Upgrading a PC with XP to Win 7

[xxsilk109xx]

I saw an article on here, or maybe it was an advertisement about upgrading windows xp to windows 7 without loosing programs, documents, etc. I googled and saw ways to do it and keep documents, but what about programs?

I should have printed it out but cant seem to find it now..


I have a customer at a car dealership and their new software requires windows 7 as it doesnt work under xp anymore...

Customer needs to retain files, ms office, etc. They dont know where the disks are for office etc..

Can someone point me in the right direction?

 

[m5online]

IMO, I'd spend time extracting serial numbers for all software they dont have media for and build the system from scratch. Never have I had an upgrade experience of one windows version to the next that long term ended up not crashing and burning.

 

[xxsilk109xx]

I agree with you on that.
Im just worried about office....i have never had a key extractor work with office for some reason. Maybe I am doing something wrong. I would like to get the outlook and everything running normally.

 

[usacvlr]

Just upgrade them to vista and then to 7.

 

[xxsilk109xx]

duh! why didnt i think of that, I could do that for sure, should I do updates to vista before I install 7 on top of it, or just go on to 7 as soon as vista is installed.

 

[trapped]

I have done the XP to Vista to Win7 upgrade a couple of times without any major problems. My biggest concern was also office and it worked fine after the upgrade. I would image the drive first just in case there are problems.

 

[ajc196]

I usually don't recommend this, it's actually insane in both theory and practice. BUT, I have done a successful XP Home --> Vista Home Premium --> 7 Home Premium in-place upgrade, and it went smoothly without a hitch. Between the Vista and 7 upgrade, I had to uninstall Windows Search 4.0 (leftover from XP) but that's about it. 7 was surprisingly smooth and all apps still worked once it was all said and done.

If you do want to try it, make sure you get an image backup of the XP install so in the worst case scenario, you just restore the system the way it was, no harm done.

The key to making the aforementioned upgrade work is just getting as clean an XP install as possible. Remove bloatware and anything nonessential to operation, scan the crap out of it, get it completely updated, and do a Repair Installation if you think it's a bit buggy.

 

[Crollins]

Although I have done upgrades from windows xp to vista and finally to windows 7 successfuly, most clients computers I work on are so gummed up that I prefer to just reload with windows 7. I find that often times customers really notice the speed increase they get from going back to a fresh install. Therefore, unless they have a lot of special software and configuration I prefer to reload. As for finding the office key, as mentioned earlier, I like produkey. The only downside is many av's consider it a hack tool. As with anything I would certainly recommend making an image of the hd before doing such work. http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

 

[red12049]

I saw an article on here, or maybe it was an advertisement about upgrading windows xp to windows 7 without loosing programs, documents, etc. I googled and saw ways to do it and keep documents, but what about programs?

I should have printed it out but cant seem to find it now..


I have a customer at a car dealership and their new software requires windows 7 as it doesnt work under xp anymore...

Customer needs to retain files, ms office, etc. They dont know where the disks are for office etc..

Can someone point me in the right direction?

You might want to consider PC Mover from Laplink. Works well,but you will need to extract product keys for Office before you start.

Rick

 

[Elemdee]

The class I'm taking this fall is going to cover the following:

Preparing to Install Windows 7
Performing a Clean Installation of Windows 7
Upgrading and Migrating to Windows 7
Performing an Image-based Installation of Windows 7
Configuring Application Compatibility
Overview of Authentication and Authorization
Managing File Access in Windows 7
Managing Shared Folders
Configuring File Compression
Managing Printing
Maintaining Performance by Using the Windows 7 Performance Tools
Maintaining Reliability by Using the Windows 7 Diagnostic Tools
Backing Up and Restoring Data by Using Windows Backup
Restoring a Windows 7 System by Using System Restore Points
Configuring Windows Update

I'll try to study well lol.

 

[vdub12]

I have to agree with the few posters that said to extract the keys and reinstall windows fresh.

Here are the key locations for office

32bit
Office XP
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Registration

Office 2003
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Registration

Office 2007
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Registration

64bit
Office XP
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Registration

Office 2003
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Registration

Office 2007
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Registration


If you are working with office 2000 your SOL because it never stored its key in the registry. There is no way to recover an office 2000 key. I don't think office 2000 is even supported in Windows 7 though. I am not sure, I have never tried to install it in 7.

 

[AtYourService]

You can use my freeware Office Key Recovery Tool
Should work on slaved drives too
Its still in development , still gotta make it 64bit compatible & update for Office 2010

http://www.whatsmypass.com/downloads/OfficeScanner

 

[iladelf]

+1 on the PC Mover. Customer was VERY happy after I used it to move her information and programs. If I remember correctly, every program worked after the move!

Great little program, IMO.

 

[4ycr]

I have used http://www.magicaljellybean.com/ on several XP machines before I upgraded them. It found office keys no problem and even showed me several keys from different versions on the same machine

 

[lassenpc]

Hope you don't mind, going to nudge you in slightly different direction.

Most (but not all) XP machines don't have the internal hardware to support Windows 7 well. Key word there, well; yes it can and is done, but on a machine that is... anywhere between 3-7+ years old (guessing here) and with maxed RAM and video card upgrades (additional cost), and going Vista -> Win 7... I would think most 'aged' machines would run poorly.

Crunch the #s of that (including your labor time, software upgrades) versus new Win7 machine, the later might come in just the same or less, and provide a better running / stable product for your client.

As far as MS Office is concerned, is there a reason they cannot use OOO or Google Docs? Saves them $$$, makes you look good.

 

[xxsilk109xx]

When upgrading through the vista route..

1. do you do all upgrades once vista is installed before going to win 7?

2. Does it matter which version of vista I install to? I want to put win 7 pro on the machine.

3. Do people like that or the pc mover program better? Is this for moving to another computer or will it just act as an upgrader to the same computer?

Thanks!