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Your questions: Common questions about upgrading to Windows 7

Here are answers to some common questions about upgrading to Windows 7 from our Windows 7 frequently asked questions page. (And if you need more information and guidance on installing and reinstalling Windows 7, check out this page on the Windows 7 site.)

What’s the difference between the upgrade and full versions of Windows 7?

When purchasing Windows 7, you can choose either an upgrade version or full version. Both upgrade and full versions include the same features. Upgrade versions require that Windows XP or Windows Vista are installed on your computer before installing Windows 7. Full versions don’t require a previous version of Windows to be installed on your computer.

What is an upgrade installation?

An upgrade installation replaces your current version of Windows with Windows 7 and your files, settings, and programs are kept in place on your PC. You can perform an upgrade installation using either the upgrade or full version of Windows 7.

What is a custom (clean) installation?

A custom installation replaces your current version of Windows with Windows 7 but doesn’t preserve your files, settings, and programs (it’s often referred to as a clean installation for this reason). For installation instructions, see Upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 (custom installation). You can perform a custom installation using either the upgrade or full version of Windows 7.

How do I get Windows 7?

You can purchase Windows 7 at retail locations or online. If you have a mini notebook or other PC that doesn’t have a DVD drive, you can purchase and download Windows 7 online at the Microsoft Store.

I’m running Windows XP on my PC. Can I upgrade to Windows 7?

You can buy the upgrade version of Windows 7, but you’ll need to perform a custom installation. This means that you should back up all of your files to an external location and gather the installation discs or setup files for programs that you want to use with Windows 7. For detailed instructions, see Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7.

I’m running Windows Vista on my PC. Can I upgrade to Windows 7?

You can buy the upgrade version of Windows 7. In some cases you can upgrade directly to Windows 7, but in other cases you’ll need to perform a custom installation. The following table shows which editions of Windows Vista can be directly upgraded to Windows 7:

If you’re running this edition of Windows Vista

You can upgrade to this edition of Windows 7

Windows Vista Home Basic

Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Ultimate

Windows Vista Home Premium

Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Ultimate

Windows Vista Business

Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate

Windows Vista Ultimate

Windows 7 Ultimate

If you’re currently running a 32-bit version of Windows Vista and want to install a 64-bit version of Windows 7, you’ll need to perform a custom installation. Also, if you’re currently running a 64-bit version of Windows Vista and want to install a 32-bit version of Windows 7 (less common), you’ll need to perform a custom installation. For detailed instructions on performing a custom installation, see Upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 (custom installation).

Can I use upgrade media to install Windows 7 on a computer that doesn’t currently have Windows installed on it?

Windows 7 upgrade media was designed to be used on a computer that has Windows XP or Windows Vista installed on it. You can use upgrade media to install Windows 7 on a computer that doesn’t have Windows XP, Windows Vista, or any version of Windows installed on it by starting (or booting) your computer from the Windows 7 DVD and performing a custom installation. However, you won’t be able to activate Windows 7, which validates that you have a genuine copy of Windows and allows you access to all the features. For more information about activation errors, see Windows 7 activation error: invalid product key and Windows 7 activation error: 0xC004F061.

We recommend that you install Windows XP or Windows Vista before installing Windows 7 using upgrade media. Before you attempt to install Windows 7 using upgrade media on a computer that doesn’t have Windows on it, see Installing and reinstalling Windows 7.

Can I format my hard drive, and then install Windows 7?

If you purchase the full version of Windows 7, you can format your hard drive, and then install Windows 7. If you purchase the upgrade version of Windows 7 and want to format your hard drive, you’ll need to start (or boot) your computer from the Windows 7 DVD, and then perform a custom installation. You can click Drive options (advanced), and then format your hard drive. Don’t use a program from another software manufacturer to format your hard drive before installing Windows 7. If you are using upgrade media and format the drive before starting the installation process, you won’t be able to use the upgrade product key to activate Windows 7. For more information, see Installing and reinstalling Windows 7.

What is the Windows 7 Family Pack?

The Windows 7 Family Pack is a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium that you can install on up to three PCs in your home. It includes both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 installation discs. The Family Pack contains the upgrade version of Windows 7, so all three computers must have Windows XP or Windows Vista installed on them before installing Windows 7. For more information, go to the Special offers webpage.

 

Tags: Windows Vista, what I read, twitter, Microsoft, Windows 7, FAQ.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, how-to, upgrade, upgrade.

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Advisory: Important Information on SharePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 2

As I posted on Twitter, the SharePoint team has posted important information about SharePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 2 for customers on their team blog:

Attention: Important Information on Service Pack 2

We take product quality seriously and make every effort to avoid and resolve issues that adversely impact our customers.  Unfortunately, we have recently discovered a bug with Service Pack 2 (SP2) that affects all customers that have deployed it for SharePoint Server 2007. 

During the installation of SP2, a product expiration date is improperly activated. This means SharePoint will expire as though it was a trial installation 180 days after SP2 is deployed. The activation of the expiration date will not affect the normal function of SharePoint up until the expiration date passes. Furthermore, product expiration 180 days after SP2 installation will not affect customer’s data, configuration or application code but will render SharePoint inaccessible for end-users.

We are working to release a hotfix to automatically fix this issue. A manual work-around is currently available and involves customers re-entering their Product ID number (PID) on the Convert License Type page in Central Administration.  For more information and detailed steps please read this KB article. (The KB link is not currently active, it will be available within the next 48hrs)

We want to assure our customers that this issue does not impact data integrity or their SharePoint deployment in any other way.

For your convenience, below are some answers to questions that you may have and we will update this blog post with a link to the hotfix as soon as it’s available.

We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may cause you.

Jeff Teper
Corporate Vice President
SharePoint.

More details and Q&A are available via the post, and (as posted) Microsoft KB article 971620.

Tags: announcements, SharePoint.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, Office, SharePoint

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Thinking about the Windows 7 upgrade experience, have you backed up your files lately?

This week the Windows 7 team posted on delivering a quality upgrade experience for Windows 7, noting that many people are running the Windows 7 Beta full time just as many of us do daily at Microsoft. And the team is encouraging users to revert to an earlier Windows Vista image on their PCs and perform an upgrade to the next publicly available pre-release build…

"The supported upgrade scenario is from Windows Vista to Windows 7. Before you go jump to the comment section, we want to say we are going to provide a mechanism for you to use if you absolutely require this upgrade.  As an extended member of the development team and a participant in the Beta program that has helped us so much, we want to ask that you experience real-world setup and provide us real-world telemetry."

The Real World, as in moving/upgrading from Windows Vista to the next public Windows 7 build. And yes, it’s a challenge to have to reinstall your applications and set up your desktop all over again, as Ina Fried noted in her column yesterday, "Windows 7 beta upgrade won’t be easy".

This is one reason I advocate setting up a dual boot system for Windows 7, as I did on some of my machines, particularly at home. (This was also mentioned in my later post in the article "How To Dual Boot Vista and Windows 7" from NetworkWorld.)

OK, deep breath. It’s not that bad, but there is some work involved.

General housekeeping advice: make sure you do an inventory and find your original installer discs for your applications, and note your serial numbers. An easy way to note your installed applications is to use the Windows Instrumentation command-line interface (WMIC) to generate a list as noted here.

I’ve also seen feedback on the request to mount the ISO and avoid having to burn a DVD: we know. As noted, this feature isn’t in Windows 7, but there are several third party tools (and many are free) that allow you to create a DVD from the downloaded ISO. Lifehacker covered the best CD & DVD burning tools and noted ImgBurn "emerged victorious" in their Hive Five Best CD and DVD Burning Tools. I’ve also used isorecorder successfully at home – both are great tools.

(A note on recovering your previous OS installation from Windows.old: Today there’s info on recovering a previous Windows build noted in Microsoft KB 933168, "How to restore a computer to a previous Windows installation after you install Windows Vista".)

My advice: before you do anything, back up your files from your current Windows 7 installation (preferably on to a volume different from where you’ve installed your Windows 7 OS, better if it’s removable media). I back up my files to an external hard disc (via USB2) as well as to a handy 4GB USB memory fob. Of course, there’s no better advice than this, offered in the E7 post:

"Since everyone reading is a well-versed and experienced beta tester you know ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR MACHINE before running any OS installation and NEVER TEST AN OS ON YOUR ONLY COPY OF ANY DATA. Testing a pre-release product means just that—it is testing and it is pre-release. Even though this is a Release Candidate, we are still testing the product. We have very high confidence but even if an error happens once in 1,000,000 we want to make sure everyone is taking the precautions normal for a pre-release product."

Tags: articles, blogs, Windows 7.

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Advisory: 30GB Zune issues noted today, related to time and the leap year

MP3 players

First it was questions about whether or not we’d have to worry about the coming Leap Second, then today after our power came back on, customer questions about the Zune 30.

As we have a couple of Zune 30s in our home going strong, I was surprised to see a post on the Zune Insider blog WRT the 30 GB Zune and news of issues reported today related to leap years (which some referred to as Zune2K and Y2K9), especially with all of the efforts we have applied to dealing with time and calendar changes around the world.

The team has been working throughout the day on this issue, and Paul from the Zune Insider blog offers this update this afternoon:

Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used).  The technical team jumped on the problem immediately and isolated the issue: a bug in the internal clock driver related to the way the device handles a leap year. 

The issue should be resolved over the next 24 hours as the time change moves to January 1, 2009.   We expect the internal clock on the Zune 30GB devices will automatically reset tomorrow (noon, GMT). By tomorrow you should allow the battery to fully run out of power before the unit can restart successfully then simply ensure that your device is recharged, then turn it back on.  If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you may need to sync your device with your PC to refresh the rights to the subscription content you have downloaded to your device. 

Customers can continue to stay informed via the support page on zune.net (zune.net/support).

We know this has been a big inconvenience to our customers and we are sorry for that, and want to thank them for their patience. 

From the FAQs:

Q:  What fixes or patches are you putting in place to resolve this situation? 

This situation should remedy itself over the next 24 hours as the time flips to January 1st.

Q:  What’s the timeline on a fix?

The issue Zune 30GB customers are experiencing today will self resolve as time changes to January 1.

Q:  Why did this occur at precisely 12:01 a.m. on December 31, 2008? 

There is a bug in the internal clock driver causing the 30GB device to improperly handle the last day of a leap year.

The Zune service is unaffected — as are all Zune 80, 120 and Zune flash models — so we’ll be listening to music via our PC this evening.

Happy New Year.

Tags: Microsoft, Zune.

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PC World and the Washington Post noticed Microsoft Answers today

Microsoft Answers

As I posted earlier, the new Microsoft Answers beta kicked off this week.  And it looks like folks are noticing the new site, as noted in the this Washington Post article from Rick Broida of PC World.  Broida noted the new site "aims to clear up Vista’s mysteries–and invites you to do likewise."

"Sites like Askville and Yahoo Answers have long offered community-fed answers to many of life’s questions (technical and otherwise). Now Microsoft is getting in on the answers act with the aptly named Microsoft Answers.

"This new service is designed for a sole purpose: to address all your Vista OS-related questions. And the answers come not just from fellow users, but also from Microsoft support pros. In fact, according to the site, the "Microsoft Answers Team" has a dozen members just waiting to help out.

"I’m really pleased to see Microsoft offering any kind of human-staffed support forum, even if it is Vista-centric. My usual thought when I experience a Windows-related problem is, "Well, I’m on my own." It’s heartening to know Microsoft might actually be there for me for a change (though forum-based support is hardly the same as live technical support).

Tags: Microsoft, customer support, feedback, customer service, Windows Vista.

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