Article by George Norman

On 17 Sep 2009

As we get closer and closer to the date when the next iteration of the Windows-based operating system will hit the market (Windows 7 – October 22nd), our enthusiasm keeps on growing. So far we know that Windows XP users will have to perform a custom upgrade, which is Microsoft’s way of saying you need to do a fresh installation. Windows Vista users on the other hand will be able to perform an in-place upgrade. This means you can switch from Vista to Windows 7 without losing files, settings and programs.

The catch is that you can perform an in-place upgrade only in cartain instances:
Vista Home Basic -> Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Ultimate
Vista Home Premium -> Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Ultimate
Vista Business -> Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate
Vista Ultimate -> Windows 7 Ultimate


All other upgrade paths require you to perform a custom upgrade (see Microsoft's upgrade chart here). As we’ve already mentioned above, this means you will install a fresh OS version on your computer. Consequently you will lose your files, settings, programs and other data. To prevent this from happening you need to backup an info you don’t want to be lost.

All this talk about upgrading brings one question to mind: HOW MUCH WILL IT TAKE? According to Windows Deployment team member with Microsoft, Chris Hernandez, the amount of time it takes to upgrade to Windows 7 ranges from a few minutes to a few hours and as much as a whole day. It all depends on the user’s hardware and how much data the user has stored on the machine.

“One of the main goals with Windows 7 in general has been to be better than Vista. As part of the Windows Upgrade team we have tracked Windows 7 upgrade performance using Vista as our baseline comparison. From the testing we have done, the results show that Windows 7 upgrade time is faster or equal within a 5% threshold to the Vista SP1 upgrade time,” explained Hernandez.

Here is how much time you can expect to spend doing a Windows 7 upgrade:

Low end hardware
No stored data, no applications installed: 40 minutes (32-bit), 50 minutes (64-bit)
70GB of stored data, 20 installed apps: 175 minutes (32-bit), 185 minutes (64-bit).
125GB of stored data, 40 installed apps: 345 minutes (32-bit), 355 minutes (64-bit).

Mid end hardware
No stored data, no applications installed: 30 minutes (32-bit), 35 minutes (64-bit)
70GB of stored data, 20 installed apps: 115 minutes (32-bit), 95 minutes (64-bit).
125GB of stored data, 40 installed apps: 185 minutes (32-bit), 165 minutes (64-bit).
650GB stored data, 40 installed apps: 1220 minutes (32-bit), 675 minutes (64-bit)

High end hardware
No stored data, no applications installed: 30 minutes (32-bit), 35 minutes (64-bit)
70GB of stored data, 20 installed apps: 100 minutes (32-bit), 85 minutes (64-bit).
125GB of stored data, 40 installed apps: 160 minutes (32-bit), 150 minutes (64-bit).
650GB stored data, 40 installed apps: 610 minutes (32-bit), 480 minutes (64-bit)

Are you excited about switching to Windows 7, but you do not know if your current configuration can support the operating system? In our brand new How To section we’ve covered this topic. Just check out the article: How To Verify Your Computer Can Run Windows 7




Tags: Microsoft, Windows 7, Upgrade

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