Xp to windows seven

You need to already have a genuine Key in order to download it — — the download service is for those who have a valid Key but no installation disc. Luckily, clean installs are the ideal way to install a new operating system. Be sure to back up any important programs or files on your computer. Does windows xp still work? It will let you know if your computer can handle any version of Windows 7.

Check the Windows 7 compatibility center. This is different than the upgrade adviser. It will tell you if you need to update your drivers or apps to make them work in 7. Make a copy of your hard drive, just in case things go horribly wrong. I recommend using Macrium Reflect; it's a free download available from Download.

Start by gathering all the installation files for all your applications. Windows 7 will put your data in a Windows. Make sure you have all the CDs or if you downloaded programs, back up any install files you have on an external drive. Also don't forget to gather all the license keys either off product boxes or from e-mails.

You'll want them all handy in a place outside the computer you're upgrading. The last thing before we get to the actual Windows 7 disc is to download and run the Windows Easy Transfer Wizard. This will allow you to back up all your files and settings to an external hard drive. A different one than the one you imaged earlier. Launch the wizard and make sure your external drive is plugged in. You can send your data to a network location; in this example we're choosing an external drive.

The program will check for what can be transferred then give you an opportunity to password-protect the data.

How do the four differ? Here is a quick summary, and obviously you are going to want to spend some time with the one that is most appealing to your situation:. These six aren't the only products that can migrate desktops to Windows 7 - indeed, deployment tools such as Symantec's Altiris, Novell's Zenworks, or Landesk will also do the job and if you already have them around and know how to use them, then start there.

But the tools covered here were designed for this express purpose, and are worth a closer look. Depending on your circumstances and how much time you want to invest in learning how to use them, these tools can save you a lot of time and effort in the process.

This story, "XP to Windows 7 migration: 6 tools to help you make the move" was originally published by ITworld. David Strom writes and speaks about security, networking and communications topics for CSO Online, Network World, Computerworld and other publications.

He can be reached through his web site , or on Twitter dstrom. Here are the latest Insider stories. More Insider Sign Out. Sign In Register.

Click on one to download it, and it instantly changes the color scheme and background--no need to reboot. Users can create their own themes, as well. Windows Media Player and Device Stage One of the biggest new features makes Windows Media Player useful again: you can now stream media files from one Windows 7 computer to another, across the Internet and out of network.

Even better, the setup procedure is dead simple. When you open Windows Media Player, there's a new Stream option on the toolbar. Click it, and you're presented with two choices. Both require you to associate your computer with your free Windows Live ID.

When you've associated a second Windows 7's WMP with that same ID, you can remotely access the media on the host computer. Windows Media Player's mini mode looks much slicker, emphasizing the album art--sometimes at the expense of clearly seeing the controls, but it's a definite improvement. The new Device Stage makes managing peripherals significantly easier, combining printers, phones, and portable media players into one window.

A large photo of the peripheral summarizes important device stats and makes it easy to identify which devices you're using. Device Stage can also be used to preset common tasks, such as synchronization. Device Stage support for older devices makes one of Windows 7's best features applicable to peripherals and externals that don't need to be upgraded.

One annoying change is that Bluetooth driver support no longer comes baked into the operating system. If you need a Bluetooth driver, you'll either need the installation disc on hand or you'll have to go download it. Search, touch screens, and XP mode Windows 7's native search feature has been improved. Files added to the hard drive were indexed so fast that they were searchable less than 5 seconds later.

Search result snippets now include a longer snippet, and highlight the snippet more clearly. This should appeal specifically to people who juggle large numbers of long documents, but it's a useful feature for anybody who wants to find files faster.

However, the search field is available by default only in the Start menu and in Windows Explorer, and cannot be easily added to the taskbar. Touch-screen features worked surprisingly well. The hardware sometimes misread some of the multitouch gestures, occasionally confusing rotating an image, for example, with zooming in or out of the image. Overall, though, there were few difficulties in performing the basic series of gestures that Microsoft promotes, and this places Windows 7 in an excellent position for the future, as more and more computers are released with multitouch abilities.

Experts and people or companies who hope to use Windows 7 for business situations will appreciate the new XP Mode. It doesn't have much of a practical application for the home consumer, but if you need to access programs designed for Windows XP that have not been upgraded to Windows Vista or 7, XP Mode creates a virtual environment within Windows 7 that should assuage any fears of upgrading without backward compatibility.

It's not easy to set up once you've downloaded the XP Mode installer. You'll need to double-check that you have the right hardware, and can get the right software. Motherboards older than two years probably won't work, and even if you do have a newer one you might have to go into your BIOS and activate Hardware Virtualization. CPU-identification utilities are available from Microsoft that can tell you if you're in the clear or not.

However, if compatibility is the issue, this hassle will be worth it to you. Users will have full access to peripherals connected to their Windows 7 hardware, including printers, and the clipboard can be used to cut and paste between the virtual operating system and the 'real' one. Microsoft has tweaked the feature so that it's less intrusive, but it's not clear whether that means you're actually more or less secure than you were in Vista.

UAC was one of the biggest changes in Vista. It tightened program access, but did it in such a way as to frustrate many owners of single-user computers. Windows 7 provides more options for user customization of UAC.

The default setting is to notify users only when programs try to make changes to the computer, one step below the most restrictive setting of Always Notify. Under Always Notify, anytime a program tries to access the Internet, or you try to make changes to the computer, Windows 7 will require user confirmation.