From: PA Bear [MS MVP] on
Sure, upgrade to Vista, get it fully-patched & SP1 installed, then upgrade
to Win7. Oh, and pay mucho $$$ for each upgrade, too.

Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7

How to Prep for an XP-to-Windows 7 Upgrade
http://www.pcworld.com/article/174311/how_to_prep_for_an_xptowindows_7_upgrade_faq.html

Help with Migrating Windows XP to Windows 7:
http://blogs.technet.com/kdean/archive/2009/10/18/help-with-migrating-windows-xp-to-windows-7.aspx

Part 1 - Migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/springboard/archive/2009/11/03/springboard-series-blog-migrating-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7-part-1.aspx

OREALLY wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Is there a way to upgrade to Windows 7 w/o losing programs and data?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Oreally

From: SC Tom on

"Twayne" <nobody(a)spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:eDqnT7exKHA.2644(a)TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> In news:e9NZ4QcxKHA.1796(a)TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl,
> SC Tom <sc(a)tom.net> typed:
>> "LD55ZRA" <LD55ZRA(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
>> message news:hnpnf4$u03$1(a)speranza.aioe.org...
>>> Clean install always takes less time than upgrade install
>>> and in Windows 7 this is crucial unless you want to spend
>>> whole weekend doing it. hth
>>
>> That's not necessarily true. Took me 45 minutes to upgrade
>> from Vista to Win7. I've done clean installs of Win2k and
>> XP that took way longer than that since you have to
>> consider that with a clean install, you have to reinstall
>> all of your other programs after the OS installation. Add
>> that time up and it's a lot more than a simple upgrade. I
>> haven't done an Xp-Vista-Win7 upgrade, but I can't imagine
>> it being more than a leisurely evening to do if the
>> installer has checked to make sure his hardware and
>> software is compatible with both Vista and Win7.
>
> But surely you must agree that backing up is important anytime any action
> has to do with the OS? Far too many people live without backups of their
> data. The slightest glitch that leaves the OS corrupted easily leads to
> loss of all data.
>
> Twayne`

Well, sure, everyone should have some kind of recovery program in place. The
statement was that it takes longer to do an upgrade than a clean install,
and I disagreed with that. I always do a disk image before any major
update/upgrade, and often before minor ones also, depending on what all is
involved/changed by that update.
--
SC Tom

>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "OREALLY" <oreally(a)comcast.net> wrote in message
>>> news:O4YfTOYxKHA.3560(a)TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> Is there a way to upgrade to Windows 7 w/o losing
>>>> programs and data? Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> Oreally
>
>
>
> --
> --
> Life is the only real counselor; wisdom unfiltered
> through personal experience does not become a
> part of the moral tissue.

From: Ken Blake, MVP on
On Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:40:17 -0700, "OREALLY" <oreally(a)comcast.net>
wrote:


> Is there a way to upgrade to Windows 7 w/o losing programs and data?



From what ? What version of Windows are you running now?

You've asked in an XP newsgroup, so perhaps you are running XP. If you
are running XP, no, you can *not* upgrade to Windows 7. You can
upgrade to Vista and from Vista, you can then upgrade to Windows 7,
but that two-step upgrade doubles the risk of your having problems.

And if you are running Vista now, you can upgrade directly to Windows
7. But realize that there is always a risk of problems, so be sure
that before beginning you have a backup of any data you can't afford
to lose.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
From: Ken Blake, MVP on
On Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:23:07 -0400, "SC Tom" <sc(a)tom.net> wrote:

>
> "LD55ZRA" <LD55ZRA(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:hnpnf4$u03$1(a)speranza.aioe.org...
> > Clean install always takes less time than upgrade install and in Windows 7
> > this is crucial unless you want to spend whole weekend doing it.
> >
> > hth
>
> That's not necessarily true.


Right, it's hardly ever true.


> Took me 45 minutes to upgrade from Vista to
> Win7. I've done clean installs of Win2k and XP that took way longer than
> that since you have to consider that with a clean install, you have to
> reinstall all of your other programs after the OS installation.


Exactly! And not only do you have to reinstall them, in many cases you
also have to reconfigure them to the way you like them.


> Add that time up and it's a lot more than a simple upgrade.



*Much* longer. It depends on how many and what programs you have
installed, and to what extent you've configured them, but it can
easily take a few days. And unlike doing an upgrade installation,
which essentially runs by itself with almost no attention from you,
all the program installation and configuration requires your
attention.

My Windows 7 installation on my main desktop computer here would
easily take me 2-3 days to reinstall cleanly and put back the way it
is. And that's 2-3 days of pretty much constant attention.


> I haven't done an
> Xp-Vista-Win7 upgrade, but I can't imagine it being more than a leisurely
> evening to do if the installer has checked to make sure his hardware and
> software is compatible with both Vista and Win7.



I have. I did that with my netbook, more as an experiment than
anything else. Since I use it for e-mail while traveling and very
little else, I didn't really care very much what version of Windows it
was running. But because to do it I had to go to Vista, then SP1 of
Vista, then Windows 7, and it was done on a slow machine, it took the
better part of two days.

However, despite its taking two days, it mostly did what it did by
itself and took very little attention from me. So the two days really
didn't bother me at all. If I had done it by doing a clean
installation of Windows 7, it probably would have taken about the same
two days (that's about what it took when I first installed and
configured all the apps on it under Windows XP), but it would have
been two days that kept me very busy.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
From: LD55ZRA on


"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:
>

> Right, it's hardly ever true.
>

Ah but you haven't done a clean install in your lifetime so what made
you say you are an expert? Your opinion doesn't matter in such things.