How do I migrate from Win Vista to Win7?

[Smokeman]

Hey, guys! What are the necessary procedures to migrate from Windows Vista Home Premium svc pk2 OS to Win 7 home premium OS? Thank you in advance!

 

[Alaric]

I would just do a clean install of Windows 7. Back up your data/picture/video files, anything you want to save from the Vista install, to a separate drive. Next, disconnect all drives except the one you're installing W7 on and let Windows 7 do its thing during installation.

Is there a reason you're going to Windows 7 instead of 8/8.1 or 10? Microsoft's official support of Windows 7 ends this year. 8/8.1 is supported until 2023 and 10 is the current abomination-err...operating system. LOL In all seriousness, if you don't have a specific need only Windows 7 can fill I would look at a newer OS.

 

[Smokeman]

I would just do a clean install of Windows 7. Back up your data/picture/video files, anything you want to save from the Vista install, to a separate drive. Next, disconnect all drives except the one you're installing W7 on and let Windows 7 do its thing during installation.

Is there a reason you're going to Windows 7 instead of 8/8.1 or 10? Microsoft's official support of Windows 7 ends this year. 8/8.1 is supported until 2023 and 10 is the current abomination-err...operating system. LOL In all seriousness, if you don't have a specific need only Windows 7 can fill I would look at a newer OS.

Thank you for helping! As you could tell, I have no idea what I am doing. lol, I said Win7 only bcuz according to the CompTIA A+ instructor, she said that Win Vista could only "migrate" to Win 7 (same package). Example. Windows Vista Home Premium = Windows 7 Home Premium, and that I could not "migrate" to later version than Win 7. So with that said, I have nothing much to lose, but a lot to gain from this experience. I have packed up my wanted files from the current HD. BTW, now I am installing Win10 to the same HD. Do I need to reformat this HD in order to delete Win Vista or just configure to boot straight from the installation source? Thank you!!

 

[Alaric]

Windows 10 should provide you with a boot menu once installed. From there you can select an operating system. Your instructor likely meant you couldn't upgrade from Vista to a version of Windows other than W7 directly.

 

[EarthDog]

Thank you for helping! As you could tell, I have no idea what I am doing. lol, I said Win7 only bcuz according to the CompTIA A+ instructor, she said that Win Vista could only "migrate" to Win 7 (same package). Example. Windows Vista Home Premium = Windows 7 Home Premium, and that I could not "migrate" to later version than Win 7. So with that said, I have nothing much to lose, but a lot to gain from this experience. I have packed up my wanted files from the current HD. BTW, now I am installing Win10 to the same HD. Do I need to reformat this HD in order to delete Win Vista or just configure to boot straight from the installation source? Thank you!!

It depends what you want to do with it... The best course of action is to format the HDD and start over if you aren't trying to dual boot. Obviously, everything will be lost and you will be starting from scratch with a format... but is the cleanest way.

Unless this is a much older system, I would just jump to Windows 10 (unless you have some issues with it as some do).

 

[Alaric]

Unless this is a much older system, I would just jump to Windows 10 (unless you have some issues with it as some do).

I would suspect older hardware (Vista!), but I would still see if W10 runs on it first. My W10 disparagement notwithstanding, I have a specific hardware requirement for W7 that explains my using it. For most people Windows 10 is probably the recommended choice.

 

[trents]

Smokeman, "migrating" is often used to refer to upgrading the OS "in place" so that programs and data remain intact once the procedure is complete. This is what your instructor was referring to. If you do a "clean" install of a later version of Windows you will not be carrying over programs and data. You can back up the data beforehand to an external source but programs cannot be backed up. So if you don't have the installer media for the programs they would would be lost.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Microsoft's official support of Windows 7 ends this year.

Actually, Microsoft's official "mainstream" support for Windows 7 ended over 4 years ago, as seen by the Window Lifecycle Fact Sheet and all support ends this coming January.

W8.1 mainstream support ended in January 2018 so for security reasons alone, I would urge you to look into W10.

IMO, the only reason to stick with the 10 year old W7 (until January) is your hardware makers have failed to provide compatible W10 drivers for your legacy hardware. And really, in that case, I would look into Linux.

Understand having to retire perfectly good electronics before it actually dies is just a fact of life. We've all done it with old TVs, monitors, cell phones, cameras, cassette players, CD players and more. The problem is not your own security. The problem is just like XP is now, once all support ends, the W7 computer that has Internet access has the potential to become a threat to the rest of us!

If your concern is you don't like the look and feel of Windows 10, do what I did and install Start10 on it. This neat little program brings back the familiar W7 Start menu and desktop and for just a one-time cost of $5 for a lifetime license, it is well worth it!

Either way, make sure you have current backups of any data you don't want to lose.

 

[Alaric]

I need Media Center. 8/8.1 and 10 don't have it and neither does Linux. So my HTPC will remain on W7. I guess the world will just have to watch out for my antiquated rig. LOL

 

[Bill_Bright]

I guess the world will just have to watch out for my antiquated rig.

No. You'll just need to keep it from getting access to the Internet.

Oh, and see this: https://www.windowscentral.com/install-media-center-windows-10

 

[Alaric]

LOL. No.