[phazer11]

Hello everyone I have an issue. This issue is that I need to upgrade from Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional without having to reinstall all my programs or backup my files. As I cannot reinstall some of the programs as I do not have another license for them or the program was a limited offer. Now I have the Windows 7 Pro Upgrade Discs for the Vista Systems I own that did not come with the free upgrade. One of my system has the free upgrade so I'll just upgrade it that way and then use the 7 Pro discs to finish it if needed. But on the others The Vista Home Premium and XP Professional I cannot upgrade to Windows 7 Professional without a format and loss of programs if not for having some programs that I cannot replace I would do a format and clean install everytime. But as this is not the case I need help.
Sorry for the long post.
Help is appreciated..



If someone can help me fix this entire problem +REP all of it at least once.

[Dnajun_Tnuieh]

Save the program files you wish to keep to a different hard drive, or disk. then just copy them back over when done.

[phazer11]

I've tried that before and even on a pre-configured OS of the same version that doesn't work for me at least not for licensed programs like Adobe CS4 Programs. Any other ideas? Does anyone know if I have Home Premium and use the Windows 7 Home Premium Vista Upgrade Discs I have which will allow for an in place upgrade if the Windows 7 Upgrade Discs I have will upgrade the OS to Pro? If this will work one problem solved I guess. But I still need to know of how to do this on my XP Professional System.

[Lemnear]

If I understand you correctly about the orphaned programs, unless you've got the installer file there's no way to reinstall it onto a new machine or reinstall. Mac's are the only OS that let you drag and drop entire programs and not have to go through any kind of install process.

Concerning the licensed programs, as long as you've got the contact info (or can find it), and either receipt or some other confirmation that shows you paid for it, most companies will either re-issue you the original serial# or give you a new key. Some companies like Adobe are really easy to deal with and actually have very good service for times when you run into this kind of mess. If its a program that had some kind of internet activation required its generally pretty easy to get things resolved without much issue. Most good software companies want to keep their customers happy so long as you have or can proove that your a legit customer, they'll try to work with you best they can to resolve the problem. One thing you might want to watch out for is if they send you a new cd/dvd rom they might charge you a few bucks (regardless if the program cost $20 or $2000).

Since you've got multiple machines that you need to fix, there's another alternative that I thinks worth considering given your position. Get one machine (assumably the Win 7 one) up and running with all your software, and then put linux on the other machine. It's come a long ways in the past few years towards becoming more user friendly and not totally commmand line oriented, you can do most anything via the gui and only need to use the x-term to fix problems or highly customized installations/configurations.

When my laptop's windows kernel got corrupted and basically wouldn't boot again there was no other choice but reinstall (though I had my data backed up elsewhere). After taking a good long look I found that every program that I normally/and even infrequently used was available on linux for free, and compatible with their windows counterparts formats. I've gotten much more usability out of my laptop now with the increased number of programs I've been able to use that would normally be $30-$50 a pop for Windows. I still keep one machine with Windows for games that won't run on linux, but other than that I've got no intention on spending another dime on Windows softare (except for games) which has already saved me several hundred bucks with respect to a likewise configured Windows machine. And have no DRM embedded into the OS like Windows does

[jologs16]

I think there's an option within the installation that lets you migrate your files and programs...not too sure cos i did this when windows 7 crashed and needed to be reinstalled.

[phazer11]

Originally Posted by Lemnear

If I understand you correctly about the orphaned programs, unless you've got the installer file there's no way to reinstall it onto a new machine or reinstall. Mac's are the only OS that let you drag and drop entire programs and not have to go through any kind of install process.

Concerning the licensed programs, as long as you've got the contact info (or can find it), and either receipt or some other confirmation that shows you paid for it, most companies will either re-issue you the original serial# or give you a new key. Some companies like Adobe are really easy to deal with and actually have very good service for times when you run into this kind of mess. If its a program that had some kind of internet activation required its generally pretty easy to get things resolved without much issue. Most good software companies want to keep their customers happy so long as you have or can proove that your a legit customer, they'll try to work with you best they can to resolve the problem. One thing you might want to watch out for is if they send you a new cd/dvd rom they might charge you a few bucks (regardless if the program cost $20 or $2000).

Since you've got multiple machines that you need to fix, there's another alternative that I thinks worth considering given your position. Get one machine (assumably the Win 7 one) up and running with all your software, and then put linux on the other machine. It's come a long ways in the past few years towards becoming more user friendly and not totally commmand line oriented, you can do most anything via the gui and only need to use the x-term to fix problems or highly customized installations/configurations.

When my laptop's windows kernel got corrupted and basically wouldn't boot again there was no other choice but reinstall (though I had my data backed up elsewhere). After taking a good long look I found that every program that I normally/and even infrequently used was available on linux for free, and compatible with their windows counterparts formats. I've gotten much more usability out of my laptop now with the increased number of programs I've been able to use that would normally be $30-$50 a pop for Windows. I still keep one machine with Windows for games that won't run on linux, but other than that I've got no intention on spending another dime on Windows softare (except for games) which has already saved me several hundred bucks with respect to a likewise configured Windows machine. And have no DRM embedded into the OS like Windows does

Well I don't have to reinstall all of the programs if I can do an in-place upgrade such as Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium and I'm wondering if I can upgrade from 7 home oremium to 7 Professional using my Vista to 7 Pro upgrade discs.
And if it were simply a matter of me switching I might not have a problem with a linux configuration even if it were a dual boot. But some of the above mentioned machines belong to my family members and keeping with one OS helps me to help them figure out an issue one of them might be having.

Originally Posted by jologs16

I think there's an option within the installation that lets you migrate your files and programs...not too sure cos i did this when windows 7 crashed and needed to be reinstalled.

You mean besides an in place upgrade? because I think that the way a straight Vista Home Premium to 7 Professional install works is I would have to format.

I still need to know more about the if anyone knows if doing a Vista Home Premium to 7 Home Premium in place upgrade letting me keep all of my files and programs will allow me to upgrade from 7 Home Premium to 7 Professional using Vista Upgrade Discs.
And I also need to know of a way around having to format the XP machines but still be able to install 7 Pro and keep the programs.
Thanks

[Lemnear]

Any time that I've done an upgrade with a functional version of Windows all the programs stayed in place. In those regards you'll probably only need to worry about compatibility. If it worked on Vista chances are good it'll work on 7, going from XP -> 7 you might run into more programs that would be incompatible. Even if you install XP, and then upgrade it to Vista and to finally to 7 as long as the programs are compatible they should be intact along with their data and still function. Its preferable to do a clean install of a new/upgraded OS as a matter of general principal, unless you system was barely running upgrades should go smoothly. Going the upgrade path tend to take up more disk space, but with cheap hardware prices now loosing a few GB isn't really noticeable anymore.

[wrk13s]

are you running the upgrade from windows it self IE put the disk in and click setup or booting the computer up with the cd ? i think that with windows 7 i have came across that you can do a system upgrade via running the cd from windows. but booting the cd from when the pc boots up u can. it should not overright your application settings. in terms if u loose ur cs4 lisence, adobe cs4 will tell u what ur serial number is goto help then system info 12th line down it will say under your pc specs the serial number