Adventures in upgrading ( from Vista to Windows 7 on a Laptop by Ed Morrissey at HotAir )

Hot Air ^ | October 23, 2009 8:05 am | Ed Morrissey

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

A couple of weeks ago, I asked Hot Air readers if they would immediately upgrade from their current operating system to the newly-released Windows 7.  Only 16% said they would change operating systems immediately, while 37% said that they would keep their XP software until forced to change.  Surprisingly, 10% said they would stick with Vista, which has become a lot more stable, but is still a resource hog.

Because I’m either a tech geek or a fool, I decided to upgrade immediately.  I have a high-powered laptop that consistently underperformed, at least in my opinion, under Vista.  While I wrote that the experience of OS upgrades was as thrilling as “a Barack Obama speech on prime time, or a slow root canal with not quite enough Novocaine to cover the job,” I also got a lot of feedback from beta testers on Win7 that it was worth trying.  I decided to join the 16% that wanted to put Vista in the rear-view mirror immediately.

At the same time, I got contacted by Laplink, which wanted to know if I wanted to test their new PC Mover product.  Normally, this is intended for use when upgrading from an old PC to a new one, to move applications and data files more easily than in the Windows Vista system (and presumably Win7 as well) .  However, Laplink designed their latest version to also handle a Vista-to-7 upgrade process on a single laptop, which they offered to me for free with no commitment to discuss it, which I mention in the service of full disclosure.

The upgrade process is rather straightforward for both programs.  PC Mover only comes into play before and after the upgrade; it does not involve itself in the Windows 7 system upgrade ......

[jessduntno]

I used that PC mover when I went from 2000 to XP Pro and it worked like a charm...don’t think I’ll be going to 7 until they have at least 2 service packs, though...unless they completely end support on XP...which I doubt will happen for a while yet...

[papasmurf]

Yes, you can migrate from XP to Windows 7, as Ed demonstrated.

I posted on FR about doing just that only yesterday. That post is here.

Contrary to the naysayers, who probably mixed up the porduct with anther one, it worked flawlessly for me and, oh, Ed Morrissey, too.

In addition, there is a youtube video of PC Mover Upgrade Assistant being installed and used, here.

It's at an introductory price of $19.95, and that covers one move only. They have a very nice step by step user's guide posted for downloading that I felt useful.

[rabscuttle385]

I'll confirm that. Booting is good, the part that I found surprising is that WinXP's boot time degenerates over time. It will go from booting in 30 seconds, to 1 minute to up to 5 minutes (like mine) over several years of accumulated crap.

Use an actual disk defragmentation tool (like the real Diskeeper), don't install random garbage, and clean the registry every so often. Use msconfig to fine-tune the startup sequence. If you have a lot of unnecessary programs firing up at startup, your hard disk becomes a bottleneck. Oh, and maybe even use DeepFreeze, and store your data on an external disk drive or a NAS.

Your boot time may be degenerating because your user profile is getting "crufty" (or you have malware) or the startup sequence is bloated.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks,...

[SeeRushToldU_So]

You are right, I Goggled Ultimate Steal and the first entry was the site. Looks like my daughter is buying some software this weekend:)

[rabscuttle385]

MS has an offer for students with a .edu address. The professional version can be purchased for 29.99. It is called the Ultimate Steal (I think). I just found out about it a few days ago. We took advatage of it for my son. Can’t look up the link on my phone—sorry.

Qualified students can get Windows 7 Home Premium (NOT! Professional) for $29.99 from win741.com. As for "The Ultimate Steal" promo, qualified students can get Office 2007 Ultimate (a good deal) for $59.99 and Visio 2007 for an extra $55 (also a good deal, unless you have the IEEE student MSDN/e-Academy subscription like I do).

[Hodar]

might have to look into Diskkeeper. I have Avast, Windows Defender, Lavasoft’s Ad-aware and Spybot-Search and Destroy. I don’t think I have any malware.

I have been using the Windows Disk Defrag utility.

Any recommendations for free software to upgrade XP to Win7? Made the transition on my laptop; want that to run for a month or two before migratrating my desktops over.

[rabscuttle385]

Other than I ain't got the money to buy another OS from MS. What I have does fine for what I want it to do. Until I have something that I NEED to upgrade for I don't see a reason to upgrade.

Same here!

I would rather go buy a high-quality NAS or some APC uninterruptible power supplies before I go piss hundreds of dollars away on Win7 for multiple PCs (plus upgrading our site license anti-virus, buying new hardware, time spent doing clean installs and reconfigurations, taking support calls from my sister two-hundred miles away at 1 am).

[papasmurf]

If you have an nvidia graphics adapter, Nvidia: Windows 7 "dramatically improves" GPU performance .This article might help/interest you.

[rabscuttle385]

might have to look into Diskkeeper.

Yeah, def. They have a home edition for $29.95 (link), although we have a multi-user site license (yep, at home, LOL) for the business version.

I have Avast, Windows Defender, Lavasoft’s Ad-aware and Spybot-Search and Destroy.

Spybot is nice because it monitors your registry.

I haven't used Ad-aware in years.

I haven't used Windows Defender or Avast.

My advice is to go get Nod32 from Eset (link). It's $59.99 for one year, and $89.99 for two years...for a single home user. They do offer multi-user discounts.

We use it here and it's VERY light on resources, VERY easy to use, has daily updates, and is extremely effective at protecting our systems.

I have been using the Windows Disk Defrag utility.

...which is a stripped-down version of Diskeeper. ;)

Any recommendations for free software to upgrade XP to Win7?

No, but that's because I have no intent to upgrade from XP Professional until 2012 at the earliest (more likely, late 2014, after MS extended support ends).

Remember, no matter what OS you use, if you set it up correctly from the get-go, it will give you years of good service.

[Proud_texan]

No direct upgrade but you'd want to do a "clean install" anyway but before I read this I had done my install and used the PC Mover method outlined here:

Move your programs to Windows 7

This alloed me to do a clean install upgrade/migration on the same drive.

Worked without a hitch and I'm very pleased with 7. I had fooled around with the beta and it was okay but I suspect that they removed debug code as the release version seems smaller and slightly faster (or maybe it's just my memory).

[antiRepublicrat]

It’s true, no inherent direct upgrade.

Apple is even hitting on that point in it ads — if you have to start over anyway, why not start over with a Mac? Cute ad.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Thanks for the correction and posting the info.

[cranked]

Riiiiight. Next you’ll be selling Obamaware.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

I just got back to my laptop. It does say Professional:

Microsoft Windows7 PROFESSIONAL Upgrade NOT Home Premium.

These are the links I used:

http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx

http://windows7.digitalriver.com/store/mswpus/en_US

[Dubya]

bump

[rabscuttle385]

A closer examination of the offer’s FAQ says that both Home Premium and Professional can be purchased.

[Kevmo]

I wonder if it’s worth waiting for the price to go down or should I try to hornswaggle one of the students I know into buying it for me...

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

My installation is finishing up now. It took forever to download and I have the high speed broadband.

Not sure how they decide what version you get. There was no choice option and I ended up with the Professional version for 29.99.

Maybe it was the 13.00 bucks I paid for the backup disk. Who knows?

Anyway it seems to be installing smoothly, yet as exciting as waiting for water to boil.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

I like it. Playing with it now.
:-)