IT Solution: upgrade windows

Upgrade Windows Vista to Windows 10

Upgrade windows 7 to windows 10

Windows 10 is out and we jumped the queue like any restless impatient tech enthusiast would to get it as soon as possible. The Microsoft’s Media Creation tool took care of the files that needed to be downloaded and it carried us through all the way to the Windows 10 upgrade screen. Here are step by step screenshots of the upgrade process.

Before you start, make sure your Windows installation has been activated. To check if Windows has been activated, right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties. Under the Windows Activation section, you can check your activation status.

Back up your files. The Media Creation tool gives you an option to keep your current files and settings after the upgrade and it works too but it’s always better to be safe rather than sorry.

Next, download and run the Media Creation tool. This is the first screen you will see. It will ask you if you want to upgrade the current Windows installation or if you want to create installation media (USB or DVD) for a different system. Since you want to upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10, select the ‘Upgrade this PC now’ option and click next.

The Media Creation Tool will now start downloading files. This will be one of the longer waiting periods you will encounter during the upgrade. The files are now downloading and it can take up to 3 hours on a moderately fast connection. You can continue to use your PC in the mean time and minimize this window, however, DO NOT close it unless you want to abort the download.

Once Windows 10 files have been downloaded to your system, they will be prepared for installation and you will see the following screen. It will require some input from you after this step.

The next screen will indicate the start of the upgrade process. At this point, we’d like to warn you that you can abort the upgrade if you want but that you should do so only through the Media Creation tool. It will take some time to roll back any changes and you shouldn’t interrupt it.

You will be asked if you want to search for updates or not and that searching for and downloading the updates will help smooth the upgrade process. If you decide to search for and download updates, it will take longer. If you decide to skip the downloads, you will be able to download them after upgrading to Windows 10. Skipping them has no adverse effects.

It’s surprising how much time Windows needs to ‘get a few things ready’ but hang in there.

Accept the license when prompted;

Almost there;

You will be asked if you want to keep all your files and apps after the upgrade. By default, it will keep everything however, if you’re looking to start fresh with no apps or files, click the ‘Change what to keep’ option.

The tool will give you three options; keep files and apps, keep files but not apps, and keep nothing. Choose what you want to do and click Next.

From this point forward, taking screenshots wasn’t possible so we’ve got some potato quality photos to illustrate the rest of the upgrade process. After this next step, your PC will restart and that’s the last you will see of Windows 7 on your current system.

The rest of the update is divided into three steps the first of which is ‘Copying files’. This constitutes roughly 30% of the upgrade process.

Your PC will restart after it has finished copying files and you will move to the next step, ‘Installing features & drivers’. This will account for up to 75% of the upgrade (bad photo quality is bad).

And finally, you will get to the Configure Settings part (after another restart).

That’s it. If this completes successfully, your upgrade will be complete. What will follow are screens where Windows 10 asks for some basic information like your time zone, and which WiFi you want to connect to, as well as your Windows Live ID.

The upgrade takes time and several times Windows will tell you it’s preparing something and that it will only take a few minutes for it to do. It can actually take several minutes to do that so don’t worry and happy upgrading!

Upgrade Windows 8 to Windows 10

The most important thing is that your current version of Windows is properly activated. Although Microsoft alluded to the idea that Windows 10 would be a sweeping upgrade that would even install on pirated and/or unactivated copies of Windows that plan never came to fruition and you most certainly need an activated copy under the current deployment model.

To check if your copy of Windows 8 is activated, press Windows Key + W to pull up the Setting search and type in “activated” to access the “See if Windows Is Activated” menu. Alternatively, you can look under Control Panel -> System to see the status of the machine.

To check if your copy of Windows 7 is activated you can click on Start Button, right click on “Computer”, and select properties. The resulting status menu will show if your copy of Windows is activated.

The Appropriate Windows 10 Update Tool

Although the Windows 10 update tool is pretty straight forward you need the right version for your hardware. The first step is determining if you are running a 32-bit machine or a 64-bit machine. While you can read about the nuances of of each in our article HTG Explains: What’s The Difference Between 32-bit and 64-Bit Windows 7 you can check what version of Windows you are currently running by simply looking in the same place in both Windows 7 and Windows 8 that we highlighted in the previous section on checking your Windows activation. The same panel/menu that tells you if your computer is activated also tells you your “System type”.

In Windows 7 it will simply tell you that it is a 64-bit or 32-bit operating system but in Windows 8 it will actually (and helpfully) both tell you if you’re running Windows 32-bit or Windows 64-bit as well as what the actual architecture of the underlying hardware is and if it supports 64-bit computing. (e.g. you have Windows 8 32-bit installed but the hardware actually supports 64-bit). There’s a huge catch here though: you can’t upgrade an installation of Windows from 32-bit to 64-bit even if the hardware supports it; you have to do a clean install.

With that in mind, whatever bit-version of Windows you are running on your about-to-be-upgraded machine that is the version of the download tool you need to download if you wish to do an in-place upgrade and not a clean wipe.

You can find the download tool here. Select the correct version, 32 or 64-bit, to match your current Windows installation.

Running the Upgrade Installer

When you’re ready to upgrade run the installer tool, labeled MediaCreationTool, to get started.

You’ll first be prompted to upgrade the PC or create installation media for another PC. Select “Upgrade this PC now” to begin the upgrade process and click “Next”. This begins the download process which is a long or short affair dependent entirely upon your Internet connection speed. We zoomed to 100 percent in a matter of minutes on a speedy cable connection, but if you’re on a slow connection you might be watching the meter for some time.

When it finally finishes downloading and unpacking the installation media you’ll be prompted to accept the terms of the license agreement. Click “Accept” and the installer will do a final update check before kicking you over to the final confirmation page.

By default the installer will select the largest “what to keep” selection it can. If you want to make changes to what it is keeping click the small “Change what to keep” link as seen in the screenshot above. You’ll be prompted to select to select which kind of installation you want.

Here in this section you’ll select to keep personal files and apps, personal files only, or nothing at all and your apps, files, and settings will be deleted. The little micro-summaries under the entries aren’t perfectly clear so feel free to click on the “Help me decide” link for more information. We’ve included the relevant text from the resulting pop-up message here for clarity.

What can I keep when I upgrade?
What you can keep depends on the version of Windows you’re running on your PC, so you’ll only see the options available to you. Here’s what you might see:

Windows settings
This keeps your settings like Ease of Access, your desktop background, or Internet favorites and history.

Personal files
This keeps any files that are saved in your User folder, like the Documents and Desktop folders.

Apps
This keeps apps that will work after you upgrade. To get a report of apps that you currently have on your PC that will work, and those that won’t, run the Upgrade Assistant, available online at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=261871 before you upgrade (you’ll need to close Setup to run the Upgrade Assistant). Some apps might work after you upgrade but you’ll need to reinstall them. You’ll see a list of these in the report. You’ll need your original installation media to reinstall them.

Note: If you’re upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1, you won’t see “apps” as an option of things to keep, and you’ll need to reinstall your apps using the original installation media.

Nothing
This deletes everything, including all of your apps, and replaces your current version of Windows with Windows 10. Your personal files will be moved to the windows.old folder. You can find more info online at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=12416.

That’s a lot more helpful than the little summaries on the actual selection menu. The most obvious and smooth transition is offered by “Keep personal files and apps”. If you’re upgrading from Windows 7, however, be prepared to reinstall applications as significant changes between the Windows 7 architecture and the Windows 8/10 architecture necessitate it.

When you’re ready click “Next” to proceed and it will return you to the final screen. Confirm that on the “Ready to install” screen it shows what you want (e.g. you selected “Keep personal files and apps” and that’s what it says). After confirming the installation click “Install”. Your PC will reboot a few times as the installer works and when it’s done you’ll be returned to the Windows login screen.

Configuring Windows After The Upgrade

When the login screen pops up for the first time, you’re not quite done yet. There are quite a few little tweaks you can perform before booting into Windows 10 for the first time and we recommend you take advantage of them.

As soon as you log in for the first time you’ll be prompted to accept the “Express Settings” or click the tiny link to “Customize settings”. You should definitely click “Customize settings” to see what Microsoft has set as the defaults and confirm whether you want them set as they are.

The first screen is called “Personalization” but should really be called “Can we send a bunch of information about you to Microsoft?” The privacy conscious will want to turn off everything in this menu. (If you later discover you just can’t live without a personalized Cortana experience you can always turn it on again).

The second screen is focused on browser protection, hotspots, and error reporting. SmartScreen is useful if you use the Microsoft Edge browser or the Windows Store. Privacy oriented folks will likely want to turn off page prediction as it sends your browsing data to Microsoft. The connectivity settings really only matter for laptops and tablets (as your desktop PC isn’t roaming around connecting to hotspots).

The final screen shows you the four new default Windows apps for photos, web browsing, music, and movies/TV. If you click “Let me choose my own default apps” it doesn’t actually let you choose the apps at this moment but merely allows you to uncheck one or all of the four default app selections (you’ll be prompted to make your default choices later when you open your preferred web browser for the first time and so on). When you click “Next” this final time you’ll be sent, after a short wait, to the Windows 10 desktop.

Now is the time to check on your apps, see if they survived the upgrade process (and update them if necessary) as well as to plug in your peripherals, check that all your hardware works (and update the drivers if necessary) and then get down to enjoying Windows 10.

Upgrade windows xp to windows vista

This procedure will guide you on upgrading your Windows XP machine to Vista without reformatting.

1

Back up your files.
2

Run disk clean up and uninstall unnecessary application.
3

Uninstall your antivirus, spyware protection, and third-party firewalls.
4

Defragment your hard drive.
5

Run the Windows Vista Upgrade Adviser to check if your PC is capable of running Vista.
6

Prepare your Windows Vista DVD installer.
7

Prepare your license key or the product key.

Method 2 of 3: Procedure

1

Log in to Windows XP and insert the Windows Vista installer to the DVD drive. Note: Don't boot the Windows Vista DVD to perform an in-place upgrade; it won't work. You have to run the Setup program from within Windows XP.
2

After you insert the DVD, an autorun will pop up. Click on install now. and choose the recommended option which is to go online for the latest updates.
3

Enter the license key or the product key.
4

Click upgrade,to upgrade your OS and wait while Windows upgrades your computer to Vista.
5

After the installation is complete, Windows will reboot. After the reboot clickUse recommended settings.
6

Click and choose options on screen.
7

Wait while windows finishes the upgrade.
8

After the reboot,log in to your Vista and enjoy.

1

After the upgrade, Windows Vista will display compatibility information for anything that loads on startup that it can't run. It offers to try to run the program or simply stop it. Look for updates for all of your drivers and software that it flags as incompatible. Activate Windows Vista and do all Windows Updates

1

Download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from here.
2

Run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor installer.
3

Run the actual upgrade advisor once it is installed. Remember to plug in any devices that you regularly use (printers, scanners, MP3 players etc).
4

Once the program's done its thing, look at the report. Save and/or print it (you will need it).
5
Do one of the following:
- If you purchased Windows 7 online, open the installation file. This is the easiest way to install Windows 7 on a netbook. More info on this can be found here.
- If you have an installation disk, insert it into your computer. Setup should begin automatically. If it doesn't, go to Start>Computer>CD/DVD drive>setup.exe.
6

You will now see an Install Windows page. Click the link Install Now.
7

You will be taken to a page titled "Get important updates for installation". It is recommended that you choose to install these updates to help ensure a successful installation. (Refer to Tips)
8

You should now see a license agreement. If you accept the terms, click "I accept the license terms", and then click Next.
9

You will now have a choice of Upgrade and Custom. Click Upgrade. You might see a compatibility report.
10

Follow the instructions to install Windows 7.
11

You're done!