you can archive. This is used to prevent people from getting access to your data just incase you loose the USB flash drive. When you’ve installed Windows 7 you will need to type in that password so you can get access to the data.

Its now time to install Windows 7 so, reinsert the install disk and click install now. Because your upgrading from Windows XP you will need to click the custom install option.

You can now install Windows 7 as you normally would. You can see screenshots of the process here. Ignore the first 6 setup screenshots.

Once Windows 7 is installed and running on your machine, attach the external hard disc that you used to take the backup, to the machine, browse over to it and double click on the backup file that you’d created earlier.

The Windows Easy Transfer utility will then start, ask for the password that you’d set earlier and migrate all your XP settings and data to Windows 7.