One has the bit version and the other has the bit version. If you ignore the recommendation I made in the above item and insist on performing an in-place upgrade, you can do so only from bit to bit or bit to bit. However, if you do a custom clean install on a machine that formerly ran a bit version of XP or Vista, you should seriously consider moving to bit computing.
See my July 16 Top Story for information that will help you determine whether bit is right for you. If you decide that it is, follow the instructions in the article to run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.
Can I upgrade Vista Ultimate to any Win7 flavor? If you want to perform an in-place upgrade from bit Vista Ultimate, you have to pay for the Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade and must install the bit version. However, if you perform a custom clean install, you can upgrade that Vista Ultimate PC to whichever version of Windows 7 you prefer. If you want to do an in-place upgrade and avoid reinstalling your programs and updating your settings, you have very limited choices about which versions of Windows you can start with and what you can upgrade to.
I just saved you about a hundred bucks, yes? Some people are having problems with installations that go part way through and freeze. Others see the installation fail, then automatically try again repeatedly. Even with near-universal positive reviews, Windows 7 could still stand some improvements — and Windows Secrets readers know just how to enhance the new OS. Sure, some hardware vendors have been slow to provide Win7 device drivers for some of their products.
And some people attempting to upgrade to Windows 7 are greeted with blue screens and infinite loops. For example, Cris DeRaud discovered a script that lets you create a Win7 restore point with a single click:.
I found an easy alternative from a group of Windows 7 lovers who spell out all the options [on the Windows Seven Forums site]. Now I just click the icon, name my restore point, and click OK. If you prefer to use the manual approach to creating a restore point in Windows 7, right-click the Computer icon, choose Properties, click System Protection in the left pane, verify that System Protection is on, click the Create button, give the restore point a name, and click Create again.
Stuart Berg reminds us of a free utility from Microsoft that makes finding XP systems on a home network nearly automatic:. Thanks to David and everyone else who let us know how to find this suddenly hidden Windows 7 feature. Remember when you were a kid, and playing pranks on people was the thing to do? Whether it was jumping out of the closet to scare someone or making the infamous prank calls during a sleepover, it was fun — usually, anyway — for both parties involved.
Why not resurrect an oldie-but-goodie prank: the invisible rope. It will make you look twice the next time you spot someone trying to pull this off! Play the video. Wiping the data off old drives is a smart thing to do, but secure erasing also must be easy to do. In search of a simple, CD-based disk wiper Kim Boriskin needs a tool that anyone — even unskilled volunteers — can use to reliably wipe the data off hard drives:.
We could use something simpler. Discarded and recycled PCs are a rich vein for identity thieves to tap. I have a solution, but it takes a minute to get there — so bear with me. Scrub3 can overwrite the disk with various patterns, including the original DoD three-pass overwrite and the newer, National Security Agency—recommended seven-pass overwrite. Lenovo describes the utility this way:. SDD offers six levels of data wiping. See Figure 1.
The program lets you build a preconfigured data-wiping floppy with as few as two clicks. Figure 1. The Secure Data Disposal utility can set up a highly secure seven-pass drive wipe with as few as two clicks. The SSD boot floppy is very simple to use. No technical knowledge is required, so the floppy may be used even by novices. In fact, after the target PC is booted from the floppy, the only user input needed to start the actual preconfigured wipe is a simple confirmation.
See Figure 2. Figure 2. The SSD boot floppy requires only a confirmation to do its work. For advanced users, the floppy is highly modifiable. The actual scrub3. The executable can be controlled via batch files and command-line switches documented in the SDD Help file and in scrub. For example, to produce a bootable CD from the contents of a bootable floppy, follow the floppy-conversion tutorial on the Ultimate Boot CD site.
The Secure Data Disposal utility is free and easy to use. It produces disk-wiping boot floppies that can be used by even the most-inexperienced PC users. Likewise, when you do go directly to the actual file, any changes you make there are instantly and automatically reflected in the Library.
Thus, Libraries are just another way to access the real files in their actual, scattered locations. For example, see the tutorial page at Top-Windows-Tutorials. Microsoft offers an authoritative — though somewhat lethargic — screencast a 4MB download called Organizing with Libraries.
Win7 Libraries actually do make it easier to work with files from multiple locations. Windows Genuine Advantage: a necessary evil? I understand your WGA concerns. My advice: Hold your nose, let WGA install and update when it wants to, and otherwise simply ignore it. Msi folder grows huge D. Morgan found a porcine surprise on his hard drive:. Am I wrong? Will I be sorry to have deleted them? In normal operation, the Config.
Msi folder is created by the Microsoft Installer when you begin a software installation and is deleted upon successful completion. Various problems can leave the folder behind. Clearly, your system either had many small problems along the way or a few real doozies.
First, back up your system. Then rename the Config. Msi to config. Odds are, your system will start normally and your apps will all run as they should. That's why it's important for you to switch to an OS version that Microsoft will still put resources behind. Read more: Windows 7 support is dead, but these seven security tips will still protect your laptop.
No one can force you to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 , but it's a really good idea to do so -- the main reason being security. Without security updates or fixes, you're putting your computer at risk -- especially dangerous, as many forms of malware target Windows devices. Windows 10 also has a number of built-in security tools : Windows Defender Antivirus protects against malware and spyware across email, apps, the cloud and the web, while Windows Hello offers a password-free sign in option to unlock your devices with your face or a fingerprint reader.
A Find My Device service can lock and erase your Windows device remotely, or map the location of your device. Read more: The best antivirus protection of for Windows Some people have been hesitant to make the switch due to reports of several bugs in earlier versions of Windows But Microsoft has made several changes to its update approach starting with the May release, including slower rollouts with additional testing, more options for pausing updates and more disclosure of known issues, so your experience should be smoother.
Many of the issues were due to the fact that updates are happening more frequently, said Gartner Research analyst Steve Kleynhans. Read more: 6 simple security changes all Windows 10 users need to make.
Besides a suite of security tools, Windows 10 also offers more features. One is the Your Phone app , which allows you to access texts, notifications and apps from your phone using your PC -- similar to Apple's Continuity features. A dictation feature lets you easily record ideas. Microsoft's digital assistant Cortana is also available on Windows 10 PCs. The upgrade version of Windows 7 as opposed to the higher-price full version lets one move from any properly licensed version of Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7 on that same computer.
Only certain of these upgrades, however, can be done as a simple update--what Microsoft calls an "in-place upgrade. The difference between an in-place upgrade and a "clean" installation, in this instance, means backing up one's data, installing Windows 7, restoring the data, and reinstalling all Windows programs. Windows 7 upgrade disks can be used to do this clean installation and will recognize the previously installed version of Windows. So if you don't have any previously installed Windows on the machine, you will want to get yourself a full copy of Windows 7.
While it might be technically possible to use the upgrade disks to do an installation of Windows 7 without a previous version, doing so, as Microsoft points out, is not properly licensed.
Some of the confusion has come after enthusiasts noted a way to get an upgrade disc to install on a fully erased hard drive. Again, the main issue here is whether one is properly licensed to do so. If you have a licensed copy of Windows XP or Vista for that computer, you are good to go, and Microsoft technical support should be able to help you activate that machine.
If not, you may be able to get it to install, but you could well run into technical or legal hurdles. The answer is really simple.
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