Driver Detective » windows 7 upgrade

The Vista Penalty: What If You Didn’t Upgrade?

paul — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:44:40 +0000

The Vista Penalty: What If You Didn't Upgrade?

The Vista Penalty: What If You Didn’t Upgrade?For Windows users, October 22 represents among other things, Decision Day. When Windows Vista was released, it was hard for both Microsoft and its installed user base to make a good case for upgrading to Vista. Vista received a lot of bad press early on (and even late in the game) for not having compatible drivers available for third-party hardware. The lack of critical drivers did more than prevent users from upgrading; it gave them an excuse NOT to upgrade.

Drivers Won’t Be A Windows 7 Killer

Microsoft doesn’t have control over third party manufacturers, and these manufacturers rightly hold the blame (at least in part) for Windows Vista’s lack of popular success. There are other things that made Vista less attractive, and Microsoft is in the driver’s seat on those issues. (Lack of real Active Directory support, for example, meant that Vista was uninteresting to enterprise.)

Despite Microsoft’s efforts to kill Windows XP, Vista’s lack of credible interaction with Windows Server 2003 was real justification for enterprise to sit out the Vista upgrade. This time around, Microsoft comes armed with an upgraded Windows Server 2008 product that fits hand-in-glove with Windows 7. The roadblocks to enterprise adoption have largely been removed but that leaves enterprise users in the curious condition of having to do a complete clean installation to migrate to Windows 7. It also promises to be a bumpy ride until the migration to Windows 7 is complete.

Microsoft won’t spend too much time coddling Windows XP users who don’t want to upgrade. After release date, users will be able to buy downgrade licenses for a few months that will allow them to install Windows XP. In the spring, however, the downgrade license will be withdrawn, leaving volume-licensing customers as the only rightful installers of Windows XP media.

Microsoft insisted (and probably rightly so) that manufacturers needed to come across with a signed, functional driver for their products by release date if they want to keep their “Vista-compatible” logos on their products. Major manufacturers, including Intel, Nvidia and ATI already have their drivers ready to go.

Microsoft also made Windows 7 available as a very generous, very public beta. Right now, there are millions of computers running a version of Windows 7 that’s within a hair’s breadth of the release version, and there have been no major complaints from users regarding flaky or unusable drivers. For someone like me, that’s a comforting sign that the release will go smoothly and consumers can be relatively confident that if their computer is up to snuff, the Windows 7 migration should be straightforward – even if that does require a clean installation.

Photo Credit: Hectorir, via Flickr

Vista Home Basic Workaround Lets You Keep Vista Drivers

paul — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:06:39 +0000

Vista Home Basic Workaround Lets You Keep Vista Drivers

If you migrated to Windows Vista Home Basic, you were, no doubt, disappointed to learn that there’s no easy upgrade path from Windows Vista Home Basic to Windows 7. You may think that there’s not much you can do, other than bite the bullet and re-install Windows 7 on top of your existing copy of Windows Vista Home Basic.

Second Upgrade Option For Windows Vista Home Basic

That’s actually one of two things you can do, if you’re intent on getting Windows 7 onto your computer. While it’s true that there is no upgrade path for Windows Vista Home Basic to Windows 7, there is an upgrade path from Windows Vista Home Basic to Windows Vista Home Premium, and if you purchase that upgrade now, you will get a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it is released on October 22.

What does that get you? It means that you’ll get to keep the Vista hardware drivers you have loaded on your computer right now. That may not seem like a big bonus, but it could turn out to be, if Windows 7 doesn’t have the driver(s) you need. You may spend significant amounts of time locating, re-installing and troubleshooting drivers if you install Windows 7 on top of your existing Windows Vista Home Basic installation.

If you decided to take advantage of Microsoft’s sale on Windows 7 earlier this month, the upgrade to Vista Home Premium will mean that you’ll have shelled out about $240 to get to Windows 7 from where you are. A new copy of Windows 7, which assumes a fresh install, is expected to hit the shelves at $199. If you passed on the sale, the $183 upgrade price to Windows Vista Home Premium with a free Windows 7 upgrade will save you about $16 over buying new.

The free upgrade to Windows 7 from Windows-Vista-Home-Basic-turned Vista-Home-Premium will only last until January 2010, so you’ll have to think about this and come to a decision quickly. After January, Windows Vista Home Basic users will need to pay to upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium, and then pay again to upgrade to Windows 7 in order to keep their stuff intact.

That’s bound to downgrade a few users to “unhappy” status. The other, less costly alternative at that point is to bite the bullet, upgrade to Windows 7 with a clean installation and re-install your applications and drivers. Driver Detective can also locate and install drivers to replace those that are missing, corrupted or incorrect.

Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy of Microsoft

Downloads Show Strong Interest In Windows 7

paul — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:54:25 +0000

Downloads Show Strong Interest In Windows 7

Microsoft picked a winning strategy when it decided to offer the Windows 7 Release Candidate free of charge, along with a one-year usage license. To date, millions of users have downloaded the free update, and some analysts estimate that it now accounts for about one percent of all installed operating systems.

Know What You’re Getting Before You Install Windows 7 RC

The freebie isn’t without some issues, however. If you want to install Windows 7 RC, you’ll need to give up the operating system you have. Installing the release candidate isn’t a matter of installing it on top of whatever you’re running. The required “fresh” installation of Windows 7 RC means that you’ll lose all of your applications and settings.

You’ll need to reinstall everything once you’ve got the new OS loaded.
Microsoft also says that there will be no “upgrade” from the release candidate to the actual release, meaning that you’ll have to do another install. Windows 7 RC has other potentially irritating “features” you’ll want to be aware of. The release candidate license expires on June 1, 2010, and when Microsoft says “expires” it means “expires.” Your system will no longer boot on the release candidate after that point, and you’ll need to upgrade or revert to a licensed version of the OS.

Beginning on March 1, 2010, installed versions of the Windows 7 release candidates will start to reboot every two hours. By itself, this will be a tremendous nuisance, but it should also assure you that Microsoft plans to have a fully operational version of Windows 7 on the market by that time. If you plan to purchase the actual licensed version of Windows 7, this shouldn’t be a problem, but if you were planning to use the freebie release for a long time, think again.

For the most part, you should be able to use Vista drivers with Windows 7 RC. Windows 7 is built on Vista, so there should be a high degree of compatibility between the release candidate and the final version. Don’t expect manufacturers to release much in the way of drivers prior to the actual release, but rest assured, they’re working on any updates that need to be made to enable their products to work on Windows 7.

If you’re concerned about the Windows 7-readiness of your computer, check out the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, preferably before you download the release candidate. The Upgrade Advisor will let you know exactly what you need to do to your computer to get it ready for the Windows 7 product. Microsoft hasn’t yet announced a firm release date, but many analysts believe that the fourth quarter of 2009 is a good bet, and Windows 7 on store shelves in time for the Christmas holiday almost a sure thing.

Photo Credit: Raul P.