It’s quite long that Windows 7 has been released and unlike Windows Vista there are hundreds of positive reviews for this new Windows. If you are planning to upgrade to Windows 7 from your Windows Vista computer then we will help you in deciding which Windows 7 to buy, what all needs to be done before upgrading and how to upgrade.
The first thing to be done is to get the Windows 7 upgrade disk for your computer. But upgrade will depend upon the edition of Windows Vista which is currently installed on your machine. First check which Windows is installed by opening the Start menu and right clicking on Computer option. When you get the context menu click on Manage and in the manage window you can see the correct edition of Windows Vista which you have. Now if you have Windows Vista Home basic then you can upgrade it to Windows 7 Home premium and Windows 7 Ultimate. Similarly Windows Vista Home Premium can be upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium and Ultimate, Windows Vista Business can be upgraded to Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate and Windows Vista Ultimate can be only be upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate. Also please remember that you cannot upgrade your existing 32 bit operating system to a new 64 bit version of Windows 7. Another very important step to be taken before actually purchasing Windows 7 is to run the Windows 7 Upgrade advisor. This tool can be downloaded from Microsoft’s website and will show you the actual picture of your computers state after you upgrade it. This will let you know if your computer fulfils the hardware requirements or not, and which Hardware and Software might create trouble after the upgrade.
Once you have done all the tests and have got the disk for upgrading to Window 7 you are all set to go. It is advised that you run Windows Update and one full scan by good anti virus and Anti Spyware. Boot to your Windows Vista desktop and insert the Windows 7 upgrade disk into it the auto-play screen will appear and you need to select Setup.exe. The first screen will again ask if you want to check compatibility, but since we have already done this so click on install now. Some of the important updates of Windows Vista are required for upgrading it to Windows 7. If you have not run the Updates prior to this installation then select the first option which is Go Online to get latest updates for installation. On the next screen accept the license agreement. After this it will ask for type of installation that you want. Select Upgrade on this screen. After this Windows will check for compatibility itself and will report if something incompatible is found other wise it will start the upgrade process and user intervention would further be required.
Minimum Requirements for Window 7 are: 1GHz or faster processor, 1 GB of RAM for 32 Bit Windows 7 and 2GB for 64 Bit version, 16 GB hard disk space for 32 Bit and 20 GB space for 64 Bit version, DirectX 9 compatible graphics card which should have WDDM 1.0 or higher driver.
