MS confirm no Win7 upgrade for XP

[arraknid]

It now looks as though anyone with XP wishing to move to Windows 7 will be forced to do a clean install. See here. The only concession will be a file migration tool and a price reduction. Big deal!

For the majority of users, that'll be a complete turn-off. All they want to do is put the disk in, install and carry on as usual. The thought of having to reinstall their programs from scratch will be really scarey - me included!

Their argument that it would be too difficult holds no water. There are numerous ways of achieving an upgrade, as they well know, so why give us that BS?

Considering how much effort they put into trying to pursuade XP users to move to Vista (with an upgrade), one wonders who made that decision, which will undoubtedly alienate a good proportion of their target market.

[Grim322]

I'm sure the argument that Microsoft will use will be- If you allow an upgrade, you bring in some of the baggage of the old system. A totally new operating system requires a clean install. I don't think I totally buy that thinking, but that will be their stand. Of course all of the OEM software that came with an XP machine will be useless and nees to be bought all over again. Charlie

[Mich]

It could definitely be a matter of having baggage from the old system. I haven't had time to look into 7 yet. I know upgrading to vista was a bit of a pain with driver issues etc. It could be that like vista, the OS is quite different and some programs that would run on xp wouldn't run on 7 anyways *shrugs*

Someone did comment on that article

Allan
January 29, 2009 06:20 PM

I just did an install of Win7 beta over an existing Win XP, and I didn't have to format or anything. The installation just moved the old windows folders to "windows.old", that is "Windows", "Documents and settings" and "Program Files" are now placed in this folder.

So using a migration tool on the old directory will probably work fine for people.

[arraknid]

I like the reason given by the spokesman that it was most likely that, when moving to Win7, people would be buying a new computer with it pre-installed!!

I'm not quite sure what world those people are living in. Don't they know there's a credit crunch on??

[mart44]

I've never been a big fan of upgrades because of the backups made that you're never quite sure can be deleted. Perhaps there would be entries in the Registry not needed and possibly some of the files on the upgraded system redundant ..who knows? With a clean installation, you know for sure there is none of that. So, I'm not going to mind Windows 7 not having an upgrade mechanism from my existing XP Pro operating system.

Maybe the average XP user will have initial trouble switching to Windows 7 but there is generally no shortage of help on getting computers up and running these days, both locally and on the Internet. Reinstalling programs might not be so off-putting since most computer users wanting to upgrade are likely to have at least some experience in doing that. Having got up and running, they'll be off to a clean start.

[arraknid]

I agree that a clean install is always the best option, but maybe Grim322 hit the nail on the head. The majority of Microsoft users out there bought their machines from Dell, HP, Compaq, Fujitsu, Gateway, etc, with programs pre-installed. They are the ones that'll get the shock when they realise they have to shell out more cash for Win7 versions. As exerience with Vista showed us, not every program will migrate.

It wouldn't be too hard to create a Win7 Compatibility Checker, as per Vista, to at least let you know what will reinstall and what won't. Also, as the upgrade from XP to Vista is well sorted nowadays, it isn't beyond their capabilities to include a cut down version of Vista on the DVD that is part of the upgrade process. There's more than enough space on the disk! After all, that's what they are proposing... we'll sell you a cheap version of Vista to upgrade to, then you can install Win7!

Now that is cynical!

[mart44]

The Windows 7 compatibility modes worked OK for me when it came to an incompatible program. I had to choose the the Vista options for Xara Xtreme 4.0 when it wouldn't install. Strange because a much older CorelDraw 9 art package installed without issue. In any event, it seems Windows 7 won't be leaving prospective upgraders with no hope of getting older programs to install/run once it gets to the official release stage.

I expect you're right saying that not all programs will migrate successfully but from what I read, Windows 7 is going to be better at this aspect than Vista has been. Also, as with previous versions of Windows, desirable functions that Microsoft don't provide are usually quickly supplied by third party software, as looks to be the case here. From the experience I've had personally though, I wonder how necessary something like this will prove to be.

I think many using XP or Vista are going to be quite happy to use those operating systems until new computer time comes. This is my own stance at present. Perhaps lots of mainstream users won't be especially interested in changing operating systems at all as longs as the installed OS runs their programs. Microsoft provides lengthy support for such users and this allows for a good transition period. At the end of this time, people might then wish to switch to a computer using the latest OS. Even if they don't, some third party support will probably remain available for their existing one. I believe there are some still running on Windows 98. There are a number of forums discussing it.

Anyone who thinks they might want to test Windows 7 Beta sometime in the future maybe shouldn't wait for too long to download it. Availability is to end this month. Read here.

[arraknid]

I remembered that some years ago, we used to use a nice little migration program called, strangely, Aloha Bob, so I went looking for it. Surprise, surprise, they got bought up by Microsoft who then shut them down. Not all bad though, the software ended up in Vista in a somewhat modified form. Now I think about it, there were definite similarities, though I'm not sure it worked as well as the original.

Essentially, it copied all data files and settings over to a new install of a different operating system and saved a lot of heartache.

Further searching led me to something called PC Mover by Laplink which claims to move not only data and settings, but also installed applications and registry entries between all Windows versions. OK, it costs, but I'd say it's a small price to pay if it works. I'm going to order a copy when I get to work tomorrow to test it out.

Windows 7 will still be available from a multitude of non-MS sites across the net, as will the activation keys. MS only released 10 keys in total, 5 for X86 and 5 for X64. As they were giving it away, there was no point creating individual keys.


EDIT>>>>> Just looked at the original link I gave and PC Mover is mentioned in the comments. Looks like it might work. We'll see.